My Story.

My class supports WWU!

Every year at WWU, we have a dedication vespers for student missionaries heading out the next school year. Watching almost 90 students, a lot of them my friends, go down the aisles, and listening to the stories from past SMs, I felt a tugging at my heart. I thought to myself, “Wow, that would be really cool to go to those places and do all those things!” But, I pushed down the feeling almost as quickly as it had come to me. I didn’t want to go anywhere next year. I would finish my schooling in the next three years, and be done. I didn’t have time for that.

A few weeks later, with only about 4 weeks left in spring quarter, I get a call from my parents saying that they were coming up to Walla Walla to talk to me about something. I honestly had no idea what they had to talk to me about. As we sat in the girl’s dorm lobby, my parents explained to me that they didn’t have enough money to send me to WWU the next year. They needed a year to save some money for me to continue on. They suggested that I go SMing next year. “No.” I replied. “No I don’t want to!”

Snack time! Maximus, my new student.

 The next couple of days were sort of a blur. I went to the financial aid office to talk to a lady who could always dig up money for students somehow. We talked for a while and I found that there was really not much we could do except find some scholarships. I thought maybe I could work for a year to earn money for school the next year. No, I would lose my scholarships and have to start paying loans. Attending a different school would not work because I would lose my scholarships when I came back to WWU. Finally after a few days I trudged over to the Student Missions office to see what was going on over there. I was greeted with excitement and Jeanne was the most helpful person in the world to talk to. She talked to me about how wonderful it was to be a missionary and told me to talk to some other people that have gone. She showed me what places I could go on such short notice. I wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country so I could practice my Spanish but I would need a visa and it was too late for that. We looked at the islands and after talking to some people, I decided on Pohnpei or Palau. I applied for Kindergarten and other random grades in elementary for Pohnpei and after about 2 or 3 weeks, I got accepted to be the Kindergarten teacher in Pohnpei. At that point, I was getting somewhat excited to go be a missionary.

I spent 6 weeks after school was out for the summer, in Spain studying abroad. A mere nine hours after arriving home in Oregon from Europe, I was on my way to Hawaii for orientation. As I went to the meetings, I was amazed by how many people were there. There were dozens of people around my age dedicating a year of their lives to serve others. WWU alone sent out around 90 people and Southern has a number close to that.

This year has been one of, if not the toughest year of my life. However, the past 6 months that I have been here have been the most amazing months I have ever experienced. Sure, I experience a lot of hardships. Some days I just can’t help but cry because I am so frustrated. I’m trying to teach 4, 5, and 6 year olds how to read in their second language when many of them don’t even understand everything I am saying! I’m tired of sweating almost constantly, and having giant cockroaches pop out of nowhere and scurry across the floor. But, right now there is no place I would rather be than Pohnpei, Micronesia. Becoming a student missionary may not have been something that I wanted to do, but now I am so incredibly glad that God led me in this direction. I have made life long friends, and experienced things that have helped me trust and depend on God more. God really knew what He was doing when He sent me here. A week before coming here I was told that I would be teaching 1^st grade instead of Kindergarten. Then it got changed back to Kindergarten when I got here at the school. Since Kindergarten only goes until noon, I teach three high school classes in the afternoon. God knew that I wouldn’t be able to handle 1^st graders all day, so He gave me both little children and high schoolers. I couldn’t have asked for a better arrangement!

God has my future all planned out. Sometimes it’s frustrating not knowing what is ahead in our lives, but we need to learn to rely on God to lead us in the right direction. It sometimes feels like God is taking my hand and leading me down a pitch black pathway. Sometimes I shake off His hand because I want to go my own way and I end up tripping and falling. Yet God is always there to pick me up right back up and take my hand again to lead me in the right direction. That is something I struggle with everyday. I try to take matters into my own hands, and sometimes I get impatient and try to go ahead of myself. One of Jen’s favorite verses in the Bible is this:

“God, the one and only-I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not? He’s solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, and impregnable castle: I’m set for life.”

Psalm 62:1-2 MSG

Amazing friends!

If any of you reading this and are considering becoming a student missionary, please talk to me! I would love to answer any questions or concerns you might have.  Becoming a student missionary is one of the best things that have ever happened in my life. I have no regrets whatsoever coming here!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

Here are some other great blogs to follow. Jen and Karyn are both here with me!

jwrate.tumblr.com

overseasunderskies.tumblr.com

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Sunshine on a Dreary Day

A group of people that I love!

Before I was put in swimming lessons at the age of 10, I was terrified of even getting water on my face. On Sunday as I swam 60 ft. below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, I thought about how ridiculous I was. Being underwater is like being in a whole different world! All is quiet except for the sound of the bubbles from the regulator heading to the surface. The water is a beautiful shade of blue mixed with green, and once in a while, you will see a school of colorful fish passing by. Although this dive session wasn’t at a coral reef and we didn’t see anything really cool except for an old glass coke bottle, the beauty of the ocean still amazed me. The four of us that took the class are going diving on Sunday with our instructor for our first dive not in the class. Hopefully we go somewhere with more ocean life! Being down on the ocean floor reminded me of one of my favorite songs, Indescribable, by Chris Tomlin. Here are some of the lyrics:

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea

Creations’ revealing Your majesty

From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring

Every creature unique in the song that it sings

All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the starts in the sky and you know them by name,

You are amazing God

All powerful, untameable,

Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim

You are amazing God

You should definitely listen to the song if you haven’t heard it before!

This week, I have been trying to teach my kids the lesson of patience. Every time one of my kids have a question (Which is about every 10 seconds), they yell “TeachERRR!” or “MS. C! I need HAAAALP!” I’ve had to tell them many, many times that if they have a question, they need to raise their hands and be quiet. Needless to say, this is not an easy thing for them to do! Five years olds just can’t seem to stop talking!

Monday was a hard day for me. None of the kids would listen, they didn’t understand almost anything I was teaching them, and it was just SO HOT outside! I prayed, and asked God for the patience and help that I needed to get through that rough day. God definitely put Summer in my class for the reason of making my day. She is the little sunshine in my classroom. Every recess, she comes and sits on my lap and plays and talks with me. That day, she comes over to my desk and sits on my lap, and just cuddles into me. I hug her and almost start to cry. God always provides some type of comfort in our time of trouble! I think things have improved since then. Even though my kids are constantly causing trouble, I can’t help but love them!

Every day at worship, I ask my kids what they are thankful for. A lot of kids quickly raise their hands and they say that they are thankful for some of the most random things! My Little Pony, sharks, snow, puppies, and one they like to say is you! They love to say that they are thankful for their teachers, which is really sweet. J My quietest kid, EJ has finally started to sing at worship! He has never opened his mouth during worship and this week, he has finally started to sing with us! I didn’t say anything to him but inside, I was jumping around with happiness! He’s finally opening up more!

Every month, we have something called branch Sabbath school. Our SM group is splits into two groups and we head to either Palikir or Kapinga to do a children’s afternoon program. I’ve always gone to Palikir but this last Sabbath, the whole SM group went to Kapinga. Kapinga is a poor village made up of Polynesians. When we got there, we jumped out of the truck and walked around the village inviting kids to come to the program in the big community hut. We started off with singing songs and as the sound of our music spread through the village, more and more children came. We had at least 50 children there of all ages, if not more. After singing, we did a skit of Jonah and gave them all coloring pages and markers to color with. Listening to the kids sing, and seeing them laugh as we acted out our story made my heart so joyful! My flip-flops got taken which irritated me at first, but I realized that someone probably needed them more than me.

The days and weeks are going by very quickly. I can’t believe I only have 4 ½ months left here! Karyn showed me a beautiful picture of mountains and trees and my heart literally ached because I miss it so much! I will be there soon enough though!

Happy Sabbath to all of you! Thank you for all the messages of encouragement I am receiving!

Back in the Swing of Things

Sleep is something that I can’t seem to get enough of here on the island. Getting back into the routine of getting up at 6:15, to be at staff worship at 7:15, was pretty brutal after being able to sleep in as late as I wanted during break.

Outer island of Ahnt

On Sunday, I de-Christmased my classroom, rearranged the desks, and cleaned. I encountered quite a few spiders hiding among the glittery Christmas strands I had strung around the room. If you know me, I don’t do well with spiders. So my solution to dealing with the spiders, was to pull down on the strands from the ceiling, run away from them, then wait for the spiders to crawl out so I could kill them with my flip flops. It was quite effective!

Monday morning, I get to flag raising to find that I have a new student in my class. The family had just registered that morning so I was totally unprepared for another student. The boy’s name is Maximus and so far he’s been a pretty good student. Now I’m back up to 13 crazy 4-6 years olds in my classroom. On Wednesday, I decided to evaluate the students to see how well they know their numbers. I called up each student individually and asked them to count as high as they could. One of my boys, JT, did fine up to 10 but then paused.

“Alright JT, what comes after 10?”

“15! 18! 13! Eleventeen!”

I tried my hardest not to laugh and told him to go ahead and sit down.

View of the high school from my porch

Haylee has been finishing her reading and phonics work very quickly in class, so after she turned in her assignment, I asked her to come sit on my lap at my desk. I help up some easy words I had written on a piece of paper. Together we sounded out the letters and put the sounds together to create the words. It took a lot of sounding out, but we finished the list and I told her I was very proud of her and her parent would be too. Her face lit up and said, “Ms. C you think they’ll be proud?” “Of course they will be proud Haylee!” She slid off my lap and skipped back to her desk with a big smile on her face.

Our playground has recently acquired three teeter-totters. (As if the carousel wasn’t enough of a death trap already! There’s a reason those things were banned in so many states.) I’d say the teachers enjoy them almost as much as the children do! As our group waits to go somewhere, you will often times find a few SMs going up and down on them. Watching our children get on those contraptions however, is not fun. I’ve had several children fall off of them already, trying to get down without asking me for help.

All of us dread Parent-Teacher conferences. Not because we dread seeing the parents, but rather because we sit in our classrooms for hours alone because parents don’t come to see us! I had three out of thirteen parents come and talk to me. The only parents that come to these meetings are the ones whose child is doing well in my class. I learned from talking to some of the locals that if a parent knows that their child is not doing well in school, they don’t like to come to talk to the teacher because they are embarrassed. That really disappoints me because I really need to talk to some parents but they avoid me constantly!

I received my Christmas package from my sister and a surprise package from Joni this week! I was so excited! Thank you to everyone that has sent me packages and letters! They always bring a lot of joy to my day!

I have no new pictures this time, so the pictures that are up just show the beauty of Pohnpei. J

Codeword: Pinapple

Excited to hike!

 I am sore from my head, down to my very toes. We went on a hike today where we saw six waterfalls. It was long, slippery, and very hilly. A path that we took was on the side of a large hill. The path was about a foot wide and not solid. I was the last person to go through and by the time I was going through, the path was all gone. I tried my best to find some type of foot holdings, but finding none, I started to slide down the hill and start to go over the ridge. (the ridge wasn’t too bad but it would be a pretty bad rough and tumble if you fell down it.) Amanda yelled at me to grab hold of the tree next to me and I did. Tony came over and helped pull me back up and pulled me all the way to a solid path. Not the only time he helped my poor crippled self today!

Amanda and I are both pretty broken so we were always farther in the back of the pack. Roy stayed with us for a time and for fun, we decided to create a code word for if we felt like we were falling and needed help or to watch out. Code word? Pineapple. You could hear me or Amanda randomly call out, “PINEAPPLE!” as we slipped and slid down the muddy and rocky pathways. The hike was beautiful and although long, definitely worth it. Six hours later, as we neared the end of the hike, I felt as though my knee could not hold me up anymore. It was really painful, but I made it! During this hike, Amanda and I pondered the reason for moss. We found it quite useless during our hike as it made climbing up and down rocks much harder for us. We have yet to Google the answer.

The 6th and coolest waterfall!

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, I found myself in the back of our school dump truck, getting ready to go with the rest of the student missionaries to celebrate by driving around town. New Year’s is a huge deal here in Pohnpei and something a lot of people do, is drive around, making lots of noise by banging on anything metal, and throwing water balloons at anyone. Apparently you can hit anyone you see! We went all over town and in villages yelling happy New Year, throwing balloons and candy at anyone we saw. We got pretty wet! Definitely a New Year’s celebration that I will never forget.

I can’t believe we start school on Monday… Brendan came on Wednesday! Brendan will be our new high school teacher, teaching Algebra 1, geography, and health classes. We now have 15 SMs here in Pohnpei. Last year they had about 10 more! I’m glad we have a smaller group though. I feel like we’re all pretty close. Jen came back from America on Thursday, and Caleb and Danny should be arriving next week! I’m excited to have everyone back!

I hope all of you have a Happy Sabbath and Happy New Year!