August - September
Mid August
School starts. I love my children/students. We have a good time.
September
Roommates move in! :) Happy day. Holly and Alicia are two fellow JCS teachers; between the 3 of us we teach preschool, elementary, & middle/high school.
4th- I planned a surprise party with Holly’s mom via e-mail. We enjoyed pizza, cake, Wii and the essential DR power outage. It was a good time.
5th- The first waterfall trip of the year: a pick-up truck, mountains, a short hike, and the beauty of God’s creation…amazing!
12th –The first trip to the beach for the JCS staff: Sosua, sun and La Sierna (the mermaid – it’s a grocery story with AMERICAN foods like cream cheese, cereals, bagels, pizza, etc…) and super Saturday of fun!
18th – RUNNING WATER!!!! We had been without running water for nearly 2 weeks; an experience that tested my patience. But we thankfully had a water supply close for dishes and extremely understanding co-workers who let us come and shower at their houses.
Those are just some of the big highlights of the year so far. I am definitely learning to enjoy life a little bit more this year and don’t always put school first! I am beginning to cooking here and so far am pleased with what has turned out.
Overall I am definitely loving my new house and it’s amazing views and private back porch.
Prayer Requests:
- Continued joy.
- Patience with a few of my students.
- Continued desire to learn Spanish ( I have tutoring every Monday)
19 September 2009
04 August 2009
Prayer
Many may have received the prayer alert that was sent out last night. Please continue to be in prayer for the staff, administration and board of my shcool.
01 August 2009
Time to hit the road via a plane...
It's that time again for me to board a plane and fly south to the Dominican Republic. It's only been 5 weeks since I left but I'm so ready to be back and see my friends and students.
These five weeks have flown by between work, writing curriculum, and just living in a house that is on the market life has been exhausting.
I leave tomorrow possibly having said goodbye to Crystal Lake for who knows how long. Mixed emotions on leaving behind my home of the last 11 years (despite only residing full time here for 6 of them).
Please pray for safe flights, complete baggage on the other side and a ride...still not 100% sure who's getting me but that's sometimes to be expected. I'm very excited to go and move into my new house and get settled.
These five weeks have flown by between work, writing curriculum, and just living in a house that is on the market life has been exhausting.
I leave tomorrow possibly having said goodbye to Crystal Lake for who knows how long. Mixed emotions on leaving behind my home of the last 11 years (despite only residing full time here for 6 of them).
Please pray for safe flights, complete baggage on the other side and a ride...still not 100% sure who's getting me but that's sometimes to be expected. I'm very excited to go and move into my new house and get settled.
06 July 2009
Busy Weekend, Busy Life
This past weekend I drove with my parents to Minnesota to see friends and family.
On Friday night we stayed with some friends of my parents who have experience in having a daughter overseas. It was good to hear about their daughters ministry in Japan and to receive much needed tutoring on raising support effectively. Thus the delay in letter mailing. I am so excited to rewrite my letter so that it can be consice and clear. I hope the result of this fine tuning helps you understand my ministry more effectively.
Saturday was spent with aunts, uncles, cousin, & grandma. It was good to see most of my family which I haven't seen since last June!
Saturday evening was spent with the Johnsons and then Sunday we turned around and drove home.
My life has been super busy since I landed at home 2 weeks ago. I have found myself working full time, writing curriculum, and planning the first and second grade reading calendar! YIKES!!! and then I am busy writing my support letter.
I hope that you will check back for more frequent updates as the time gets closer for me to go back. I plan to fly back AUGUST 2nd.
On Friday night we stayed with some friends of my parents who have experience in having a daughter overseas. It was good to hear about their daughters ministry in Japan and to receive much needed tutoring on raising support effectively. Thus the delay in letter mailing. I am so excited to rewrite my letter so that it can be consice and clear. I hope the result of this fine tuning helps you understand my ministry more effectively.
Saturday was spent with aunts, uncles, cousin, & grandma. It was good to see most of my family which I haven't seen since last June!
Saturday evening was spent with the Johnsons and then Sunday we turned around and drove home.
My life has been super busy since I landed at home 2 weeks ago. I have found myself working full time, writing curriculum, and planning the first and second grade reading calendar! YIKES!!! and then I am busy writing my support letter.
I hope that you will check back for more frequent updates as the time gets closer for me to go back. I plan to fly back AUGUST 2nd.
22 June 2009
HOME
I have been home for the last 48+ hours.
I returned home late Friday/early Saturday. I encounter many delays during travel; however, did not miss a single flight!
In the DR our plane was late arriving which meant that I landed at MIA - Miami with just under and hour to clear customs and hightail it to my gate. Thankfully my flight was also delayed in Miami due to lightening strikes. So I made it to the plane and boarded 2 hours later than planned.
Since being home I have been extremely busy studying Spanish, reading ESL curriculum books, planning for camp and readjusting to a life of "luxury" compared to my DR habitat. It has been weird to drive and go to stores, but thankfully any culture shock has happened someplace out of the "public" eye.
Anyways, I am busy working for NISRA and SEDOM this summer like that previous 6 summers...that's a long time to be at the same summer job, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I returned home late Friday/early Saturday. I encounter many delays during travel; however, did not miss a single flight!
In the DR our plane was late arriving which meant that I landed at MIA - Miami with just under and hour to clear customs and hightail it to my gate. Thankfully my flight was also delayed in Miami due to lightening strikes. So I made it to the plane and boarded 2 hours later than planned.
Since being home I have been extremely busy studying Spanish, reading ESL curriculum books, planning for camp and readjusting to a life of "luxury" compared to my DR habitat. It has been weird to drive and go to stores, but thankfully any culture shock has happened someplace out of the "public" eye.
Anyways, I am busy working for NISRA and SEDOM this summer like that previous 6 summers...that's a long time to be at the same summer job, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
15 June 2009
4 days
home in 4 short days.
there is still so much to do packing wise, but that's not what i've been doing.
this morning i sat down and worked on correspondence. woo...what a way to spend my morning. i currently have written roughly 3 rough drafts this morning of very important letters. 2 of which many of you will be seeing in your mailboxes soon (hopefully next week!)
please pray for the JCS staff as many of us are flying home or have already flown home. mainly prayer for re-adjusting to life in the united states. and for the staff staying here...who will be missing their co-workers and friends.
for me - i land on friday and start work on monday. pray that God grants me enough rest this week and week-end to be prepared for work. i am thankful to even be working since i missed all the training for both jobs. God is good and faithful.
anyways. now that the writing is done...it's time to focus on the packing part of life. which is semi-difficult since i still need to live the next few days....so for now it's sorting through piles that have accumulated on my arch-nemis ---flat surfaces.
there is still so much to do packing wise, but that's not what i've been doing.
this morning i sat down and worked on correspondence. woo...what a way to spend my morning. i currently have written roughly 3 rough drafts this morning of very important letters. 2 of which many of you will be seeing in your mailboxes soon (hopefully next week!)
please pray for the JCS staff as many of us are flying home or have already flown home. mainly prayer for re-adjusting to life in the united states. and for the staff staying here...who will be missing their co-workers and friends.
for me - i land on friday and start work on monday. pray that God grants me enough rest this week and week-end to be prepared for work. i am thankful to even be working since i missed all the training for both jobs. God is good and faithful.
anyways. now that the writing is done...it's time to focus on the packing part of life. which is semi-difficult since i still need to live the next few days....so for now it's sorting through piles that have accumulated on my arch-nemis ---flat surfaces.
07 June 2009
Letting Go of the Sword of Self-Sufficiency
Please excuse any grammatical, spelling, or time lapse mistakes as this entry endured a power outage and a short-circuiting keyboard.
Today was probably one of the most convicting church services I have ever been too. Popin (Po-peen) my pastor talked about Moses and the Burning Bush; when Moses was in the desert because of his own self-sufficiency. He took a sword to seek justice and fled. God took 40 years while Moses was tending his father-in-law’s sheep to bring Moses to the burning bush. At that time God chose to use Moses with a staff instead of a sword to free an entire country!
Moses held on stubbornly to the sword of self-sufficiency and justice, just as we do. We my not tend sheep in the desert, but we all experience our own deserts of loneliness. God meets us in these deserts and asks for our swords and gives us staves. It’s up to us at this point to lean on the support of God or throw down the staff and go our own ways again. But God does not give up because He still wants to use us; sinners!
God wants to be our “business” partners in the journey to transform the world into His likeness even though He doesn’t need us. He wants to work with us because we can show the transformation of a life lived in Him. God chooses us for 3 reasons:
1) HE loves us!
2 HE knows our potential.
3 Someone has to tell the world about God’s glory.
While we may feel useless, God provides answers at the perfect times. He is the I AM. – He is unchangeable, the Alpha and Omega, the God who was, who is, and who is to come, He is absolute, He is with out cause, He is essential. The knowledge of this God doesn’t transform us or those around us – we can only be transformed by a personal revelation!
We can’t truly be revealed to God’s glory until we give up that sword of self-sufficiency that we hold. Only then will God reveal His true glory to us, just as he did to Moses with the burning bush. By giving this up we are giving up the right to say “I CAN” - can you do that? I know that I can’t… I struggle every day. My life can not be based on I CAN and Maybes.
God calls us to prayer…a life of surrender. A life in the desert allows us fall to our knees and listen to the voice of God that is always there, just BEGGING to be heard.
LET GO – Let go, Let go – let go of whatever you are holding onto and hold God’s outstretched waiting hand. He will lead us were we need to go.
At the beginning of the year I wrote a list of what I wanted God to do while I was here or what I hoped God would do. That’s ridiculous…God isn’t told what to do. He tells us what to do. God has done most of the things on my list. He has just done them in ways not so conventional. I am happy that He has answered my strange requests.
I recently finished a study on Hebrews called Hoping for Something Better. I highly recommend this study for anyone who struggles with emotions dealing with depression or an overwhelming sense of short-comings. God is good and has planned a life full of hope based on trials that lead us to him…just as God led Moses to the burning bush with a rod in his hands that later went on to free an entire country.
Now I am doing a study/reading a book called Come Closer based on 15 invitations from Jesus to come and be near him. I am always convicted and touched as I read each chapter…identifying with the crowd that Jesus was talking to. I have come to desire the friendship and companionship of our Savior more deeply than the salvation that originally drew me into the fold. I have come to the place where Jesus is truly beginning to take a human form.
As I end the school year I am looking forward to the next year and how I can be the example of Jesus to my students. I can simply do that by loving them…staying for one more year…showing them that love…for some of the incoming second graders next year will be the first year they have had a certified teacher for more than 4 months. I want to show them Christ’s love. I want to put down my sword so I can love them not on my own but love them with God’s guidance…will you join me by praying for my student’s next year? Will you venture out of your desert place and let God lead you by the hand to what He has planned for you?
I hope that you will.
Today was probably one of the most convicting church services I have ever been too. Popin (Po-peen) my pastor talked about Moses and the Burning Bush; when Moses was in the desert because of his own self-sufficiency. He took a sword to seek justice and fled. God took 40 years while Moses was tending his father-in-law’s sheep to bring Moses to the burning bush. At that time God chose to use Moses with a staff instead of a sword to free an entire country!
Moses held on stubbornly to the sword of self-sufficiency and justice, just as we do. We my not tend sheep in the desert, but we all experience our own deserts of loneliness. God meets us in these deserts and asks for our swords and gives us staves. It’s up to us at this point to lean on the support of God or throw down the staff and go our own ways again. But God does not give up because He still wants to use us; sinners!
God wants to be our “business” partners in the journey to transform the world into His likeness even though He doesn’t need us. He wants to work with us because we can show the transformation of a life lived in Him. God chooses us for 3 reasons:
1) HE loves us!
2 HE knows our potential.
3 Someone has to tell the world about God’s glory.
While we may feel useless, God provides answers at the perfect times. He is the I AM. – He is unchangeable, the Alpha and Omega, the God who was, who is, and who is to come, He is absolute, He is with out cause, He is essential. The knowledge of this God doesn’t transform us or those around us – we can only be transformed by a personal revelation!
We can’t truly be revealed to God’s glory until we give up that sword of self-sufficiency that we hold. Only then will God reveal His true glory to us, just as he did to Moses with the burning bush. By giving this up we are giving up the right to say “I CAN” - can you do that? I know that I can’t… I struggle every day. My life can not be based on I CAN and Maybes.
God calls us to prayer…a life of surrender. A life in the desert allows us fall to our knees and listen to the voice of God that is always there, just BEGGING to be heard.
LET GO – Let go, Let go – let go of whatever you are holding onto and hold God’s outstretched waiting hand. He will lead us were we need to go.
At the beginning of the year I wrote a list of what I wanted God to do while I was here or what I hoped God would do. That’s ridiculous…God isn’t told what to do. He tells us what to do. God has done most of the things on my list. He has just done them in ways not so conventional. I am happy that He has answered my strange requests.
I recently finished a study on Hebrews called Hoping for Something Better. I highly recommend this study for anyone who struggles with emotions dealing with depression or an overwhelming sense of short-comings. God is good and has planned a life full of hope based on trials that lead us to him…just as God led Moses to the burning bush with a rod in his hands that later went on to free an entire country.
Now I am doing a study/reading a book called Come Closer based on 15 invitations from Jesus to come and be near him. I am always convicted and touched as I read each chapter…identifying with the crowd that Jesus was talking to. I have come to desire the friendship and companionship of our Savior more deeply than the salvation that originally drew me into the fold. I have come to the place where Jesus is truly beginning to take a human form.
As I end the school year I am looking forward to the next year and how I can be the example of Jesus to my students. I can simply do that by loving them…staying for one more year…showing them that love…for some of the incoming second graders next year will be the first year they have had a certified teacher for more than 4 months. I want to show them Christ’s love. I want to put down my sword so I can love them not on my own but love them with God’s guidance…will you join me by praying for my student’s next year? Will you venture out of your desert place and let God lead you by the hand to what He has planned for you?
I hope that you will.
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