From Russia with Lots of Love!

Parade of Nations: Welcome to Russia!
If you look around us you can see our
Northern Lights, Russian Shutters, and our
matryoshka dolls.

Things are finally starting to get back to normal…well not really, but the Lord is Good! Friday was certainly a busy day as it was Parade of Nations! As I mentioned in earlier blogs posts, parade of nations is a school wide event celebrating missions around the world. Each grade picks a country, studies it, finds missionaries that are there to pray for, decorates their classroom, and presents on the information that they have learned. Throughout the actual day of Parade of Nations, each grade presents their country several times, as well as goes to other classrooms to see other presentations. It was wonderful! As I teach both 4th and 5th grade, I helped my students learn about Russia (4th grade) and India (5th grade). We made graphs about the population, top ten cities, and currency compared to the dollar over the years. 4th grade learned and connected thermal energy and its importance to Russian winters. 5th grade learned about the major natural disasters that occur in India and developed slide shows for them. With both grades we learned and compared/contrasted the major religions of the country, and we made shadow boxes for the flora, fauna, and climate of the country. We had been working on this project for almost 2 months and it came down to one day, showing what they had learned! The students did a tremendous job for both countries and I am truly proud of each of them. Of course we did also have some fun painting the Russia flag on our faces, wearing fur hats (from towels ) for the boys and scarves for the girls, along with coats, snowflakes, and extra A.C. to make it feel even colder! The part that still warms my heart is that every day the students continue to put Russia in for the prayer requests! As my students learned more about Russia their desire to pray and show God’s love to them has continued to increase.

Here we are pretending our 97 degree day
is a cold Russian winter with our fake fur hats
and scarfs and shiveringaway!

On Friday night after Parade of Nations, I attended the last three hours of my first master’s class from the University of Alabama! It certainly feels wonderful to be finished with one and ready to continue in May for number 2! I cannot say it enough how much the Lord has blessed me and how smooth the class went, thank you so much for your prayers!

In the weeks ahead… Next week is Spirit Week! Oh yes, we are talking crazy hair day, pajama day, etc. which will end on Friday with Field Day as day full of grade fun together! The following week we turn in our midterm grades for the second semester! Time has flown and end the week with a partial day on Friday of parent/teacher conferences. And thus begins… EASTER BREAK!!!!!!!!

Prayer Requests:
- Dengue fever is definitely on the rise and each day I found out about a new person that I know contracting the very dangerous fever from mosquitoes. Please, please pray for everyone’s safety in Paraguay.
- Please pray for the next few weeks to run smoothly and have the opportunities to continue spread the love of Christ.
- Please pray for the decisions and preparations for the upcoming school year and things change and we look for new teachers and a director.

Firsts:
- First Master’s Class completed! Praise the Lord! Only 9 more to go!

- First Parade of Nations! So much fun!!!!