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!!!!

Misleading Appearances: Shutters and Oobleck!

       What a week! This week has felt a lot like a whirlwind with regular classes, preparing for Parade of Nations, observations, and 3 hours of master’s class a night! Therefore this posting will be shorter than normal, but I promise to post more for the next week. The Lord has truly been my strong hold and mighty tower during this week. He has blessed me with the strength and endurance as well as a peace.

        Russian Shutters. Doesn’t necessarily sound like a topic for Bible… but that is what we have just started to finish off our Bible study for 4th grade as we prepare for Parade of nations. When I visited Russia on two of my medical mission trips, I was struck by the beautiful shutters that you could see on many of the shacks in the small villages. These shutters would be incredibly detailed and brightly painted. Appearance was clearly important. Often it appears more important than even necessities. Therefore we have made shutters for our windows in the classroom and are diving deeper into 1 Samuel 16:7 (But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”). The students are loving the connections and really thinking about even how in their life they worry too much about appearances!

         Oobleck is a wonderful discovery! Both a suspension (not a mixture or a solution) and a dilatants (not a solid or a liquid), it makes for a lot of fun! As we have been studying states of matter and mixtures and solutions, it was the perfect time to explore and investigate! If you have never made Oobleck you really should (1 cup water to 1.5/2 cups cornstarch (a little green food coloring if you would like (off the Dr. Seuss book))! The students loved watching it act as a liquid (dip a finger in, pour it, hold it your hand, etc.), but also punch it, slap it, squish it in a ball and it acts like a solid until you stop applying pressure! So much fun and really helping them conceptualize it! The APPEARANCE is also misleading and causes a student to have to think and look closer revising their initial hypothesis!

Prayer Requests:

- Finishing Strong! A lot of this craziness will slow for at least a little bit at the end of this week. But I would greatly appreciate the prayers for the strength to finish strong!

- Parade of Nations and International Dinner: This Friday it will be both the Parade of Nations (every class presents on a country (that we have been working on for almost 2 months!!!)) and Friday night it is international dinner ( families come and share their culture, food, and customs with each other)! These are a wonderful way to draw the school closer together!

- The Lord has an incredible plan for all of us… as the school goes through lots of changes, please pray for a peace and guidance to help us all follow the path the Lord has for us!

Firsts:

- First Graduate school presentation! The Lord is blessing me in many ways and tonight I gave my first graduate school presentation. I cannot even begin to express how the rigorous academic of GCC have incredibly blessed me in preparation for so much! I have turned in almost all of my assignments and have been doing well, glory to the Lord!

Strength: Confia en el Senor, de todo corazon, y no en su propia inteligencia...(Proverbs 3:5-6)

My fourth graders doing a Bible skit to
 show the consquences of sin!

        This semester is flying by faster and faster! We are quickly approaching half way through this second semester! This last weekend was both a great time with friends and productive! Always a great combination! On Friday afternoon, ACA joined in our first head to head competition with Faith Christian School in soccer. Both our girls and boys team play a wonderful game and did our school proud. While we did not win either of the games, we did learn a lot and turned out a good performance in our new uniforms! It was wonderful to see the support of parents, students, and teachers at the game gaining more school spirit! Even Bailey, our youngest fan at 10 months old, sported a very cute ACA onesie!

         On Saturday I went for my usual grocery run with the added bonus of a 10+ block workout as we carry all of our groceries back. It also keeps you in check with buying just the right amount! This warm up was followed by an “Insanity” workout with my workout heroine/friend Stacy. Insane only begins to describe the workout (though you do feel great an hour later). I went in the evening to my new friends from England apartment and had a great time getting to know them better! Sunday was church in the morning, always a blessing, and then our weekly game of volleyball at night! In between the above I was able to plan and get all my work done for the next two weeks of classes as I have started a master’s class that will be in the evenings for these two weeks. Oh, and I was fighting off a cold! Isn’t the Lord incredible! He truly provides the strength you need!

I guess I just have to take classes from
schools whose color is crimson!

          Things are definitely busy as we are one week away from the Parade of Nations and I am just diving into a new master’s class! Though the strength the Lord has blessed me with this last weekend will continue to bless me in these weeks ahead!

Prayer Requests:

- Please pray for this cold to end quickly and for all of the sicknesses going around in all of Paraguay to also end quickly! Especially please pray for those people who have caught Dengue Fever. You can catch it from mosquitoes and it can be deadly.

- Please pray for the students and teachers as we prepare for the Parade of Nations. Hopefully this will continue to be a wonderful opportunity to share international missions and God’s heart for the lost with our school! (my classes have been thriving in our Bible lessons preparing for this week. They are loving learning about what to pray for the other nations (Russia and India) and we are also learning about the other religions in these countries. Our classes are having incredible discussions that are truly blessing me and the students!)

- Please pray for my master’s class. I am taking it with 3 other ACA teachers. It certainly makes for a long day with 3 hours of night class each day after teaching in the morning!

Firsts:

- First time having my students beg to come back early from their lunch/recess to work on a science project in my classroom. Doesn’t It just warm a teacher’s heart to the core!

- First time taking a master’s class! Yesterday I started my first day of my first master’s class! I am taking the graduate courses offered by the University of Alabama for Elementary Education masters degree! My first class is in Social Studies.

- First time eating an English cooked bread and pudding here in Paraguay! While I have had bread and pudding before, it certainly tasted good coming from some new English teachers at the British school here in Paraguay. It is wonderful to be blest with even more friends abroad.

My students hard at work on the science project
that they chose OVER their lunch/recess time!

Superstitious Watermelon and Bus Strikes



Crazy Fruit of the Week: Red Pear!

      Travel on el colectivo (a.k.a a bus), is always an adventure. As the main source of  transportation for most of the population in this 3rd world capital city it can be dangerous and unstable at times. Still I am blessed with the quick access and the number of buses that go past our compound. On Monday there was a city wide bus strike for almost all of the bus lines. Those that did not go on strike found problems as pedestrians began throwing stones at the buses that were running and did not take long to stop as well. The whole town was thrown for a turn as suddenly many people were stuck. In fact, almost every person was affected in multiple ways. The strike was over a new rule changing the maximum age of the buses to be reduced to 25 years old(for safety reasons as with these conditions anything over 5 is usually starting to struggle)! As only a few bus lines have buses that were younger than this new maximum age limit, they decided to strike. This is just a small peek into the condition of the buses that regularly fall apart and are held together by tape and a prayer. The strike did end by noon, but needless to say it was a large deal and greatly influenced the city. As this is my main source of transportation, I was grateful that I did not have to go out on Monday and lived on the same compound as my school. You never do truly appreciate what you depend on until it is taken away.

      Superstition is deeply rooted in Paraguay. This week I had my eyes opened to a strange new focus for superstition, … the watermelon. Oh yes, whether or not you realized it, the watermelon is very very dangerous. For example, the Paraguayans believe it can greatly hurt you if you drink water before or after eating watermelon. Also you cannot drink milk after eating watermelon. You cannot eat watermelon right before bed, or you may not wake up. The list goes on and on… In fact, for the most part you can only have watermelon right after you wake up from your afternoon siesta and before you have dinner (and even that can be a problem). I must admit I wondered if some other melon or fruit farmers got jealous of the watermelon and decided to start some superstitious rumors about the terrifying watermelon! I see the next antagonist for veggie tales being a huge fierce and deadly watermelon. Yet when you think about other cultures and even our lives, we often miss the superstitious things that get away from us and build and build over time. Without even noticing it, things we over think or hold to a high esteem get out of hand and it becomes hard to see the absurdity.

Firsts:

- First time leaping from a moving bus. On Saturday, we had a crazy bus driver (like so many) on the way back from the grocery store. While we pulled the cord for it to stop the driver only decided to slow (around 5 miles per hour), at which time Jenn (with all her groceries) jumped off the moving bus! I immediately pulled the cord again, the bus slowed unfortunately right in front of a cement telephone pole. As it picked up again I too leaped from the bus with two huge shoulder bags of groceries (that were thankfully balanced). Finally the bus slowed almost to a stop and Stacy was able to step off right before it screeched away.
-        First time having a red pear! It does taste almost exactly like a normal pear, but how could I pass up trying a red one!

- First time hearing of the Watermelon superstition of Paraguay.
- First time in Paraguay during a city wide bus strike.
- First time seeing “Awn + Los Jonas Bros” with a heart around it on the back of the bus seat. Slightly humorous!


Density and Buoyant Force Lab!!!

 Prayer Requests:
- Safety is always a huge part of our lives here. Please pray for our safety, especially with our traveling, even in the day to day, and every time we step out the doors we are putting ourselves in harm’s way.
- This coming Monday, I will officially be starting my very first Masters’ Class! Please pray for wisdom, balance, and the great opportunity to learn and grow!

The Heroes in Our Lives!

          Today is officially, “el Día de los Heroes” (the day of the Heroes)! With this special day comes a day off school too! My day started off with the wonderful pleasure of turning off my 5:30am alarm! Unfortunately I only got to sleep less than a half an hour, as our friendly neighbors across the trash creek behind our apartments started the party (which to them is most days) at 6:00am very loudly! While two possible plans of action came to mind

1. Go to my classroom and curl up on the floor… or…
2. Could a paintball marker take out a boom box from 30 yards?
I chose to do neither of the two options, but was up and filling my day with school work, relaxing, and time with friends! The Lord is truly good!

         On a holiday celebrating heroes, it makes one think through the heroes in their own life. For the last few weeks I have been studying great heroes of the Bible with my 5th grade class. The Bible truly is filled with so many wonderful examples, that we should strive to follow (from Ruth, to Hannah, to Samuel and so on). I have also been blessed with Heroes in my own life. For starts, what incredible parents I have been blessed with! And I am also very partial to the best twin brother in the world! Not only are my family members my heroes, but I can see other heroes in my life in the little things. There are so many people that go above and beyond for the Lord! Even this last chapel (as I mentioned in my last post), I shared the story of Jim Elliot and his family. “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose!” What an incredible and powerful story! As well, the incredible strength and amount of forgiveness and love shown by his family after his murder is definitely heroic. I have been blessed with several more questions about this story! And then there are my heroes back home, through the small acts that mean so much. In the your encouragement, your prayers, and your support! Thank you! And happy day of the Heroes!

Prayer Requests:

- While we are incredibly grateful for the rain we have had for the past weeks and all of its benefits for the Chaco, please pray for the dangers that the rain can cause with the flooding and more.

- As always, please pray for the students, teachers, and parents.

Courtney picked a peck of purple peppers....

- Praise! I thank the Lord for a friend who will be bringing me back a new camera from the states! My camera was accidentally dropped by a student 1.5 weeks ago and is permanently broken. Hence the lack of new pictures with this posting. The blessing is that this friend was going back to the states for a little over a week and I was able to buy a camera on Amazon and have it shipped to her while she is there! Lithium batteries cannot be shipped so this is wonderful!

Firsts:

- First time seeing and buying Purple Peppers!!!! Truly they are naturally purple! They smell and taste more like the green peppers than the red or yellow.

- First time celebrating el Día de los Heroes!