Times of Peace, When All Else Seems to Change



The Body of Christ and each
of the parts that my students
think that they are!





Math whiteboards with decimals
and fractions that the students
worked to put into order from
least to greatest!

If I am to state one major difference between teaching nationally and internationally is the vast amount of change that occurs. As we come to the end of my first year, I cannot even begin to make note of all of the changes that I have seen. Changes in me, changes in my students, changes in Paraguay, and changes in my school have all taken place. These changes have occurred and in many ways I have been reminded of how the Lord has plans for all of us. Just like watching Bailey (the daughter of a fellow teacher) grow from a few months to now a year old, so things have developed and progressed in the plan for our lives here at ACA.

My 5th Graders skyping with Chris, my
twin brother as a medical expert! They
loved it! And had fantastic questions! 

The greatest thing is that I have also been blessed with an incredible peace! I have been reading Crazy Love and about the thoughts of “Justified Stress” and sometimes how we can be inclined to think that the stress we take on is justified. Yet if we look to Phil. 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” How can be stressed! One of the best things that has kept me looking to the Lord is the little blessings that He has showered throughout my days!



Tectonic Plate Lab Experiment!



Firsts:

- First time having my brother Skype my 5th grade class as a expert medical reference!!!!!

- First time having one of my students ask, “So if you have a tumor in your brain does that mean you would be smarter since you have a bigger brain?” It was definitely my favorite question that my students asked. With most of the other questions, my students were thinking so deeply and making incredible connections!





Crackers and pudding are definitely
similar to tectonic plates and magna!



Surrounded



Fuerza Paraguay!

       Often times life seems to be swirling around you at crazy speeds with new changes occurring every day. These last two weeks have been just that. From my second master’s class starting and to progress reports being due, to daily changes in our school and so much more, my life has certainly stretched me in the last few weeks. I apologize for not posting last week and this one being late, but hopefully the above make up for some of it!

The video that showed at midnight. It was
on the back of the building below!

        If I had to pick one lesson that I have continually been blessed to learn again and again while in Paraguay, it would truly be to trust in the Lord. I have the lyrics for Still by Hillsong posted at my bedroom door and it helped to truly keep my focus on the right place. The Lord truly has an incredible plan for our lives and he can fly us over the storm.

        Paraguay has officially turned 200 years old! This last weekend we had the Paraguayan Bicentennial Celebrations surrounding the night of May 14th to the 15th as we celebrated its independence! With lots of Paraguayan shirts, refurbished downtown, lights on all the buildings, concerts, lanterns, and lots and lots of RED, WHITE, and BLUE! While I was very busy with my school work, university class, and other things, I was thankfully able to head downtown to join in the celebrations! Besides the celebrations around our school (which is still covered in Paraguayan flags!), I went to the military parade on Saturday, the concert behind the Palacio (with fireworks, light displays, and video of Paraguay on the back of the Palacio (very, very cool), and walked around the downtown on Sunday night seeing the other fireworks displays, video, and more! I, of course, was not the only as you can see in some of these pictures!

The memorial to the heros. In this case
their military ones.

        One of the parts that was the most unique and special to me, was spending Saturday night, turning to Sunday (when the documents were officially signed) standing behind the Palacio (the presidential palace), next to the river (dividing Argentina and Paraguay) and next to the chacarita (what use to be one of the worst slums in Paraguay). I was truly standing between one of the symbols of the high life of Paraguay (the Palacio) and one of the poorest and most dangerous places (the chacarita). It was a real glimpse of the true division of Paraguay as we celebrated this beautiful country. It was so special being a part of these huge celebrations, trying my best to sing along when I could as thousands of Paraguayans showed their pride and celebrated together!



The Palacio! A gorgeous white building
where they showed the video on! See the
picture above.



Prayer Requests:

- Please pray for the people of Paraguay during this celebration and hopefully a mark of the continual growth and difference this country will make.

- Please pray for our school, during its time of change as the year comes to an end.

- Please pray for the new teachers for the school, that they will be blessed with a peace about coming.

Firsts:

This building is actually pink! But they

also put pink lights on it too. It is Paraguay's

"white" (but really pink) house!

- First and only time celebrating the Paraguayan bicentennial!

- First time attending an international military parade!

- First time going to a concert behind the Palacio of the president and next to the chacarita!

- First time attending a video display on the entire back of a government building! It was wonderful!

- First time taking a class on Secondary Language Acquisition. I am really enjoying the material.
- First time having a master’s class make it half way and then have to switch to long distance.

The front of the Palacio!

- First time taking a day off from any job!!!!! I decided to take Wednesday off to be able to input all of the quarter grades for progress reports, get work done for my master’s class, and other odds and ends. Yet with my master’s class being drastically altered, I was able to finish my grades on Tuesday night and relax today. It was hard to give up my class for a day, but the break was a wonderful blessing.

A glimpse of the crowds. We
were penguin stepping for quite some
time as everyone pushed each other
through!

Baked Goods and Children’s Generosity Can Warm Anyone’s Soul!

This should be one of the last posts of the pre-Easter posts! We still are out of internet, but hopefully the apartments will get it soon! (don’t forget to look at the other 2 if you are just checking now)

  

          The Thursday before Easter break was ended with sweat, sweets, and success as my 4th and 5th graders conducted a great bake sale to raise money for Books and Bare Feet. Books and Bare Feet is an ongoing fundraiser for Vientos de Esperanza, a local girl’s home. It was such an incredible blessing to be able to watch them work hard and become so excited about raising money for the girls at this home. From the planning to the baking and selling my students worked diligently together without complaining and we were able to raise 407,300 Guaranies (around $99)! The food was really yummy and delicious too celebrating a wide variety of cultures with spring rolls, empanadas, donuts, sushi, cake, brownies and lots of traditional paraguayan food.

Prayer Requests:

- As with the posts before, please pray for Paraguay right now and the spread of Dengue. This is a disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes (like Malaria), but has no preventative measure except to try not to get bit. Over 15,000 people have been officially infected and over 50 have already died this year. The school is taking every precaution possible with fumigations, daily empting of trash, etc, yet mosquitoes often have a mind of their own.

- Please pray for the SAT 10 tests that my students are taking this week! It is the standardized test that we give them at ACA. Especially pray for strength for them to focus, good recall of the information, and endurance through the week for all of us!

The Accumulated Firsts from before and during Easter Break!

- First time visiting Iguaçu Falls!

- First time going to Argentina (my passport even proves it, thankfully renewing my 90 days allowed by my Paraguayan visa!)

- First time traveling in an overnight bus
- First time being attacked, okay robbed, by a coatie (an animal similar to a raccoon that is found only in Argentina). It was slightly tramatic.

- First time taking a ferry through international waters of three different countries!

- First time camping out in Paraguay
- First and Second time standing on a long distance Paraguayan bus for 3 hours (both ways). Sardines in moving tin can.
- First time swimming in a Paraguayan river and waterfalls

God's Unending Mercy!

Internet at the school is still spotty and not back in the apartments yet, but here is post number 2 for Easter Break!

Along with heading to the Falls for Easter Break, I was also blessed to go camping at a national park in Paraguay with a beautiful small river and small waterfalls (especially compared to just seeing Iguazu falls! We were able to go swimming in the river and climbing over, under and behind the waterfalls! It was a slow paced and relaxing time (for the most part) to be able to step back from the life of the city and feel a part of nature again. Oh how I have missed the country! It was the perfect time, half-way through the semester to get a dose of home to carry me on. Truly, while small, one of the best parts of being in nature was seeing God’s incredible masterpiece in the nightly sky! While it was a new beauty and stars I did not recognize, it was one of the first times I could finally see the stars away from the polluted cloudy, city sky! As it gets dark now around 5:30pm I was able to enjoy them for even longer than normal!

While this middle part of the trip went incredibly well, the bookends were a little more challenging… and certainly required a good bite of faith in the Lord. Our first bus trip to the park was to leave at 7:30am. We awoke early so we could catch the city bus at 6:00am to be sure to make it to the station in time. Then once at the station we were ready to take our seats for the 3 hour bus ride. Yet as we boarded the bus we found people with identical tickets sitting in our seats! After getting off the bus, back on, and finally off the bus we found out that a mistake had been made with double booking (apparently a somewhat common occurrence with this bus line). The bus line representative came down to talk to us. After informing us for the third time that it is very strange to buy bus tickets for this line before the day of the trip, the gentleman then tried to get me to identify the salesman who sold me to ticket so that they could fire him. I conveniently forgot what this man looked like ; ) ! Long story short if we wanted to get to the park that day we were going to have to stand for 3 hours on a bus. As the next day was Holy Friday and everything would be closed, we went for it. Three hours standing on a bus with 30+ people squished in the isles was certainly a new experience! Yet at the end of it (and after another bus ride to the actual park) we were still in high spirits, slightly bruised, but ready for the fun to begin.

Still the best was yet to come, and God’s faithfulness again was overwhelmingly shown. On Saturday, the day we were to return, I was awoken to rain. The slight drizzle soon turned to a down pour! As we quickly began to pack up, I was keenly aware of the challenges we could soon be facing as the entire camp ground is near the river, and flooding was definitely a possibility. As the rain continued we packed up the site and rain to the girls bathroom (the only available enclosed building) and joined two families already bunkered in with their non-waterproofed tents sitting outside. As we passed the river I was so grateful that we didn’t camp out on the other side of the river (as 50+ people had, including a girl scout group!). People were trying to get across when they could as the crossing which usually is 1ft. had risen to a rushing 3-4ft. The people had tied ropes across the river and secured themselves to the ropes as the inched across the river. You can see the pictures for a better picture of what this looked like. Thank the Lord that as far as I know everyone made it across safely with all of their things (which came later). This was certainly a miracle as 10 yards down the river was a 10 foot drop waterfall (see the picture here). While we were safe in the bathroom we were far from home! The mud roads turned terrible in a short amount of time and the bus that was to take us into the city would not be coming. We were stuck. Our cell phones were out of service, there was no phone at the ranger station, and no one had space that had a car. While we had a little bit of extra food, we did not have a lot to feed 7 for another day. It was appearing that our best chance was hopefully a bus on Sunday morning, Easter morning! Yet, again, the Lord was good and again showed us His incredible blessing and protection. A very kind man, had space for one person to take into town and bring back as a friend of his had lost the keys to his car. Blessing upon blessing, one of our fellow campers was able to ride in with him, convince a taxi van to come and get us and returned with food! Two hours later we were in the town catching another bus back to Asuncion (which we stood for 3hours on, yet again). Isn’t God incredible and awesome!