The Lord Is Good!

An update on my blog has been long overdue. I am sorry for not being consistent with these posts.  First off, I have to say that I am thoroughly blessed, and am learning so much about me, and about God on this adventure.  So much has happened since I last posted, and I will try and catch you all up.

I have now been here a little over two months, and it seems like time is flying by. I have so much I want to teach my kids, but I feel like there is absolutely no time. The school day starts at 8:00 am and lets out at 2:15pm, which is nice for me as a teacher, but not conducive to long class periods, and accomplishing a lot academically.

I feel that for once in my life I am busy, but with a purpose. It is so rewarding to walk into my classroom each morning and see all of my students smiling faces. I am so blessed to have been led here, and I thank God every day for His devoted love to me.

There have been many times lately that I have had the opportunity/privilege to use my talents for God. Looking at where I am today, and comparing it with where I was 3 months ago is insane to think about.

This past week we had our first Week of Prayer. The Student Missionaries led out in this week. I had the opportunity to share my story of how God had led in my life. I have never heard the chapel more quiet then when the SM’s shared their stories. The students were intently listening and it warmed my heart to see them actually wanting to know more about Jesus. This week of Prayer was a huge blessing not only to me, but also to the students.

During this week, my students were asking me about what happens after you die. Most of my students are from a Catholic background, so they have different beliefs then me. I had the opportunity to share what the Bible said about the topic. One of my girls was writing down all the Bible texts so she could go back and look at them later. The Lord blessed the study and they were asking a lot of questions, and by the end they were understanding. One of them was very apprehensive about what I had to say, and I told him that I would be willing to give him money if he could prove me wrong using the Bible. I pray that he will study it out for himself, and see what the Lord has to say.

This week I also found out that one of my student’s parents have been asking about the SDA beliefs, and wanting to know more about us. Praise God! I don’t know why the Lord continues to bless, but I am praising Him for it. Our end of Week of Prayer was Sabbath at the Church, and we invited the kids to come and worship with us. Principal Raian spoke for the message and gave an appeal for baptism, 4 of my students responded to that appeal. I serve a powerful God, who will bless if your life is 100% dedicated to Him. I was so excited and happy for my kids! Be praying for them. (Kyle, Tyler, Tony, and Marisha) I am praising God.

I can now say that I have survived a super typhoon, and a 4.2 earthquake, which woke me up. I like having new experiences and these were just super exciting for me.

The kids here are great and so much fun to hang around. We have started a Pathfinder club, but they didn’t have many uniforms and they didn’t have a very structured, fun program for the students. So Sarah and I, one of the other SM’s from Michigan decided to try and start it up and try and make it fun for them.

When I say the lack of supplies, I began to wonder who I could ask to help donate money, or any type of Pathfinder supplies. I asked my Dad, who is a Pastor in the Michigan Conf, to see if maybe the local Pathfinder club could donate some, or even asking the Pathfinder Director of the Conf, to see if there was any possibility that they could donate what we needed. What we were really looking for was Sashes and Scarves. They had a Pathfinder staff training which they solicited to have some of the staff bring extra sashes and scarves to donate for the Yap Pathfinders. I don’t know how many they got for that, but not enough for our 90 student Pathfinder Club.

So Pathfinder Camporee was a couple week after this and the Pathfinder Director of the MI Conf, told all the Directors of clubs to ask their Pathfinders to bring extra Sashes and Scarves. So at the Offering at Church on Sabbath they collected money and scarves for the Yap Pathfinders, they raised about $500.00, which was enough to cover the expenses of the sashes. Then after the service a random guy came up and asked if $1000.00 dollars would help! What a powerful guy I serve! I am so in awe of how my God works. He gave what we needed and more. It goes to show that the God I serve is a God that loves to do the things we think are impossible to prove to us that nothing is impossible with God.

So Michigan Pathfinders, know that you have made an impact, I want you to know that you have your own mission field, and that you helped people that are in need. I want to thank you for your selfless giving, and your willing heart. You have blessed 90 young people, and through your gift, you have shown me and my fellow SM’s a better look into who Jesus is. I pray that for this God will put a few extra gems in your crowns! Thank you!

I serve a mighty God. Who is proving over and over to me that He is in control and that He does care about this little Island?

If you know anyone that could donate, or would want to sponsor this school, we are going through some financial difficulties right now, but let me know so that we can get this school back up on its feet.

Prayer Requests

~ Financial state of our school

~ For my students

~ For our Pathfinder Club

~ For my Fellow Sm’s

~ For patience with the internet situation here

~ For me

I love all of you guys so much, and I pray that you will challenge God, and step out in faith and do something that seems impossible. Don’t settle down in your comfort zone, you will never grow while you sit idly on your butt and do nothing. Get up and Go!!!!! Get out and share what God has done for you, because He has done mighty things in my life, just in the past 2 months. I am excited to see what else he has in store for me in the future.

Little Victories ! :)

August 29, 2013

Today has been a day of small victories, but I feel like they are huge, and all I can do is thank God. After getting super sick last night, and waking up this morning still not feeling good, I knew that God would have to be the teacher in my classroom today. I surrendered my day to God, and asked him to be present, and to speak through me. And He has been answering my prayers all day today.

I was discouraged, that everything I teach I have to teach two or three times for them to get it, and so while I was grading a Language Arts Paper on finding the simple subject of a sentence, and no one got above a 70%, I didn’t know what to do, and so again I had to rearrange my lesson plans, and reteach, and give them another lesson on how it is done. So I gave them another worksheet and I just got done grading it, and most of them got 100%. Thank you, God.

I have also learned that playing music is calming, and their behavior has drastically changed. For which I am thankful. They were quiet and working.

Also, I have had to learn quickly, how to teach some of these kids. They are very smart, but some of them lack the ability of motivation. I am learning how to motivate the students. They all got A’s on their memory verse quiz today as well.

I have learned how to teach math in a more effective way. And today, I decided to try a different way, and they got it. And they are so excited. And all of them stayed in from Lunch to complete their assignments, and I finally feel like I walked away knowing that I taught them something. God is so good.

This morning, I was greeted by one of my adorable, girl students with a beautiful rose. It made my day. This is the same girl, which while we were sharing how God had answered a prayer had said, “I prayed, and asked Jesus to send me a nice girl teacher. He answered my prayer.” How little things like that warm your heart.

Daily, I have to remind myself why I am here, and it is for these students, my students, God’s students. I love them all dearly, and am praising God, that most of them are loving to learn. Comments such as, “Teacher, school is fun!” “Teacher, is it already the end of the day?” “Miss, I don’t want to go home.” I love them.

Right now they are at lunch, and there are a couple students that decided to stay in and now are drawing on the board. I will post a picture later.

Later on today, the SM’s are going to town. I love our town trips. I bought a dress that was made locally, and I am going to be buying more.

After we went to town for our weekly shopping trip, we came back and I played basketball with Van Larry and Carolita. (Both are SM’s) It was good to relieve some of the stress that has been building up. It was dark when we got done playing. And the stars were amazing. So Van and Carolita and I went up to the roof of the high school building, and sat and talked about God, and things that we were scared of about going back to our home. It was nice to talk about things, and just have quality people here to talk to about almost anything. We also saw a couple shooting stars. The stars back home don’t compare to here. You could see the milky way, and it was absolutely beautiful.

I was such a good day.  So I am praising God. He always supplies what we need when we need it the most.