We’re back! After a 5 week stay in the US with our families and friends, we are back in Mexico about to start a second year as missionary teachers at Calvary. Tomorrow is the first day of school and we are excited to meet our students and start the adventure this new year will bring. Check out the link to the awesome video Tim made about our last year here!!!
Before I talk about the plans for the second year here, I want to say a bit about our vacation at home. It was 5 weeks filled with spending time with the people most important to us, relaxing, and preparing for another year in Mexico. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful families and friends that make us feel so loved and welcomed when we come back! We are doubly blessed in that our two families live only 5 minutes apart. This summer we were able to do lots of things with both families present, such as BBQs, baseball games, hikes, etc. We are both blessed to have such wonderful families and great in-laws! Also, we spent lots of time with college and high school friends catching up on life’s adventures. What a blessing to have such wonderful Christian friends who can be excited for what God is using us for down here in Mexico! While we had a fantastic, perfect, awesome, relaxing, rejuvenating time at home and were sad to leave, at the same time we were ready to come back for another year in Merida.
Now that we are here, we are completely confident that we made the right decision to stay. We truly feel that God was calling us here and we are so excited to be here again! We were immediately welcomed back by our wonderful friends here – everyone from church and school and particularly the Stones, Scotts, and Angelica! We are so blessed to have made such great friends here!
These first 2 weeks back have been filled with teacher training meetings, preparing our classroom, lesson planning, and most excitingly, picking out and adopting our puppy Cody! We went with Sarah to a couple different animal shelters in Merida and ended up adopting our cute little guy! We are having so much fun doting on and playing with him!
We are so excited for what this year has to bring. Tim will be teaching Music. This means that he is going to be starting and directing both a choir and band for 5, 6, and 7 graders. In addition to this, he will be doing sectionals, private lessons, as well as teaching general music to kids in 1, 2, and 3 grade. On top of all that, he will continue taking Masters classes online towards his Masters in Education degree he is working on. He will have a busy year starting the choir and band but is very excited to be doing what he loves! Also, the church is paying for the missionaries who want it to have Spanish lessons twice a week for 2 hrs apiece. Tim is excited to take advantage of these every Monday and Friday evening. He is going to be a busy guy, but will do a great job!
As for me, I will be teaching 3rd grade English again this year! Although admittedly a bit disappointed to not be teaching 7th grade English and Biology as was planned, I am excited to be teaching 3rd again. This will give me the opportunity to really learn from last year and do a better job as a teacher and mentor to my students! I learned so much last year, and will avoid the things I tried that failed, and do more of the things that I found worked really well. I’m glad to have 3rd again since I already have a sense of what works and what doesn’t, as well as how quickly they can learn new things.
Most exciting about this new school year is that the school started a new English curriculum, which seems EXCELLENT!! We are using the communicative approach which focuses on getting the kids able to communicate orally in English as the primary goal. We will still use all areas; reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but the focus is much more on speaking and listening. The books seem great and gives lots of suggestions on how to get the kids speaking. Also, we are required this year to only speak in English. This will be a challenge because some times when they just don’t get it it is easier to revert to Spanish, but I am going to try to the best of my ability to only speak in English! Another teacher, Monica, had the idea to have an empty jar and every time the kids catch you speaking Spanish you put in a marble, when it is full, they get a prize. It would be a great way to keep myself accountable, and I’m certain the kids would try and catch me!!
The Lord has blessed us so much and we are excited to see what He has in store for us this year!
Hocaba is going well. We went there the first Sunday back and had a nice time catching up with everyone there – and the kids in Sunday School were very excited to see us! We will continue to do Bible Study and Discipleship with the 8 year olds – teenagers on Wednesdays and are looking to focus more on discipling multiple kids. The church in Hocaba is in great need financially. While electricity, lights, and fans were added recently through donations, the current sanctuary is in disrepair and is a safety hazard. The church is in the process of building a church building made of cement blocks, but has been in the very slow building process for over 3 years due to lack of funds. About $7,000usd could finish that church. But, since those funds are simply not available, we are considering putting a new temporary sanctuary called a Palapa there. That would cost about $700usd but last a maximum of ten years. Please let us know if you are interested in donating!
Check out the link to the awesome video Tim made about our last year here!!!
