As Pslam 37 promises, if we trust in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart. Tim and I stepped out and made the difficult decision to follow where we believed God was leading us and stay another year. And just as He promises, we are discovering that God is filling us with the desires of our hearts and we are truly "delighted in Him." In layman's terms: We never realized all the reasons that God wanted us to stay, but slowly they are presenting themselves and we are show in so many different ways that this is where we wanted to be and we are truly happy.
Staying this second year has already proven to be "worthit" and the right decision. Last year part of our - mainly mine (Kari) difficulty was loneliness. I went from living in a house with all of my best friends, being only a few hours away from family, to being here, yes with my husband, but the friend area was lacking. However, this year has been excellent! Friendships that started last year with Angelica, Jeff and Nicole continue to grow stronger. They encourage us in our faith through Bible Studies and teaching together, and we just flat out have fun!
This year also, Tim and I are especially close with John and Sarah. They are the perfect "couple friends" for us! The boys get along great and jokingly talk trash while playing PIG while Sarah and I never lack something to chat about. We have had so much fun spending time with them most weekends and seeing them at church! Sarah and John are also teaching us how we want to parent. Both Tim and I had absolutely wonderful and loving parents and had and continue to have wonderful relationships with them. Sarah and John do many things the same as our parents, instilling values, teaching discipline, putting their kids as their priority, etc, but also do some things differently that Tim and I would like to do when we have kids. For example, although it is clear that their kids are their priority, they still make a conscious effort to have friends and spend time with adult friends often. Also, they discipline and teach using the Bible. They teach their kids not only what their parents and society expects of them, but what God's standards are. Also, they pray with each of their kids individually at night, and both girls are comfortable praying aloud for dinners. It is fun to see other great Christian parents to learn from them. Friendship is certainly one of the areas that God has blessed us with this year! (we are going to miss them soooo much when we leave)
School is another area in when God knew what was best for us!
As I mentioned before, I wanted to teach 7th but ended up in 3rd again. That was no accident. I am loving teaching 3rd again! I am able to put into practice everything I learned last year! I have improved as a teacher 200%! I know that I still have much to learn and many areas to improve on, but this year is going so well!
I am both much stricter and much more loving this year. I am trying to be firm on discipline to teach the kids respect. Also, I am conciously praying every morning to have God's patience, love and energy to be the best teacher I can be. I am conciously praising each kid every day for doing well and try and touch them on the shoulder, give them a hug, etc to show then love. So far, my classroom is much more orderly and a productive learning environment. I am so excited to have 3rd graders again so that I can learn from my mistakes last year!
I have a great group of students this year. Overall they are better behaved than last years group, however I have many special needs students. A few have diagnosed learning disabilities, speech disabilities, ADD, ADHD, and behavior disorders. These children take even more love, patience and time than a normal 3rd grader. I would like to ask you to please pray that God shows me what each of these kids need to be able to reach their potential, and also that God will continuously provide me with patience and love. Without help from God, I literally can not do it. I tried for months to do it on my own last year. I failed. After about 2 months of failing, I broke down and asked God for help. And He did. Now, I get through everyday only because I am trusting in God to give me patience and love beyond my own ability. He is good and says He will give us whatever we ask for if we ask in His name. (John 14:13) He does!!
In particular could you please pray for Samuel. He has a behavior disorder and is very difficult for me to deal with. He is making sounds or talking or yelling 85% of the day. This of course is a huge distraction to me and all the students. Please pray that God helps him learn self control (Proverbs 16:32) and also self-confidence. Every time I ask him to do the given activity he tells me that he can't. He can. He has normal learning ability and can read and write like all the others, however, for some reason he truly believes he can't. Please pray for Samuel.
School is going very well for Tim. He is teaching all grades 1-7. He loves that he gets to see all the kids in the school and teach all levels. It keeps it interesting and different everyday. He is very excited about the 5-7 band and choir. The kids have already choosen their instruments (though the school hasn't actually purchased them yet), and choir has their assigments as well. For the month of Septemeber he focused on general music, such a tiempo, rhythm, treble and bass clef, etc, and will start teaching the specifics of notes, and instuments in October. He is taking his job seriously and doing an excellent job!
Speaking of excellent jobs, he is a busy man, but managing it all very well! Besides teaching, he is taking 2 masters classes online, as well as 4hrs of Spanish classes a week. He has improved so much in Spanish, and will continue to improve rapidly now that he is teaching his music classes in Spanish. I am very proud of his motivation and improvement!!
We have an exciting announcement to make! Thanks to the generous donation of Brittany Lambert, Hocaba is in the process of building a new sanctuary called a palapa. It is a much more sturdy structure, although still temporary. This is a very necessary change, seeing as the current sanctuary is literally collapsing in. This past Sunday it rained during service so everyone just got soaked. The tar paper is ripping, and almost 30% of the support beams are broken. It is truly a hazard. BUT, a new one will be under construction this week! Praise God for Brittany's generosity!!! God provides!!!!!!!! Below is the "before"... "after" pictures to come!
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