The biggest thing that has happend though is that last Sunday I talked on the phone with the director of a Christian school in Bogotá, Colombia called El Camino Academy (http://eca.edu.co/). We had an interview and she told me more about it and at the end she said, "Well, now I can tell you that you have officially been accepted to teach here these next two years." OOOOOH I WAS ECSTATIC!! IT SEEMED TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! STILL DOES.
This is why:
-I'll most likely be in a 5th grade classroom....this can change though.
-Each class is connected with a ministry outside of the school and does servant events there twice a year but stays connected throughout tht year.
-Each teacher is paired up with a high school student to mentor/disciple throughout the year.
-There are people they know that are into running so I'll have partners to run with!
-They give the teachers free Spanish classes on M, W, & F's for an hour after school!!
-I'll be living with a few other teachers in an apartment not too far from school and they have transportation set up for us so we won't really have to deal with public transportation.
-Even though it's right next to the equator, it's on a mountain so it's cooler fallish weather there year round!
It's like every branch of ministry that I would love to be part of (teaching, serving, discipling) and it's all in one spot in a Spanish speaking country!!!!
I know that of course it won't be "perfect" and I'll most definitely face challenges while I'm down there but it's still hard for me to grasp that I'll most likely be living in Colombia within the next year!
I guess if there were a "catch" to it, it's that it is a missionary position so I'll have to raise my own funds for living expenses, food, utilities, insurance, etc. I know that God provides so it'll be a great time of learning to Trust Him. I do get a $300 stipend each month but they recommend (they've have MANY people go through this...espeically first year teachers) They recommend $1000/mo. aaaaaand that does get pretty pricey after two years. But like I said, He provides. I know it's early but if you are interested in partnering with me and this ministry that God has placed me in down there by all means please let me know! Once I graduate and have more time to "officially" start raising support I'll definitely keep you in the loop of how to and such. :-)
As far as ministry happening right now, I found out that Frankenmuth doesn't have too big of a youth program and I was asking if they had a high school girls Bible study and they don't. That got me to thinking, "hmmm maybe I should start one?" So I was in the process of talking to high school girls that I know from being in the band and got their emails. I lost their emails and have had the worst communication with them. I talked to one this morning and we decided that since I'm not sure who knows what and if anyone would even remember about it that we should just wait until next week. I was eating dinner and at 6:30 p.m. the doorbell rings. I answered it and it was a girl I had never met and I was like, "hi??" (worst first impression ever!! ha) and she's like "yeah my friend told me about a Bible study here?" and I was like "ooooh! Yeah!! uhhhhh?? not tonight...? I was trying to explain to her why and then another girl showed up and another and I was getting overwhelmed but excited at the same time! Then four girls were there and I was like "alright, let's do this!" They're freshman so they can't drive so I told their parents come back at 7:30 and then the girl I talked to this morning showed up after I told her other girls were showing up. We chatted to get to know one another, had hot tea, read 1 peter 1 and talked about it and applied it to our lives and will be going through a chapter a week until I leave. It makes me sad to think I only have 4 more weeks with them but I'm hoping that even when I leave they can see how to run their own Bible study and keep it up. This definitely showed me that even when there's lack of/poor communication on my part...God's bigger than that and works in ways I wouldn't have even imaged. Ha. I seriously thought no one would come. Oooh God is good.
Sooo like always unexpected challenges have come up but of course undeserved blessings have trumped them from these past two weeks:
Unexpected Challenges:
- Bringing faith into all the other subjects besides "Religion." Since I've been so used to the "public school" mindset of teaching it's been suprisingly challenging to integrate faith into other subjects. It's not that it'd be hard because I'm doing Animals in science so you can make numerous connections with how God created them, animals in the Bible, etc. But, you just have to make a conscious effort and I didn't think it'd be this hard!
- When kids know a break is coming they are CRAZY. Thursday was a half day, my teacher wasn't there, and they were only there until 11 a.m. because of parent teacher conferences. It was hard to keep them under control but it all worked out. :)
Undeserved Blessings:
- Acceptance to teach @ El Camino Academy!
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| Picture of Bogotá, Colombia: City of 7 million people! A bit of a difference from Aurora and Seward... |
- High School Girls Bible Study!!!
- Today I went with Dave Sievert, his daughter, and another man to this race called the Hogsback Trail Run. It is a 5 mile race where you run through the woods, mud, creeks, and up GIANT hills. It was SO fun!!! Dave won the overall master's...the older group, the other man who was with us won his age division, I won the 18-24 female division, and Emily (Dave's daughter...who came to Bible Study tonight too) got 3rd in the 17 and under division. It was SO great and it felt SO good to compete for the One again! I miss competitive running...
- Wendy and I went to a JJ Heller concert on Friday night! It was so great!
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| Wendy and I with JJ & Dave Heller! |
These next 4 weeks are going to go by FAST! But even though it started out rocky it has progressively gotten better and better. :) Thank you, Lord!
Prayer Requests:
- That I wouldn't lose sight of my ministry here these next 4 weeks and preparing for my own classroom someday!! That everyday I would walk in Love to the first grade classroom and teach them with enthusaism and Truth!
- For God to do a work in this high school girls Bible study! I definitely already see His Hand guiding it. Pray that God would use this to bring each of us ladies into a deeper relationship with Christ.
- For teaching in Bogotá, Colombia!! I won't leave until next July so I plan on subbing around the Seward area in the Spring but it'll take a while to prepare and please pray for that whole process of raising support.
Dios los bendiga! (God bless!)
