Afternoon Tea

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of having a few La Senda and neighborhood girls over for a tea.  They came dressed in their favorite clothes, and with the new tea set my Spanish teacher helped me find in the market, we had a delightful tea with all sorts of goodies to eat.  We also talked about true beauty, the gospel, and who we are in Christ, with the overarching idea that we are daughters of the king.

 Ready for the tea party! (No, it was not political. :))

 Several of the lovely young ladies.

 Yumminess!  Litzy helped me cook the night before.

 Astrid shared she always wanted to be a princess.  

 One of the teenagers.

 Yenifer's eyes lit up when she heard as daughters of the king, we are princesses to God.

 Post-tea relaxation time.

La Senda chicas

Overheard...

Just heard the little neighbor kids whispering outside my door before they knocked.  "Only a little kiss [of greeting] and then we go!"  They kept their visit that short. :)

On the Outskirts of Mourning

I drove down dirt roads for the first time yesterday.  Canvasing the bumps and different grades of dirt was a bit challenging, especially given my low-sitting car with all five of us inside.  Lito made a face as I scraped the bottom of my car--again--only to reverse and let him guide me through.

We asked the man who had his cows tied to the tree if we could park there, because there was no other flat space.  He said yes.

We walked from there through the little neighborhood, with its pentecostal church, tienda, visiting neighbors, and houses built from cement block with tin roofs.  We found her house up the lane.  She was sitting up in bed, watching TV.

We came, my colleagues and I, because her husband was killed this week.  My colleagues wanted to pay her a visit since she used to work with us; though I knew who she was, I was more the chauffeur. We sat all together in her room and listened to her story.  How her husband had left at the normal time.  How he hadn't returned home.  How she had decided not to worry about it. How she found out the next day of his death.  How the newspaper had picked up its story, and how her young son had rifled through the pages under pretense of looking for futbolistas only to end his search when he found the article about his father's death.

She shared that she is feeling sad, of course, but she has a sense of peace.  And these last few months had been good months in her family, having made good memories, ones they can pass on to the little one due later this year.

She is my age.  With one son and another on the way, and now a widow.

Guatemala Linda

Sunrise from my roof

Sex Ed

In college I breathed a mental sigh of relief every time the professors alluded to the phys ed majors' resposibility to teach health--and with that, sex ed.  Glad I don't ever have to teach that in English! I thought to myself.

Well, wouldn't you know.  God has a sense of humor.

I started teaching about human reproduction today.  Okay, I don't have to get into all the nitty gritty details about sex, but as one who blushes at the name of those body parts, it's going to be an interesting three weeks.

Before we get to the science of it, we are starting off with what the Bible says about our bodies.  We are created in his image.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Some parts are designated by special modesty, as are some parts in the body of Christ.  We are the body of Christ.  And, our speech--about anything, including references to sexuality and others' bodies--should be uplifting and glorifying to God. 

With this unit, we [Pam has given me a lot of good advice] hope to give the students a healthy framework to learn this material, so not only are their educational and intellectual needs met, but also their emotional and spiritual needs, too.

Education.  Rarely a dull moment.

Finding Humor in their Mistakes

Seeing how I add almost daily to my growing list of Spanish faux pas, I don't mind chuckling at a few of my students'.  Most recently, from their quizzes:

May I go to the badroom?
Sure, but make sure you put your nose in the corner once you're there.

May I go to the batroom?
If I get to be Robin!

I'm dreaming...

Can dreams get any weirder?

During one of my 12 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours, I dreamed I was in a delectable bakery where every bread and cookie item was covered in chocolate.  White chocolate, dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate.  Oh, the choices!  I couldn't decide which two to pick to put in my basket.

And in a new twist on my recurring dreams of making painstakingly careful revisions to the blueprints of familiar buildings (most notably, the building for Christian Tabernacle and the house of family friends I used to dogsit for), I rearranged geography last night.  I was in search of Estonia.  I zoomed in (Google Earth style) on a country I was sure to be it.  A little later I realized, no, I was wrong, and that Estonia was on the other side of the body of water.  Hmmm, I thought.  That's an odd shape.  Which was when I realized Russia had moved all of the population of Estonia to the other side of the continent.  Why?  I don't know.

Weird, I tell you.  Weird.  But I'll take these over dreams that prey on my fears.

Prayer

Prayer has been something that I have been trying to figure out since high school.  "Why do we pray?" I remember asking my youth pastor while studying Know Why You Believe.  Yes, Jesus prayed.  So we should follow his example.  Yes, Paul encourages us to pray "on all occasions."  Somehow, though, these answers and several others weren't enough for me.

I still wondered why we should pray when God already knows everything.

As a result, my prayer life has gone in cycles.  Very disciplined at times, I've made lists of people to pray for, which in high school turned into 5 pages long.  Thus, I ended up having a separate list for each day of the week.  Later, trying to move out of my legalistic ways, I decided to pray "as the Spirit led."  Well, this quickly turned into praying very rarely--evidently, I was not tuned into when the Spirit was leading.  Other times, I made shower times my prayer times, or bed time, or when I first woke up. 

Always in search of what prayer should look like and be, I am always eager to hear other people's opinions or to learn something new.

Today, then, when it was time for Day 4, Week 3: "The Obstacle [to living a victorious life in Christ] of Failure to Pray" in Beth Moore's Breaking Free study, I knew that it could be a big deal.

In her commentary she pointed to a familiar scripture: Philippians 4:4-7. 

"Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 

I thought to myself, that's it!  An answer I've been looking for for nearly 15 years--right in front of my face!  What joy!

Why pray?  One solid reason: so we know God's peace.

For some reason, I find this answer more sustaining, more satisfactory, than anything I've heard or learned before.

And I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how God knows these little things about me--my doubts, my fears, my confusion--and how he surreptitiously meets these needs through Bible studies or church services or an encouraging word from another.

Which leaves me feeling thankful.  And humbled.  And excited.

School Life in Full Swing

What a busy week!  One teacher quit this week to attend the university, and another of the English teachers was sick for four days.  Since our only "substitute" is also the school secretary, we all had to pull a little extra weight this week.  Hence, I'm tired.  :)

Notable notes and quotes:

• One little 2nd grader cried in the bathroom yesterday.  I asked her what was wrong, and she said she missed her grandparents.  "Where are they?" I asked.  "With God," she sobbed.  "I just want to be with them!"  How heartbreaking!
• A 5th grader had written a note to me in her notebook, which I noticed while walking around checking homework.  My high school experience put me instantly on alert as I read: "Miss Elizabeth, I have something very important to tell you.  I know I have told you before I have something important to tell you.  But I just want to say--" the big reveal? [big intake of breath] "I love you, Miss Elizabeth!"  Whew!
• Tattling, tattling.  "Angel's chewing gum!" "Dara is eating!" "Mimi's talking!" I've got to figure out a way to prevent this.  It's amazing how interested everyone is in everyone else's business.
• I broke a little 2nd graders' pencil sharpener.  Oops.  Don't worry, I replaced it.
• I told my 6th graders that I would be running late since I had to stay with the 2nd graders.  Would they please start their handwriting when they returned from devotions?  One of the boys responded, "Don't worry, my life [an expression of affection]."  Cheeky already.
• A 5th grader was extremely surprised that after biting off the end of a red pen, he had red ink running down his tongue and on his lips.  Of course it looked like blood.  As he ran to the bathroom, I couldn't help but laugh at the memory of his expression.  Mimi chided me, "Don't laugh, Miss Elizabeth."  Me?  "Sometimes," I said, "you just have to laugh when somebody does something stupid."
• "Miss Elizabeth, he writes so slow," the girls complained of our new 5th grade student.  "Well, how fast did you write when you first started learning English?" I queried.  Props, though, to the group--they abided by the philosophy "Leave no man behind" in spite of suffering from impatience.
• Still getting used to doing the little things for the little people: putting their hair in ponytails, putting earrings back in, tying shoes, opening food containers.
• Several of the 5th grade girls make it their mission to spy on me while I'm heating their lunches up in the microwave.  Not sure what the attraction is, but they have a blast sneaking around, hiding in the bathroom and ducking below the windows when I look their way.

Glad to have some time for rest and friends this weekend. :)