Hello dearest family and friends,
Well, here I am writing to you from Slovakia again. I arrived a month ago (Wow! Time flies when you are starting school) and I hit the ground running. School started two days after I arrived and I have been getting back into the swing of things ever since. Please pray that God will give me wisdom, patience and endurance this year. I am teaching more classes and am working hard at building relationships.
This year I am teaching 4 groups of 2nd graders (who are new to me), 2 groups of 3rd graders (last year's 2nd graders), 2 groups of 4th graders (3rd graders from last year and my favorite class), and 2 groups of 6th graders (last years 5th graders and my other favorite class). I am also teaching science in English to the 4th graders once a week. As an added bonus, I am teaching two openings a week, one with 4th graders and one with 6th graders. Openings are the first 15 minutes of the day and are designed to be a way to bring religion into the classroom on a daily basis. It is a great opportunity for me to share Jesus with my students (and their teachers) in an open environment. I am currently doing lessons about bullying with my 6th graders as this has been a big problem for them.
Last week with the 4th graders, I taught about how the Bible is like a mirror using the verse in James 1:23-25. I read a paraphrased version of the verse in English and talked about how we need to hear things more than once to remember them. Then, I took out a small tray that I had with 25 different small school items (paper clip, glue stick, pen, etc). I had them look at it for 30 seconds then covered it up. I then had them write down as many things as they could remember. None of them could remember more than a few. So, we liked that to English class and how I always present the new vocabulary and grammar many times. And the related both to how important it is to read the Bible and listen to the stories many times. They seemed to understand and enjoy the lesson, which is really neat for me to see. This is my class that last year thought they could fool around in my class because I didn't speak Slovak. It is so amazing to see how far they have come. And their teacher, Magda, who speaks very little English, told me later in the day that she understood it in English. It was a wonderful moment. Please pray that I will have wisdom and creativity to know how to present Jesus in a way that my students will understand.
It is amazing to think that I have already been here a month. When I left California, it was hot and definitely summer. I arrived here to much cooler temperatures, rain and the smell of fall in the air. The heaters have turned on in our building and while it may be warm during the day, it is best to take a sweater just in case, and at night a jacket. I am not really looking forward to a long cold winter, but I now know that I can survive.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I love getting emails, phone calls and skype/yahoo/google chat messages. Please keep me in your prayers.
