A Lesson in Humility; A Lesson in Perseverance

Two little stories for you this week…

I received a new student on Tuesday. He took the assessment for students applying to Gr 2 and did a fair job. While I was a little reluctant, reflecting that it is hard for teacher, new student, and students alike to have such a big change in the middle of the year, Pastor Johnston and Mrs. James encouraged me to take him on. I began frustrated because I had no desk for him, having lent my extra out to another teacher, I had not had opportunity to meet the child myself, nor his parents, and if I’m going to begin something, I like to begin it on Monday, not the middle of the week. The boy comes just moments before school starts on Tuesday, all smiles and blushes, a little bit of a lisp, and uncertainty in his eyes. Come to realize (what I should have considered right from the start) that the assessment he took is for children just entering Gr 2 at the beginning of the year, not jumping into a brand new curriculum in the middle of the 2^nd term. This poor boy is far behind on things, and a large factor is that the curriculum is foreign, quite different from what his previous school was using.

I will admit: I despaired. How on earth am I to help a child to catch up on nearly a year’s worth of content, still have him active and participating in class (which he has little to no background for), and keep the rest of the class plugging away?! Enter grace and mercy of God. Other teachers will help me with my recess duties while I stay in for morning breaks to tutor him on math. Our IT teacher will take him some mornings to work with him. I will spend an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons after school, practicing reading and language skills, and Gr 1 teacher, Ms. Abraham, will work with him Monday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons on phonics and the like. My selfish nature (shamefully) resents all the extra time this will take, and yet, with God’s help, I will reach this little boy as best I can.

Now, you may remember that we have not had the privilege of hot water while we have been here on the island. When we have visited the Johnston family, they kindly let us partake of theirs. Julie and I were determined to find a way to make the water for showers bearable without going broke on water heaters, gas, or electricity. There is a device that plugs into an outlet, pushes water through the pipe and over hot coils, heating the water as it makes its way through the shower head. We found such a device at a hardware store near our house and ask a member-friend to install it for us. Julie took the first shower and proclaimed the water “bearable” – nice because previously you would have been gasping for breath while you bathe. Pretty excited, I took my shower the following afternoon. Didn’t realize the switch needed to be flipped for the outlet to work. Ok, next morning Julie takes her shower. The circuit shuts off mid-rinse; the power goes out in both bathrooms, my bedroom and the dining room. After some advice from Cindy, we find the circuit panel and flip the breaker. Next morning, I take my shower and the electricity cuts again. This time I know where to go, and after the chilly finale to my shower, I flip the breaker again. Seems that the device needs more power than the spliced wire running to the bathroom outlet can provide. We are waiting for our friend Patrick to come back and run a new wire from the circuit panel to  the outlet directly so we can have a more powerful and reliable current for the outlet. Until then, we have the choice between our old nemesis (cold showers) or taking turns flipping the power back on. We’ll let you know what we decide.

Teacher call to humility and motivation for the week: “Instead of trying to get that child out of your hair as fast as you can, help them!

A Prayer Request

Dear Readers,

This is a call to prayer; please flood the throne of God with petitions for my student, Tyara. She is 7 years old and has a lump (most likely cancerous) in her back. She left Antigua before Christmas and traveled to St. Vincent where a team of U.S. doctors visit several months a year to "volunteer" their services. The hope was that these doctors could perform a surgery on Tyara and that she could heal quickly and come back to us. I received a partial communication from her mother today, saying that they could not do the surgery in St. Vincent and the back-up plan, doing the surgery in Virginia, also will not work. They need to find a specialist because the surgery will be very complex. Please, please lift up Tyara, her family, and friends. Everything is very uncertain. The only certainty is our hope of heaven, complements of our Savior. May His will be done.

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

James 5:13-16

A New Year

May God bless you and yours as we enter into his service this new year!

I was blessed to enjoy 2 weeks in the States, home for Christmas. The first week everyone was home; Brandon from WLC, Ben from culinary school, and Luke of course as he is in his senior year at CLHS. It was good to have everyone together as we are already so spread out. Christmas night my boyfriend Julius came, so it was good to spend time with him and my family at the same time.

I flew back to Antigua, leaving the San Diego airport on Saturday, Dec 31. I rang in the New Year with snores as I slept on the plane between LA and Miami. Caught a few extra Z's on the floor of the Miami airport, then landed in a slightly soggy Antigua. Met my dad who flew down on a different airline and were picked up by 5th grade teacher, Miss Christmas. Spent the afternoon showing Dad my house, my classroom, and my neighborhood.

Monday we celebrated the Public Holiday by going to the beach and watching the Rose Bowl at the Johnstons'. I'm a little bummed that the Badgers lost, but they certainly had a good run.

Tuesday Dad came into my classroom to see the desk full of the children in my care, to get an idea of how things really are at St. John's Lutheran. I put him to work right away, checking over work the children had from over break and working one-on-one to correct items they had wrong. He had some pointers and some encouragements for me, an invaluable gift from a father to a daughter. He also enjoyed exploring parts of the island, was introduced to shawarma, attended choir Wednesday night, and nearly took my house keys home to California with him. But I have my keys, he is home safely, and my only regret is having to say goodbye to my family twice in a week. One of my students reassured me as my eyes filled with tears on Friday, "It is sad when your dad leaves." Good. I wasn't sure, but now I know. =)

Everything is getting off to a splendid start. Julie and I spend a couple of hours this afternoon outlining a schedule and ideas for the play Gr 1-3 will put on this Feb. It is appropriately titled, "Why Do Mosquitos Buzz?" One of the songs is called, "Nobody Likes a Mosquito," and I think everyone will get a kick out of it. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Again, God's blessings as you begin 2012 in Him!

It's Christmas!

250+ kids, who knows how many
parents - one packed church

This week at school was nuts! We practiced our Christmas program every morning, supposedly starting at 8:30. (Well, we're in Antigua, so though my class was usually in place by 8:40, we never got started before 5 to 9.) Today we had a full, full church. The program started at 11:10 (not bad at all, really) and ended at 1:05. Yikes. Various mishaps and new things we never rehearsed happened, but the gospel was proclaimed, so, "Thanks be to God!"


This week Thursday was supposed to be our Christmas Olympics. The students preschool through Gr 6 divide into 5 houses - Hawksbill (Green), Frigate (Red), Ocean (Blue), Sun (Yellow), Racer (White) - and compete in races, contests, etc. Each house has approximately 50 kids and is headed by 2 or 3 teachers. Unfortunately for everyone this year, there has been so much rain that the outdoor events were cancelled. Instead, we had an extra practice for our program and then went back to our own classrooms. Miss Rosenbaum found some Minute-to-Win-it games on the internet and held a mini-olympics of her own. She then made the mistake of giving a treat (a small lollipop) to the winners. Poor suffering children who didn't win began to cry. I felt bad for a moment, then thought, "Well, here is a lesson we both can learn. They need to know that they can't win everything in life, and the world will not end if they do not receive a treat. I need to be prepared for my rewards to blow up in my face and realize that crying kids come with the territory.

Grade 2 girls, enjoying the party

Friday was our Christmas party. Here, Christmas party food is not just cookies and juice. It can include pizza, sausage rolls, patties (meat pastries), sandwiches, meatballs, chips, cookies, cake, ice cream, juice, candy... need I go on? We spent most of the 3 hour party opening presents and eating. If I had not had one of my class moms in, helping me the whole day, I would not have made it. I could have been much more organized, but another lesson learned for next year.


Friday night was our faculty Christmas party. Traditionally, the party has been hosted at someone's house with teachers each bringing something to pass. This year it was decided that we go someplace nice and eat out. This nice place was the Sandals Resort (insert appropriate ohs and ahs). We have a connection through our music minister who is a tour guide and also used to work at Sandals. We got a deal and were going to eat at the buffet. As the Lord would have it, Friday night was the only night this month they did not serve the buffet! So we were permitted to order any appetizers and 2 entrees from the restaurant menu. Then we ambled over to another part of the resort where there was a chocolate bar. To end the night, we were shown up to a conference room set aside for our gift exchange. Both Julie and I had requested and received local art to hang in our house. Now our white walls have some color!

St. John's Lutheran faculty and staff (minus a few)

I couldn't ask for anyone else to share my time here!

May God bless you and yours as we celebrate the coming of our Savior! Me? I'll be home for Christmas. You can plan on me.   =)

A Birthday Post

Yes, it was my birthday this past weekend. We began the celebrations a little early as Friday was a day off from school to celebrate National Heroes' Day (or V.C. Bird Day). We went to the beach, got grocery shopping done, went out to eat with the Johnston family. My one request was to make Christmas cookies, so Saturday morning, Julie, Cindy, Aida, Sienna, and I began a baking marathon. We did 3 batches of cut-outs, 2 batches of sugar cookies, and 1 batch of gingerbread cookies. Good thing Cindy always gives away plates of cookies as gifts, because there were a ton!

This morning, we participated in a 5K fun run, sponsored by Subway. The cookie baking crew plus baby Grady walked from the Subway in town, to the Subway north of town, then back again. At the finish line, they had Gatorades, cookies, and subs awaiting all participants! Lovely. Didn't get rained on like last week, so that was nice. Only unfortunate thing was that the 9am start time didn't happen til 9:30, and walking with a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 4 month old isn't very fast. We were a little late for church, but we did hear a sermon reminding us to always be ready for Christ's second coming, because God's time isn't our time.

This week at school we have been spending 1 1/2 hours every day running through our Christmas program. It will be a long program as we have not yet added the Kings Kids (our junior choir), Kids Pan (steel pan group), Dance (children of all ages, dancing to a song by Charlotte Church), the 2 congregational hymns, or the sermonette by Pastor Johnston. The program is taking the place of the 11am service. Mom told me I should eat a really good breakfast so that I'm not wasting away with hunger by the time I get home.

One of my biggest struggles is staying content with where God has placed me. It's not that I can't find things to be joyful in, wherever I am; it's just that I tend to think, "If only I had this," or "If only things were this way," or "If only I could go here, do this, etc." I get so caught up in the things I want that I forget all the amazing blessings around me. For example, I have been eagerly awaiting the 19th, the day I fly home to visit my family for Christmas. My anticipation is not going to make the day come any faster, and, quite frankly, it clouds my enjoyment of the present. These last few weeks have been so full of wonderful experiences, opportunities to grow and learn, chances to get to know others better. I'm not sure if I have made the best of these opportunities before me with my eyes on things ahead instead of things at hand. I know the Lord will continue to bless me wherever I am, and for that, I am most humbled. I pray that God will help me overcome my discontent, for my name is written in the Book of Life; past that, all things can only add to my joy.

10K in the Rain

Apparently, there is always a week in either December or January when the weather is cloudy, windy, and rainy. I would venture a guess (and a hope) that this is the week because since Friday night, we have had nothing but clouds and wetness, interspersed with clouds and humidity and clouds and torrential downpour. Saturday morning we went to town to pay bills and do some Christmas gift exchange shopping, and we got rained on throughout the morning. We were blessed enough to get a ride into town from a neighbor and a ride back from a church member.

Cindy Johnston had suggested that we train for a race. When she had originally mentioned it, she had said something about training for a 1/2 marathon in Barbados. That didn't happen for financial reasons (and laziness, too). Then we said we would start training so we would be ready any time a race popped up.(Lofty goals, never really followed through on the training part of the plan.) Sandals Resort had such a race, an opportunity to run 5K, 10K, or a 1/2 marathon (actually 15 miles, but who's counting?). The race was scheduled to start at 6a.m. at the Sandals Resort and end at several different points around the island. We decided we would sign up to run the 10K with the intent of running the first 5, run/walk the send half.

Julie, Cindy, and me, 5:30 a.m., ready for our race!

We woke up to rain and doubts that the race would be held. The start time was pushed back to 6:30. The three of us were joined by Cindy's friend (Sylvina) from her kids' swim class. At the onset of the race, Julie and I paired up and set a decent pace. About 3K in, Julie paused for a break and I continued running. I made it the first 5K without stopping. I wanted to get my time and wait around for everyone else to catch up, but the timers wouldn't give me my time as I was signed up for the 10K! I couldn't see any of the others, so I decided to start running again. I stopped 2 other times to walk a block or two, but ran the majority of the 2nd 5K. My time? 66:29. Not bad for someone only intending to run 5K without any serious training.

There were a few times during the race when I felt as if I might drown in the torrential downpours or in the rivers coursing through the roadways. I was thoroughly soaked by the end, and my clothes and shoes will probably take a few days to dry out. It was enjoyable, though. Julie finished in 72 minutes, and Cindy and Sylvina finished in 76. Both good times as they all had decided to walk. Perhaps we will do it again sometime...

Not Your Typical Thanksgiving

Yes, I had school on Thanksgiving, Black Friday as well. How did Julie and I celebrate one of America's most esteemed holidays? Let me tell you...

Feeding the sheep at
 Wadadli Nature Park

Because we were lamenting the fact that our classmates would be having days off and many would be traveling to spend the holiday with their families, Julie had the great idea to schedule a field trip for our classes. This way, we could get out of some class and still do some learning. She did all the leg work, I wrote a note to send home to parents, and Thursday morning, we headed out to the Wadadli Nature Park in 2 buses chartered from the National School Bus Service. 56 students, 2 teachers, and 4 parent chaperons walked through Antigua's version of a zoo (more like a petting zoo than the famous establishments in Omaha or San Diego).

Who wants a cute and cuddly tortoise?

We saw goats, sheep, tortoises, snapping turtles, a cow, a donkey, a horse, monkeys, parrots, parakeets, love birds, peacocks, chickens, geese, ducks, guinea pigs, rabbits, pigs, and fish. The kids were able to feed the goats and sheep, hold a tortoise, pet the horse, geese, and rabbits, and get up close a personal with the pigs and snapping turtle. Not sure how much they learned about the animals, but Miss Rosenbaum certainly learned a lot about managing a field trip, that's for sure!

Our "home-away-from-home"
 Thanksgiving dinner

Friday night, we were invited to the Johnstons' to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, the Sternhagens, Pastor Richards, and his fiancee. We split the food prep; Julie and I were in charge of bringing a salad, cranberries, and a bottle of wine. We also brought a bottle of sparkling grape juice (one from Celebrating Teachers) so the kids could have something special to drink. Everything was fantastically delicious! The most pleasant surprise of the evening was the rhubarb pie baked by Kristin Sternhagen. Rhubarb is my favorite! And to have it so far from Grandma Rosenbaum in Saginaw... what a special treat!

Just another day in paradise, compliments of the Heavenly Father. God is good! All the time!