Gone to a better place...

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Late Sunday evening I received news from home saying that my Aunt Lynne passed away. We weren't super close, but my immediate reaction was to leave for home as soon as possible. All I could think about was being with my family. I was very close to hopping on a plane and heading back to the States. However, after praying, talking, and thinking some more... I felt more at peace about staying than going.

I'm very thankful that I can rest in the fact that she trusted Christ as her personal Savior and that I will one day see her again in heaven. My Aunt had a great deal of health problems for a long time, and for her sake I am thankful that she is no longer in pain. I'm confident that the Lord's timing is perfect and he has it all worked out for His glory!

The Memorial service will be held today in Lincoln. My parents and sister were able to travel out for the service. I would definitely appreciate your prayers for them at this time. Please pray also for my Grandparents. They will have much to do over the next couple of months... please pray for their physical as well as emotional strength. Thank you!

How we got a chicken...

Off and on over the last couple of weeks, we as a Science class have been wanting to disect something. The purpose being, our topic of study has been cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals, their characteristics, and the way their organs work. Originally the idea was to get a frog. How hard can that be? The secretary here at the school, Kathy, did some checking for us and found out the it is illegal to disect frogs here... hmmm... not sure why that is.

A couple of the girls were not sad at all about not being able to be apart of a disection, but the majority were disappointed. However, after asking around some more, Kathy found out that we could disect a rabbit if we wanted. Unfortunately no one wanted to kill and skin a rabbit for us. Ugh! Back to square one.

Thankfully Kathy kept pursuing ideas for us and found a place where we could get a chicken. The chicken arrived here at the school this morning, and 20 minutes before Science class began Jose Louis (a guard) killed and plucked it. So, the disection commenced right on time. Many of the girls were enthusiastic and others tolerated it while making gagging noises in the background. All in all it was very informative to be able to see the different organs, and I'm sure the girls won't soon forget it. That's well worth smelling like a chicken for the rest of the day.

P.S. For some of you who may be less inclined to seeing the insides of a chicken, I decided against posting pictures... :)

Highlights of the last week or so...

~ Hiking with Troy and Jodie
~ Going to the B-day party of one of my students
~ Listening to and understanding a big portion of the Sunday service... Super Excited!
~ Garage sale here at the school
~ Hanging with the Kunnari's
~ Eating chicken and massive piles of potato salad at a church dinner
~ Getting ready for classes
~ Being encouraged through God's Word
~ Having to give demerits for unfinished assignments
~ Learning new Spanish words
~ Going to the feria
~ Making dinner with the other singles here
~ Long phone conversations
~ Correcting homework
~ Going for a morning run
~ Taking cold showers
~ Playing Dutch Blitz
~ Teaching new Algebra concepts

All of these things and more have taken place over the last week... many of them could be elaborated on, but I failed to post on the days they happened.
Over all, I am encouraged to watch the Lord work and blessed to be here! Thank you for your prayers!