Applesauce!

Phew! My facebook status this morning listed a great many things that I hoped to accomplish today... one of them in particular took a quite a bit more time than I anticipated, but was enjoyable. Just before lunch today Nathan and I set about to make applesauce. We cooked the apples and Nathan graciously "squished them" (for lack of a better description). After which... I added the necessary ingredients and plopped in jars. The last of the jars are about to be processed. Just wish I would have taken pics...

Changes in life

Wow... I realized just now that it's been May since my last post! I can't believe it! So much has gone on in that time. I finished up the semester at SCA and left with many mixed emotions. Leaving many friends behind I set off for home on July 5. What a joy to be reunited with my family though!

Since my arrival back in the States I feel as if I've constantly been on the go. Home for a couple days to a week and then gone again. The Lord has given opportunity to visit many friends and family as well as share in a couple of churches that supported me during my time in Chile.

My family and I will be moving at the end of this month to Wayne, Nebraska. The main purpose for this is to be closer to my Grandparents. So we are in the midst of packing and sorting and wondering why we have so much stuff! Though I haven't been around a lot during my family's stay here in Sheridan, I have come to love it and will miss being here. I am however excited to be closer to my Grandparents again.

Many have asked me what I am doing now, or what my plans are... I can say without a shadow of a doubt... I don't know :) Beyond today, I don't know what the Lord has. I continue to pray that the Lord would give direction. He has just impressed upon my heart the need to be faithful to what I know to do now. (Hopefully I'm back to updating regularly and can answer this question sometime again in the near future :)

Fall turning to Winter...

The weather over the last couple weeks has progressively gotten colder. I wake up every morning and peak out my window to see what the day may hold. Oh the joy to see the sunshine rising over the Mountains... even if it is surrounded by smog! :) We have had a couple of cold days here and there, but nothing to horrible. Everyone has informed me that the winter is supposed to be especially cold this year, but so far we haven't see that yet. I wouldn't mind if it held off for another six weeks. :p

This evening I will be participating in a little "camping" outing with some of the kids from the Elementary. While getting ready for school this morning, I received a phone call asking me if I would be willing to help chaperone a group of the 5-6th graders who will be spending the night here on campus. Apparently they are doing some sort of wilderness experience and are going to build a campfire and all. So this evening when they are all ready to crawl into their little sleeping bags I will join the girls in their tent. Hopefully the night isn't super cold, but I will be fully decked out in warm clothing, lots of blankets, and a hot water bottle!

Germ-X!!!

It's official... the swine flu is in Chile... Ahhhh!! Just when I thought the craze was dying out... The school administrator came around to each of the classrooms today with specific instructions that everyone is to wash their hands and use germ-x every day before they eat lunch. I'm not really worried about it however. The Lord is still in control.

This week has turned out to be extremely short. There are only class days due to a Chilean holiday on Thursday and an extra holiday given for Friday. My goal is to be diligent in the work I need to accomplish.

The semester and school year are quickly drawing to a close and I know that it will be over before in a flash. Many of the students as well as the administration are beginning to fret over what is going to happen for teachers next semester. There is still a need for at least 2 more teachers. Will you be in prayer with me for the school? I know the Lord is in control and His timing is perfect.

Spirit Week - Clash Day

Being a little over halfway through the second semester here at SCA provides great timing for Spirit week. The weather is turning dreary and getting ready to hit the rainy season.... so a little extra "Spirit" is in order.

The different classes in the Elementary and High School have been divided into 4 teams with 2 teachers on each team as well. So every morning this week, we will gather with our teams and do a predetermined activity as a group. This first day, Clash Day, each team came up with a team name and decorated their team poster. Miss Lori, the Kindergarden teacher, and myself are the offical leaders of the "Yello Jaket Jokers" (all words are intentionally misspelled).

As you can see... the Junior High girls did very well in their clashing abilitites. It promises to be an exciting week with more great days to follow.

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!

A Day in Chimborango!

Hola! Saturday was a little out of the ordinary for me, but I absolutely loved it. Lori, one of my fellow teachers, invited me to join her on a trip to a small town outside of the city. The purpose was to go to a little craft show type of thing and also to visit a Chilean family that she's friends with.

I really enjoyed spending time with the family. I have been praying about and desiring more opportunities to be around Spanish and this was one opportunity that the Lord provided. We sat around and talked for quite a while, ate lunch with the family (about 3:30), and played some SkipBo with them before we left. They were so friendly! It was fun to try to talk with them.

Before I left, their little boy asked if there was any gift that he could give me. I just didn't know how to respond... especially in Spanish. Thankfully Lori helped me out! So they sent me away with a handful of roses from their garden.

I look forward to visiting with them again!

Friday night Fun!

It was Friday, just after the school bells ring died out... that a group of us (teachers and high school students) headed out for an adventure at Miss Kelly's house. We made the short walk to the metro... some laden with pop (or soda, depending on what area of the country you're from), some with chips, and some with cookies. The ride was short and not too crowded, but extremely warm! Traveling via metro is always much more of a "show" when you have a combination of Jr. High and High school students! Upon exiting the Metro we detoured to the little grocery store to pick up some ice and a few more goodies... then on to the Dominos where, of course, we ordered pizza!


After scarfing down some delicious pizza and watching the cookie pile dwindle to near crumbs... we all gathered around for some exciting group games. It took a little while to get the kids into them but nontheless... it was a hit. I'm grateful for the opportunities to be able to spend extra time with the kids. Hopefully there will be many more in the months ahead.

A normal Sunday in Santiago... for me anyway :)

On a normal Sunday morning, I attend a small church about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. Sunday School/Church begins about 11:00 and ends somewhere between 12:30 & 1:30 depending on the day. The church itself is small, but the people are very friendly. Though I spend most of the service trying to understand the Spanish, I do enjoy and appreciate what I do understand. Thankfully they have a powerpoint that they use fairly regularly and that helps with my comprehension of what is happening. I appreciate also being able to attend with the Kunnari's. It's been a blessing to have them near, and most Sundays I join them for dinner. Their open door and hearts have been a big encouragement over the time I've been here.

Tomorrow begins week three of classes here at the school. Praise the Lord, I feel like I'm beginning to catch up a little on some things. At this time, I'm am prepping for classes from day to day and that takes up a majority of my time. But that's ok... that's why I'm here!

La Flor!

For the past week and a half of school the 7th and 8th grade Science class has been studying the reproduction system of a flower. It has been a very interesting topic to teach, and hopefully interesting to learn.



As we went through the chapter we identified, diagrammed, and constructed the reproductive parts of the flower. Then, just yesterday the girls got to see a glimpse at it from a real flower. It was fun to watch as they took the flowers a part and viewed for themselves the different organs. One of the girls got a little more into it than the others and decided to name each of the ovules she found within the ovary of the flower. :)

Science is very quickly becoming one of my favorite classes to teach. There is so much a person can do with it and it's incredible to see our Creator through His creation!

Kickoff Retreat...

Thursday morning began the Jr/Sr High retreat. The kids arrived here at the school at the usual time, but instead of going to the usual classes... they attended a retreat. This retreat differed a little from the last, simply in that it was held here on the school grounds. All of the guys stayed across the soccer field in the facultad for the ABWE Bible Instute, and the girls split up between my apartment and the one next door.

The theme for the 2 days was "Friendship". So many of the games and activities centered around working together as a group and building up each others strengths and weeknesses. Each of us teachers were asked to give a testimony regarding how the Lord used friendships in our lives while we were growing up. It was neat to hear how the Lord works.

I'm very grateful for the time to be able to work with and get to know these teens better. We have 4 new faces in the highschool this semester... actually, they're are new to me. All 4 of them have attended here before, but were either on furlough with their families or just weren't able to be here last semester.

Over all we have a pretty good group of kids here at SCA and I am excited to see how he will work this semester. I have already been encouraged by the attitude change of some from last semester.

First Day Back...

What fun to see everyone again! The school grounds were a buz long before classes started this morning... students claiming lockers, greeting each other in the traditional manner, testing out their soccer skills on the cancha, and other general mayhem abounded.

Normally on Monday morning (as well as Tuesday-Thursday) I will be teaching Bible first hour for the Junior High girls. However, this morning began with a miniature highschool instead. Immediately following the assembly I was responsible for teaching 2 hours of Consumer Math, 2 hours of Algebra 1/2 (long story behind that one), and proctoring 2 hours of Algebra 2. This will continue to be my normal Monday and Wednesday schedule for some time. Overall the classes went well and students participated equally well.


Thank you so much for your prayers! Please continue to pray for the upcoming classes and getting settled back into a routine of planning and teaching. My heart's desire is to be an example and minister to the kids here that God has put in my life. I don't know what the semester holds, nor even for sure about tomorrow... but I know the One who does!






2 Corinthians 3:5 "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;"

Back in Chile...

I have arrived! Praise the Lord for the safety He gave! All of the flights went smoothly and there were no difficulties whatsoever. The Lord even provided a little Chilean company for part of the way. Just as the flight from Denver was getting ready to land in Dallas, I discovered that the lady seated next to me was also heading to Chile and we would be on the same flight. So we chatted for a while and waited together during the layover in Dallas.

The airport here in Santiago was pretty busy this morning, but the workers were very efficient. I had my luggage and was through customs in no time at all.

Immediately upon arriving here at the school (a little before 11) I tossed my bags in my room, put on a clean shirt, and ran to catch the end of the teachers meeting. It turns out that they really hadn't gotten very far and I hadn't missed much. The meetings ended up lasting until almost 4. It really wasn't until about 3:30 that I started to feel pretty tired from the long trip and lack of sleep.

After the meetings ended Kelly and I spent a good amount of time catching up from the break. She also went with me to the grocery store to stock up on some items that I needed.

So now, here I sit... on my bed in my apartment... with my windows open and the fan blowing. Such a contrast from when I left my house yesterday morning and it was snowing! It is nice to be able to wear flip flops again!

On my way back...

I am so thankful for a wonderful break at home with family and friends. Now I sit in the Denver airport awaiting my next flight to Dallas and on to Santiago. I am scheduled to land in Santiago at 9:40 tomorrow morning Santiago time (5:40 MST).

Teacher's meetings are scheduled for Thursday and Friday... I may have to miss out on most of Thursdays... but I'm sure I will be filled in when I arrive. The weekend will probably be busy preparing for classes and school starts bright and early Monday morning.

I will update again within the next day or two... thank you for your prayers!