Quickly passing...

Alas! The business of life has come to an end! Yeah Right! The spiral of events over the last couple of weeks is only gaining speed and will continue on it's course until the end of the semester. Which, by the way, is only a mere 3&1/2 weeks away!

Because Louis, our Spanish tutor, was unable to make it to the Kunnari's house tonight Diana gave me a mini tutoring session herself. Grasping the concepts of how things are said in Spanish continues to boggle my mind. Currently the hurdle is attempting to learn when to use the subjunctive tense of verbs. Ugh!

I have been given the opportunity to go down to southern Chile to spend Thanksgiving break with some friends from the States. They have been in Chile for over a month now with the purpose of building a house for the director of the GMSA camp down there. I very much look forward to spending time with old friends as well as helping them with the work project. Lord willing, my bus leaves tomorrow evening and arrives in Villarica (near Lican Ray) Saturday morning.

Please pray for the focus of the students (as well as the teachers :) as this school year draws to an end. I can feel myself looking forward to the break of Christmas with family, but my desire is to remain faithful to the task at hand. Also, please continue to pray for the provision of teachers for the coming semester. Thanks so much for all your prayers! You are a blessing to me!

Rambling thoughts from a weeks worth of info...

It's been over a week now since my last post and I figured it was about time for an update... sorry about that :p

As things up north begin to turn cold, Chile is about to turn full blast into summer. I love the warmth! It's very different to walk into the stores and see Christmas decor for sale after just coming in from 80 degree or higher temperatures. Such is life though...

Just this last Monday, the direct of SCA flew back to the States. He is planning on holding some meetings in different supporting churches in order to help raise support for a project at his church down here. However, he will also be presenting the need for teachers in the coming semester and school year. Praise the Lord that there is one new teacher planning on coming down for next semester. Recently I have been approached by the High School director about the possibility of teaching more classes in the High School next semester. They have asked me if I'd be willing to take on Math as well as Bible for the Junior High girls. I'm not exactly sure if the Bible would include the rest of the High School girls or not. Anyway, if this happens I would no longer be teaching the Pre-K. I would miss teaching the little guys, but the opportunity to be able to be involved with the girls more and to teach Bible absolutely thrills me! I would appreciate your prayers for me about this.

Another new change has come in the last week as well. One of the High School girls needed to drop a class and I was asked if she could come help me with the Pre-K during that 2 period block of time. She has joined us for the last two classes and I've appreciated her help. You could pray for me in this situation. She isn't one of the girls that I teach because she isn't in the Junior High... therefore I haven't really had the opportunity to "connect" with her. Please pray that I could have the opportunity to talk with her more and develop a more personal relationship than we have now. I'm excited to see what the Lord is doing here right now!

One more side note... I know many of you are disappointed, depressed... about how the elections have turned out. I was pondering this as I read my Bible this morning. While doing so, I read through the crucifixion. I was struck by the thought that the disciples were in agony over the death of Christ because they couldn't see the bigger picture of what God had planned. I look at Obama being elected into office and it doesn't make me happy at all, but I still know the One who sits on the throne is in control... and he still sees the big picture!

Midnight Mania

As I mentioned in my last post, Friday was an all nighter here at the school. All but two students in the Junior and Senior High were able to make it. As per the norm here in Chile, the scheduled starting time was 8 but we didn't really get started till about 9. That was ok... cause we had all night! We kind of kicked things off with a game of soccer, some knockout, and four square. It was fun to get everyone involved. Around Midnight we fed everyone some spaghetti then headed out to the bonfire.

We had the usually bonfire activities of singing and devotional. However, the students were also presented with a challenge to read through the whole New Testament in the month of November. Most all of the students as well as the faculty have accepted the challenge. Please pray that they would be faithful in doing this and that through their reading they will have a desire to read and search apart from this challenge. Of course, you can't have a bonfire without smores... so we indulged. However, I was surprised to find that many of the kids had never had a smore before.

We closed out our bonfire about 3 and headed inside for some more games. Some were messy and some weren't. The real down time didn't happen until about 4:30. Though it's been a while since I've stayed up all night... we were busy enough pretty much all night and I didn't have a whole lot of trouble staying awake.

The kids were each sent home with bellies full of pancakes and other junk food from the evening. I finally crawled into my own bed about 8:30, but unfortunately wasn't able to sleep much more than a couple of hours. Slowly but surely I'm recovering! It was an exciting time!

Quick Update...

Ok... so I did make it back to Chile before today, but I simply haven't taken the time to update my blog. Sad... I know! The remainder of our time in Argentina was fairly uneventful... which was great! The only thing that was very monumental was the 4 1/2 hour wait at the border on our way back. Apparently last Sunday was Mother's Day in Argentina and because there are many Chilean/Argentine marriages many were heading back across the border that night.

Today was a pretty normal day of school, but this evening will be different from the normal Friday. About 8 the Junior High and Highschoolers will be meeting back here at the school for an all nighter. A good number of activities have been planned for this evening and the general attitude among the students today was anticipation. So I'm excited to see how the evening progresses. I will post pictures sometime soon!

Halfway through...

So, we arrived here in Mendoza around 8 pm last night. For the most part the trip was uneventful. The bus we rode on was filled with about 15 other Americans who are currently studying in Santiago. So, it definitely had a different feal to it. The border crossing went so smooth and didn't take long at all. Driving through the Andes Mountains was very beautiful and I'll definitely post some pictures when I get back to my own computer.
The three of us are staying in the home of a single American missionary lady who is with Campus Crusade. She's been very gracious in putting us up in her house. After our arrival, the three of us wandered around in search of a McDonald's. I don't remember the last time I really wanted to eat at a Micky D's, but for some reason a burger and fries sounded sooo good. We were talking about it almost the whole way on the bus! :)
This morning we were able to sleep in for a while and then took our sweet time getting ready. We managed to make it out the door in time to get some coffee and french fries (what a combo) a little after 11. The really cool thing is that there is Wal-Mart here in Mendoza! It was fun to visit and compare with the States. It's similar, but different too.
The plan of attack... after siesta... is to wander around a little bit more and do the touristy thing. I'll have to fill you in on the rest when I arrive back in Santiago!

Voy al Mendosa!

My visa is about to expire! In order to get it renewed I will traveling to Mendosa, Argentina for the weekend. In fact, my bus leaves in about 2 1/2 hours. I will be traveling with one fellow teacher and another friend of hours. The plan is to come back Sunday evening sometime. Please pray for safety and for smooth crossing of the border. I will post pics and other stuff once we get back. Thanks for your prayers!

Slumber Party...

I realize that it's already Tuesday, but I wanted to fill you in on the happenings of this past weekend. All of the 7th and 8th grade girls joined me in my apartment for a sleepover on Friday night. (I'm not really sure why it's called a sleepover... cause very little sleeping is ever accomplished.) Anyway, we ate pizza and tons of junk food, watched a couple of movies, and talked. It was a lot of fun. I actually didn't make it all the way through the second movie before I fell asleep. I finally crawled into bed about 3:00 am, but I know the girls didn't sleep much at all.
The next morning, we enjoyed a group trip to the Feria (open air market). It was so much fun to go with the girls. We definitely stand out in a crowd!