February 5,2011

Well thank the Lord I am feeling well again. Having 2 bouts of food poisoning in a week and a half was not fun!! This past week the Lord was really convicting me about being like Martha in the bible. Martha was busy, busy doing this and that but not doing what was more important, sitting at the feet of Jesus, like Mary. Again, I am praying that the Lord would direct my steps to the areas he would specifically call me to serve and intervene. We had a church planning meeting this past weekend and I will be on the planning and leadership team for children’s church, mercy ministries and college campus outreach. I know, already you may be saying, “have you forgotten what you said in the few sentences before?” But I have prayed about being involved in these areas and being a small church still, there is more each of us must do.

School is going so well and my heart is being knit even more to my pupils. I have 2 new kids that started this week, so my grand total is 28. One of them was out for 4 weeks with the measles, the other transferred from another school. By the grace of God, most of the students are able to grasp and understand the lessons and there continues to be a big improvement in class participation and hmm.. lets say classroom etiquette. The school provides a meal 3 days a week, a soy based porridge that is high in protein and other nutrients. I was noticing that on the other 2 days the vast majority of the kids did not have a lunch come mealtime. This was causing sleepless nights for me and I certainly was not going to come with a lunch and eat it in front of them when they had nothing. Ever part of my being turned in repulsion to such an idea. So, now on Monday and Thursday nights I cook for my class for the following days. I have seen a big improvement in behavior after doing this for 2 weeks. A hungry belly is a distraction for sure!

I started another “tradition” with my kids as well. At the end of the day I call them one by one to come and stack their chairs at the front of the room and as they leave I give them a big hug. I don’t think I ever would have thought that such a small gesture would make such a huge difference. There are about 10 kids that I either never saw smile or rarely saw smile. Now as they wait in anticipation for their hug they sit unable to hide a smile on their face, even giddy with excitement. What joy this brings to my heart and even tears to my eyes. May they feel the love of their heavenly Father through me.