It's Hard to be Humble

Being Broken

  Over the years I have become quite an independent person, seeking to serve and help others but not often seeking others for help. These past two weeks I have observed the blessings that come from letting others help you. Two weeks ago one of our team members (a spunky older lady who serves in our library) fell and broke her ankle in two places. Since she lives on her own we encouraged her to stay with one of our school families who were offering to help her. It took some convincing to get her to go, since like myself she is fiercely independent and would rather help than be helped. However, upon spending time with the family she thanked me for the encouragement to go and that it has been a blessing to her and to them.

  This week I was faced with the same humbling experience of not being able to do things for myself when I over zealously helped moved furniture and strained my back. Very thankful for American Thanksgiving and the days off of school so that I can allow the muscles to relax and heal. Though the condition leaves me to be flat on my back at the mercy of my flatmates to help me. It is frustrating to be stuck and not able to do the simplest of tasks, yet I have been blessed by the care and generosity of my friends who do not consider it beneath them to put on my socks and tie my shoes.

As I find myself crawling on my hands and knees to get anywhere I think of the lame and the crippled that Jesus met. The desire to be healed and to walk. To not be a burden and have to be carried, fed and clothed by others. Though in my frustration of not being able to do things for myself I have come to consider the lessons to be learned. In my state of brokenness who should I depend on? So often I strive to depend on myself, to get myself through each tough spot and only in last resort do I cry out for God to rescue me. I am learning to not put God as my last resort but my first. To not be so proud as to deny help from others, willing to be served, to be cared for, to know that I am not alone, nor do I need to do this on my own.

November Fun

Reading Adventure Day

November 25th we had a celebration for reading! Students dressed up as favourite book characters and participated in a wide range of reading activities including a reader's cafe and a reader's theatre. Staff and students had a great time dressing up and sharing favourite stories together.

I dressed up as the paper bag princess. She is a Robert Munsch character whose castle is burned up by a dragon that carries off Prince Ronald. All that is left of her charred kingdom is a paper bag ... so she dons the paper bag and sets off to rescue her prince.

   

 

 

Harold and the purple crayon 

Madeline, Harold's Purple Crayon, Princess Elizabeth

 

Mrs. Marple

Chicka Chicka Boom

Pipi Longstocking

Viola Swmap! Miss Nelson is Missing

Andrew Marcus - Freckle Juice

Amelia Bedelia

It was a really fun day! A great time to celebrate authors and how God has given us the gift of being imaginative and creative, able to share our stories.

In the Classroom

The Teaching Life

Many ask to describe what it is like to be a teacher overseas, especially when they hear that 75% of my class are learning English for the first time. Normally teaching primary kids requires a special level of ingenuity and patience, perhaps even a little more so when 90% of the time you get the "deer caught in headlights" expression whenever you ask a student a question.

There are many miscommunications that happen like one student complaining that another keeps telling him that he is stupid only to discover the child was actually telling him "stop it!" ... stupid ... stop it I can see the confusion. However it never ceases to amaze me how quickly they learn and make connections.

Cute Things the Kids Say

My days are full of these and if only I could remember them all! I've started to write them down when they happen so as to not forget.

Miss R: God can understand us no matter what language we speak. Whether we speak English, Korean, Dutch or Portuguese God understands.
Student Blurts out: "He even understands Canadianese!"    

While learning about careers and jobs people do, I ask one of our student's, whose mom works at our school: "What is your mom's job?"
Student: "She does the laundry and makes us dinner."

Talking about how we will learn our memory verses in no time I get this response:
Student: "Miss Robinson that is impossible."
  Miss R.:  "Oh I think we will be able to do it."
Student: "No Miss Robinson! It takes time to do anything! We can't do anything without time!"
They got me there!

Indeed teaching the little ones takes a load of patience, and creativity, finding dozens of ways to teach the same thing over and over. Playing pictionary, charades and using google translate and google images to get the ideas across. Yet those moments when you hear them singing Jesus loves me when washing their hands in the bathroom just makes me smile with a sense of success knowing we will get there!