Falling Fast

 Quarter One is Done

Time zooms by and my grade ones zoom with it. I have an amazing bunch this year that keeps the laughs going. All of my students are at least bilingual if not tri or quadrilingual which makes for fun observations and discoveries about how things are said or what they mean. Two thirds of my class are from India and I am getting used to being called Mam. My favourite is Miss Robinsonmam.  

We celebrated two major activities as an elementary this quarter. In early October we had planned a day in the woods with the entire elementary. This day was supposed to be a fun exploration of the forest, doing scavenger hunts and team building activities. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. We had a series of weeks with heavy rains which caused major flooding in parts of the country and made a day in the woods not possible. So what do you do when it is pouring outside? You have pyjama day instead! We had indoor adventure day and did a bunch of team building activities indoors.

Our second major event was at the end of the quarter and was Reading Day! Leading up to reading day we had spirit days where we dressed up in fun hats, dressed as a twin. Wore our CISP gear and favourite sports team gear. 

We ended the week with dress as your favourite book character for Reading Day . This year I did Olivia by Ian Falconer. She is a pig who likes to wear red dresses and black and white stripes. This is one of my favourite days of the year. The entire school participated in games and activities to help build community amongst our secondary and elementary students. 

This year our school theme is This is my Village and I serve them. Finding ways we can serve one another in our school community.

Updates from Grade Three

One our biggest challenges this quarter is still being with out our 3rd grade teacher. I've had an amazing sub team that has been holding the pieces together. Please pray for Miss Lambert who has currently raised 82% of her needed support. If you would like to help get her here by making a donation click here.

Outside the classroom

In October we celebrated Thanksgiving. We had 23 people squish around the table and enjoyed wonderful fellowship and food.

After Thanksgiving we went out on the town to explore the Signal Light festival where different artists display artwork that uses light displays.

Who is Jesus?

So far this year my favourite thing has been watching the love for Jesus grow in my students. This year most of my students had very little exposure to the Bible. Some not even knowing who Jesus is. It has been neat to watch the ones who know who Jesus is share their knowledge with the others and the enthusiasm in learning who is this Jesus and that there is a God who loves them no matter what.

Falling out of Summer

 Back to School

Getting ready for school involves a lot of things: training new staff, cleaning classrooms, moving furniture, laminating, labelling and praying. Lots of praying! This year we had some very big holes to fill as a number of teachers are gone; some are on sabbatical, and some relocated. So it goes living in an international community. 

The Lord answered our prayers for a grade 3 teacher; as He moved in the heart of one of our student teachers from last year and she decided to answer the call to become a missionary at the end of July. However this means she is still in the States raising support. We are doing our best to hold down the fort and are praying for the Lord's provision to come quickly.

We were blessed to have another one of our other student teachers also returning to be on staff with us. My student teacher Miss Rose will be joining us from Germany in January. She also has to go through training and support raising with her mission in Germany in the Fall and plans to join me as one of my flatmates in January. She was able to join us for in-service staff training in August and helped get the grade 3 classroom ready and underway, before she had to go back to Germany for training. 

Miss Rose enjoying my brand new carpet!

Grade One - Welcome to Our Neck of the Woods

I have 9 happy lil' campers this year and 1/3 of my class is from India. If you have heard my story about how I ended up becoming a missionary in CZ it started with a interest to go to India. Back in 2011 I began looking at a school in India, but the doors closed on that opportunity and swung wide open to go to Prague. Now it is in Prague that God has brought India to our school. Over 1/3 of our school has India as a passport country. Many of these students do not know who Jesus is and it is an amazing privilege to share the gospel story with them for the first time. All of my students speak at least 2-3 languages and represent 5 different countries. They are an amazing group of children and I look forward to this year of learning discoveries with them.

Currently in charge of a split class Grade 1/3

Right now our prayers are with our grade 3 teacher Kylie Lambert as she raises support. In the meantime I have had my hands full at the beginning of our year making lesson plans and organising subs for grade 3 as well as teaching grade 1. Kylie cannot get here soon enough! Please pray with us for her provision of funds and that she can get here quickly.

What God has been teaching me

Trust and Obey. In July when we still didn't have a grade 3 teacher, some people asked me what the plan B was if we didn't get one. I have learned over the years that there is no plan B. There is plan A... God's plan A. I don't always know what his plan is or how or when he is going to make it happen but I have learned that we serve a faithful God who is always teaching and guiding us in the way we should go if we Trust and Obey. So when I was asked in mid-July do we have a teacher I answered Nope. Do we have any prospects? Nope! Are you worried? Nope! We serve a God who is strong and mighty and wants the best for His children. He has many lessons to teach us. Things do not always go the way we have planned but nothing is amiss by him. He is faithful and we give him the Praise and the Glory.

Summer adventures in 2024

Moving Onward

In the summer I did a lot of moving. I helped house sit plants and pets throughout the summer and had the keys to 7 different homes. I moved into my new home on August 6th after I returned from a wonderful trip to Northern Italy. 

This summer was a time of relaxing and gearing up for the new school year. I did my annual cleaning of the supply closet. Helped new teammates get acclimated to life in Prague and did a little exploring in the Czech Republic. For my birthday a small group went to the town of Ostrá to a medieval village to participate in some fun activities including candle making, wood carving and archery. 

Summer Adventures

During the first week of August I was in between homes so I planned a trip to Northern Italy.  My travel buddy found super cheap tickets to Bergamo so we flew to Bergamo and took the train/bus to Gardone Riviera on Lake Garda. The lake was surrounded by hills and reminded me of home. We booked an inclusive package that included meals and a reserved lounge chair spot by the beach.  It was a lovely vacation just before having to gear up to get ready for school. 

 

  

 

  

Where do you live now?

After my trip I got to move in to my new home.
I am currently subletting two rooms from a family that works at our school. They have a very large flat, that we have nicknamed the Parker Palace. The two rooms I occupy are almost the same size as my old flat (just a slight bit smaller than my entire old apartment!). The Parkers have 4 children and started serving at CISP a couple years before me. They will be going back to the States for 6 months at the end of December and I will be taking care of their flat with 3 other girls until they return. It is a little funny and somewhat déjà vu as I am living in the same building I lived in when I lived with a family back in 2015, just one floor up. Since I will have to go back to Canada for 6 months in 2025 for tax related relocation, it just made sense to not find a new apartment this year. 

What is Tax Related Relocation TRR and Why do you have to do it?

To comply with tax laws and maintain my Canadian residency I need to reside in Canada for a minimum of 6 months every 5 years. Some may think, didn't you just do that? Indeed it doesn't seem that long ago but my last 6 month stint in Canada was during 2020 and since Covid sucked 3 years of our lives away it doesn't seem like it was that long ago.

Back to School

School started August 28th but so much happens in those few weeks before school starts, especially at an International, missionary staffed school. Check out my next post to see all that goes into getting ready for school to begin.