Asking God Why?

All the Empty Chairs

I knew it was coming ... the day of realization that school was just around the corner. Usually at this time of year I am excited. I am writing names on deskplates and praying over each name I write. Photocopying worksheets and planning year plans. Sitting in meetings half day dreaming about what our year will look like and all the fun we will have this year. However, so far this year is a little different. We plan and we wait for enrolment each year and unlike years previous there have been less little ones to enrol. Currently we have no grade ones and only 2 in grade two and 1 in grade three! Though I seek to trust the Lord in his provision we also have been making decisions for what this means for our school year.
For me, at the moment, it means team teaching with the grade 3 teacher and filling in where there is need in the school. Ultimately it means no grade ones, which (not trying to be overly dramatic) is like a piece of my heart is missing. There is so much fun explored and experienced in grade one and is quite heartbreaking to realise that this joy may not take place for me this year.
I have found myself asking God why the empty chairs? This big beautiful room with all these empty seats. There is a little girl this summer who has been earnestly praying for new friends to come this year. A teacher pleading for there to be kids to teach. It is more than me just wanting a job to do. It has me questioning why I am here? Having no doubt that God has called me here and has given us this large new building to fill.

SO why the empty chairs?
The empty chairs are teaching me to trust. To have faith. They cause me to rely not on myself or on the way I think things should be. I teach my students that God always answers our prayers but more often than not he answers them in a way we would never expect. I relate to Gideon seeing the need for more than I have and I am learning to listen to the plan God has for the few and what he is ready to do with what I have. He has a plan and a purpose and all he asks is that we trust and follow Him.

So I will continue preparing for the school year AND I will continue to pray and trust God's plan for the empty chairs!

A Prague Summer

What Do You Do In the Summer?

I often get asked this question. There is a misconception about the teaching profession, that teachers get 2 months vacation in the summer. Though we are not teaching the children during these two months, this does not mean work is not being done, especially for an International school. For our school the office is open all summer; making it possible for new families to come check it out as well as the office staff are preparing for the upcoming student body. Many of our teachers are planning and prepping for upcoming courses and some of us are even doing school ourselves.

Mluvíte česky?


Nemluvím český dobré, ale učím se český.
(Do you speak Czech? I don't speak Czech, but I am learning Czech.)
I joined 5 other co-workers in a two week intensive Czech class. It was a great time where our brains were stretched and I was given a lot more compassion for my students who are learning English. Especially learning to do math in a foreign language! Our teacher would give us math problems orally in Czech ie:
dvacet šest mínus sedmnáct (26 - 17) Not only do you need to think of what the numbers are but you also need to figure out the answer and say it in Czech. Devět! Made me think how I required my little ones to recite math facts not even thinking that they may be translating the answers in their heads first!  It was a lot of work and I did get frustrated at times but I am persevering!
Since it is possible to survive in Prague without learning Czech it is easy to give up learning the language. Yet, there is a desire in me to be able to say more than Nemluvím český, or nerozumím český (I don't speak Czech, I don't understand Czech). Little by little my vocabulary is growing and I am at the stage of speaking 3 -5 word sentences and answer questions. Only if people are able to ask the right questions that I know how to say the answers to ;)

 What do you do for fun?

Visit with People... 
One of the joys of being in Czech Republic for the summer is the chance to spend time with other missionaries who live nearby. In June I had the opportunity to go with a friend to visit with some missionaries from her team that are in Krakow, Poland. It is a city that is one of those little gems in Europe that wouldn't necessarily be your first pick of places to travel but it should be!
 It is great to be able to encourage one another and experience another culture.

 <-- Seems that I might as well embrace the culture that  surrounds me ;)

To see more photos of my adventures click here!

Celebrate Birthdays!

July is a BIG birthday month for a lot of my friends and so we had a number of birthday parties. Including my own :)

Though it looks like a giant
hamburger it is actually a cake!

Experience Czech Culture

One of the things Czechs love to do here is visit "the nature." Getting out of the city and going to a park, a cabin in the woods or a lake in the bush. There are number of man-made lakes near Prague and I was blessed by those with a car to be invited a long to enjoy the beach life. I think it is one of the things I miss about not being in Canada is having a lake nearby.

 

 Nothing like going to a beach that is surrounded by corn and wheat fields on one side and a forest on the other!

Go Hiking...

...is also another thing that is fun to do and Czech Republic is FULL of places to go and explore "the nature"

We went to an area called Český ráj and explored some castle ruins. Český ráj means Czech Paradise. Very good name for it!

It was a lot like being back in Canada, save for the castle ruins it was very much like travelling the hiking trails at home. A great time of fellowship with friends and seeing another part of this beautiful country I live in.

 

 

 

 

Serving Others

Something so small and yet so big! I made the "sacrifice" of being responsible for house sitting for a friend and fellow co-worker, as she and her family went back to the States for the summer. One of the major perks of watching their large and wonderful apartment was caring for their beautiful English Cream Retriever, Riah.

I miss having a dog around and have been blessed to care for Riah this summer.

 

What is Coming Up?

New People are Coming!

This year our TeachBeyond team will be growing and welcoming some new members that will be teaching in some of the National Schools. Our little team of 5 will more than double to 13! We are excited to welcome new team mates that will be coming this August. I will be helping with orientation and assisting our new members with adjusting to Prague, Czech life.

School is Coming!

It has been a great summer so far and with August comes getting ready for the school year. Many have started to ask what my class looks like for this year. I have heard rumblings that I may have a class of 5 students, although the lovely admissions lady told me to come back and ask her in August! 

My prayer is for at least a class of 10 grade one and two students, so we are maybe halfway there!

Pray with us for the upcoming school year. For the new staff that are coming, the staff that will be on home assignment and the needs that we still have for more staff to come.

Finishing Well

Then There Were Two ...

It happens every school year for me, I begin gearing up in August prepping my classroom and resources and getting everything ready for the coming invasion of little, excited bodies. I watch them learn and grow and soak in an amazing amount of information in a seemingly short time. Although the dark winter months seem to drag by, Spring hits in a blink of an eye and I am left standing in an empty room in June, wondering how we got here so soon!


This year I began with 5 students - 5 nationalities speaking 5 different languages. People have often expressed to me how amazing and hard it must be to teach such a diverse group of children. Though it can be difficult, I find it so inspiring to see these kids relate to one another; to go from survival mode of communicating through hand gestures, squeaks and even animal noises, to full English conversations in a matter of months even weeks. It astounds me every time.

I think the hardest part of this job is the nature of the beast that is international school life - people leave. Due to the transient life of the expatriate community we will have many students come and go throughout the year. We had many goodbyes this year and our class of 5 ended the year as a class of 2. It was hard for us and we prayed many prayers for new friends to come. We continue to pray for more students for the Fall and I look forward to seeing who will be joining us next year.

Now for a quick look at what we have been up to for the past two months.


Classroom Fun

There are many new things to explore in grade one and one of my favourites to do is to introduce new things to my students that they may have never seen before. The wonder of discovery just warms the heart of any teacher and hearing exclamations of "WOW! How did you do that?"  I think what is even better is when you teach these concepts to adults who never had the pleasure of experiencing them during their childhood. One such experience happened when I invited a fellow co-worker, our high school History teacher, to come play with us during our science experiments in discovering liquids, solids and what happens when you mix them together. Oh the joys of something so simple as cornstarch and water :)

 

My favourite moment was when one of my students was surprised that Mr. Bowan had never done such an experiment before and exclaimed "Didn't you go to first grade?"

Just to get an idea of the fun that comes from teaching grade one see the video above as MinJu desperately strives to make a snowman.


Field Fun Day ... With No Field

This year our all school field day got rained out so we improvised and had Gym Fun Day. It was neat to see our older kids interact with the little ones and the fun that was shared by all.

 

Spring Concert

Our kids recited Psalm 23 and sang Man of Sorrows. They did a great job though the first line of  Man of Sorrows got stuck in one of my students' head. For the remainder of the year, multiple times throughout the day, I would hear "Man of sorrows what a name..." on repeat, over and over and over. I guess there are worse things that my kids could sing on repeat. Sure beats Jingle Bells Batman Smells which was the previous month's favourite.

Taking the Monkeys to the Zoo

Nothing like an end of the year field trip to the zoo!

 

 

Year End Fun!

Water balloon fight on a hot day to celebrate reaching our reading goal.

 

 

Playing so hard is exhausting :)

Let's Celebrate

So we had reason to celebrate this year! It was our 10th year as a school and so we had a grand 10 year party. We celebrated with games, a fun run and a 5km race followed by a BBQ and short presentation with encouraging words from our first graduating class.

 

 

 
 

Our first CISP Graduating class

The following day we sent out our graduating class of 2014. They were an amazing group of kids and I look forward to hearing the stories about where they go next from here.

Celebrating as a Staff

We finished out the year with our staff year end party. where we went on a boat cruise on the Vltava. It was a lovely time of visiting, seeing the beautiful city we live in, saying goodbye to leaving staff members and celebrating a year well done.

Our TeachBeyond Team

 

"I will be here forever"

Saw this on the wall as we were nearing the end of our tour on the river. Saying goodbye to many friends had me ponder the question "how long will I be here?" I really don't know the answer to such a question and when people ask it I answer:
"I will be here until God calls me elsewhere." So I may not be here in Prague forever but I will be serving the Kingdom forever, wherever that may be.