I am blessed is an understatement

Hello everyone! I AM in fact still alive and well. I'm sorry it has been so long. It's been a crazy few weeks. Life is so good! We are finishing up the first quarter of school! The first round of report cards and parent teacher conferences are this week...so crazy how far into the year we are. We're almost halfway to coming home for Christmas break! So much has happened these last few weeks that I'm gonna do bulleted-style blog this week.

1. These last few weeks have been really spiritually heavy in the classroom with my students. I prayed for deeper connections with my students at Bible study on a Monday night, and the very next morning a student came in and sobbed on my shoulder for five minutes. I have a student going through such a hard time and he is carrying such heavy burdens on his little shoulders. I cried and prayed with him. As heartbreaking as that moment was, I was so grateful for that moment and the reminder of why I'm here.

2. Last week, we had a bit of a dramatic occurrence in third grade. My students come from difficult homes where life is not always easy. We have an issue with getting along and loving each other, but who doesn't? It reached a point that I broke down in the office, not knowing what to do. I returned to my classroom and cried in front of my students for a while telling them how frustrated I am that they are so hurtful to each other. Needless to say, I made all of them cry. There were tissues everywhere and sniffling students. They wrote me apology notes and we are all going to work on loving each other better. Please pray for me to be an excellent role model of servanthood and love in my classroom. Pray that I would have time and energy to spend time teaching them what it looks like to love and to incorporate it well with God's Word.

Had a huge stack of these.

3. My students like to do something called "hug attacks." This is exactly what it sounds like. They run at full speed to hug me and the goal is to knock me over. They are very dangerous, but I'm always laughing too hard for me to tell them to stop. I secretly love hug attacks.

They are so weird.

4. It has been my students' #1 goal to guess my age this year. This is the most hysterical thing ever. I've gotten everything from 15-40 years old. I told them I was 100 and although they don't believe me, one of my students pointed out that I was born the year the Titanic sunk! Another student concluded that I'm a vampire because I won't be honest about my age. They also say I'm a sinner because I won't tell the truth.

5. My craziest student likes to do something called a Waffle dance. Everybody knows about it but me. He has informed me that he'll show me the dance when I tell him how old I am.

There have been many a recess trying to build a pyramid.

6. I have been so blessed by the Bible studies I have been attending! The women staff Bible study has been so great and encouraging. It's wonderful going through the same things in life with a solid group of girls. It's also really fun to get to spend time with some high school students.

7. Last week, it was my turn to do Chapel for the elementary students. We had a blast. We talked about the Sermon on the Mount and more specifically the Beatitudes. We also talked about being the light of the world and shining brightly in a dark world. The kiddos sang Kari Jobe's "We Are" so loud. Such beautiful voices :)

8. Last weekend, my friends and I visited the city of Totonicapan. We had a great time and we fit a lot into our day trip. We climbed a mountain and hung at the most beautiful waterfall. Toto was a bit crazy because of their local fair, so it was absolute madness in most of the city. Some of the highlights were getting squeezed into a crowd at the fair by small indigenous women, being on a bus with 130+ people and a drunk teenager being dragged on by his friends through the already packed aisle. The best part was getting to hang out with this wonderful family who lived in a little village in the city. We spent time playing intense hide and seek in corn fields. My heart was filled by this time so much. It felt like my trips to the Dominican Republic in high school, and we all decided we will be making monthly trips to Toto to visit these kids :)

The gang at the beautiful water fall.

9. Monday October 1 was International Children's Day. I was invited to my class' party after school. There were pinatas and games and face painting--it was crazy. It was really fun getting to hang out with my students outside of school and hearing them speak Spanish with their parents and siblings. The weirdest part was actually sitting with the moms and talking with them. It was so great but I am not quite used to being an adult just yet. I wanted to go play with the kids! The kids bought me flowers and all signed a card for me for this event as well. They were very grateful that I moved here and am teaching them. I am blessed is an understatement.

Waiting in line for the pinata.

Showing off their pinata prizes.

Thank you for your prayers and for reading. I am missing my family and friends greatly, but I am so blessed to be serving here. Please pray that I will serve and love well and will not grow wearing doing so. ALSO, my kiddos have started a class blog please please please read it and comment on it. They are super excited to tell you about their class, their school, and their culture. They are writing it all by themselves. Another post will be up tomorrow. Here's the link IAS Third Grade