September/October Happenings!

A lot of exciting things took place this month! Here are a few of the things that I actually have pictures of.

1) Field Day:
 We played capture the flag, soccer, and swam. I was in charge of the swimming activities. Several of the Kindergarten and 4th grade students do not know how to swim. The kindergarten teacher and I taught small swimming lessons during their swimming period.





















2) Character Day:
Once a month we try to have spirit days where the students and teachers get to dress up. September's spirit day was favorite characters. We had a lot of creative characters including penguins from Mr. Popper's Penguins. I was Nancy Drew, because I loved that series as a child.

3) Poetry/Oral Interpretation Night

My ninth graders and I quoted James 1.

The students and teachers worked hard to memorize poems, monologues, and scripture to present for the missionary community.





4) Random school photos

The 4th-8th grade students had a lesson in CPR.

The amphibian that looks like a snake is just a legless worm.

5) My ninth graders and I are in charge of writing the NutShell every month. (NutShell: school newsletter. Its small so "Nut" and we are in Shell so "Shell")

This month the students choose an event or exciting thing that happened to write an article about. I thought you guys might like to see the NutShell and the pictures that were included.

Here is the link to the NutShell. (http://www.natesaintmemorialschool.org/nutshell-3/)

I am in at two of the photos, but I am slightly incognito. Ten bonus points if you can find me :)

Some ways that you can be praying for me.
a) Health- there has been a lot of illness going around lately.
b) Leading Bible Studies/ Mentoring Students: I am co-teaching a girls' Bible study for girls in 4th-9th grade. (Its hard to meet the needs of students in that large of a span of ages and comprehension levels) I also am leading a book study with the high school students in the community. We are reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. This is a challenging book, but I have been encouraged to see how much the students have gained from reading the chapters.

Flight to the Jungle

Alas de Socorro plane (like the one we flew in)

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fly into one of the jungle communities. Tiwaeno,  the community that we visited, is not accessible by developed roads, so they depend on flights in small planes to reach civilization whenever necessary. My neighbors, Dan and Tracey Whitehead, and Chad and Andi Irwin, are missionaries with MAF. Dan and Chad work with a Christian Ecuadorian organization, Alas de Socorro, that serve the jungle communities by flying them in and out jungle. Alas de Socorro also has a contract with the Ecuadorian government to fly people out of the jungle when they are need of emergency health assistance that they cannot receive in the jungle. Chad was actually our pilot for the trip, and his wife Andi joined us. 

Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Jim Elliot on the beach.

The same beach where they were speared by warriors.

Picture: https://stephenandruth.wordpress.com/2015/01/

You may remember the story of the 5 missionaries, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Roger Youderian and Nate Saint, who were killed in the Amazon Rainforest in January 1956. These missionaries had actually made contact with people from the tribe that lived in the area that is now called Tiwaeno.  A short time later Rachel Saint (sister of Nate Saint), Elizabeth Elliot (widow of Jim Elliot), and her children lived in Tiwaeno and led many in the community to Christ. 

Dyuwi with two of the other people who joined us on the trip.

We had the privilege of meeting Dyuwi. Dyuwi was one of the men involved in the spearing of the 5 missionaries. He became a Christian when he understood the truth of the gospel when the women moved to his village.  Dyuwi joined us halfway through our time in the community so that he could greet and pray for Chad. Whenever possible, he likes to meet the Alas de Socorro planes when they fly into Tiweno so that he can pray for the pilot. 

Church leader who spoke and sang with us.

tribal dance

One of the ladies showing us how they make the jewelry. 

The village of Tiwaeno has developed a mission-oriented tourist industry in their community. Tourist in Ecuador can fly to Tiwaeno to meet the people and hear about the life there. Each group is welcomed to the community and immediately taken to the community church. There, a church leader shares the gospel and sings a hymn for the tourist in the tribal language. A translator will then translate the message into Spanish. We joined the community in singing the hymn "I have decided to follow Jesus" in three different languages (their tribal language, Spanish, and English). Because the leader understood that we were all Christians, he said that although we cannot understand each other now, we will one day be able to talk to each other about all the great things God has done (referring to heaven)! After the Gospel message, we walked up a hill to see the community gathering area. The people demonstrated a tribal dance and even invited us to join them. At the end, ladies in the community showed us things they had made that we could purchase. 




Side note: On the way down the hill back to our plane, I was nervous the whole time that I would slip and tumble down the hill. I made it ALL the way back down the hill. On flat ground once again, I began to make my way to the plane. Of course, it was then (now that I was not being so careful anymore) that I slipped and landed in mud.

Side note 2: 
 This picture is of Andi and one of the ladies from Tiwaeno with her little baby girl. Before she had her baby, whenever she would fly out of the jungle, she would visit Chad, Andi, and their two children. Their daughter Olivia especially enjoyed playing with her. She named her daughter Olivia after Chad and Andi's daughter. 

A Whole New Ballgame

Well, as many of you know, I am now the 9th grade teacher at NSMS. The school has been open for 50 years in January and never had a high school associated with the school. (There have been other co-op groups in the past)

So my three students and I are the guinea pigs in this adventure. So far I am absolutely loving teaching and working with the 9th graders. (See pictures of the class and the room below.)

I wanted to share a little about what my favorite part of teaching the older grades has been. At NSMS, the students have Bible class everyday. For ninth grade, we are doing a Bible course through Summit Ministries called Understanding the Times. It is a really challenging course, but we are all learning a ton.

One day last week, we were talking about study versus just reading the Bible. We began to discuss how important it is to really dig into the scripture and know what we believe, so that we can be good ambassadors for Christ. I asked the students to list one way they could apply what we had been talking and learning about to their lives now. The ideas the students came up with were really cool and insightful. One of the students mentioned that they would start  read an entire book of the Bible at once at least once a month so that they could see how all of the verses fit together. Another student mentioned that they realized they needed to study the Bible during their devotional time rather than just reading randomly. These conversations have been so encouraging to see these young teenagers desire to grow in their faith even when it requires more work.

Praise: Many of you have heard me talk about the long process of getting my Ecuadorian visa renewed. I was able to get the visa renewed, and two cool things happened.

1) It is a law that only you or your immediate family member can pick up your passport after the office is finished with it. The lawyer called on Tuesday to tell me that my visa and passport were ready to go. The problem was that I live at least 5 hours from Quito, and school is in session. I really didn't want to miss a day and a half to go and pick up the passport. The lawyer said that he would call me back the next day. On Thursday, the lawyer called back and said that he was able to pick up the passport and he would take it to the Reach Beyond offices in Quito. My friend was able to bring me the passport on Monday! I didn't have to miss any school.

2) The visas used to be good for only one year. That would mean that I would have to do the long process every August. My visa was just renewed for 2 years!

Prayer Requests:
1) There has been a good amount of unrest in Ecuador in the last few weeks.
         a) There was some transportation strikes and many roads were closed including the main road that we use to get out of Shell and back to Quito. The other  road had too many major mud slides and so the government closed the road for safety issues. When both of these roads are closed, we have no way of getting to Quito (and the airport) in cases of emergency.
        b) You have probably read or seen on the news about the active volcano. This volcano, although not near me, is very near to Quito, and so this has added to the travel difficulties.
2) Pray for me as I mentor the students in my class.
3) Another missionary friend and I are in the process of starting a girls' Bible study for girls 4th and up.

My class and I on the couch in the classroom.

Notice the 3 large desks. Each of the students gets their own "teacher-size" desk. Its the little things that make such a difference!

This is my teacher area. You might be able to see how all of the baskets are labeled so neatly :)

You might not be able to read the sign in the middle of the bulletin board. It reads "then sings my soul." The students and I are working on being thankful. We post sticky notes on the board thanking God for his many blessings.

If you are still reading, I thought you might be interested in checking out the new school website. www.natesaintmemorialschool.org

February Fun!

February seems so far away, but I realized I never posted some of the pictures I have from some fun actives from February.

Carnival: Here in Ecuador, there is a holiday celebrated the weekend before Lent called Carnival. Although I am sure there is more to the holiday, people enjoy throwing water (and other not so fun material like oil based paint, eggs, flour, and anything else you could think of) on friends and strangers as well. Each year the school has a 1/2 celebration before a long weekend holiday. I personally think it is the best day of the school year. The day always includes fun water games for the students, and it ends with an all out water war. (Yes, students get to douse their teachers- and vice-versa!)

Lauren's Birthday/Valentines Day: Lauren's (my roommate) birthday was on the 13th so we decided to take both of our classes to the popular restaurant in town for dinner. On Valentine's night, we babysat for friends so they could go out to dinner.

Who can push the ping pong ball across the court with the squirt bottle fastest?

No the're not competitive at all :)

Getting instructions for the next group game.

Large, water version of capture the flag
notice Olivia's (girl in the green shirt) face as she runs back to her home base. 

One of the games involved throwing water balloons at your teacher! Thats me cowering as the water balloon came  hurdling towards me.

Group Picture  (We noticed the principal had somehow remained dry throughout the water war. )

Because we were Nanki's dates for Valentines, he brought us both flowers and a card.

Missions Completed

Mission 1: As many of you know, I spent last year working on a Master of Education with a concentration in teaching mathematics. As of Saturday, January 24, I have completed the year long program! It was a tough year, but I learned so much.

My friends an I celebrated by going to my favorite restaurant. (an Italian resturant that has the best carbonara) They made me a diploma and cap. It was really fun and a great way to celebrate all of the hard work.

Happy Graduation to ME!!

Nanki (the son of David and Beth) is five years old. He says my name as it is written on the diploma.

Mission 2: About 2 weeks ago, a rat got into the school library. Although there were traps set, the rat was avoiding all attempts to catch it. I made it quite clear that I was not excited about having chapel in the library with the rat loose. The rat was eventually caught (before chapel), but my friends thought it was funny that I was not fond of the rat. So with the help of my roommate (thanks so much Lauren) they placed toy mouse in the cup cabinet. Needless to say, I screamed REALLY loud when I accidentally found the mouse.