The Dog Days of August

The first few weeks of this school year have been extremely difficult and challenging for me. I had grown accustomed to what a 1st grader can do at the end of the year and had somehow forgotten what a 1st grader at the beginning of the year can and can't do. The frustrations seemed to multiply and frustrations were festering in my mind. I felt like I had reached rock bottom of teaching. I shared some of these feelings with someone and they suggested that I go back and look at some of my blogs from the beginning of last year. I did that and memories that had faded came back in vivid color. I saw Sonny Liston helplessly looking up at the menacing Muhammad Ali and thought to myself, now I remember. That gave me some relief to know that I had felt this way before but it didn't ease my frustrations.

The frustrations came to a culmination yesterday. It was a day where it seemed that I was set up to fail. We left our apartment and headed to school. It was a difficult day in the classroom as I continued to strain to teach these young children how things are done in my classroom. There was an after school faculty meeting. Then there was an Open House that went longer than expected. We finally arrived back at our apartment 15 1/2 hours after we had first set out, well after my bed time. I seemingly had every right to complain and dwell on my frustrations but that's not how things turned out. Thanks to many small prayers throughout the day and my wife constantly badgering me to see the good in things, I made it home in one piece. Then, unexpectedly, God abundantly blessed me today. He gave me the best day I've had this year with my students. He gave me energy to teach and not once did I feel tired from the previous day. I finally felt like I could see progress in my students. It's as if he spent the last few weeks humbling me in and out of the classroom showing me all of my flaws and failures until I was finally ready to accept that I need to rely on him to meet my every need.

Restoration Day

The past year had caused me to forget how much 1st graders need to learn at the beginning of the school year and how much energy they require. I was quickly reminded of those things on Thursday, the first day of school. We were fortunate, though, to have had only two days of school last week because we were exhausted. By the time Friday came around, we were sprawled motionless on our couch mindlessly watching television. Thankfully, after those grueling two days, we already have a day off. The name of the holiday is fitting considering how we feel: Restoration Day. It came at a perfect time to restore us for the next week. The only bad news is that I've checked the calendar and there is no Rejuvenation Day next Monday.

First Day of School for the Second Time

Our first day of school is complete. It was a good day and although we miss our old students, we are proud of them that they have moved on and look forward to seeing what God has in store for a full year with our new students. We have a long way to go with the new students, but it was a great start. Please pray for these next couple of stressful weeks as we get back in the hang of things and try to train these new students in our classroom rules and procedures. It is quite a long process and can be quite discouraging at time.

Here is a picture of us on our first day of school. We took the same picture last year and thought that it would be a good tradition to start. Just like parents taking pictures of their kids heading of to school every year on the first day...why not let teacher take a picture of their first day of school too. So here it is. It is at the end of the day so my hair has already gone up and our faces are quite shiny from sweat. Oh yeah...and we are exhausted. Apart from that, it is a good memory. ENJOY!

Return and Prayer Requests

Well everyone, we are back! In case you didn't know or didn't realize, we went back home to Indiana for the summer to enjoy some time off with our family and friends. We had a wonderful time, but when it came time to come back here to the DR, we were ready to go. We arrived yesterday at about 10:30 p.m. after a few compounding problems which delayed our plane by about 3 hours. However, God kept us safe and allowed us to return to our wonderful, but dull apartment last night. It felt so different than last year when we came for the very first time. We know the airport, the city, the people picking us up, and the apartment that we arrived to. Believe it or not...it felt like we were home...to our home with our stuff. God really has answered our prayer by allowing us to enjoy it here and easily make it through last year and look forward to this year.

So as some of your know, we spoke at a church this summer to tell about our many adventures and new life here in the Dominican Republic. We listed four prayer requests that others can pray for about us. After a little bit of thought, we decided that we would post those four requests here on our blog so that our other followers could prayer for us as well.

1.) Pray for our incoming students that will be in our classroom this coming year, that they would be accepting of the Word and of what we have to teach them.
2.) Pray for our slow learning of Spanish, that we would learn it more quickly and that we could use it to better our ministry here.
3.) Pray that God would provide us with some good friends to encourage us in every area of life.
4.) Pray as we make our decision about staying in the DR another year or returning to the US at the end of this year.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts. You have no clue how much they have helped. We enjoyed seeing most of your this summer and look forward to seeing you again soon. You are in our thoughts always.