A little (dis)(en)couraged

The week before Fall Retreat was quite discouraging.  Anytime you try something new, there is a honeymoon stage and then it wears off.  I felt like school was that way this week.  Lots of it was my fault because of either inexperience or plain stupidity.

Those who know me know there are times I am serious but, for the most part, I enjoy joking around.  We have fun at school because it is an American one and they have a hard time pronouncing herbs, about, foyer and I found out this week, drama.  We were talking in one class about abilities and giftings and I mentioned the school drama may be something to try.  Well, I said drama and the class asked what that is.  "You know, like acting" "Oh like dr(ah)ma."  Well, I proceeded to let them know the proper way to say drama and I said the only time we use dr(ah)ma is when you are talking about a "queen" and then I looked in the direction of a girl in the class.  I didn't think anything of it until after class.

I have a Thing on Fridays that students can submit questions, any question, and we will discuss them on Monday.  Well, I got a question on Friday "Why do you pick on ________ (the girl I referred to as a drama queen).  Safe to say I felt like an idiot, I was an idiot, and had to humbly ask for forgiveness in front of the whole class.

Then, I had a substitute teacher and learned that you need to explain the class to the teacher as my Grade 8 class is "Wild" and that is an understatement, so, the sub left the room and one of my students put another in a headlock while he was gone.  Again, another apology needed.

So, this was the attitude and mentality I had going into fall Retreat.

Ellianna trying to join in with Ultimate Frisby

It was a little rainy

The turning point for the weekend was an extended worship time.  After having these problems this week, the worship leader stated that if you are having a problem ask a teacher to talk with you.  So, someone from one of my classes came up and asked to talk to me.

"Oh dear" I thought, "What did I do now"

This student actually confessed to me that they cheated on the test we took this week.

My faith and spirit was filled to overflowing.  Here I was down on myself asking God if He really does show up and blatantly He DID!!!

To resolve the situation, I marked everyone's test and no-one got 100%.  I then put, for example, 24/32 = 100% "Not by what you have done but by Grace Alone Ephesians 2:8"

So on this student's test I wrote the same thing 0/32 = 100%.

I was so blessed to be able to tangibly give a life example of what Christ has done in our lives.  None of us is perfect, and yet when we accept Christ, God sees Christ's perfection in us!

Weird Wacky Wonderful Week

So everyone in our household has been sick the last few days so I have not had the opportunity to write anything on my normal posting day on Thursday, but, I may have time now as it is 10:43 pm Kiev time, everyone is sleeping and everything is calm.

I actually thought the exact same thing last night and was poised to sit down and type when Jolen woke up, stayed up until midnight, woke up again at 3:00 am for a couple hours and was ready for the day at 8:00 this morning.

First I would like to take you back to Saturday.  The wonderful part.  We got a package from Canada!!!!

Is all this really for me?

Mmmm...Canada tastes so good!

Thanks to our wonderful friends at Meest (a shipping company to Ukraine) these packages arrived just in time for us to eat the wonderful food!!!

Apparently you can only buy birthday cards in one location in Ukraine, the Post Office.  I pride myself in being a patient person and one who is not alarmed by the unknown, but for some reason, I was lost when I went to the Post office later that day.  The post office to me is a very simple concept.  You go to the post office, get in line and then you get to the counter and buy your item.  In Ukraine, you go into the post office and there are 4 different cashiers, all with a different lineup and each cashier has a sign above their register stating what the line was for.  Well, I didn't see a line saying birthday cards so I got into one line, it took too long and then I got into another and I got very frustrated.  By the time I got to the till, I think maybe the cashier realized I was fuming mad or that I didn't know what I was doing because when I pulled out my dictionary and pointed to Birthday Card, she ran over to another cashier and grabbed them all from her desk  and brought them over for me to see.  Now I think if Hallmark came to Ukraine they could make a killing because I had the choice between a card with red flowers, pink flowers or white flowers.  As I like to get funny cards, I got even more frustrated by my "flowery" choice!  So, Aidyn ,you are getting a flowery card in the mail, Happy Birthday!  But it was weird that I got so mad!

Sunday, my hair needed cutting.  I went to a place to get my hair cut.  No problems until the very end, my hair got cut quite short except for the bangs.  I know this is not a picture of me, but I kid you not, this is the reflection I was looking at in the mirror when she was finished!

I found out that when you go to a hairdresser in Ukraine, they cut it the way they want to and not the other way around, but luckily I was able to communicate that the long bangs were not my style so I have a normal not Wacky haircut now.

Tuesday was and awesome day because the England football (soccer) team played against Ukraine in World Cup qualifying in Kiev!  Tickets were $100 and the game started at 9:45 pm on a school night so it was not possible to go, but it was cool that I was only a few Kilometers away from the National team the David Beckham used to play on!!!  The city was buzzing and we had a neat sight outside our window that afternoon.

This hot air balloon was weaving in and out of all the apartment buildings!  Well, the game kind-of was disappointing as they played for 1 1/2 hours and the score was 0-0.

Our family got a little homesick this week so we also made milkshakes one night in our "enormous" kitchen.

At least the kitchen is bigger than our "hallway" kitchen in our first trailer as it literally was the hallway in the trailer.

I was reminded this week of how good God is, even in the weird, wacky and wonderful times.  He deeply cares for us and amid all this craziness we call life, He is there guiding our hot air balloon lives through the tall buildings in the city that is our lives!

No blog next week as the school is going on their annual retreat out of the city and away from civilization.  See you in 2 weeks!

Patience Proves Persistent

Wow, the week is gone yet again and everything revolved around patience.

Wow, it was a three month process, but God (as always) proves faithful... He still would be faithful if the house hadn't sold either.  So as of the end of this month we are homeless (in Canada at least).

So this week I was teaching on Abraham and his patience.  And when I say patience, I mean patience.  To make a long class short I will give you the Cliff's notes version.  Abraham was called to be a great nation when he was 75 years old.  Isaac was not born until Abraham was 100 - 25 years waiting for the promised son.  Then, Isaac doesn't get married until he is 40 and then another 20 years before Jacob and Esau are born.  So, if you do the math, 25 years + 40 years + 20 years gives 85 years for Abraham to see the fruit of that promise.  And even then there was only 3 pieces of fruit.  The kids in my class are 15 so, if God was to, for example, call them to be a Pastor, they would not preach until they were 100 years old.  The message sunk in pretty good.

Through this class, I also was able to share a little bit of my own testimony and God's timing is not our own.  I felt the call to go overseas at around the age of 12, but did not go over on my/our own, without someone holding our hand, until now at age 31.  19 years, that means I have been waiting on the Lord for longer than my students have been alive.  I told them, think back to your earliest memory, and that memory is newer than the length I have been waiting to go.

Also,

Ellianna's birth day!

Jolen's birth day!

3+ years of dating and 7 wonderful years of marriage without children, (we thought we were being patient) we have now had 2 years of them showing us how un-patient we are!

And on a super exciting patient type perseverance thing.  Amanda accepted Christ!  Colleen and I were talking and dancing and Jolen stood up and Praised Jesus Too

We have been praying for her for 4 years and it is pretty cool when you feel like you maybe played some small part in someone accepting Christ!  So stop right now and say a prayer for her as she needs the body of Christ to hold her up as we all need each other!

If you remember us in prayer, Russian is a tough language so pray for us as we patiently learn new concepts and apply them!

Now, hopefully all my patience proves itself this year with the Edmonton Oilers!