This update is a little longer but it's worth the read! See all that is happening at Faith!
I celebrated my birthday with some friends at a local "Tex-Mex" place called Army Navy. What a great group of people who are willing to go out on a weeknight and make my birthday special. I'm thankful for these people!
The best birthday present ever arrived just a little before my birthday in the form of a visit from one of my closest friends, Kat. She came for our fall break and stayed for five days. What fun we had!
We went to a beach called Puerto Gallera and enjoyed the palm trees, beaches, and waves
Oh and we rented a moped to do it all on!
One of my favorite things was having Kat meet some of my friends and students that were at the same beach as us.
On the way back from the beach, we climbed a volcano called Taal. We got to the top and found other missionaries. We were curious what their religion was but were too chicken to ask. Some hot (temperature wise) get up though!
The volcano Taal is an island in lake in a volcano, in a lake, on an island on the ocean. It's a brain teaser for sure! We met this couple before we got the boat to get to the volcano. We got to talking and got to share the gospel with them and then spent the whole day with them. Please be praying that the Lord is working in their lives and for their salvation.
One of my favorite things at school is to be involved in the dorm. I dorm sit once every three weeks and also do a Bible study once a week. It's been so good to know these girls and to get to know them more. Pray for interactions with them as they grow in their faith.
My weights class is as crazy and fun as ever. Once a week we warm up by playing a fun game or sport. We played four square one day and brought out their inner elementary kid.
Annnnnnd this helps explain some of the crazy that happens in weights class.
One thing that sets Faith PE apart from other schools is our swimming program. We have an amazing aquatics facility that the Lord has blessed us with and we take full advantage of it. Students spend several weeks in the pool every single year from Kinder all the way through their sophomore year.
I get to teach and do what I love everyday!
We do have the occasional helicopter landing on our soccer field to pick up their kids. While we do have about 80% missionary kids who are support based (and couldn't afford a helicopter), we do have a small percentage of kids who are business kids and have money. When the Pope came to Manila last year, they picked up their kids in their white helicopter to avoid traffic. This year, we had a major meeting of government heads (including Obama) and that caused some serious traffic because of road closures. This family decided not to fight the traffic and pick up their kids in their other helicopter. What a fun sight for the rest of us to see.
The end of October brings our singles costume party. My friend Crystal and I dressed as Nerds:)
I taught my girls American football and they had a blast. This picture made me laugh because the center looks like a unicorn with her hair. Now I am teaching the freshman boys American football while their teacher teaches my girls about floor hockey (because she's Canadian).
We had a blue and gold game to prep us for our first touch rugby game. The boys came to join and we had a lot of fun. I ended up with some selfies on my phone, as always.
Community festival is a big event for us to raise funds as a class. We had a great time and I didn't have dengue fever like last year, so it was a success. We raised a lot of money for the class and got to show off our new class shirts with cool nicknames on the back. Mine says "Putt Putt"
In the middle of the crazy semester, my roommate Hannah found a tiny kitten and adopted it. We named her Periwinkle and then a few months later found out that she was a he and now we have Perry. He's an adorable menace who has slowly stopped biting and scraping me as much.
My weights class occasionally does some rough workouts and this was one of them. You have to spell your entire name. They finished it though and had a good time doing it! These kids work so hard!
Elementary celebrates a Filipino cultural week and they set up this cool sign as you enter the campus.
I experienced my first three way skype this semester. It didn't work too well but we got to talk for a bit. It is amazing what technology can do. It did sort of feel like college again when we hung out so much.
The first play of the year was a comedic twist on Julius Ceaser called Julia Ceaser staring a female lead set in a high school in Rome, Georgia. This was the epic last fight scene (I know very little about the actual play so forgive me if that's not accurate).
The way that elementary ends their Filipino cultural week is with a greased pig chase. This is a cultural game and didn't go quite as planned. The pig was quite traumatized and stopped running (only after I had to catch him when he got out of his pen of course).
I made a good friend and she was only assigned to stay at school until November. She surprised me a week or two before she left by saying that she is going home to raise support and come back in January. Pray for my friend Erin as she raises support and comes back to work for our HR department. What a blessing she is to me.
Sometimes our seniors are too tired to sit up in the hall on Monday morning at 7am. This was a cute picture that I got yelled at for taking haha. Pray for our kids as they entire finals week next week and are stressed out about it.
My PE classes got a visit from two MLB players. This is Chase Adams and he plays for the Arizona Diamond Backs.
This is Steven Souza Jr and he plays for the Tampa Bay Rays.
This is my sophomore class president (I am their class adviser) and he is a huge baseball fan. He asked for a picture with Adams and Souza. They left quickly, so I didn't get a picture with them, but we had a great time with the kids and pitching to each other between classes. What a cool experience and definitely a first for me. These guys are believers that were doing baseball clinics for Filipino teams here in Manila.
Touch rugby continued our tradition of themed practices on Friday. This time it was PINK OUT!
It took us a few attempts, but we finally won our first game and we couldn't be more excited. What a great way to end the semester and get ready for our first home games next semester.
Our Drama 2 class put on my FAVORITE movie, Steele Magnolias and I laughed and laughed and laughed. What a fantastic group of actors we have. I love seeing their plays and will miss this group of seniors.
This is one of our touch rugby team managers and she often is stuck in the front seat with the head coach and I. This last weekend I gave her a country music education while she was stuck there. She enjoyed it but said she didn't plan on becoming a huge country music fan.
Thanksgiving is often a hard holiday here as we don't have time off and really miss our families. Friendsgiving becomes our thanksgiving as we gather with friends to celebrate and give thanks.
Our Student Council puts on a fall banquet and my friend Crystal and I got to be chaperons. We had a fun time dressing up and taking pictures with the kids. What a beautiful group of kids we have!
These are four of my dorm girls (all juniors). They are stunning!
My my sophomore class officers. They have worked so hard and done so much for our class this year. What a fantastic group I get to advise.
Twice a week after school I am in a class to learn Tagalog (the local language). This week we played a game similar to Heads Up or twenty questions and we had to guess who we were. Of course I got Mother Theresa.
My lovely officers (mentioned above) put together a class party and I loved watching the sophomores bond over games like Spot It, Bunny Bunny (Korean version of Viking), musical chairs, honey if you love me, and dodgeball. These kids sure know how to have fun!
One of the cool things about technology is not missing out entirely on cool times in my friends lives, like when they are engaged and planning their weddings. Kat and Mitch will be married in April and are flying me home to be a part. I will be gone about 6 days, so it will be a quick trip but I am so incredibly honored to be able to be there. Pray for their upcoming wedding and marriage.
Speaking of not missing things.....My best friend Michaela got engaged and I got to skype and hear the whole story from both of them. Poor Michael was bored by our giggles and inside jokes. Michaela and Michael get married in June and since it's after school gets out, I'll be able to be there and be a part of it as well. The Lord is gracious to me.
My friend Erin (the one who is raising support to come back with HR) has been working on some videos and pictures to work on support raising for me. She took this picture during a shoot with my girls in the pool. Please be praying for my support levels. Right now it is just above 80% and I would like it to be at least at 90% before I can confirm that I am coming back to Faith next year.