It's been a long time since I updated y'all, so here's a quarter all summed up. I tried to put a lot in here but make it a quick skim through:) This is my first time being BACK in Manila and I am loving not being new. This year has a more comfortable feel already and I am so so grateful for that. So here we go. I'm going to type fast, so try and keep up;)
I said goodbye to my babies and it was so hard. It was better than last time because I know how life works, but they are the hardest to keep up with. You can have a conversation with an adult on facebook or skype, but kids don't do well even on skype. It's definitely one of the hardest parts of being gone; you miss out on their lives.
I said goodbye to my babies and it was so hard. It was better than last time because I know how life works, but they are the hardest to keep up with. You can have a conversation with an adult on facebook or skype, but kids don't do well even on skype. It's definitely one of the hardest parts of being gone; you miss out on their lives.
It was ironic that I was having trouble leaving the littles when the first thing that happened when I got back was I was asked to babysit this little one. She's so sweet and so easy to babysit. It was just a reminder that there are littles to love in every place I find myself. I also managed to get sick from babysitting her.....which was great fun.
I was so excited to come back to a newly refinished and painted floor in our gym:) Go Vanguards!
One of my Korean students brought me back some great socks because they know how much I love Korean socks:)
Our high school staff is so fun. I love these people and am honored to work with them. This was a fun day when several people all wore pink on the same day. The male guidance counselor was a little embarrassed to be in the group:)
We started off the year with a game at our rivals and it did not go well. This is their mascot, the bear. This is my face when all of our teams lose. Sadly, our athletic season has not gone well at all. Here's to hoping we do well in closing out!
MY TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
I got to have dinner with one my best friend's dad while he was passing through Manila. Steve Armstrong has a teaching ministry and was speaking on another island. He treated my roommate, another missionary couple in the area, and I to dinner and we had a great time learning about each other and catching up. What a special blessing the Church is to me.
I got to have dinner with one my best friend's dad while he was passing through Manila. Steve Armstrong has a teaching ministry and was speaking on another island. He treated my roommate, another missionary couple in the area, and I to dinner and we had a great time learning about each other and catching up. What a special blessing the Church is to me.
Car accidents are quite prevalent here but this was a crazy surprise one day on the way to church. This car must have spun out of control and gone up into this sign backwards. It was the talk of the area for a few days:)
While we are talking about cars, I have to introduce my very first car that I own:) This is my girl Bounty. She's been amazing so far and is going to get her first washing as my car this week and go on her second road trip with me next week on break. I am so thankful that the Lord provided extra funds last year to provide a car when it was not planned.
One of my goals for this year was to take steps towards learning the language. What a blessing it was to discover that our Tagalog teacher decided to offer free classes to staff and so twice a week, you can find us in this room stumbling over our words. Oh the fun we have with the language and when we don't know what to say, we bust out some Spanish:)
I have been blessed with a great house and a huge group of young singles that love to spend time together. Our house has become somewhat of a hub for birthday parties and hang out. This is only half the room one of the more full birthday parties we've had. The Lord blesses us in mysterious ways yeah?
FLASHBACK TO HOME
My youngest brother, Cody became a freshman at Sul Ross University and became 6 of 6 to attend a university. My sister, Summer made this collage and I thought it showed us all well:)
My older sister, Whitney got published about two weeks ago in the Washington Post about her malignant brain tumor. Check out the article here if you want.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-have-cancer-but-i-sometimes-forget/2015/09/17/244dec30-5bca-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-have-cancer-but-i-sometimes-forget/2015/09/17/244dec30-5bca-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html
Meet my sophomore class (I am there class adviser). We kicked butt on the competitions at high school retreat and had a blast. What a unifying experience it was. My students needed it and they came away feeling much better about the year as a whole. This was a much needed answer to prayer as the class very not unified last year.
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Some of my favorite people after our color war. The color didn't show up crazy well, but I sure had a lot of fun getting each of these ladies really well:)
There is a term in Tagalog that means something like, close friend group, and the term is barkada. This is a term that I have come to love and this would be my barkada right now. These three have been an anchor for me and been great friends. I am so thankful for who the Lord brings along each year and the friendships you can forge in such a short amount of time. This is Crystal on the left, Micah in the middle, and Courtney on the right. Courtney and Micah are married.
Our speaker from high school retreat did an amazing job of encouraging us and spurring us on to lose in order to find. He spent several days at school before the retreat and then a few days after. Thanks for being an encouragement to us Zad! Zad was the youth pastor of a guy who teaches here that is about my age. So cool to hear about him growin up
We see a lot of weird animals here in the neighborhood I live in. We are just outside of Manila and it is somewhat jungley. This was a new animal to see in the middle of the day hanging on our library sign. So great.
WEIGHT LIFTING CLASS (JUNIORS/SENIORS)
Meet my weights class for this semester. 8 boys and one feisty girl. We have a lot of fun:)
True friends make us better......or make our leg presses harder at least.
We don't have traditional equipment but we make do in fun ways:)
SPIRIT WEEK
Themes below
CHRISTMAS DAY!
HALL THEMES- The hall gets decorated and the students dress up and act out their hall. We chose the old Charlie and the Chocolate factory. We actually got last place but had a lot of fun and as one student said on prep day, "Man, I laughed on a lot today." Sounds like we did well then.
FOOD AND DRINK DAY!
SUPERHERO VS SUPERVILLAIN DAY |
My good friend Crystal (see Barkada picture way above this one) works with special needs students and this student is actually her full time job. She came all the way from Canada with Crystal and lives here with her. She graduated from high school last year and is exploring life outside of her hometown. She keeps me laughing and I make her do tire flips because she's not a fan of workouts:) She's strong though! Meet my friend Maddie.
Our very culturally diverse community celebrated Papau New Guinea's 40th anniversary of being a country:) I saw many of these flags around school from random kids who had no ties to the country. These kids know world events.
EARTHQUAKE DRILL
Faith Academy is located just miles from a fault line and so we have to prepare for earthquakes. This was my first time participating in a school wide drill. We duck and cover and then thirty seconds after the shaking stops, we all head down to our soccer field to count heads and decide if anyone is stuck somewhere. This lovely piece of equipment serves as a sort of redneck gong.
My friend Harold and I ducking and covering
We were told to cover our heads to protect from falling debris
A coworker snapped this one of me going down with the number 8 on the back.
We got the all clear to make our way to the top of the hill! It's too hot for this.......
I took a quick motorbike lesson from a friend and had a great time zipping and yippeeing around our main circle.
Communication with friends
Praise the Lord for technology. I get to keep as normal as possible a relationship with my close friends and family. Here's one with two of the littles. The youngest is almost always asleep when I call. Sweet Zeke almost makes me cry when he asks if I'm coming home.
Sometimes I get to see regular everyday life, like my friend Maria, who is learning all about being a wife and making her husband fat with her amazing cooking:)
I get to spend time with friends loved ones.....even if they take a cat form.....
Sometimes day to day life on skype means my little brother showing me his new Glock that he is using to prep for the police academy. Some of the funny things I experience on skype would crack you up:)
I thought I'd end on a picture that I see OH SO OFTEN on my phone. Student selfies. I sort through hundreds of these each semester and pick out the good ones to keep. So fun.
Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom and I hope it was enjoyable. There will probably be a much shorter one to follow because we have our fall break coming up and I'll tell you all about it:)