decisions decisions...

Well, being a teacher is wonderful and grand but it also has some tough decisions that come along with the job! I have a student who has been on my radar all year long. He is lacking in motivation, a low level English speaker, and lacking in focus. His grades are rock bottom and he tries on nothing and turns in nothing. I had a parent teacher conference with his mom and his guardian where I had to tell them that he might be retained next year. It was a MESSY conference with much yelling in Thai (not at me, don't worry, at each other!) Since then, my student has begun to apply himself and show that he is capable of doing the work, its a little too late though because we have 2 months left of school. I am frustrated because I have been trying to get a meeting set up with them since last semester and they kept refusing. We could have solved the problem back in September instead of trying to patch things up now. I honestly don't know what to do. I don't think it is in his best interest to be held back but I also cannot pass him onto grade 4 with the work or lack there of that he has done so far. Please pray for wisdom and guidance as I seek to find the best solution to this problem. I have a couple of solutions to present to the administration this week and we will see what develops from there. Besides that also pray for my little heart. Today I am feeling homesick. I always get like this when I feel like being home again is so close and so far! AND I am feeling overworked and not fully rested so I think that is playing on my emotional state as well. I know that this wave of homesickness will probably be past before most of you even read this but I just wanted to share it now. I have to say though some amazing things have been happening in my heart lately! God has shown me a lot of hard things about myself this year and its been challenging finally truly confronting the person that I am and try to hide from people--even from myself at times. God has shown me lately that even through all the muck that I see in me He loves me more than I know and more than I deserve! He truly is all I need! I am so thankful that even though there were some rough parts that I wouldn't want to have to go back to, HE sustained me through it and I am glad I am on the other side! :) All the time God is good!

Is Grace Enough?

This section from Max Lucado's book, Grace for the Moment was read in staff meeting on Tuesday and it has stuck with me all week long. There are things that I desire for my life and things that I wish I had. But in the end, grace is truly all I require. This is what Max Lucado says:

I have learned to be satisfied
with the things I have and with
everything that happens.
Philippians 4:11

"What if God’s only gift to you were his grace to save you? Would you be content? You beg him to save the life of your child. You plead with him to keep your business afloat. You implore him to remove the cancer from your body. What if his answer is, “My grace is enough.” Would you be content?

From heaven’s perspective, grace is enough. If God did nothing more than save us from hell, could anyone complain?

Having been given eternal life, dare we grumble at an aching body? Having been given heavenly riches, dare we moan about what we don’t have?"

I want to say that I believe that God's Grace is always enough. I know that it is the right thing to say and I know that it makes utter and complete sense. Sometimes though I get so bogged down in the world's expectations of what my life needs to look like that I find it lacking. How dare I moan about what I don't have when what I have been given is more than I ever deserve!

It's all about rice

On Friday, I was doing a science experiment with my students. They were broken up into 6 groups and each group had a "mystery" substance. Using their 5 senses they had to identify the contents of what was in the cup. Some groups definitely had easier substances to identify than others. The group that I thought clearly had the easiest substance to identify was the group that had the rice as their mystery substance. At the end of the experiment, I told each group to write down their guess as to what was in their cup and then to raise their hands so I knew they were done. All the groups had their hands raised EXCEPT the group with the rice. I was so confused as to why they could not figure out that it was rice---they see it 3 times a day at least! I went over to their group to see what the hold up was. As I listened to their discussion I heard them disagreeing. Their debacle was over whether it was plain rice or sticky rice---they were all listing out their various reasons for each and it just made me smile. I am definitely a teacher in Asia!

SuRPriSe!!! :)

As many of you know, I was able to go home this Christmas and surprise my family! It was a very full 12 days but I really enjoyed it. I got to meet my little nephew Isaac, see almost all of my immediate and extended family, see my brother play basketball for probably the last time ever (I probably won't be going home next year, his senior year), be a part of a surprise party for my mom, and eat Panera and Chick-fil-a! :) It was a good time at home. It was also an interesting time at home---it was a lot different than I expected, and my feelings about being home were different than I expected them to be. Not bad---just different! There are just some things that I have to work through and pray about. I have gotten the strong sense lately that Thailand is not my home---I love it here and I love the people and experiences I have had, but I know that I am not suppose to be here forever. I am signing my letter of intent for next year, but beyond that I do not know. I guess I have a whole other year and more experiences to be had before I can come to any conclusions about the future. I hope you all had a great holiday. 2012 is here! I rang in the new year on an airplane watching fireworks out the window. It was really beautiful! Now it is time to get back into the swing of school. Time to take down all the winter and Christmas decorations and get ready for the last 3 months of school. We have a lot of things to learn in that short period of time. Good thing all our vacations days got taken away because of the flood! Plenty of time to focus! :)