This is the start of my fourth year abroad with TeachBeyond. Starting this year, as we welcome new teachers, I get to share the vision and mission of Transformational Education. This year, my school has a lot of new teachers and its the perfect time to share about the mission and vision of TeachBeyond and our school. The school is not a Christian school so we don't have Bible class or chapel, but we have Christian teachers that are living their Christian walk everyday.

Transformational education is providing education that will transform their lives. Education transforms lives, but transformational education transforms lives for Jesus. We are teaching students English which opens up their lives to billions of sermons, pastors, resources, etc to learn more about Jesus. We are also teaching students and staff about the values, morals, and personality of Christians. For example, our students are learning to apologize and ask forgiveness. They are learning the value of honesty and self-control. Also, our staff are watching the foreign staff closely. They watch how we respond to situations and how we treat each other. Recently, I had a meeting with our marketing department about a missed deadline. We had to send out our parent-student handbooks and school was starting soon. The handbook wasn't done. This had been a project for the whole summer and I was now waiting for the design team to finish the design so that I could send it. The design team had missed the deadline (they were about a week behind). So I went with one of the admin assistants to talk to the marketing department. I went in very calm to try to discuss what we (together) needed to do to complete this task. I remained calm throughout the entire meeting and I told them I wasn't mad and I didn't want to blame anyone. I just wanted to complete the task. When I left the meeting, we had found a solution for this task and everyone walked away feeling uplifted. The admin assistant asked me how I did it? She was mad, they missed their deadline which made us miss our deadline. I told her, we needed to show them grace. It is the start of the new school year, we have lots of new staff, we are all learning. She was amazed. I told her, all of us need grace in our lives and we have to extend grace to others. This was a total Jesus moment. I had all intentions of going into the meeting wanting to demand the handbooks to be done and put blame on someone, but Jesus was there and used me to extend grace to the staff. It was so awesome! We serve an amazing God!

We are serving the Lord, preparing the land. We are planting seeds of the gospel, whether it is by our actions or teaching English to students. We may not see students saved every day, but we are providing opportunities for these seeds to grow in the future. While living in this country, we have to respect the laws of the land. God is big and He is doing amazing things! He is using me and this team of expats to sow seeds into our students and staff. I am so excited. I have seen so many hearts softened over the past 3 years. I am excited to see what God continues to do.

Thanks for your support and prayers!

I am so glad i had the opportunity to attend the TeachBeyond Orientation at Wheaton College. I was so nervous at first, but once I got there it was amazing. Everyone was so nice and by the end of the week we were so sad to say goodbye.

It was so amazing to meet other people doing the same thing I am doing. I have a lot of people who are supporting me at home, but I am the only one going abroad. So it was so awesome to meet other people doing the exact same thing as me. They may be going to other countries but there was a bond between us that can never be broken. We are TeachBeyond Family.

Also at orientation I learned so much about TeachBeyond. It has been around for 60+ years but only called TeachBeyond for the last 6 years. Before it was TeachBeyond it was called Janz Team. Also they have schools in over 40 countries now! How awesome is that!!! They have missionaries all over the globe sharing the gospel! It just so amazing! I also learned more about the mission and vision. I knew it was about transformational education, but what does that really mean. George Durance said it so eloquently that I will never do it justice. But we are all about transformational education where the people are changed by Jesus and as they are changed they begin a change in their world.

I could go on and on about all the things I learned this week, but to be honest I might bore you. :) I also met some amazing people that are going all around the globe. We have already made plans to see each other and go on adventures during school holidays! It is so cool how in one week I met so many people that have become family! God is doing amazing things and I can't wait to hear about the things He is doing around the globe!