Transformational Education

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! 

You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important

Sorry it has been over a month since my last blog post. There has been so much going on at school. School has taken up most of my life here. I get to work around 7am and then get home around 7pm. Once I get home, I continue working on school things. There is just so much to do. Since my roommate and I are the only full time English teachers that have returned to our school, a lot of people look to us for answers. I don’t mind helping the foreign staff figure out how to plan and give insights for teaching, but the jobs given to me are beyond what I came here for. So far this year I have helped come up with routines and procedures for our whole school to operate, help rearrange the school schedule, made a supervision schedule, changed the supervision schedule, and changed it again because there is always something that doesn’t work for someone. It is really hard to make everyone happy at our school. Sometimes I feel like it is my job to make sure everyone is happy, but I am learning that I am going to have to let some things fail in order for change to happen.

All these extra jobs and tasks have caused a lot of different feelings that I didn’t have last year. Last year, even in the midst of tension and unease, I knew this was where God called me. However, this year it has been very difficult. The devil has definitely attacked my mind. I have questioned whether I am supposed to be here or not. I have felt purposeless, unwanted, unnecessary, and many other feelings. There have been many nights I have wanted to book a flight home the next day, because I couldn’t see my purpose here. Many tears have been shed, just wanting to go to something familiar and stable. But God reminds me in his gentle yet firm voice, I am called to be here. And I am reminded of this quote from The Help, “You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important”. I am kind; I care about the school and the people in the school. I want to see it succeed. I am smart; I have good ideas and I have something to offer here. I am important; I have a role to play here.

God has called me here. He never said it was going to be easy to move across the world and help start a school, but he did say he would never forsake me! Even in the darkest of times the one thing that carried me through is knowing God is with me and feeling the His presence. His constant reminder that I am meant to be here has kept me here. I am learning more and more every day. God is teaching me what my limits are. He is teaching me to set boundaries. He is teaching me to trust him. He has it all in his hands. There is nothing that surprises God! And I am constantly learning of his love. I am a beloved daughter of the King. He will never forsake me. There is nothing I can do to make him love me less. I desire to be pleasing to Him.

 “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, Let me walk upon the waters, Wherever You would call me, Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, And my faith will be made stronger, in the presence of my Savior!” (Oceans – Hillsong)

Oceans always seems to be on my mind and speaks to my life. God lead me where you want me to go. Guide my steps so that all I do points to you and for you to be the only explanation for what I am able to do. Help me to have faith in you even when it can be hard to see the good in the day. Thank you for your presence in my life every day and in every step I take!

Please pray for me as I continue to set boundaries and trust in God’s plan. Pray that I learn how to say no, even if that means that something doesn’t get done. Pray for the school that we will listen and follow God’s will and plan. Pray for our foreign staff, as everyone is tired and trying to learn how to navigate a bilingual environment. Pray for our national staff, as they are just as tired and exhausted but have no one to turn to as they are not Christians. Thank you so much for your prayers! They truly make a difference!!! 

An Unordinary Saturday

The 5th of September is National School Day.  

Our day began at 7am on this Saturday (meaning no sleeping in!). We had to be at school to help set everything up for the festivities that were to begin at 8am. The dress was formal attire and the weather was hot and humid. So I found the nicest dress I brought that was also light because I knew too much fabric would me even more sweat! I thought I would try to wear my hair down as well, but I didn't even make it 30 minutes. It was just too hot!!! 

We walked to school and when we got there it looked completely different than when we left Friday night.  Everyone was in the yard putting covers on chair with red satin bows. We jumped right in to help. My goodness who knew you would work up such a sweat putting on seat covers? All the staff was helping with this in their transitional dress. They all looked so pretty (the staff and the chairs LOL). 

National School Day setup.  

After finishing the chairs I went inside to find some air! I made the mistake of not drinking any water so I got hot super fast and I was just praying I would make it through the program without passing out! At 8am the students lined up to go outside and sit in the yellow lunch chairs according to class. And then the program began.  

David and Ngan were our MCs for the event. They introduced each performance by Sakura Montessori and then by Gateway. The kindergarteners were so cute and I really enjoyed watching my 2nd graders do the YMCA (with a few different moves). The performances ended at 10am and were followed by pictures. After pictures (around 10:30am) we were allowed to go home! 

Performances by all the kids. Top left is 2nd grade and top right is 1st grade!  Sakura had the best costumes!!!

​We made our exit quickly because we wanted to get a rest in before going back to school for a game day with the young adults. At 2pm the HIF young adults were meeting at our school for a game day! I was really excited about having our Christian group at the school being a bright light for Jesus. There is so much heaviness and darkness (lots of oppression) at the school I knew we would be met with some opposition.

The communication was dropped and the security guard was left out of the loop. The Board of Managers (head honchos) gave us permission to use the school for these 2 hours and Valyn let the lady in charge of security know that we had permission to be there and use the facilities. However she didn't tell the guard and he was very upset that we kept coming into the building and using the air conditioner and the fan. He'd keep coming back every 30 minutes to turn off the fan or the air con. And he would yell at some of the young adults. They later came and told me he was being very rude. I'm sad this happened but I know it could have been much worse!

The game time was awesome! We played some ice breaker games and some games that maybe one day we could implement in the classroom. Then we played volleyball with a balloon ball. I don't know any way to describe it other than that and mention that it was a ball that had a balloon inside it. This just made it so it didn't hurt when you got hit by it (I got hit in the face twice!). 

The top is a yoko circle where every other leans back with the other lean forward. Pretty cool! And the bottom is our sit down volleyball game! Such a fun time!!! 

We split into teams and played on game of volleyball sitting down. This is a lot harder than you think! But it was a lot of fun! My team won the sitting down game. Then we decided to expand our court and play standing up. This should be easier except we (I) kept forgetting that we had to hit it at least twice before sending it over. We got close but in the end we lost. :(. But I had so much fun! It makes me miss playing volleyball. Hopefully one day Gateway has the option for a volleyball team! 

Such an awesome group of people! I absolutely love spending time with these young adults! God has bless me with great friends here! 

After the game time I went to the pastor's apartment to talk with his wife and Lydia about the Women's FB page. Lydia and I are in charge of the FB page and we wanted to figure out what all we needed and wanted to have on the page. We walked back to their apartment and on the way I was hit by a motorbike. Yes you read that correctly. However it wasn't bad. The guy's handlebar nicked my side. The guy lost control of his bike and slide on the ground. My fear of walking on the street was realized today. He was staring for too long and not paying attention to how close he was too me. :(. I'm just thankful I only have a bruise!

At the pastor's house I iced my side and talked to the girls about what we wanted to use the FB page for and how we wanted it to look. We spent about 3 hours talking about the FB page and how to keep it effective for the women here. We also squeezed in time to eat pizza :). By 9pm we had a Facebook page and we were heading home.  

Such a long day but a great day! God is providing so many opportunities to get involved. I love meeting people who have a heart for this nation and talking about our plans to reach the people even if it is just teaching English. There is a purpose for why we are here and God is revealing more and more everyday! 

Blessings until next time!