Classes began February 13 and I have a wonderful group of students - about 75 students in all in grades 1, 2, and 3. I am alone with them this year and that encourages me in several ways -- to learn their names and to speak better Spanish when I need to explain something to them. However, I have learned that younger children are very understanding and also very intelligent. They seem to have a knack of understanding my poor Spanish. Praise God for that!!
Whether you are a Tim Tebow fan or not is not important. But, even though I have always strived to be the best teacher I could be with God´s help, there is always room for improvement. Tim has inspired me to reach even deeper inside me to allow more of God to shine through my life every day to these children. Most of their parents struggle to pay the small tuition for their children to be in a loving, caring Christian environment (even though many of them do not go to church or are not yet Christians). I said "small tuition" but it is not small to them when it takes such a huge chunk from their already low salaries. That is why we cannot have air conditioning in the school. Even if there were air conditioners, there would be insufficient money to pay the electric bill every month and ..... it is impossible to increase the tuition because parents cannot afford to pay more. So . . . during the first two weeks of the new school year, the temperature has been hovering around 100 every day. Inside the poorly ventilated classrooms, the temperature has to be around 110. Perspiration rolls down my body in streams while I am teaching. You would think that after living in Florida so long I would easily adapt to this. But honestly in Florida I never perspired even when I was outside on a hot, humid day. When one opens the door to a classroom here, it really feels like one is opening a hot open. But....don´t feel sorry for us teachers. We are all dedicated Christian teachers with one desire -- for the students to see Jesus in our lives while at the same time receiving a quality education. Tim inspires me to do this in spite of many obstacles that have to be overcome even as he has had to overcome many obstacles to be where he is today. But our priorities must be right. Our jobs are not first -- our faith and testimony and love for Christ and others are far more important than any job we may have. Like Tim says, our job is just a platform for our witness for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. At least we have a building in which to teach. In the interior of Paraguay, I have read that there are many "mango schools" -- schools that are held outside under the mango trees because there are no buildings. God is good --- no matter what the outward circumstances may be. Please continue to pray for the children of Paraguay.
NEXT CHAPTER OF MY LIFE
One of the most life-changing decisions that my parents made was to move away from the coal mining town where we lived. In the long run, it opened up many more opportunities than we would have had where we were living.
When I was five, my parents moved to a small house in the country in another area of the county. It did not have electricity or indoor plumbing. It was a mile to the nearest telephone and we did not have a car. There were now four children in the family. Can you imagine going backwards from having a refrigerator to an ice box (I remember the iceman coming two times a week. We could only have ice water if there was some ice left when the iceman came again. For years, I was an ice eater simply because I had craved ice on the hot summer days when there was none), from an electric wringer washer to washing on a washboard, from water piped into the house to getting water from a spring bubbling out of the ground nearby, from electric irons to the heavy irons that were heated on a coal stove, from electric lights to kerosene lamps. What an adjustment that must have been. But I do not remember hearing my mother complain about her lot in life. She used to take us for long, long walks in the mountains to see wildflowers blooming in the springtime, to pick wild "greens" to eat, to pick wild berries, gather nuts, and just enjoy the nature that God had created even if it meant trying to avoid the rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes that roamed freely around the mountains. For me, as a teacher, I am thankful I had this opportunity. Maybe that is why I always enjoyed reading Laura Ingalls Wilder¨s Little House books to my third graders in the US. I got to live and experience so many things that my students would probably never get to experience.
Until next time, remember:
We have but one life to live and only what´s done for Christ will last.
God bless each of you.
