New positon:
I have a new position with Makarios! I will be the Sponsorship Coordinator and Resource Teacher for Makarios this school year! As the "Resource Teacher" I will be working with students one on one with the subjects they need extra help with. Alot of our students would greatly benefit with 1 on 1 help in phonics and math to help them excel to where they need to be academically! So as the "resource teacher" I will be working individually with various students throughout the week. As the sponsorship coordinator, I will be the link between Makarios in the DR, and our students' sponsors in the US. That entails writing emails, updating the blog, updating facebook/twitter, with updates on what's going on at our school. I'll basically be using my Public Relations major. (who would have thought?)
I'm so excited about the change! I'm excited to spend quality time with the students I will be tutoring, to be able to love on them, share Christ with them when the opportunity arises, and help them exceed academically. And I'm super excited about the idea of communicating with sponsors. If I were a sponsor in the US, I would love for the distance between me and my sponsored student (although its thousands of miles) to be as "small" as possible. I hope/pray to help do that this year, by updating the sponsors with wonderful stories about our 96 students! Sponsorship and tutoring were both things I was doing at the end of last school year, now I'll just be doing them full time!
Perla (the 2nd grader I spent time tutoring last year) and I on the last day of school in May.
New apartment:
WE’VE MOVED! Sarah V. (my roommate for the last year) and I had been praying on & off about moving/ possibly having a third roommate for awhile.. and then we kind of forgot about it. But a few weeks ago, God just completely worked out the details for Sarah V and I to move into an apartment with our new teammate Sarah H! When I say God worked out the details.. I mean God WORKED OUT THE DETAILS! Seriously, these details are SO unique and SO intricate, that you can only give credit to God for the way everything worked out! This apartment is better for us in so many ways: the rent is cheaper, it’s more comfortable and we’ll also be living next door to two other American girls (Karen & Emily) who are going to work for another missionary organization (Kids Alive) in the area. We’re so excited about the change! I’m especially excited to live next door to fellow missionaries, and grow closer with all of these girls! Pray with us as we continue to make the transition of living in a new place!
New School Year:
Hard to believe that my first year anniversary in the DR has come and gone (a separate blog on how I feel about that later). We’ve been making tons of preparations for the new school year! Painting desks, cleaning classrooms, welcoming new staff members (Sarah H & The Becks), and undergoing a 3 1/2 day teacher training! Bev Sparling (an amazing woman who was a missionary here in the DR for 10 years) came to visit our school to specifically train those of us who work at the school. It was amazing. Beyond amazing. She taught us so many amazing things, (that will continue to challenge us for years and years to come)... but one of the things that challenged me most was her explanation of the "calling" we have as teachers of our Makarios students. Bev greatly emphasized 1 Corinthians 11:1 (“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”) to us as teachers. She explained that as a teacher, we have an incredibly high calling on our lives. That God is using us as vessels to shape our students lives. And that as we follow Christ, our students will follow us, which can prayerfully/hopefully lead them to eventually following Christ! With that in mind, we must realize that our personal relationship with Christ and how we follow Christ personally, effects our students.
I'm light years behind on updating this blog. (What's new?) According to my past few posts, I did little to nothing this summer. Not true at all. So hopefully in the next few days, I will post post various blogs with short stories/few photos to give a full recap of Summer 2012! Yay! One day I'll stop playing the catch up game.. but for now, check back tomorrow! ALSO, the 2012-2013 school year starts this WEDNESDAY. Raise your hand if you're as shocked as I am?
And because every blog post needs plenty o' pictures. Here are a few from our amazing End of Summer Carnival:
(Clockwise: Perla, her mom and I, Carlos Miguel, Son)
*Special note about the title. Apparently its a David Bowie song? Just found that out. To me its always been from an episode of 7th Heaven, when Ruthie continually says "Ch-ch-changes" over an over again throughout the episode. I guess she got it from David Bowie...
