Secrets and Light in the Darkness
Oops. Somehow it became October 20th here, and I just haven't been blogging. I owe you one. A lot has happened over the past month. I'm not exactly sure where to begin, so I suppose that I will begin with my students.
My students are still great. I adore them. They are some of the most encouraging kids ever and I honestly am excited to teach them when I go to school. Yesterday morning for example, and many mornings, 3 of my girls greeted me with hugs and "Wow, you're beautiful!"'s.
I also receive frequent: "You're my best teacher ever." " I love you, Miss." and "You are so crazy, Miss." In fact, during reading yesterday I had the students share a book that they like with the class as an advertisement for the book. One of my students got up and started talking about her book and said, "There are four kids in this class and they are in fifth grade. They have the best teacher and she is fun and funny and a little bit crazy... just like Miss Yoder." Which was followed by a chorus of laughter.
One of the funniest things that happened to me lately was yesterday. I'm not entirely sure why, but I had been joking with my class about secrets. Everything is always a special secret that they'll find out later. =) For example, science experiments. "What are we doing in science today?" "It's a secret!" So after lunch, to get into the room instead of a high five or whatever else I decided to tell my students they needed to tell a secret. To which several seriously responded: You won't tell? I replied, "No, of course not." Most of them simply came up to me and said things like: "WE are going to science." "I like basketball." I was shocked when several of my students, including some of my boys, simply came up and without hesitation informed me of who they liked in the class or another class. I had to hold in my laughter from shock. Now, obviously I can't tell you what they said, since I'm not allowed. =)
Last week, I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with one of my students and her family. It was a great blessing. They were so kind and sweet and supportive. One of the things that this reminded me of is that I really do have a great amount of influence on my students. Her mom in talking to me, knew so many things, even about the past week. For example, she knew that my Grandma had had a birthday and I had told my class about it, that I sang in Chapel on Friday, and that I wore a beautiful brown dress on Thursday. Or the fact that I was wearing my locket that night and I had told my students when they asked what was inside, "it was full of all my secrets". Which she quotes telling her mother how funny I was telling them this. All things that I thought of as small, that her daughter had deemed important enough to tell her. Almost scary. My students repeating all the things I say and do. I can only pray for the Lord's help in this huge responsibility.
This already getting long...which is why I should blog more frequently. We just finished our writing unit on folktales. Always one of my favorites. I have decided I should keep a collection of all of my love stories. Mr. Cooper is now gone and has been replaced by Mr. Sonnen. My students love to tease me about him and say that we are married. Actually, one of my favorite folktales included me and a teacher who were in love, Mr. Thomsung. This story includes us being separated by an anti-love potion. Then it includes lines such as, "He wished to have the potion. Mr. Son...oops sorry Mr. T went to go get it." At the very end of the story, it says: "By the way Mr. Sonnen and Mr. T are synonymous. I looked it up."
Very clever.
There are many more funny stories, which I 'll probably need to include on another post. Now I will move on to my more serious note on my already too long blog post. One of the students wrote a story that I felt was symbolic. In her story, there are two characters who love light and one character who loves darkness. The character who loves the darkness is contantly making the light disappear while the other characters are trying to put it back on. Then one day, the bad character is found crying. She then explains that her parents had died when she was young and she had been put with her aunt. When she was seven, her aunt had saw that she had powers. The aunt told her that these powers made her evil and she was a bad influence on the world. So she became sad and loved the darkness only. So the girls "the lights" in the story tell her that they can figure out what to do with her powers, and they want to help her be happy. So they search until they find parents for her, and the parents see her magic powers and say they love her anyways. She finds her place and begins to make light instead. Not only was this a really good story, but I thought it was a beautiful picture of how we as Christians sometimes forget that those doing evil have a heart too and often one that is hurting. We have a great opportunity help them see the light and acceptance they can find in Christ so that they can be lights too.
I did want to take a small moment to share about something big that had happened in the past week. I want to be careful because it is very sensitive, especially for the sake of those involved. A little over a week ago, a fifth grade student was kidnapped. Before school, in front of family members. This was one of the things I've seen in my life that was hardest for me to reconcile with God. An innocent child being in this position. It seemed very much like darkness had won. However, I praise God that she is safe and sound and back with her parents. It took about 6 days, but she was returned safely. During that time there were so many prayers going up, all around the world. And God answered them. What I had to look at was this: What if God didn't seemingly answer my prayers and the prayers of my students? How on earth do I explain to fifth graders that God is still good? I know that God has been good and I don't need to dwell in this, but God helped me during the time she was gone to develop an assurance that he is working for good despite what I see. Praise God for what an amazing testimony this young girl has!
While this was far from a good thing, this experience also helped me to really look at what I'm doing with my life and my students. Whether here in Honduras or anywhere, I am never promised another day with my students. At the end of the day do they know 2 things: 1.God loves them and has a plan for them. 2. I love them and believe in them. Yes, I do want them to learn. But ultimately, this is what I want my students to learn from fifth grade. I can't imagine the amount of love parents feel for the kids and even the huge amount of responsibility. I already feel like the amount I love these kids is so much that it's difficult to even fathom some of these things. Yet I know their parents love them more. And God, He loves them even more than any of us could.
I could probably go on forever. So I think it's time for me to stop for this blog. =) If you made it all the way to the end congratulations. Please keep praying for me and my class, and the other teachers that are here.
My students are still great. I adore them. They are some of the most encouraging kids ever and I honestly am excited to teach them when I go to school. Yesterday morning for example, and many mornings, 3 of my girls greeted me with hugs and "Wow, you're beautiful!"'s.
I also receive frequent: "You're my best teacher ever." " I love you, Miss." and "You are so crazy, Miss." In fact, during reading yesterday I had the students share a book that they like with the class as an advertisement for the book. One of my students got up and started talking about her book and said, "There are four kids in this class and they are in fifth grade. They have the best teacher and she is fun and funny and a little bit crazy... just like Miss Yoder." Which was followed by a chorus of laughter.
One of the funniest things that happened to me lately was yesterday. I'm not entirely sure why, but I had been joking with my class about secrets. Everything is always a special secret that they'll find out later. =) For example, science experiments. "What are we doing in science today?" "It's a secret!" So after lunch, to get into the room instead of a high five or whatever else I decided to tell my students they needed to tell a secret. To which several seriously responded: You won't tell? I replied, "No, of course not." Most of them simply came up to me and said things like: "WE are going to science." "I like basketball." I was shocked when several of my students, including some of my boys, simply came up and without hesitation informed me of who they liked in the class or another class. I had to hold in my laughter from shock. Now, obviously I can't tell you what they said, since I'm not allowed. =)
Last week, I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with one of my students and her family. It was a great blessing. They were so kind and sweet and supportive. One of the things that this reminded me of is that I really do have a great amount of influence on my students. Her mom in talking to me, knew so many things, even about the past week. For example, she knew that my Grandma had had a birthday and I had told my class about it, that I sang in Chapel on Friday, and that I wore a beautiful brown dress on Thursday. Or the fact that I was wearing my locket that night and I had told my students when they asked what was inside, "it was full of all my secrets". Which she quotes telling her mother how funny I was telling them this. All things that I thought of as small, that her daughter had deemed important enough to tell her. Almost scary. My students repeating all the things I say and do. I can only pray for the Lord's help in this huge responsibility.
This already getting long...which is why I should blog more frequently. We just finished our writing unit on folktales. Always one of my favorites. I have decided I should keep a collection of all of my love stories. Mr. Cooper is now gone and has been replaced by Mr. Sonnen. My students love to tease me about him and say that we are married. Actually, one of my favorite folktales included me and a teacher who were in love, Mr. Thomsung. This story includes us being separated by an anti-love potion. Then it includes lines such as, "He wished to have the potion. Mr. Son...oops sorry Mr. T went to go get it." At the very end of the story, it says: "By the way Mr. Sonnen and Mr. T are synonymous. I looked it up."
Very clever.
There are many more funny stories, which I 'll probably need to include on another post. Now I will move on to my more serious note on my already too long blog post. One of the students wrote a story that I felt was symbolic. In her story, there are two characters who love light and one character who loves darkness. The character who loves the darkness is contantly making the light disappear while the other characters are trying to put it back on. Then one day, the bad character is found crying. She then explains that her parents had died when she was young and she had been put with her aunt. When she was seven, her aunt had saw that she had powers. The aunt told her that these powers made her evil and she was a bad influence on the world. So she became sad and loved the darkness only. So the girls "the lights" in the story tell her that they can figure out what to do with her powers, and they want to help her be happy. So they search until they find parents for her, and the parents see her magic powers and say they love her anyways. She finds her place and begins to make light instead. Not only was this a really good story, but I thought it was a beautiful picture of how we as Christians sometimes forget that those doing evil have a heart too and often one that is hurting. We have a great opportunity help them see the light and acceptance they can find in Christ so that they can be lights too.
I did want to take a small moment to share about something big that had happened in the past week. I want to be careful because it is very sensitive, especially for the sake of those involved. A little over a week ago, a fifth grade student was kidnapped. Before school, in front of family members. This was one of the things I've seen in my life that was hardest for me to reconcile with God. An innocent child being in this position. It seemed very much like darkness had won. However, I praise God that she is safe and sound and back with her parents. It took about 6 days, but she was returned safely. During that time there were so many prayers going up, all around the world. And God answered them. What I had to look at was this: What if God didn't seemingly answer my prayers and the prayers of my students? How on earth do I explain to fifth graders that God is still good? I know that God has been good and I don't need to dwell in this, but God helped me during the time she was gone to develop an assurance that he is working for good despite what I see. Praise God for what an amazing testimony this young girl has!
While this was far from a good thing, this experience also helped me to really look at what I'm doing with my life and my students. Whether here in Honduras or anywhere, I am never promised another day with my students. At the end of the day do they know 2 things: 1.God loves them and has a plan for them. 2. I love them and believe in them. Yes, I do want them to learn. But ultimately, this is what I want my students to learn from fifth grade. I can't imagine the amount of love parents feel for the kids and even the huge amount of responsibility. I already feel like the amount I love these kids is so much that it's difficult to even fathom some of these things. Yet I know their parents love them more. And God, He loves them even more than any of us could.
I could probably go on forever. So I think it's time for me to stop for this blog. =) If you made it all the way to the end congratulations. Please keep praying for me and my class, and the other teachers that are here.
Jennifer, thank you for sharing your insight! and your reminder to focus on the things that are priority to communicate to the people we're around/are working with is very timely for me. it helps keep perspective on the eternal rather than on the day-to-day tasks and stressors.
ReplyDeletelove you!