Prayer Requests

At our staff meeting today it was brought to our attention that our small school size is hurting the school financially. We are need of more students. For our school to survive we need about 25 more students. I know that the Lord can send them from all over the place. Pray that the embassies will send their children to our school. Our school is also promoting it's preschool program. Pray that more Brazilians and others will enroll their children. If our enrollment does not increase then 2 of us teachers will be going home in January. It has not been decided who those teachers will be yet. It is not a pleasant thing to think about. We have a great staff and I enjoy working with all of them. Don't let this tear our school apart.

We have parent-teacher conferences this week and I have a particularly difficult family I need to meet with. Please pray for me and for them.

Also found out that our director and his family will be leaving Brazil at the end of this year. They have been with the school for 10 years now and think it is time for them to move on. They are expecting baby number 3.

Lots going on, but God is faithful!

"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." Hebrews 10:35-36

Overload....

  Thank the good Lord it is Friday! I am worn out! We only had school for 4 days this week, but it felt sooo long. I found out this week that one of my students went home and told her mom that I said she was dumb. I said no such thing. This girl's mom was upset and wanted to have a conference with me at Children's Day, but a member of admin. told her that now was not the time or the place. I can not believe this girl! She is one of my students who doesn't do assignments or follow directions. Ahhh..
  Next week is parent-teacher conferences, this should be interesting. The students do not have school on Monday and Tuesday, but we have to do report cards and have a teacher-in-service. I am looking forward to a few days student free.
  Last night were were all taken out to dinner and I ended up at a table full of kids...I had to relocate myself. There was no way I was going to last a meal there...I had already reached a sensory overload moment in the full van on the way to the restaurant. I wanted to retreat. After I moved tables it was fine. It was just too much.
  Looking forward to a nice weekend...

Brazilian wedding

  Today was my first Brazilian wedding and it was nice. She got married outside with a reception inside. She looked radiant! I am so happy for her! The reception was low key, no dancing or speeches like North American weddings, but good. The food was crepes--meal type and dessert type. The line we got in moved soooo slow! It was a nice opportunity to get out and get all dressed up. You should see how fancy everyone gets for a wedding!
  Oh...I caught a part of the bouquet....she threw it and it was actually 3 smaller bouquets. Cute. It was a fun time.

Children's Day

  Today was our Children's Day celebration at the school. We were praying that it would not rain and it did not rain until 8:30 tonight! God is good. Things went well...I am pretty sure that my chapel group won the pizza party by having the most tickets earned. Yay!
  Both of our games were a hit, but the water balloons were a huge hit! One odd thing was... I was in charge of supervising at the water balloon area and this 1st grader came up to buy water balloons and he ended up using 40 tickets to mostly hit me! I have no idea why this little boy wanted to attack me with water balloons. I ended up really wet and he was angry while he was throwing them at me! I teach his class music one day a week---where this anger came from is weird! He did help us win though!
  Today was also the last day of one of my prized fifth graders! I am sooo sad. He was a sweetie. His family gave me chocolates and perfume as a goodbye. So sweet. This family is from England and moving to France. I will miss this child dearly! I am losing another student next week---my fifth graders will be down to 3! Ahh. Pray for more students!
  Tomorrow is a wedding! Should be fun! Hooray for a 3 day weekend! Yay!

It is October

  Here is a mini update. Tomorrow is Children's Day and it is currently raining! We need it to be a perfect day. Children's Day is a celebration of children and there are games and sancks. The games are being run by chapel groups. My group is selling water balloons and doing Skee-ball. We need nice weather.
   Today after school we went to get our Brazilian workbooks (the way they keep track of employment) and some other stuff. It is funny how much I appreciate the staff at my school. I say funny and I mean funny...I appreciate them and they add so much humor to my day. It was a good afternoon. Last Saturday night was game night too--fun times. We had a crazy game of Catch Phrase going. God has blessed me.
  I do wish I knew more Brazilians and had time to hang out with them. This week I realized that I have no way to send packages or letters because the post office is closed by the time I get home...great.
  I recovered those monkey pictures...yay!