Thanksgiving

  When I say Thanksgiving I do not necessarily mean the holiday, but the action of thanking God everyday for the wonderful things He has done. The translation for Thanksgiving in Portuguese is the 'Action of Thanks'. A week ago I was teaching my students about the first Thanksgiving and before I could get more indepth into the lesson a student said, "My mom said that Thanksgiving should be everyday, a day to thank the Lord." Smart woman.
  I have been thankful for so many things...when we went around the table on Thanksgiving I said I was thankful for a God who is a 'Dream fulfiller'. It reminds me of a song we sing at Family Fellowship..
  "He's a miracle worker, He's a bondage breaker, He's a dream releaser, that is who You are" So true.
I am thankful for being able to come to Brazil and to teach kids from different countries. I am their teacher, but they teach me so many things. I am also grateful for the international church I attend. I am starting to get to know a lot more people. It is nice. I am grateful for so many things..this is just a start.
  We found out that December 7th is the day that the school will tell us who will be asked to go home. Please pray for us and the leadership. I know that God is not done with me here in Brazil.
  What are you thankful for? Think back on what God has done this year...it is almost over....

Relaxation....

Hi all! Last weekend I had some visitors, Maria and her husband Claudemir, flew in from Sao Paulo. They took me to Chapada dos Veadeiros in the state of Goias. It is a natural park with 25 different waterfalls, canyons and wildlife. It was about 3 hours away, Travis also went with us. We picked up a guide, who was a hippie and he took us to one of the waterfalls with a Woodstock stage...go figure. It was beautiful though. After being there awhile we ate at this yummy pasta bar. Later we stopped at a hot spring. We stayed the night in a pousada, a rustic inn. It was a nice place and I loved the hammocks outside. It was a great weekend. It was my first real chance to get out of the city and do something else.
  Maria asked me to be her baby's godmother! Wow! Yay! They decided to name her Rafaella. (Ha-fi-el-la) I am going to Sao Paulo for Christmas break.
  School news: things are going good. Parent-teacher conferences went well. The school is still trying to decide what to do. It sounds like they want to make a decision by the end of this month! Please pray! Thank you.  I am working hard on the Christmas program. I am teaching the elementary music part of it and all of the choreography. Please pray that I will not get too tuckered out. I am also leading an after school dance club. Life is always busy here, but God is good and I am settling in here.
  Much Love!

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!