Semper Gumby

So maybe you're wondering what this means :) It's not original... I can't take credit for it, but it was always Pastor Harry's motto for us in high school when we would go on missions trips and I've found that it's really a good motto for life. Semper Gumby - Always Flexible! (If you don't know who Gumby is... look him up :D ) When interacting with those from another culture or even your own culture, many times things happen that weren't expected, and we can both encourage and show kindness by being flexible and not allowing circumstances to steal our joy.

I'm thankful for this training when I was in high school because now it comes to mind often! Many things have not happened as planned and that's ok! First off, school schedules! So originally I was going to have Thursdays to go into town and get a little bit of internet time and go to the store for whatever was needed. A while ago, BC's mission board told him that he needed to have a day off of school to be able to keep doing everything he was doing: teaching, being the administrator, being a house dad, teaching English at the government school on occasion and being willing to tutor anyone in English whenever available. Since then, our pastor, Pastor Edward, has taught on Thursdays for him. However, Pastor Edward has been doing distance education classes and this is his year for their equivalent of student teaching. He came to BC last week and said that he didn't think he could handle teaching on Thursdays as well for this year. Well God is good, because he brought me here the year that BC needed someone to continue to teach for him on Thursdays. He has also shown His goodness in working it out so that I could still go into town Wednesday afternoons after school to get internet and charge up my battery (rainy season lends itself to a lack of solar power), hit up the store, and go to the English Bible Study at Kitwe Church. I was hoping to do this and then spend Thursday at the college, but the way it works out, one teacher will have my class for the first two periods on Thursday which means I don't have to get back to Amano at 6:30 am, but I can catch a ride in with Dr. Day and his family when they come out to FCV at 9:00 am for their clinic hours. I never would have planned it this way, but I am so excited for extra time with the kids in class as well as the ability to still get to an English Bible study.

My school schedule is also like this :) Many times lessons prepared for Monday get taught Thursday or the following week or not at all :) And we just go with it. There is so much the kids don't know; for instance, growing up in the states I had access to many many books; I had exposure. Many of these kids especially in the village don't see a book unless they come to FCV. Even the government school doesn't have textbooks or a library or much of anything. Books here are expensive. But also, many times growing up I had the opportunity to experience things simply because I was born in America. Like going to the aquarium and actually getting to hold a horseshoe crab... granted they terrified me as a child... but I still had the experience. Here there aren't too many opportunities like that especially for those living in the outlying villages. Our goal with our grade 4-6 students this year is to have some kind of thematic unit that is tied into English, reading, vocabulary, Bible, art, and even some music! We've planned to do an ocean theme for Term 1, an outer space theme for Term 2, and still toying around with what to do for Term 3, but thinking about a Medieval theme. I'm so excited to be a  part of this work. The kids love it!

I also have an opportunity to work with the grade 7s. I can't remember what I've already said about them, so I apologize if I'm repeating myself, but they are at the English level of many of our grade 3 or 4 students. There are 4 of them that have just come to our school for this year. They've actually already passed the government testing for grade 7 but they don't know much English at all. Almost everyday I play "catchphrase" with them... well, kind of. We have old Pictionary cards which I use to give clues about vocabulary words and they try to guess the word. If it's a word they have no reference for at all, I write it on the board, and we look it up in the dictionary. (They have big picture dictionaries). We look it up, talk about it with the interpreter, look at any pictures that are with it, talk about what part of speech it is, etc. and then later I'll ask that same clue again. For every word they get right, they get to hold on to the card. At the end of the game, whoever has the most cards gets a sticker!! :D Candy in a treasure box is to an American student what stickers are for an African student!! They love them!! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to work with these 4 kids! They're working hard and I'm excited to see how they progress in their English.

Thank you for your prayers!
Please continue to pray for those children who are unsaved.
For those coming down with malaria... it seems like at least 1 or 2 a day
For wisdom for BC with teacher observations and administrative tasks
For grace as I try to learn some Bemba :D
For our Bible study with the girls in the dorm. Helen is leading and we're going through John. It's been a blessing to connect with the girls on this level and get to know them better :)