A Week of Blessings - Carnaval, Venezuela Day, Puppet Club

   



     This week started like any other, but turned out to be a huge blessing. On Tuesdays, I meet with any of the third, fourth, or fifth grade girls who want to come for lunch. We talk, pray, and read a devotional that I got them for Christmas (with money given to me, thank you). It's a time of mentorship, fun, and learning. I'm amazed at their excitement to eat lunch with me and to read their devotional. Many of the girls tell me how they also read the other days that week and how much they are learning from it. God is blessing the time with these girls so much.










      On Monday and Tuesday, we had regular classes, just like normal. In my class, we were working on finishing a few units as it's almost halfway through long third quarter. In the picture on the right, the fourth and fifth graders are working on making books about government, showing off what they have learned during the past few weeks.













     Wednesday was a half day, which is part of our normal schedule (every other week is a half day for teacher in service day). In the afternoon, the teachers were surprised to be taken out for a nice lunch to thank us for our hard work on accreditation. It was delicious and a wonderful time of celebration. This afternoon was an unexpected blessing from God.













     On Thursday, I showed up at school in the morning and was asked by a Venezuelan staff member if we had school. After talking with the administration and researching online, we found that the president had cancelled school for all of the secondary (middle school and high school) students. Our administration decided to declare online school for our whole school! That's as close to a snow day as we have here. Teachers had to work and be available to students, but it was a great time where we were able to grade, plan, and prepare for some special days coming up. What a blessing!










      On Friday, we had school as usual. Every Friday, the elementary students have chapel. Last week, we learned about how God calls us to forgive others, even when they do bad things and don't ask for forgiveness. This week, my class (and third and fourth grade) wrote skits responding to last week's chapel. It was great! The students learned a lot while writing them, but also performed the skits to share them with the other classes. God blessed this time and taught my students, not just how to write a skit, but also how they need to apply this to their lives.











      Friday was also Venezuela Day! After lunch, we started this special day at our school. It is a day we dedicate to appreciating Venezuela and teaching about this country to our students. I led on of the groups around to different stations. I love that on Venezuela Day our groups have preschool through high school students. It's a fun time of games, appreciation, dancing, and learning.














     On Friday, after school, I lead a club. This quarter, I'm leading puppet club. The students are having fun and working on writing skits to perform in chapel during March. This Friday I was blessed to have a smaller group and a middle school helper, which was a blessing after a long day and allowed me to help some of the younger students write skits.













      This weekend is Carnaval, which means that we have today and tomorrow off of school. This long weekend is at the perfect time. I've been blessed to enjoy lots of meals with friends and a chance to relax and regroup.

















Prayer Requests and Praises

-This Saturday is the NICS job fair. ICS has many positions open. Please pray that we are able to fill these positions. Also pray for our director who is traveling to this job fair.

-Praise God for this week of blessings.

-Pray for Read-a-thon that starts this week.

-Praise God that the student who was in the car accident is back at school and doing well.

-Pray that we would be able to find chicken. We haven't seen it since before Christmas.

-Praise God for good health. Many of the student are feeling better.

-Pray that we would be able to find milk and butter.

-Praise God for wonderful lunches with the girls on Tuesdays.

These birds were in the tree right outside of my window!