My Venezuelan Church and Baptism

     In Venezuela, I attend a church every Sunday in Spanish. My church recently changed its name to El Puente, which means the Bridge. The church is pastored by a missionary from the USA, who has lived in Venezuela for about 20 years and has two daughters currently attending our school. There is also a local pastor, who is leading more and more as the missionary pastor will be on furlough next year.

Pastor Berkey

     The church service is in the same order as many others. We start with a time of worship, which several of my friends help lead. Then, there's the sermon, offering, and a closing song. After church, we move all of the chairs away and bring out a table for a time of fellowship and snacks.

Part of the worship team, ending with one final song

This is the whole church. It is small, but it is
a growing and changing community.

    At the beginning of August, Pastor Berkey invited those in our church to consider being baptized if we hadn't already. I had been baptized as a baby, but not as a believer, so I began praying about being baptized as a believer. After praying about it, I realized this is a step in my faith that I've needed to take for a while. On October 26, 2014, I was baptized as a believer. I had the opportunity to talk and share more with my church about why I was being baptized and who I am as a missionary here. To God be the glory!

After church, there is always a snack (merienda) and coffee.

Being baptized as a believer

Me with friends who came to watch me be baptized

The pastors and I

Wacky Day

We had the first Spirit Day since it was the
end of the first quarter. It was Wacky Day!

Wacky Teachers

Wacky Fifth Graders!

More Wacky Fifth Graders!

After making constellation projects, we laid down to view them on our ceiling.

     This weekend is fall break. Please pray for rest and refreshment for teachers. Continue praying for health and safety in traveling. We have lots of visitors coming during the next few weeks. Please pray as we prepare for them and as they travel. Next week is parents-teacher conferences. Please pray that they go well and are a good time to connect with parents.

Spiritual Emphasis Week (VBS)

     Every year, ICS Caracas has a spiritual emphasis week.  Last year, it ended up being cancelled due to the protests, so we did it as a club after school. This year, we planned it towards the beginning of the year so that it wouldn't be cancelled. This worked so well because it was a break from the long stretch of first quarter and because it gave new students a basis on what we are learning in Bible class. The middle and high school always go to camp, where they have a speaker, play games, and learn about God in small groups. In elementary school, we have a Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our school. This year's theme was Hip Hop Hope. We started each morning with a time together, worshiping God, learning through skits, and learning the Bible story for the day. 

Some students chose to be part of a drama club for the week
and prepared the skits for us. I was very proud of my students!

     Then, we split into mixed-age groups and rotated through stations. I led the game station. It was fun, even on the day it rained. We played tag, hula hoops, parachute, an indoor obstacle course (under the desks in my classroom, which they loved), and a name game.

I was impressed that some students were great at the hula hoop!

     The other stations were craft, songs, snack/memory verse, and dance. I had a break once a day and loved walking around to the other stations. There were some cool crafts like tie-dying bandanas. I also enjoyed watching the song stations, where I could see students learning and thinking about the lyrics that were being taught. The dance station also looked like lots of fun. The kids sure were tired by the end of the day!

Songs with Sign Language

Dance Station

They made money pouches to learn about how Zacchaeus stole
money from people and God changed his heart.

Memory Verse with Motions

Tie-Dye!!

     Overall, VBS was wonderful! The leaders all did a great job, and the kids had fun, made new friends, and learned a lot about God. Talking with other teachers, we saw lots of little fruit coming out from our time doing this. While I didn't see much of this during games, I heard about students asking great questions. This year, half of my class is new to our school, and for a few of them, this school is their first exposure to Christianity. In preparation for VBS, the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher, read a storybook version of the Bible with students. My students loved this so much that now once a week they are going to have a day where they read from this Bible. I'm so glad that they are excited and curious about what the Bible is. During Bible class, we have been learning who God is (omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and the Trinity). I'm grateful that they can learn more Bible stories during their EFL class to help them understand more about God and his love for us.

Prayer Requests and Praises
-VBS went great! Students learned and asked more questions!
-Pray for fall break (October 17-20). There is lots going on during this break: fumigation, classrooms switching, a new wall being built, visa trips, rest, finishing report cards, preparing for parent teacher conferences, fellowship, and preparing for second quarter.
-Pray for health. Teachers are continually sick, and the students are starting to be sick too. There is also a mosquito spread illness that is running rampant in Caracas.
-Pray for our director as he travels to a director's conference in Bolivia.

My Students

      All 8 of my fifth grade students are officially at school! One student has been enrolled, but didn't come until a week ago due to flight issues and Venezuelan schools not starting until the middle of September. In my fifth grade class, I have 4 students who were in my class last year and 4 students who are new to our school. My students are from China, Venezuela, and Nigeria. They range in age from 10 to 12. It's exciting to watch the class learn and grow together. Even in the 7 weeks we have been in school, I have seen kids learning, growing, asking better questions, and being better friends. The whole class is beginning to bond together really well, which is such a huge blessing. They are very funny and crazy kids, and I love having them in class!

My mom sent me letters for a bulletin board.
It was a puzzle trying to figure out what it said.

     This year, I am teaching fifth grade for language arts, Bible, and math. The fourth graders join us for science and social studies. When I have both fourth and fifth grade, there are 19 kids. That's a lot for the size of my room. I have to have kids sitting in the "teacher's" chairs in order to fit everyone. Teaching that many students can be tricky at ICS, especially because one third of those students are new English Language Learners. Even the rest of the students are still developing their proficiency in English. We had to begin our science unit back at the basics of what is a star and what is a planet. Despite the difficulties some days, I love having the fourth graders join us. They are very curious and inquisitive, not just about the subject matter, but also how it relates to God. Please pray for the fourth graders as some of them are really searching to know who God is and making decisions if they really want to follow him or not. This week is Spiritual Emphasis Week; please pray that students are challenged during this time.

The whole class acted extra goofy during a class party.

Working hard on group projects in social studies.

It's a tight squeeze in my room with 19 students.

Praises and Prayer Requests
-Praise that all 8 of my students are at school!
-Praise that my class has been becoming better friends and are caring more for each other.
-Pray for salvation for the students, especially for fourth graders who are trying to make hard decisions.
-Pray for Spiritual Emphasis Week. This week is Spiritual Emphasis Week. Starting Wednesday, the middle school and high school are heading to a camp to bond and learn more about God. In elementary school, we will be having a VBS on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Our theme is the hope we have in God.
-Continue to pray for health. This is still a huge concern.
-Pray for bug issues. The mosquitoes have been bad for two months now, and other bugs are becoming problematic in some of our houses. I found a cockroach on our clean silverware last night, and I have friends who are getting mysterious bites at night (we suspect spiders).
-Pray for transition and homesickness. This is the time of the year when we begin feeling homesick or missing fall. This is especially hard for new teachers, who have lived here two months now, which may be longer than they've been away from family/friends before.

Community

    One of the biggest blessings at ICS Caracas is the community. This has especially been apparent to me these past few weeks. God is working in our staff through the community we have together. I've been blessed to enjoy countless meals with friends, have people who truly care when they ask how I'm doing, and always have someone who I can talk to when I've had a rough day. This community challenges each other in our walk with the Lord. We encourage one another. We play games together, eat together, go play volleyball at another school close to us, have Bible study together, and intentionally spend time outside of school with each other. I am blessed to be part of the ICS staff and the wonderful community that we have.

Prayer Requests and Praises
-Our staff is growing together! We've been learning how we function this year as a staff with all of the new people and changes. I am thankful that we are working well together.
-Being able to find these staples that have shortages is such a blessing and praise. Yesterday, the store I was at even had so much toilet paper that it was on two different aisles! I've also found vegetable oil and flour recently. God always provides just when we need it.
-Pray for salvation for students. Many of the fourth grade girls are asking great questions and truly searching. Pray that the fifth graders would begin thinking and asking questions about the Bible. We're about to begin a unit on who God is.
-Continue to pray for health. There is a virus going around Caracas that I hope no one at our school gets. It is wonderful that since the first week of school, we have mostly been healthy.
-Praise that our new students are doing well. They have learned a lot these first few weeks.
-I still have one student in my class who should be coming during these next two weeks, and I would appreciate prayers for her as she transitions in the middle of the year.
-Pray for friendships in the fifth grade class. They are at an age where they are learning again how to work with others who they suddenly find very annoying some days.

First Week of School

Working hard, with help, to set my classroom up.

      The first week of school is over, and we are almost ready to start our second week! At the beginning of August, there were two busy weeks of teacher orientation. As a returning teacher, I had the privilege to help new teachers by showing them around our community, making sure that they had food to eat, helping them with needs in their classrooms. We also had an all day First Aid class in Spanish, and I spent a morning leaving at 2 to wait in line to submit paperwork for my Cedula (Venezuelan ID). These two weeks were exhausting, but it was great to be able to work as a team to get ready for this school year.

Me Museums

     Meanwhile, the classes continued growing, and the decision was made that my fourth and fifth grade class was growing too large. The decision was made that this year I will only be teaching fifth grade and have the fourth graders join us for science and social studies. I switched rooms with the third grade teacher, as she will be taking on a third and fourth combined class.

    On Monday, I started school with five students. Four were in my fourth grade class last year, and the fifth is a new student who spent the past year in a bilingual school in China. On Tuesday, another new student joined our class. He was originally placed in fourth grade, but that decision was changed when we looked at his age. This coming week, I may have another new student or two, and another new girl will be coming in the middle of September. Please pray for this class and all of these new students. Many do not know English at a fifth grade level, which is a challenge for all of us.

     One of our challenges at the beginning of this school year is for my class to all bond together and begin working as a team. For one assignment this week, we made "Me Museums," where the students brought 3-5 items from home and wrote an index card about each item and why it was special to them. We have also done games and activities to help our next students feel welcome. Pray that my class would really continue to learn to work together and be a team.

     Overall, we had a great first week together! It's strange to have half of the class size as last year, but it's great for this group of kids. I can give them each so much more attention and help.

The whole class is eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For some, it is their first time trying one. We are reading Runaway Ralph, and Ralph constantly compares things to how great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are, so the students needed to experience one to understand. They all loved them!

Hanging planets to help us study the solar system.

A wonderful helper and friend

Prayer Requests and Praises
-Praise that we finished the first week of school! It was definitely long and exhausting, but we all made it, even if my kids were asking for a nap time halfway through the first day.
-Pray for health. Two weeks ago, two people (one was a baby) had to spend time in the hospital because they were feeling so bad. Three or four other teachers also have not been feeling well and had to spend additional time resting. Pray that God would heal our staff and keep our students healthy.
-Pray for unity among the staff. Half of the foreign staff is new this year. With all of these changes, it is extra important that we work hard to work together.
-Pray for a great second week. Many of us were just surviving last week. Pray that we would begin to thrive.
-Pray for my fifth graders and unity in our class.
-Pray for the new students, both in my class and at school. Quite a number of students are joining our classes this week as they have not been allowed to enroll the past few weeks and are now able to. We also had many new Chinese students at our school this year, who know neither English nor Spanish.
-Pray for the new staff. We have six new staff members. For three, it is their first year teaching. Another is our new assistant director. Pray for all of them as they transition to this country, school, and life.
-Praise that we were able to find dish soap and cooking oil this weekend! We were running out of dish soap at my house, gave some that we did have to a friend who had none, and God blessed us with 10 new dish soaps. We are well stocked for a while.