God is in Control!

Hello all!

I know it has been awhile since I have written. I have definitely not been meeting goal of writing in here once a week. Sorry about that. Life has been pretty crazy lately!

My class this year is quite the handful! I have 24 kids (15 boys and 9 girls) that I love dearly, but they are a tough bunch! Most of the talk ALL the time, even if I'm talking. Many of them have extra needs or issues such as: not speaking any English (they are supposed to know English by the time they get to me!), troubles at home, very bad temper with no anger management skills, overly sensitive and cry often...just to name a few. God has given me quite the challenge this year! I can't possibly teach these kids or love these kids well on my own, but the beautiful thing is that I don't have to. God is right here with me, giving me what I need for each day. Without Him, I would have quit weeks ago.

I've also been very busy! School stuff is enough to keep me busy, but I'm also going to be in a concert that my church is having this Saturday. (Everyone is invited. Tickets are 200 pesos. It's at 7:00 in the Centro de Cultura. I hope to see you there! Haha!) ;) The concert is a fundraiser for our building project. We have outgrown our current building and are looking at different options for expanding. We have been having practices for the concert every Saturday since I've been back. These are not short quick practices either, they've all been at least 3 hours long, with the one last Saturday being 6 hours long! That time adds up! I'm doing something I've never done before...I'm singing a duet with one of my friends. Actually, I'm singing 2 duets! In Spanish!! I'm excited, but also nervous for this. If you read this before Saturday, pray for me, that I would focus only on my Audience of One and just sing for Him and not worry about all the others who are listening.

I called this post "God is in control!" because that is what He has been telling me and reminding me of a lot lately. I won't give all the examples of this, I'd be typing all night if I did, but I'll share one from today. This morning was really good with my kids. They were listening better than they have been. Then right before lunch everything fell apart. My boy who can't speak English got upset about something and started sobbing loudly. I couldn't really console him because I can't speak Spanish well enough for that. I couldn't really understand him because he was crying so hard and he was speaking Spanish. I couldn't even send him to the office like I usually do when kids get upset and are disrupting the class for an extended period of time because he couldn't understand what I was saying! On top of this, another girl was crying because she was on blue for the first time. (Our behavior system for the school is colors...you switch from green to yellow to red to blue to black. Blue or black mean you have to go to the office and call home...not fun for them!) I was going back and forth trying to calm them both down. Meanwhile the other kids were working on something, but they were having a hard time because of all the commotion. My kids have learned that they need to help Mr. No-English and I communicate because sometimes we just can't understand each other. They love helping, so some of them were crowding around him asking him what was wrong and this time it was making him even more upset. I told them to leave him alone. Some of them have tender enough hearts that they couldn't leave him alone so they'd keep going over to him to try to help him, which just kept making it worse. This lasted for about 20 minutes, but it felt like 2 hours! I was so thankful when it was time for lunch. I had recess duty, but I had to get sobbing Mr. No-English to the office so he could talk to someone who knows Spanish and calm himself down. I did that and was late to recess. As I was walking up to the playground, I was feeling overwhelmed. I was wishing I would have known how to handle that situation better and dreading the afternoon. But then God did something really cool! The 6 year old son of one of the new teachers, who is such a cutie came up to me. (Some background on this little guy...he's super touchy-feely so he always has to touch you when he talks to you. He talks non-stop. He's super smart...he has taught me about "social networking" and "burning cds" and "syncing music to your ipod" and stuff like that on different occasions.) So he comes up to me with a big smile on his face and I couldn't tell if he was going to hug me or give me a high five. So I asked him, and he said "BOTH!!!!" So he bear-hugged me and then gave me a high five. Then he asked me if I had burned the disc that his mom has with all the music about God on it. I told him I hadn't (I don't even know what disc he was talking about!) and he said that I should because it has so many songs about God. He said he LOVES all the songs about God. Then he started naming off songs that are on this cd. He started singing one that he really likes. "God is in control..." by Twila Paris. The thing is that he could only remember those four words. He just kept singing those four words and dancing around me. That was God's way of reminding me today that He is in control and that while I can't possibly manage my class and meet all their needs on my own, I can with His help. After remembering that, the afternoon was great! I'm so thankful that God sent this little guy into my path to sing "God is in control! God is in control! God is in control!" right when I needed to hear it. Sometimes God sends us very specific messages right when we need them...and sometimes they can come from the little guys!

Here are a couple pictures of my class. (2 kids were absent when we took these pictures!)

A normal one.

(This was hard because the sun was BRIGHT!)

A crazy one! :)

(Or is this the normal one?!)