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Saturday, June 21, 2014

Learning to Be Still and How to do School... PI pt One

So I was thinking...
preschoolers are exhausting. I've been in PI for nine full days and haven't had a chance to sit down and write because I couldn't keep my eyes open. KIM (Kids International Ministries) runs a Christian school that serves Kindergarten - Grade 9. They also run a pregnancy clinic that serves the local women with time in the word, vitamins and food to strengthen them during their 9 months. Last year, a group of us were talking with Jeff(the founder) about how was KIM serving the children in between ages 2-5. He challenged us to think of how to do this and we decided a preschool was needed to help the children and their parents in raising children in the Word and "breaking the cycle of poverty" through education. Jeff got started on his end and the building of the Early Learning Center began about a year ago. We arrived on June 12th and with the help of the director, a woman named Jenn, we started classes on the 15th. These classes bring together the community children and the children in the nursery of the Children's Home. The first two days were crazy, teaching the children routines and practically how to do school(sit in seats, line up, wait, share, etc.) It got better throughout the week and I'm excited to see how it grows over these next two weeks. Please pray for Eugene and Mary Cris, the PI teachers, that are on this adventure with us. 


Here is a video of the first few days

Our group also had the privilege of taking a group of PI teenagers from Journey of Hope to see HillSong United. It was such a fun experience to sing praise to Christ with 12,000 others. 


I've also been able to go to some local churches in downtown Manila the past few days and a community girls Bible Study. I've been very convicted to memorize more scripture and truly know God's Word in my heart. I'm working on being still and resting in the presence of the Lord in worship, in prayer, in preschool, in playing with the children at the Orphanage. I'll keep you posted:)

If you would like to join me in prayer, here is my current list:

- For God to open hearts to reveal His Powerful Love
- For the local people to rely truly on the sovereign Lord and not on idols
- For Baby Lexie, the newest child at the children's home(6 days old) to recover from pneumonia
- For the PI government to release the shipping container that holds tons of supplies
- For myself to be fully in the Word and memorizing scripture
- For safety for our team going down to Tacloban to build houses on Monday, that through their love for God people will God's Love

~R



Monday, June 9, 2014

A Quick End of the Year Recap

So I was thinking, I'm so happy it's summer! I love my kiddos, but I was in need of a break! Here is a quick review of what we have done since early APRIL! Can you believe I've been away from the blogworld for that long! 

My class fell in love with poetry this year, we made acrostics, lists, and diamante poems for days! These were my favorites. They wrote about a specific topic and then put on a shape that matched. 

 I am so happy to announce that our plants GREW! We sang "Let it Grow" to them from our favorite movie of the moment. We also studied seeds and freshwater plants with our snails and guppies. We made the large flowers using nouns and adjectives on the petals and then writing a sentence on the stem. 
At the end of the year we reviewed all writing types (narrative, informational, and opinion). The last week of school we wrote an opinion piece on our favorite candy. I told the kiddos that if their writing was out of this world I would get them their favorite candy. With the incentive of sugar, my kids got straight to work and did outstanding work! 

 Word Shout became one of our favorite small group games. We would take 3 of the dice and practice CVC words before testing and then write sentences with those words. 

I'm headed to the Philippines on Wednesday!! TCBY made this delicious mango ice cream that I enjoyed, but can't wait to go get some fresh mango from the mango trees! 

Check back soon with a blog about the Philippines, I promise to do better keeping people updated! 

~R