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

Six for Saturday

Hello, Hello. I seem to be blogging monthly lately, so here we go! Grad school has been taking up most of my time as well as I am trying to create lots for my TPT store. Here is a quick Six for Saturday list, since I obviously missed Friday. I have a good excuse though, I have been on SPRING BREAK! That much needed week that all of us teachers secretly count down for! 

1. My mom, aunt, bro, sis & most adorable niece loaded up the car and headed to NC to see my amazing almost 84 year old grandmother. She is incredible and we all loved getting to see her for a couple of days. We also got to teach her how to use her new IPHONE 5C. Yes, I know, my grandmother is cooler than yours. She is learning how to Skype and FaceTime and loving every minute of getting to catch up with us. 

2. February - this month was full of fun activities but we saved the best for the 14th. My kids decorated cereal boxes at home for their treats, check out the Lego one, isn't it adorable. I handed out hand made "Valentine, I think you're a Star(burst)!" valentines and we made a pie graph using MnMs. We also wrote about someone/something we love.

- I LOVE GOD, because he gave me everything I needed. 

- I love Miss A because she is nice. 

- I love my FAMILY! I love my mom because she lets me help cleaning the house. I love my Dad because he's funny!

2. We had an E-day(students work online) on President's Day so we made these fun George Washington faces when we came back. Most of them have the fact about him glued to the back. We LOVED learning about his teeth since it was also Dental Health Month. By the way, did you know George was an AUBURN fan?? WAR EAGLE! (2nd pic)

3. We had a visit from our friend, LeRoy the Leprechaun this March. We spent the morning graphing the marshmallows out of Lucky Charms and then LeRoy left us a scavenger hunt in the afternoon! A lot of my kids were giving up candy for lent, so LeRoy was kind enough to leave us green bouncy balls for a treat! 

4. We studied US Symbols a few weeks back. My school's high school team was in the state championship game, so I had a day where about 5 of mine checked out. I decided to let them choose a symbol and make a poster about it.  The only direction they had was to name the symbol and put somewhere what it represented. I think they did a fabulous job, don't you?!

5. Like I mentioned earlier, I am working hard to get my TPT store going. I spent this winter creating long vowel worksheets for our interactive notebooks. We started these notebooks in January as a fun way to cover the skills we were working on in a fun way! My kids have loved the activities, maybe yours will too! 

Long Vowel Interactive Notebook Pages

6. We are headed back to the Philippines in 3 short months! I will be spending a month there and can not wait to see my sweet PI friends again! Please pray that God will open the hearts of the people we come into contact with this summer! 

~Rachel 

Five for Friday 1.3

Happy Friday to all! We are back again for another addition of Kacey's Five for Friday. 

1. The week started with my Sunday School class going out to eat at a fun local restaurant. After lunch, a group of us played a game of Ultimate Frisbee which I don't think I have played since high school. I spent the next two days paying for it with sore legs and ankles but it was such a fun way to hang out with friends. I am currently working on learning to catch the frisbee, let's just say I was a much better defensive player.

2. On Monday, I trekked through the rain to see David Platt at Lakeview. He is amazing,  so challenging and inspiring. I loved his book Radical and I'm excited to read his new one coming out soon! I first read Radical before traveling abroad and this quote held true when I returned from the Philippines. 

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes…” 

If you are looking for a great cause, let me know! I know 36 precious children that changed my life.

3. We are learning place value and making numbers using tens and ones this week in Math. I have all these great tens and ones cubes but no great games to play with them so I decided to put on my own thinking cap and come up with a game during the five minutes I have for lunch. Teaching on the fly as I call it. 

 How to play: we used our AMSTI investigation cards and split the deck in half. Turn over one of each card and create the number shown. Above is 86: 8 tens and 6 ones
Below: 102, 10 tens and 2 ones. My kids loved this game and get excited every time I give it as a game option.

4. I love my nativity that I got in Manila and a few weeks ago I found this great stable to go with it! Best part: it was 75% off!!! Music to my ears. It is made of drift wood and fits perfectly with my other pieces. I very sadly took all of my Christmas decorations down the first week of January but decided not to take this great nativity down. I believe nativities should be left up all year long! What a great reminder each morning to live for Christ. 

5. We have also been talking about Martin Luther King this week since we will be out of school on Monday. I love teaching first grade because they are so loving and innocent. I began reading a great book I got in a Scholastic book pack and my kids stopped me half way through and asked " Why were they doing that, that's rude." 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

~Rachel 

Catching up!

So I was thinking that I have not been blogging enough lately. I originally started this blog so I could document life and my teaching career and blogging 3-4 times a month is not enough. I will start trying to do better, I promise! Today I am catching up on lots of things around the house before I head North for a few days for Thanksgiving. It's also a great day to catch you up on what's been going on in my life!

1. I had to go to professional development two Mondays ago and one of the best parts was the CANDY! Major sweet tooth!

2. My students voted on Election day in our classroom, good news, I won! Look out, Romney and Obama.

3. I had a very busy weekend, last weekend. My Sunday School class had a bon-fire and it was a great time to catch up with everyone while enjoying the beauty of a bonfire. Good friends, good conversations, and SMORES, what could be better?

4. That same weekend my whole family came into town to tailgate for the AUvsGA game. We had a great time hanging out and going to the game together. My sister made these delicious pumpkin spice cookies that were a huge hit. 

That same weekend Jeff and his daughter Josie (Jeff's family started Kids International Ministries in PI) visited our church!!! Our whole group got to hang out with them and their friend Hannah on Monday so I made LB's cookies! They are  delicious!

In other news, NEWSIES was on Dancing with the Stars the other night, so I tuned in to watch them rock the stage. Oh, how I wish I could go back and see them again!!!

I hope everyone has a lovely Saturday!!!
~Rachel

Happy Hearts

So I was thinking that my heart has been moved in many different ways today. It was a great day at school, one of my students who had a B-A-D day yesterday, came in today and acted like a completely different child, she was an ALL-STAR. My stress level dropped a few points and I was soo proud : ). Happy Heart

Yesterday we were discussing 9/11 in my class because I had an American flag on the calendar and my students really had an interest in it, so today we took a few minutes to discuss the events of that day. Some of my students even watched some of the specials on TV about that day the night before. I showed some of my pictures that I took in '07 of the construction.

and then my uncle's pics of the finished reflection pool and Freedom tower this past February.

                                  

My students kept asking questions and why? and when? and so we talked through it and even discussed why it could be called the Freedom tower (land of the FREE). One little girl came up with "The bad guys must have done that awful thing because they don't like God and the USA" 

So we discussed how God told us to love everyone and to do good things, so that could be true. 

I finished by reading this book I found at the book fair last year. It was written by a 1st grade class in MO. I told them of my experience with this day and all of our hearts were sad for the people involved but happy that we could honor them with this day. 

I got home and had a great surprise in my inbox. An email from my K.I.M friends in the PHILIPPINES! Tears poured as I watched this video and missed all my precious students and friends from Cuatro, but my heart was also glad because I knew that they knew that God loved them and even though I couldn't be with them I knew God was with them as they were celebrating being in their NEWly re-done classrooms. I'm still so blessed by this experience in the PI and at my school I try to teach my kids about how to show God's love everyday like these friends showed me!

~Rachel 

Filipino Fun... PI Pt. 3

So I was thinking...that my family and friends and I had such an amazing time in the Philippines this summer serving with KIM. We saw amazing things and were able to experience God's love in sooo many ways. Here are some of the recaps of an amazing trip.

Warning: Picture overload!

Family photo after church 

 We were able to experience soft drinks in glass bottles, which you had to pay a deposit on. If you didn't want to take the bottle with you, you could have a 'coke in a bag.' They would pour the drink directly into the bag and top it off with a straw!

 Two of our group members experienced a local delicacy, balut. 

Otherwise known as unborn duck eggs.   

Jeff's son commentated on a college league basketball game at the Mall of Asia arena while we were there, so we stopped by to experience a true Filipino basketball game! The drums were so loud!

Being from the South we couldn't resist finding a KRISPY KREME!!! Look at the amazing flavors we found at the Mall of Asia! Butterfinger, Oreo, Carmel Crunch... 

 The same day we went to feed at Tent City we stopped by a local spot: Daranak Falls

 A few of us swimming!

Amazed at God's glorious beauty. 

 After school I stopped by the Children's Home nursery where our team was creating a beautiful Noah's ark mural to brighten up their rooms. We painted each room a different animal, so we had a giraffe room, monkey room, elephant room, and lion room. 

 Finished ark minus the giraffes.  The main room had animals and flowers that covered all the walls as well as this ocean wall. 

At the grand opening of the nursery, ribbon cutting and all!

 Oh the Jeepneys! Public transportation is the main way to get around in Manila. These Jeepneys cram as many people as they can inside with blaring music and crazy driving. Fun and scary all at the same time! We did learn to always go with the ones that have the most designs on them, designs equal more experience!

 Loving on the babies in the nursery. 

 We were able to take the kids from the Children's Home to the mall for pizza and ice cream on two of the nights we were there. The boys loved the ice cream, here is my buddy JayPee. 

 There was also a great play place in the mall that the kids played in before dinner! 

Precious Zarinah and Angelica!

 My Filipino family! Aria, Gerald, JayPee, and Jessica

 KIM threw us a great BBQ on the last day we were there. Here are all of the kids 

from the Children's Home, Jaz Home, and the workers for the organization.

The Alabama team at the last devotion at the Children's Home! 

It was such an amazing time filled with fun, fellowship, and amazing works from our Creator!

~Rachel 

Good Morning Teacher Rachel... PI pt. 2

So I was thinking... that my joy comes from teaching. It doesn't matter if it is at my school in the states or if it is across the world at the Cuatro Christian School that is directed by Kids International Ministries. During my 2 weeks in the Philippines I was blessed with the opportunity to teach a class of 32 students from grade 3. I walked in on my first day in grade 3 and was immediately met with a greeting. Actually whenever anyone comes in, the students stand to their feet and greet their guest.
So every morning as I stood in front of the class to teach these precious 3rd graders I was greeted with "Good Morning Teacher Rachel, it is nice to see you again!" It was the perfect way to start my day.

CCS has two sites, one for 4-6 and one for K-3, so every morning I would walk through a path of green trees and up the hill to the primary school. This was the same school that our construction crew was working on to help complete the 2nd & 3rd floor. The school rooms were not air-conditioned and consisted of concrete floors & walls. The rooms were about 10 x 10. Their school was different from mine but one thing I realized was that kids are kids, even across the globe.

 Maddie walking from the school to the tree path. 

On the first day I was immediately thrown into the show. I was asked to teach Math, Science, Reading & English everyday. So from common/proper nouns to heredity & Roman numerals I jumped into the 3rd grade. It was fabulous! I loved every minute of it and found my joy in the Philippines. It was also heart breaking at the same time. You see while my classroom is beaming at the seems with supplies, my Filipino one was quite bare. I taught reading from one book, as I walked around to make sure all 32 curious faces saw every page. There was no Math or Science book just simply a pad of paper where they recorded the notes I wrote on the board. While the supplies were very slim, the presence of the Lord, the smiling faces, & the eagerness of students wanting to learn was abounding. 

Every morning, before snack & lunch, & before leaving a student prayed for the whole class. They studied the Bible in their native language as well as English and had memorized more verses in the two months they had been in school than I have this year. Their love of the Lord was amazing and their eagerness to pray in front of the class was overwhelming. You knew they were talking with the Lord when they prayed, thanking Him for all they had and for the visitors they had sent them. You see they don't see themselves as lacking anything, they are just thankful that the Lord has provided them the opportunity of an education and a meal for the day. Everyday was such a blessing. 

On my last day, the students threw me a party. They preciously brought me a gift, all that they had to celebrate my time with them. To say that I shed some tears is an understatement, I was so moved by their generosity however, not surprised because they know how to be an example of Christ and to give all that they have without thinking twice. 

 Jonathan helping blow up the balloons.

(They all said 'Happy Anniversary")

 I was asked to sit on the stage while the students told me how much they 

would miss me and presented me with cards. 

 Arnold & Ren at an assembly. 

 Silly girls!

 Precious John Christian

He gave me this lovely treat; a milky cheese flavored cupcakes!

I was given an amazing opportunity, by an amazing God to go and teach children about everyday things and was in return shown the true LOVE of the Lord and found joy with 32 lovely students. 

~Rachel 

They've got that joy, joy, joy, joy...PI pt.1

So I was thinking...about all the joy I saw while I was in the Philippines. We were blessed with the opportunity to do many things while we were in Cainta: feedings, construction, painting a nursery, and teaching were just a few.

The feedings were a humbling experience. As soon as we got off the plane and to the center a small group of us went on our first feeding. K.I.M provides 2 feedings a day, 5 days a week, that serves 7 communities.

Dad and I carrying the meal to the community. 

The cooks at the center would cook this soup mixture that was full of rice, vegetables, & dehydrated meat. 1/2 a cup would provide the children with 11 grams of protein! We would drive to the community and then carry the meal in, while yelling 'feeding' the whole way. Children with bowls, mugs, tupperware, & plastic bags would come running to get their meal, smiling, wanting to take pictures & see themselves, & asking about us & where we were from. It was an eye-opening experience seeing their homes and living conditions. 

However, I never saw a child's face without a smile on it. They were always so excited to see us, that it was heart-wrenching when we would get to the end of the tubs of food, knowing that there would sometimes not be enough. Their bellies were full & my heart was touched by their smile. 

The 2009 tsunami hit communities in Manila and the government moved one of them to an area now known as tent city. The 1st Monday we were in PI we took the hour drive out to provide a feeding and receive more blessings from these people. This was by far the feeding where I saw the most people from the start.

 Waiting in line, to the left a few of our team members were treating 

some sick children & mothers

Z & our new CA friends dipping out the meal

We met some great people here and were able to sing 'Jesus Loves Me' and share some of the gospel. Another friend from CA and I were able to go into one of the homes, which was the size of my room at home. There was a small loft area where the 6 family members all slept, but they were able to share with us about their life and how they knew the Lord was with them. Their joy in the midst of what we would consider very, very little was incredible. 

Skyler and I helped this little girl take her                                                    Enjoying a hot meal 

meal to her home with her little sister

Holding a sweet little friend from the cutest family of siblings Maddie and I met 

Though they have little, they have joy. Joy that is prominent over there in the midst of little & eaisier to see than it is here in the land of the plenty. I hope we are all reminded of the many joys the Lord has given us and be thankful, I know it has changed my heart. 

"Joy is not in things; it is in us."

Richard Wagner

~Rachel 

Check back in for the next parts of my trip.