Creepiness

So interesting story from last night. I had gone out to dinner with Chris, Kyle and David but Kelly stayed home to talk to her sister. So I got home around 9pm and she is like freaking out. So she tells me that she was sitting in the cool room when she heard squeaky shoes walking past the door. She figured I was home and came in to drop something off and then headed over to the guys house. A little while later she heard someone walking down the hall again. She came out and was in the bathroom brushing her teeth when she sees a guy walk past the bathroom door! She came out of the bathroom and started asking the guy why he was in our apartment and telling him to get out. It was our guard that comes for the night and he said he was "checking the doors." Now there is no reason he should have to walk all through our apartment, TWICE, to check doors that are not his responsibility to lock. Needless to say, Kelly was really freaked out to find the guard in our apartment. I was really upset when she told me and we talked to the guys here at SAM Center and they said that guard will not be back. We are going to have our very handy neighbor, David, replace a doorknob on a outer door that doesn't work so we will be able to lock the door at night. I am so thankful for all the guys that live here at the center. In the 6 months I have been here I have never felt scared until last night. The guys here do a great job at making sure we feel safe. I thank God nothing worse happened and that He continues to keep us safe.

Game night results

Well, this is going to be really short...I accomplished one of my two goals for game night. I did beat David is Dutch Blitz...however I have a feeling he wasn't playing his hardest and kind of let me win. Oh well. I did not play Risk...it was too late by the time the started...I needed to go to bed. But in all it was a lot of fun and really nice to have everyone from SAM Center together just to hang out.

Game night

So tonight has become game night here at SAM Center. Most of the people from SAM Center plus some other random people are going to be there. I am excited to get together and play different games with people. It is always fun playing games with missionaries...they are usually really good which makes it challenging. (I mean what else are we going to do with our time...nights can be a little boring around here) So my goal tonight at game night is to learn how to play Risk and hopefully be good at it and to beat David Speyers at least once in Dutch Blitz. I am not entirely confident that either of these goals will be met, but I am going to try very hard. Meanwhile...here is a new random picture of me.

A good reminder...

Jeremiah 33:3

'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Jeremias 33:3

'Clama a mi, y yo te respondere, y te ensenare cosas grandes y ocultas que tu no conoces.'

(ok so there are some accent marks missing since I am writing this on an american computer)

This has been a very interesting verse that God has continued to show me over the past week. I guess He really wants me to remember that I can call on Him and He will answer me.

Ceiling fan!

Today was an exciting day...I finally have a ceiling fan in my room again!! My ceiling fan died at the end of February shortly before conference. Like everything else here it was taken downtown to see if they could repair it. Sadly it was pronounced officially dead a couple of weeks ago. Now as sad as that is...it is also good because that means I get a new fan. John installed my new ceiling fan this morning and it is wonderful. The oscillating fan that I have been using is really not that great. It has sort of done it's job, but I needed to have it right next to my bed in order to actually feel any air from it. And with the weather here in Pucallpa, if you don't have a fan...you will not survive. So thankfully I now have a brand new ceiling fan that actually has multiple speeds and will hopefully keep me sweat free while in my room.

Classes are going well this week. It is nice to have a week that doesn't have anything besides just normal things happening. Last week we had a visitor 2 days of the week, the week before was testing and one of my students came back after being gone for a semester. This week has been easy in comparison...of course it is only Tuesday...a lot can still happen. It has kind of been an emotional week for me though. Thursday is Jennie's birthday and it is the first time since she died that I won't be able to be with my family for her birthday. I still have a hard time believing that is has been 2 1/2 years since she died. Some days it seems like just yesterday. The other day I was looking through some things of hers that I had brought with me. I am glad that I brought them with me to help me remember her, but it is so hard to look through those things and think of all the things she won't be here for. So I think come Thursday I am going to have to make sure I have at least one person to hang out with for the night...otherwise I will probably just end up crying all night. Which isn't bad...but I also don't want to spend my night wishing she was here when I know she is in a much better place. Anyway, it will be a hard week, but I know it will be good too because God is in control.

Work Day

Well, today was work day here at SAM Academy. Every year we set aside one Saturday morning to have all the students and their families get together and help fix things at the school. This year we had a few different areas that really needed help and everyone did a great job helping out. I was in charge of clearing off one of our resource shelves that was jammed full of books that no one has used in years. I am very glad I was put in charge of this task for two reasons...one, I was able to finally see some of the books we have as resources for when I teach next year and two, because I was not afraid to throw away books. Now normally I would hate to throw away books, but most of these books were at least 40 years old and had not been touched in almost as long. So I threw away a lot of books and now our resource shelf, while much emptier, is a lot more organized and contains books teacher will actually use. Another project today was to repair chairs and desks. Most of the guys were in that group and did a great job getting almost all the broken chairs and desks repaired and reorganizing our storage room. A group of girls worked in the library and did a great job getting new books into the system and on the shelves. The library looks a lot more organized now that the big pile of books is out of the corner. And the last project was taking a look at our electricity and the bathrooms. The guys who worked on this found the problem in the bathrooms but were not able to fix it because of how involved it was. But they were able to help with the electricity. They installed a new breaker and rerouted the library AC to it's own breaker so we hopefully won't have as many problems with power surges during the day. I would say in all it was a very productive day and I think everyone had a great time helping out. I love the community of people here and how willing they are to help each other out!

Renewed friendships

Have you ever stopped and thought about how God will bring certain people in and out of your life over the years?

I was thinking about that the other day as I sat talking on the phone with my friend Heather. We have known each other since freshman year in college. We were great friends all through college and she was there during all the very rough times I went through. She was there for me during my sister's lung transplant freshman year, she was there for me during all the random difficult times dealing with other friends and family, she was there for me when my dad was hurt. All the rough times I went through in college, Heather was there for me to talk to and get an outsider's opinion. God knew what he was doing when He brought her into my life. But then we graduated and I moved to Wisconsin and she moved to California. We would email every once in a while but really we hardly ever talked to each other. Three years of limited contact with Heather and yet we were still friends. It is interesting to me how God allowed her to be there for me through all those time in college and yet when Jennie died, we weren't really in contact with each other. I emailed her and told her, but I think that was about it. (Now if you are reading this Heather and remember differently...correct me please)

And now almost 4 years after graduating from college we are close friends again. Interestingly enough, it took me moving to Peru for God to allow our friendship to become what it was before. It is cool to see how we both needed those 3 years away from each other to grow into the women we are now. It has been great to have my friendship back with Heather. She is a dear friend and so encouraging to talk to. God knew exactly what He was doing when He allowed her back into my life.

God does the same thing with other people. Sometimes He brings them back and you notice but life continues on as usual...other times He brings them back and you just have to stop and ask, "Lord, why have you brought this person back into my life? Why after such a long time have you allowed this friendship to be renewed?" Those are the questions I ask myself as I once again realize how small this world really is. You might think that it is a small world where you live, but let me tell you, once you step foot into the world of missions....the world gets so much smaller. God just continually blows my mind with how we are all interconnected.

I am looking forward to hopefully one day, in the near-ish future, understanding a little better why God has brought certain people back into my life. But until then I guess the best thing to do, is to just enjoy the renewed friendships and wait for God to eventually fill me in on His plan. =)

P.S. I finally have my hammock up and will hopefully take a picture soon for you all to see!

Roomie!

I just thought I would write a quick post saying that I have an awesome roommate! Here is a picture of us that we took recently.

She is a sweetheart and I am so thankful that God has placed her in my life, even if it is for a short time!

Sideways rain

Well, yesterday I practiced spanish, gained another neighbor, had some of my books that I use pretty much every day get soaked, walked through puddles in my bedroom, and enjoyed meeting new people at prayer meeting. I guess I should go back and explain what those all mean.

First, my spanish tutoring with Rosemary in on Wednesday and so I practiced my spanish by telling about my home church and summarizing a story that I read. I felt like I did much better this week than last week and Rosemary said she saw a lot of improvement already. So that was good to hear and very encouraging too. Second, I gained a new neighbor because the new pilot, David, finally arrived yesterday from Lima. He moved in next door with Chris. It will be fun to have another person to hang out with. The third and fourth ones kind of go together. It decided that it wanted to pour yesterday. Not just a normal jungle rain...this was a driving rain with lots of wind and of course the wind blew the rain sideways right through our lovely windows with no glass. Yes, it ended up getting quite a few of my books wet both in my bedroom and in the kitchen. And of course with the wind blowing that hard, the rain came in the windows and proceeded to make puddles on my bedroom floor, Kelly's bedroom floor and the kitchen floor. And the fifth one is I met a couple, Nathan and Julia, who came down to visit and are hoping to come down here soon. Nathan is another pilot and both he and David went to Moody Aviation in TN. It was fun getting to know them a little better especially if they do end up coming here.

Yeah, yesterday was a good day. Today was the last day of Standford testing, so that alone makes today a good day. I am hoping to have a relaxing night tonight...maybe watch a movie or just enjoy my book. I feel very worn out from the testing schedule at school plus having to adjust everything in my classroom to now teach three grades at one time. I am hoping that once we get back to a normal class schedule that things will feel a little less stressful. I also found out yesterday that I will get to have a teacher aid for the last part of April and all of May! I am so thankful that God is providing this for me. It will greatly help me out and it will benefit the kids too. Have two teachers to go to will be good for them...they won't have to wait as long to get answers to their questions. God always provides....and I am so thankful He does!

Testing

Well, this week we have Standford testing at school. Always a fun time for both the teachers and the kids. It has actually went well for me the past two days. I am proctoring the 2nd grader and he is just flying through these tests. Both days we have been done really early. It has been interesting though teaching classes after doing tests all morning...especially now that I have three different grades to teach at the same time. It will take some time to get used to juggling all three grades and making sure each gets the help and attention they need and deserve.

Today the women started a new Bible study. I am very excited to be a part of this study and I am so glad it worked out to have it in the afternoon so the teachers could join in. They had been doing the Bible study in the mornings and so none of the teachers could go because we are at school in the mornings. I am looking forward to what I am going to learn during this study...it is going to be a lot of work, but good for me too. Tomorrow is class three of spanish tutoring and let's just say...next week I am not going to wait until the night before to do my homework! =) Tomorrow testing continues and I have to finish my spanish homework...so off I go!

Hammocks soon???

So I have realized that I only have 8 weeks left until I will be leaving for language school in Arequipa. It is crazy how fast time has flown by....I have been here 5 months already and the school year is almost over. We started the 4th quarter this week and next week we have our lovely, wonderful Stanford tests. The kids are half excited half not excited. They don't have homework all week because we are not allowed to give them any, but they have to take hours of tests during the week. Oh well, it should be an interesting time. I am in charge of testing for the 2nd grader...should be pretty easy most of the time. I think the hardest thing will be making sure that he stays focused on the tests and not on things that might be happening outside.

Anyway, today has been a pretty relaxing day. I went over to the school to actually do some work for next week and then remembered we had testing and the things I was going to work on, I didn't need to. So I have spent the rest of the day reading and Kelly and I are going to put up the rings for our hammocks. The part to connect the hammocks to the rings should be getting here in the next few days. Once we have that part we can enjoy our hammocks whenever we want to! I am very excited about this. They are going to be so much more comfortable to sit in. Our couches are not all that comfortable. Like Matt said, "it is like sitting on a lifevest." Which is pretty much true...the material used it pretty much the same stuff used in lifevests. WOW, that was pretty random now wasn't it. Oh well, you've got to have that every once in a while to keep people on their toes. I guess that is it for the random thoughts...

Mud

April 2, 2008
Well, today has been a very interesting day. Classes were good, the kids were pretty attentive and made the day pretty easy. It rained most of the day and that made for a cold day. But at least rainy season is almost over! That is nice…I like the rain but I am ready for it to stop for a while too. Tonight for prayer meeting we had our small groups and so we headed out to Cashibo. Since it rained all day, it made for a very interesting and somewhat exciting trip. Chris was brave enough to drive the lovely monster of a blue truck that we have here at SAM Center. Now when I say monster of a truck…I mean it. But at least the truck has 4 wheel drive, which is a must when you drive on the muddy road out to Cashibo. Going out was not a problem, we hit a few potholes that made it pretty uncomfortable for Emily who was sitting in the back of the truck. We had a great time with our small group out at the Schmidts house. It was really nice to sit and hang out with the adults and to spend time playing with the kids. It made me realize how much I miss playing with the kids at the daycare. There were 7 kids there ranging from 18 months to 12 years old. It was a ton of fun! We finally decided we should probably leave and so Kelly, Chris and I all piled back into the monster and made our way down the muddy road. Now keep in mind, the truck was not in 4 wheel drive yet and so when we pulled up to the first gate, I hopped out to unlock the gate. I got the gate opened and fully expected Chris to drive through…only instead of going forward he slide backwards! So I was standing in the muddy road being eaten alive by mosquitoes and watching the truck slide backwards into a ditch. Not really my idea of fun. Chris realized he forgot to switch the truck over to 4 wheel drive and so he got out and did that. Only he forgot to do it inside too…so the truck didn’t go forward when he tried. By this point I am being attacked by the blood-sucking mosquitoes and wondering if Chris is one of those guys who thinks he doesn’t need help and so he isn’t going to call any of the guys who live a minute down the road to come help. Thankfully I was wrong about that…both Chris and Kelly were trying to call the guys to see if anyone could come help them get unstuck. Around that time Kelly realizes that Chris never activated the 4 wheel drive inside the truck. So they switch that and were able to finally get out of the ditch. By this time two of the guys from SAM AIR had pulled up behind the truck and made sure we made it through the gate. Of course I didn’t know who was behind the truck and so I was waiting for them to come through the gate too before I closed it and put the lock back on. So they had to yell out the window to go ahead and close it. We finally were all back in the truck and made it safely to the highway and finally back home to the SAM Center. It was quite an experience and I am very glad to be home now. I am definitely glad that I don’t have to go through that every day. One more reason I am happy to live here at SAM Center and not out at Cashibo. Well, the only thing left to do now is go scratch the multiple mosquito bites I got tonight.