THE PHILLIES WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE PHILLIES WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT HAS BEEN SO WORTH ENDURING THE SICKNESS AND FATIGUE TO STAY UP UNTIL 2 AND 3 A.M. TO WATCH!!!!!!!!! IT'S ALL BEEN WORTH IT!!!! I WATCHED IT ON THE INTERNET AND THERE'S NO ONE HERE IN MY ROOM TO CELEBRATE WITH BUT I THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET BROADCAST AND SKYPE BY WHICH I CAN CALL MY FAMILY AND SCREAM AND PROBABLY WAKE UP THE REST OF MY LITTLE TOWN IN PORTUGAL WHO DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT BASEBALL IS!!!!!!!!!
GO PHILLIES!!!!!! YOU DID IT!!!!!!!! YOU DID IT!!!!!!!!!
I AM SO TIRED!
I HAVE TO WAKE UP IN 3.5 HRS TO GO TEACH AT SCHOOL!!
MY STUDENTS ARE LEARNING A VERY IMPORTANT LESSON:
BASEBALL MATTERS ENOUGH TO LOSE SLEEP AND BE SICK!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE PHILLIES ARE THE BEST!!!!
THE BEST!!!!
I can't sleep now!
Thank the Lord we have off school on Friday!!!!
Phillies!!!!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Just a Quick Update
I thought I'd take this momentary opportunity I have to send you an update. This last week was rough in that it was busy busy busy. Ah, the life of a teacher, eh?
1.) My 5th grade student, Larissa, had to suddenly leave Portugal with her mother this week. On Monday I found out that they were to be leaving on Friday. This meant getting a lot of work together for her to do while she's gone! Larissa's mother, Marcia, is pregnant and things are not going so well. She has very high blood pressure and very swollen feet and the doctors here aren't doing anything for her, so they have decided to fly her to their doctor in Brazil. (They are Brazilian.) Marcia took Larissa with her and they hope to return in mid-January. Please pray for Marcia's husband, Larissa's father, Marco. They could not afford for him to go with them, so they will be separated for the birth and for Christmas.
Of course, this means I will be teaching only 2 grades for the next 3 months and that will be less workload for me, but I am sad that it happened this way. Please keep them in your prayers!
2.) Secondly, I had news of Elena Schlener this week and she needs our prayers more than ever. She is really losing weight and struggling with the cancer. Please keep her and Phil and the kids in your prayers. They have moved to Idaho in order to keep Elena from too much excitement, etc.
3.) I got sick and it won't go away. Mainly the cough. I've also somewhat lost my voice now for the past two days.
4.) Last, I had quite a discouraging day today, language-wise. I spent most of today with the band at a parade and concert. I was so discouraged to find that even when I try to muddle through in Portuguese, it is still just muddling and those that I'm speaking with tend to get a little frustrated. Of course they are nice and laugh it off, but then they kind of avoid me and this led to some lonesomeness for me today. I think it is truly the first time when I was upset over the language. Until now it has only been mild irritation. I find that people speak so fast and even when I ask them to slow down, they don't. Or when they do slow down I don't know some of the words they are using. This is all totally normal, it's just that it's never gotten to me before. That I was tired and sick didn't help. :)
Please pray that I will have the guts to speak Portuguese with the people I know can help me the most- that is the people who also speak English well. These are also the most intimidating people with whom to speak Portuguese because they already have a command of their language AND yours... and often times one or two more. Yeah basically I need guts.
So, that is all for now. It is 9:30 and I'm going directly to bed... yes, I'm that tired. :) I will try to make my next update more encouraging. :)
1.) My 5th grade student, Larissa, had to suddenly leave Portugal with her mother this week. On Monday I found out that they were to be leaving on Friday. This meant getting a lot of work together for her to do while she's gone! Larissa's mother, Marcia, is pregnant and things are not going so well. She has very high blood pressure and very swollen feet and the doctors here aren't doing anything for her, so they have decided to fly her to their doctor in Brazil. (They are Brazilian.) Marcia took Larissa with her and they hope to return in mid-January. Please pray for Marcia's husband, Larissa's father, Marco. They could not afford for him to go with them, so they will be separated for the birth and for Christmas.
Of course, this means I will be teaching only 2 grades for the next 3 months and that will be less workload for me, but I am sad that it happened this way. Please keep them in your prayers!
2.) Secondly, I had news of Elena Schlener this week and she needs our prayers more than ever. She is really losing weight and struggling with the cancer. Please keep her and Phil and the kids in your prayers. They have moved to Idaho in order to keep Elena from too much excitement, etc.
3.) I got sick and it won't go away. Mainly the cough. I've also somewhat lost my voice now for the past two days.
4.) Last, I had quite a discouraging day today, language-wise. I spent most of today with the band at a parade and concert. I was so discouraged to find that even when I try to muddle through in Portuguese, it is still just muddling and those that I'm speaking with tend to get a little frustrated. Of course they are nice and laugh it off, but then they kind of avoid me and this led to some lonesomeness for me today. I think it is truly the first time when I was upset over the language. Until now it has only been mild irritation. I find that people speak so fast and even when I ask them to slow down, they don't. Or when they do slow down I don't know some of the words they are using. This is all totally normal, it's just that it's never gotten to me before. That I was tired and sick didn't help. :)
Please pray that I will have the guts to speak Portuguese with the people I know can help me the most- that is the people who also speak English well. These are also the most intimidating people with whom to speak Portuguese because they already have a command of their language AND yours... and often times one or two more. Yeah basically I need guts.
So, that is all for now. It is 9:30 and I'm going directly to bed... yes, I'm that tired. :) I will try to make my next update more encouraging. :)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Praises to God
I would like to take this opportunity to praise God for a few things!
Thing #1:
I bought gas today at 1.33€ per liter. That translates into about $6.82 per gallon and I am pretty sure that is the LOWEST price gas has been since I came here last year!
Thing #2:
One of the reasons that the above is possible is because the Dollar is doing better against the Euro. As of right now it is 1.35 dollars to 1 euro and that is the best the exchange rate has been since I came here last year!
Thing #3:
As most of you know, I was in a car accident here in June. God spared me in a big way. He also allowed me to continue to drive the next day (in a different car!) and go on with my life with almost no emotional effects. Well (delayed reaction) a couple of weeks ago I had a rough week where I had my first dreams about the accident and then continually dreamed (nightmares) for about a week. I asked a couple people to pray for me and praise God those went away. Thank the Lord that He answers prayer and that He is in control, even of our dreams.
Thing #4:
You have been praying for my classes, I can tell! Even though I have had to add an extra session with one of my students during the day, I have switched some things around and things are going a little more smoothly. Praise God for His wisdom daily in the classroom. Please please continue to pray for me there. I am realizing more and more that there are all sorts of pitfalls to teaching multiple grades that I don't even know about and that I need to avoid. Only God's guidance can help me there. With that being said, I am so happy to teach these 4 children and we are having a blast! I couldn't have asked for something better. :)
That's all for now. I hope this messages finds all of you happy in your lovely autumn weather, with your hayrides, pumpkin picking, apple cider and that great smell when you walk outside of leaves and fireplaces being used for the first time of the season. Oh, how I miss autumn! :)
Thing #1:
I bought gas today at 1.33€ per liter. That translates into about $6.82 per gallon and I am pretty sure that is the LOWEST price gas has been since I came here last year!
Thing #2:
One of the reasons that the above is possible is because the Dollar is doing better against the Euro. As of right now it is 1.35 dollars to 1 euro and that is the best the exchange rate has been since I came here last year!
Thing #3:
As most of you know, I was in a car accident here in June. God spared me in a big way. He also allowed me to continue to drive the next day (in a different car!) and go on with my life with almost no emotional effects. Well (delayed reaction) a couple of weeks ago I had a rough week where I had my first dreams about the accident and then continually dreamed (nightmares) for about a week. I asked a couple people to pray for me and praise God those went away. Thank the Lord that He answers prayer and that He is in control, even of our dreams.
Thing #4:
You have been praying for my classes, I can tell! Even though I have had to add an extra session with one of my students during the day, I have switched some things around and things are going a little more smoothly. Praise God for His wisdom daily in the classroom. Please please continue to pray for me there. I am realizing more and more that there are all sorts of pitfalls to teaching multiple grades that I don't even know about and that I need to avoid. Only God's guidance can help me there. With that being said, I am so happy to teach these 4 children and we are having a blast! I couldn't have asked for something better. :)
That's all for now. I hope this messages finds all of you happy in your lovely autumn weather, with your hayrides, pumpkin picking, apple cider and that great smell when you walk outside of leaves and fireplaces being used for the first time of the season. Oh, how I miss autumn! :)
Sunday, October 5, 2008
I Need God's Smarts
So, teaching all those lessons is getting harder and I could use some of God's smarts. Please pray that I will somehow be able to teach these kids what they need to know without them hating school at the end, and without unnecessarily burdening their parents. Most of all, please pray that the Holy Spirit would be more prevelant in my life and attitude than ever.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
A little something to chew on...
We talked about jealousy in my Bible lesson with the kids last week in the context of Cain and Abel. Okay, no big deal, but when I was looking ahead at our Bible test and trying to prepare the students for it, I saw that there is a question that says, "What is jealousy?" Well I thought that was funny cause in the curriculum, it never actually has you go over the definition of the word with the students. However, they do have a glossary in the back of their books, so I looked it up there and found a definition that surprised me, mainly because of the way I usually use the word.
It said-
"being afraid that you will be replaced by another, or that you will lose something"
To which of course I said... huh?
At first I thought that maybe this was just a definition skewed by the publisher of the curriculum in order to get it's own point across (quite skeptical of me, huh?) So I looked jealous up in Merriam Webster and this is their definition-
1 a: intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness b: disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness2: hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage3: vigilant in guarding a possession
So... roughly paraphrased into the Tammy-Webster dictionary, this means-
Definition 1. I hold (or think I hold) a special friendship with Person X and then new Person Y comes along. X spends more time with Y than I think is necessary and I begin to become jealous of Y and angry at X. (Does this only happen with girls?) I used this example with the students last week, so at least I was right about THAT aspect of jealousy!
Definition 2. Emmanuel Pahud is the most amazing flutist I have ever heard and because he is so good I move from admiring his ability to wanting to hurt him. Or remove him from the picture entirely so that he can't be better than me... (Cain and Abel....) Fyi... I do not want to kill anyone......
Definition 3. I am vigilant in guarding my flute. I don't normally let other people handle it and I carry it with me on the plane as much as possible. I jealously guard it.
So as you can see, jealousy doesn't always have the connotation that we give to it. Such as the Phillies are in the post-season and I don't get to watch the games I AM SO JEALOUS RIGHT NOW of the people at home!!!
Nor does it mean that a certain person has an iPhone and another certain person is jealous of him. It does mean however, that certain person 1 may be jealous (vigilantly guard) with his own iPhone haha.
I'm sure by now you've started to apply this to those sometimes-confusing verses in Exodus and 2 Corinthians.
It seems maybe (as we always suspected but could never really figure out) that jealousy is not always a bad characteristic. In 2 Corinthians, Paul uses it to describe his feeling that he wants the Corinthians to "save themselves" for the true Christ. He is jealous for them when they give over their minds to a preaching of a Christ that is not true. That is certainly a godly form of jealousy? And of course the passage in Exodus, which comes up in Bible studies everywhere (God is a jealous God), really just means what it says- that God does not tolerate unfaithfulness. That is not wrong and there is in fact, nothing confusing about it. If indeed this is the correct definition of jealousy then of course God is a jealous God.
Jealousy can certainly be a bad thing, but this is an interesting example to me of how sin twists something that can be good into something bad.
Finally, it puts a smile on my face to think of God within the third definition- He vigilantly guards us.
Anyways, just something to think about!
We talked about jealousy in my Bible lesson with the kids last week in the context of Cain and Abel. Okay, no big deal, but when I was looking ahead at our Bible test and trying to prepare the students for it, I saw that there is a question that says, "What is jealousy?" Well I thought that was funny cause in the curriculum, it never actually has you go over the definition of the word with the students. However, they do have a glossary in the back of their books, so I looked it up there and found a definition that surprised me, mainly because of the way I usually use the word.
It said-
"being afraid that you will be replaced by another, or that you will lose something"
To which of course I said... huh?
At first I thought that maybe this was just a definition skewed by the publisher of the curriculum in order to get it's own point across (quite skeptical of me, huh?) So I looked jealous up in Merriam Webster and this is their definition-
1 a: intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness b: disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness2: hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage3: vigilant in guarding a possession
So... roughly paraphrased into the Tammy-Webster dictionary, this means-
Definition 1. I hold (or think I hold) a special friendship with Person X and then new Person Y comes along. X spends more time with Y than I think is necessary and I begin to become jealous of Y and angry at X. (Does this only happen with girls?) I used this example with the students last week, so at least I was right about THAT aspect of jealousy!
Definition 2. Emmanuel Pahud is the most amazing flutist I have ever heard and because he is so good I move from admiring his ability to wanting to hurt him. Or remove him from the picture entirely so that he can't be better than me... (Cain and Abel....) Fyi... I do not want to kill anyone......
Definition 3. I am vigilant in guarding my flute. I don't normally let other people handle it and I carry it with me on the plane as much as possible. I jealously guard it.
So as you can see, jealousy doesn't always have the connotation that we give to it. Such as the Phillies are in the post-season and I don't get to watch the games I AM SO JEALOUS RIGHT NOW of the people at home!!!
Nor does it mean that a certain person has an iPhone and another certain person is jealous of him. It does mean however, that certain person 1 may be jealous (vigilantly guard) with his own iPhone haha.
I'm sure by now you've started to apply this to those sometimes-confusing verses in Exodus and 2 Corinthians.
It seems maybe (as we always suspected but could never really figure out) that jealousy is not always a bad characteristic. In 2 Corinthians, Paul uses it to describe his feeling that he wants the Corinthians to "save themselves" for the true Christ. He is jealous for them when they give over their minds to a preaching of a Christ that is not true. That is certainly a godly form of jealousy? And of course the passage in Exodus, which comes up in Bible studies everywhere (God is a jealous God), really just means what it says- that God does not tolerate unfaithfulness. That is not wrong and there is in fact, nothing confusing about it. If indeed this is the correct definition of jealousy then of course God is a jealous God.
Jealousy can certainly be a bad thing, but this is an interesting example to me of how sin twists something that can be good into something bad.
Finally, it puts a smile on my face to think of God within the third definition- He vigilantly guards us.
Anyways, just something to think about!
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