Life Lesson #2

"Hey, at least it's not raining." -- Meaning, it could always be worse.

I spend so much time dwelling on my own problems. When attending the necrological service of a 28 year old who recently died and left behind a heartbroken husband and a 1 month old son, I realized just how trivial those problems are.

Life Lesson #1

When traveling (or living) overseas, never use a slang expression that has the potential to be deemed cruel or disrespectful.

Yikes!

Miss Atkins, student and instructor

You know, I'm really enjoying being a teacher -- English and ballet. It's so thrilling to help others learn something new, even just one tiny thing like how to correctly releve in fifth position. And teaching is such a great learning experience, too.

I am so in love with my ballet class!!! We're currently preparing for another performance on Christmas Day, and we're all tired but having a blast! I love it, because the longer I teach them the more I learn. I'm learning to balance fun times with serious, stricter times, and I've come up with some really great (not to toot my own horn or anything) on-the-spot games and ideas for our classes/practices that have made them really enjoyable. I feel like I'm getting closer to the kids, too. They used to be shy to speak English to me, or to tell me anything about themselves, but now it's like I have 11 new brothers and sisters. On that note, my class has gro-o-o-wn!! I'm happy to know that more kids are interested in joining, but I finally had to set a cut-off date. It was getting to big for me to handle. We've practiced every day this week, which is pretty tiring -- but it's a great feeling to know that they're so excited to come every day. Last week I traveled to Baguio and they all groaned when they heard we wouldn't be practicing for two days in a row. :)

In other news, the Christmas break is coming up and I just gave my English students their second exam. Two of them have improved significantly, and I'm excited. It's better than none! As with the ballet class, I feel like the longer I teach the more ideas I get and the better I become at it. I never thought I'd enjoy teaching this much. I still don't think it's something I'll pursue as a career, but we have teaching opportunities every day and I'm glad to know that I'm not terrible at it. Oh, I just wish I was staying here another year so I could teach for an entire year and use all of my ideas!

I love you all and hope you're each enjoying a blessed holiday season!
love,k

Responsibilities, or lack thereof

Hey guys, just have some thoughts I feel like sharing. Lately I’ve been having a hard time with several things (you’ll see what some of those are) – I’ve been up and down emotionally, spiritually, and every other way. But (praise the Lord) things are incredible now!

I think what helped me the most in all of this was coming to grips with my pride. It's something I've always struggled with, but until now I didn't realize just how bad things had gotten. It's taken over my thought life, my speech, my attitudes, my opinions, even my emotions!! This past Saturday afternoon I talked with a friend of my dad’s about several things, and it really helped me out. I already listed them in another email, so I'll just copy/paste it....

1. We should take every opportunity to let people know we are Christians. This does not necessarily involve saying "Hey guys, I'm a Christian, and if you're not you should be!" as much as living a Christlike life. As my dad’s friend put it, "when you are real, people know it and even though it may seem people don't listen, when the chips are down and people are in trouble, they'll remember you and trust you and turn to you." I'm excited because I've seen this in my own life. There are people who know I'm a Christian, and I've never once told them that I am. I'd like to think that they know through my actions and speech; my attitude. However, lately this has been something I’ve forgotten about. I haven’t been concerned about the opinions people here have of me, because of course they know I’m a Christian! I’m a missionary, right? But the point isn’t them knowing whether or not I’m a believer, the point is them seeing that I’m living for Christ. – On a side note, this was also Pastor Florie's sermon on Sunday – another confirmation that the Lord wanted me to remember this!! I've been reminded lately of 1 Timothy 4:12, and that in order to bring change to the people here (who are believers), the most important thing to be doing is living for God. This goes along with point number 2.....
2. We are in no way responsible for changing people's hearts; for converting them. Only God can do that. We are, however, His ambassadors (see 2 Cor. 5:11-21), called only to "act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). Through fearing the Lord and doing what He has asked – commanded – us to do, we'll persuade people to do the same (2 Cor. 5:11). God does these things THROUGH us. We do nothing FOR Him.
3. God is a God of relationship... This is a common theme throughout Scripture. These relationships include: God in relationship with Himself, God in relationship with Creation, God in relationship with man, man in relationship with man, man in relationship with God.
4. (This kind of goes with #3) God is our model for literally everything. Such an obvious "point," but something I personally often forget.

I had really been struggling with #2 – not in the sense that I feel responsible for converting people, but that I sometimes feel responsible for the choices, lifestyles, and mindsets of other people – especially now that I'm over here. It's like I want so badly to help the youth group here, and sometimes I forget that I will never truly be able to make them draw nearer to the Lord. That's between Him and them. It’s so nice to know that.

Also, my desire to spend time with the Lord has been renewed! Rather than dutifully pulling out my Bible and reading one chapter a day, I get so caught up in what I'm reading that I don't want to stop!! I'm reading through 1 and 2 Samuel right now – books I don't think I've ever read straight through – and loving it. I'm learning a lot and I'm so excited to be so excited. It's great, because even though there have been "slow times," I'm learning to spend those times with the Lord, rather than spending them sulking.

Thanks for your prayers and encouraging words!! I feel so blessed by all of you.

love,k

Pen and paper. Or, in this case, keyboard and monitor.

I've always loved writing. When I was a kid, I spent lots of time on the computer (remember, we are in an age of technology!) or in notebooks writing stories and keeping journals. I've never really gotten bummed out about writing assignments in school, no matter how boring or exasperating they may seem to other people. To me, writing is a privilege, no matter what I'm writing about.

Despite how much I love writing, I often leave things incomplete (unless their completion is required). I've started so many stories, but most of them have stopped because I wasn't happy with the way the story was going. Rather than backtracking and fixing certain elements, I abandoned the story altogether. I'd rather start from scratch than go back over and edit the whole thing. It's not a big deal to me, because those unfinished stories are mine - they're not for no one else; no one is counting on their completion. Same thing with journal writing. I've never been good at writing regularly, not for longer than two months anyway. As with my stories, I've come to the realization that this doesn't matter because no one reads my journals. I write when I have something to say, and don't waste ink or paper when I don't. (Although.. Some may argue that this is a bad thing, because I've gotten in the habit of leaving things incomplete. I don't know. I really only see this pattern of not finishing what I've started in my writing.)

The only problem is -- with a blog, there are people reading. There are people out there wanting to read the things I write, wanting to hear what's going on. My apologies. :( I'm really going to try harder.

Several things have been going on in my life lately that I've allowed to distract me -- from spending time with the Lord, from getting work done (college, my classes, etc.), and from writing to you guys. At first I didn't realize it, but now I can see what's been happening and I'm asking the Lord to help me get back on track. Hopefully you'll be hearing from me more often. I'd like to be able to write more than "this is what I've been up to lately," but because my posts are so spread out, that's all they consist of. If you're keeping up with this blog and notice that I'm not posting, say something! I do love writing in here, but sometimes I don't think about it.

love you all,k

P.S. Sem break is over. I'm back in my English class and down to two students -- one (Minerva) is taking a one-semester break (she was ahead by one sem) and the other (Ruth) transferred. I think it's a blessing in disguise, because I'll be getting closer to these two girls (Cheryl-Lai and Baby Rose). Also, tonight is the service for the CMMP-CMBI 12th anniversary. My ballet students are performing, SAVERS are doing a few things, and I'm singing! I'm excited.

Cervantes, Mankayan and Baguio

This picture is of our group at the highest point in the Philippine Highway System (hence the sign) -- so cold!

The SAVERS outreach trip was also wonderfully successful. We left late Tuesday night (the 23rd) for Cervantes, which is between 10 and 11 hours from here in Laoag. We took two vehicles -- our jeepney (which has two "regular" seats up front, then a sort of barrier/wall-type thing, then two benches along the sides of the back that face each other) and an elf (which is a small truck made for carrying animals/cargo but many people use it for people). I would have liked to ride in the elf, just for the experience, but wasn't able to -- they wouldn't let me. :[ Oh well, I think they just wanted to keep me safe.


We arrived in Cervantes on Wednesday morning, all of us completely exhausted. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon sleeping on mats in the church before attending a birthday service (service, NOT party) during the late afternoon, which also provided us with our dinner. We gave our program that evening in the church -- mostly old stuff that we have performed several times before, so we weren't as stressed in preparing, which was nice. Of course, there were mistakes, but the performance wasn't bad.

After performing we drove straight to Mankayan, which luckily is only about an hour and a half from Cervantes! This was my favorite of the two places -- the people we stayed with were the nicest and most hospitable people I have been with in a while. We unexpectedly had to stay with them for two nights, but they were not at all bothered. They told us that it was our house, they were just the managers. :)

Can you believe it was between 70 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit the whole time we were in Mankayan, and I was freezing cold?!?!

On Thursday we were able to "see the sights" in Mankayan. There is a place there called LePanto, which is sort of a village within a village - it has its own airport, school, a gold mine, etc. - and we went to see that. We took public transportation (jeepney) there, but walked home, which was quite tiring but had beautiful views. One of the Bible students from the school here comes from Mankayan, so she played tour guide. Later on we ate dinner at her house, then went to the place where we'd perform (this time it wasn't a church, but more of a stadium or arena). I thought this performance was the better of the two. We performed an additional 3 dances, were more focused, and had a bigger crowd.

Finally, Friday morning (at 4 AM!) we drove to Baguio City, which is halfway between Laoag and Mankayan, and were able to shower, rest, eat, etc. before doing some exploring of the city. Most of us went to SM Baguio, which is a really big mall. Afterwards I went with a few people to the market to buy what are considered Baguio specialties -- I bought strawberries (my favorite!), peanut brittle, choco pinipig (which is hard to describe but very tasty), and these cookies called lengua de gato. We left Baguio around 6 PM and arrived home at 1:30 AM Saturday. I've spent the days since then sleeping, sleeping, and doing even more sleeping!!!! It's still sem break for us at the Bible school, so I won't start teaching again until next Monday.

love,k

Anniversary

Well, since I haven't written in so long, I am going to write two blogs: one about the anniversary and one about our SAVERS outreach trip.

The anniversary was a success!! I enjoyed the lechon, but wasn't able to name my pig. I hadn't chosen a name by that afternoon, and while I was munching on roasted pig skin (very yummy!) I couldn't bring myself to name it. Oh well.

After the lechon we were able to rest and prepare for the service that evening. I spent the afternoon lying on a pew with my foot propped up -- For those of you who didn't already know, I hurt my toe during the week leading up to the anniversary. I told you I'd been practicing my solo pointe dance like crazy, which later wound up being 1) a very bad idea and 2) completely pointless. I bruised the toenail and probably also sprained the toe (it was my right big toe), and wound up not being able to do the dance on pointe at all. I still danced, but used my flat ballet shoes. :[ I taped my toe up and spent the evening barefooted. My dance was right at the beginning of the service, so I had some much-needed time to rest my foot afterwards.

I don't know how we did it, but we pulled everything off!! We performed 2 hand mimes, 2 dances, and 4 human videos -- everything was brand new! At the last minute (as in during the two days and nights before the anniversary) everyone started showing up for practices and we were able to get a lot of work done. Our two biggest problems in SAVERS are 1) tardiness and 2) lack of focus and motivation during practices. We discussed this the other night during a meeting, and hopefully we'll see some improvement.

Anyway, that's that! 55 years of God's faithfulness -- and we're ready for year 56!