Week Four -- Patience...

Sorry for the delayed updates. Last weekend we had a technology fast, so we didn’t use our phones or computers for the whole weekend, and I didn’t get a chance to write an update any other time.

I’ve gotten some comments that my blogs are quite lengthy…which I realize. There are multiple purposes for that. For one, it’s partially for me because I’m not writing down everything I’m doing all the time, so this is a record and reminder for me of what I’m doing and feeling week by week. Also, I figure if you get tired of reading, you can stop. :) Some people I know have also wanted more details.

But I do realize it’s lengthy so I’m going to try to do a brief summary at the beginning of each blog, with the expanded version to follow. (Not that I’m upset at all! Seriously.) I think they will also be getting shorter, because we’re in our groove now. :)

Summary:

Our second week of teaching presented new challenges. The kids showed more of their true colors. They were rambunctious, disrespectful, and hard to love. Laura and I tried to figure out how to be an authoritative figure and to still show them the love of Christ. By the end of the week, God was changing my heart and my attitude, showing me how he would interact with my students. Even though they were harder to love, by God’s grace, he grew me in love for them so so so much. We also had another week together as a team getting to learn to love one another through annoyances as well. We talked about loving the immigrant and the alien in our country during our team movie night. For our team day on Friday, we went to Concordia Seminary for our retreat of silence, then to the St. Louis Zoo. Then we rented paddleboats in Forest Park and then went to a musical, “The Me Nobody Knows.”

My lessons from the week were definitely about relying on God. He was showing me how to love unruly students and how to keep encouraging them. We talked a LOT about respect with the kids last week, and you could definitely see God working on some of the kids’ attitudes.

Details:

The second week at school we had a sports camp for the kids. Four college-aged students came in with an organization called Sports Crusaders. They had our class for two hours of sports camp in the morning, and our students still had to have wood shop in the afternoon, so we only had 45 minutes of class with our students each day. It was also one of the hottest weeks we’ve had all summer, so that was a little rough as well. Most of the time we had the kids in class we were talking with them about respect – respecting us, their peers, and other authority figures. There were many incidents in the classroom and out. One of the boys in my class made fun of another girl’s skin. She has vitiligo, which means she has some of her skin that is discolored. They were also not listening hardly at all during class, and rarely during devotionals with the Sports Crusaders, and even talking back sometimes. But we saw a lot of good discussions and a few attitude changes through the week; praise God! We did manage to squeeze in a few lessons on slavery and what life was like for the slaves as well.

Because of these trying classes, I was praying a lot for our class and how to love the kids and not act out of frustration and impatience. And oh how God delivered. He gave me a lot of patience that was not of myself, and a lot of wisdom in how to keep dealing with the kids.

We also talked with them one day during devotionals about “Rocks of Faith” as we called them, based on the sermon we heard here on the first week from Joshua 4. One man from each of the twelve tribes was instructed to find a stone, which they placed as a memorial reminder once the whole nation had crossed the Jordan River. The rocks were meant to be a memorial and reminder for the people of God’s faithfulness. We’ve started a poster on our wall so our students can write down ways they’ve seen God’s faithfulness, recently or in the past, so they can remember when they’re having trouble. It’s fun to hear their stories. Some of them are kind of ridiculous, but they’re great.

The musical we saw on Friday night was really powerful for me. The musical is based on writings from kids from the inner city of New York. It resonated strongly with me after a week of struggling to love my students. It was a good reminder of what kind of stuff surrounds these students every day – what attitudes and lies they encounter from so many different angles.

My free day entailed another morning at the park with Eric, and a night out at a restaurant with a dude playing blues on his guitar with some of the members of our team. It was great.

I had “Forgiven much, love much” written on my arm all week to remind myself in those moments that it’s hard to love, how much God loves me and how much he’s forgiven me. It is only my selfishness preventing me from loving more fully. And so I’m trying to remind myself of how much I’ve been forgiven, and the love for God and for others that should pour out in response to that. It’s really become a huge motto for me lately.

That was my second week of classes!

I’ll hopefully be getting back up to current soon…