Fairy Tales, Dinosaur, standardized testing, oh my! Talk about a conglameration of all sorts! This week we had our annual standardized testing in which the kids are forced to fill in bubbles and stay quiet for a long time while I read the same script repeatedly. Sounds like a blast, right? Anyways, I always love to spend the time after the tests with more productive activities like creating fairy tale plays and make fossils to represent dinosaur bones. Sometimes I laugh at the fact that I am a second grade teacher which spends her weekends looking up fairy tale ideas, singing songs about fairy tales to the tune of Jingle Bells, or determining the foot track of a plant-eater dinosaur. It sounds ridiculous but I do love bringing joy and a new twist on life to my 17 creative second graders. During one of these crazy days, I drew a large dinosaur track on a large piece of paper each for the boys and the girls. We then proceeded outside where they stepped in paint with bare feet and made a footprint inside dinosaur print. We estimated and then found the actual number of second grade feet that fit into the dinosaur print. The sight was hilarious as the students would step into the paint, jump onto the paper, and then crawl to the outside sink to wash off. They were dragging each other, scooting on their behinds or hopping on one foot, oh what a sight! We had a good time and realized dinosaur prints are a lot larger than our own feet so it was well worth it!
On Saturday, we spent the day having a soccer tournament for the middle school and soccer kids at the school. It is so important that they have a time to just hang out and enjoy a sport they love. We had over 20 kids and definitely stirred up the sand playing good soccer. Please pray for our students as they are trying to find fit in and live in a world where they have everything but yet nothing.
We have been spending Saturday afternoons with the onion boys. We have really enjoyed getting to know them better although we don't speak the same language. We just share books, and share words either in Zarma, French, or English. I do love practicing my French with them and they are so happy to teach them their precious language, Zarma. Some of the boys have accepted Christ while others still pray on their mats to Muhammad at scheduled timed. We are not allowed to know the ones who are Christians as this could jeopardize their job and livelihood all together but there is one boy in particular that stands out as one who finds joy in all circumstances and has a presence around him all the time. When onions aren't selling, he will just say, "next week will get better. One of these weeks, it will be good!" He is very optimistic and definitely is a pleasure to talk to. This just reminds me that as Christians, we should have a presence about us that is just contagious and filled with joyous times. Afterall, we have the Savior of the World as our Heveanly Father! What more could we want? I need to be able to show Christ in my life at all times no matter the circumstance so He can be praised on high!
We have four more days of school(not that I am counting down) until Spring Break. I will be travelling to Togo to visit the schools and make plans for next year. Please pray that this will be a fruitful time and it will show me how the Lord is leading me to Togo. There are not always signs of transitioning from one ministry to another, but yet we must be faithful and continue to wal the path as the Lord directs each step. I am starting to tell the soccer players that I am leaving and this has been hard but most of them understand. Fortunately, I won't be too far away!
Continue to live each day with the Joy of the Lord!
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