Time Flies and All That...

Well, the past week and a half have been a crazy week for news and events in regards to this whole experience. To start with, I was preparing to speak at Trinity EC which was really exciting. I felt a lot more relaxed and ready to go than I did when I went to my last speaking engagement. As Pastor Mark and I discussed, I felt like I had just word vomited all over those kind people and that’s just cruel. So, I was less stressed (no musical this time. Lol) and was just more myself. I think I surprised my mom. I think the organization of it surprised her which is not a shocker… (a not so well kept secret except from my young cherubs at school, I am about the least organized person on the planet. However, I rarely am so disorganized that I completely do not do what I need to do or do not accomplish things in a somewhat ok manner. I like to think that my life is somewhat controlled chaos), but I am a teacher at heart. It is my passion in life. :-)


Ok, I’m back from the bunny trail. Where was I, oh yes, big things the past few weeks. Trinity and all of the wonderful people there were a fantastic and generous blessing. I really enjoyed visiting there and speaking to them about all that I am learning about the Czech Republic. They also really helped to get closer to my financial goal and I am so grateful for that. It is amazing what God has done to put all of those details in place so quickly for me.


Also, in the last two weeks, I received two big phone calls from TeachOverseas. I had to make two different decisions. Both to me were unexpected, both will affect the next year of my life. One made me laugh at God’s humor and the other made me ask “why isn’t there a manual for this?” One, for me, was easy to make while the other was heart wrenching.


About two and a half weeks ago, I had sent in my information all about me packets. (Basically, the data in order to allow the TO Formation Committee to choose who would go where and with whom, like you fill out your freshman year of college). The next week I got a phone call from Laura, my extremely sweet and patient Regional Director, asking if I would be interested in working part of the time overseas with elementary age students. (For you who don’t know, I am a Secondary History, English, and Middle School Math Teacher. High School age kids are my deal. I like working with little kids and babysitting, but teaching younger ones was never my plan.)


Now for those of you that go to Grace, you may know that I help teach the 1st and 2nd grade Sunday School class. It can quite the wild bunch some days. There are about 12 of them in the class and they are mostly boys. I often feel as though it can be related to taming feral cats. Lol. In my mind, I often think of it as a temporary position, elementary has never truly been where I have felt called to be long term.


In fact, one Sunday after church I left so exhausted I flippantly said to my brother that I couldn’t wait until July when I wouldn’t be teaching little kids anymore because they tire me out!


He then said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if you ended up going to the Czech Republic and God had you teaching elementary school all year!”


Adam, you must be the new magic 8 ball! j/k. The long of it is I told Laura that I would work with the younger kids. It will be nice I think to have a variety of students. And I’m really looking forward to it. But God does have a funny sense of humor.


A few days later the phone rings again. It was Laura. This time she has another proposition for me to consider. While the Formation Team was meeting, they had some shifting and rearranging amongst the schools take place. At that point, they needed one person from the Czech team to move countries to Hungary. She wanted to know if I would be willing to consider doing so. This was a complete surprise to me. I was not ready to say yes immediately (In my heart, I have been preparing to go to the Czech Republic for almost a year and a half at this point) so I asked Laura for a few days to pray about the decision.


It was a rough couple of days. I wanted to make sure and do what God wanted me to do. I didn’t want to be in the way of the ministries that I know He has planned. Both places have their pros and cons. The Lord is going to do incredible things in both places. However, I was torn over the decision. One of my big concerns was the fact that I have been raising my support for quite a while now with the express purpose of going to the Czech Republic. I asked for prayer and the opinion of a lot of different people. My mom asked for prayer at her group that she goes to and at Wednesday night prayer meeting. Unfortunately, I still didn’t feel as though I had a definite answer. I called Laura back at the set time. Told her my concerns and she got me fired up and ready to go to Hungary. I told her that I was ready to go wherever it was that God needed me to go.


We hung up. (Me thinking that I’m now going to Hungary and Laura telling me that she was going to talk to a few other team members and call me back). I tell my mom, “I’m going to Hungary.” A few minutes later, Laura calls back.


She says, very excitedly, “You’re staying in the Czech Republic!! Another team is going to switch!”


From there on, things have begun to fall into place very quickly. I now know where I’m going to be, who I’m going to be living with, and all sorts of other details. I can’t wait to fill you all in. BUT since I have officially written a short novella this time, I am going to log off, get some other things accomplished in life and tell you all about it at another date. I turn the big “23” (which isn’t that big) in a few days and I have some extra work to do for SMILES and the Youth retreat to do so I should probably get crack –a-lackin’ as I tell my students. ;-) Talk to you all soon!! Things are going to be hopping from here on out! Blessings and Peace!

Letters...

So they still aren't sent out. I almost have them entirely ready though. I have them in the envelopes and all I have to do is buy the postage! Wohoo!! (not sure if that is how you would spell wohoo, but ya know). I spent a little of this weekend in bed. Not feeling the greatest. The belly has been rolling. I haven't really eaten to much and I have officiall decided that dairy is not my friend right not. Tonight the hockey extravaganza that is playoffs continues. Church was pretty exciting today and I feel as though I was able to be productive today even though I'm not quite sure what I did. lol. I just ask that you would pray that this week I would have some patience to get some work done. I have to get ready for the completion of my grad class and my project for it. I also am getting ready to speak at Trinity Church next week. I need to remember time management! I'll be busy. I'll talk to you all soon!!

And the Slacker Award Goes to...

So it has been a while. This I know. I would love to blame it all on my busy schedule. However, I can't. Not sure what I can blame it on but myself. Anyhow, I have been busy doing all sorts of new fun stuff. This past week I spoke at Grace's youth group. I talked about what it means to work on a team. I am learning a lot about that and how much easier it is to accomplish something when I work with others. Some of the verses we talked about were Ecc. 4:9-12 (That one in particular brought back memories of Whitehall and the many crazy but fun things that I did and learned there), James 5:16, and Prov 27:17. I hope that as some of the youth go through the rest of the year, we can both learn and grow together on this topic.

Anyway, lots of other stuff has been changing and occurring. This week I hope to send out my letters. Sometimes that is a very hard thing for me to get done. I don't usually know the right thing to say of the best way to say it I guess I should say the PC way to say it. So I procrastinate even longer than usual and aggravate my family. lol. BUT tonight, I intend to end the irritation. :-)

Also, I sent out the info for my visa since my update. Crazy! I agree with my mom. The language is super hard to read. haha. In fact, I can't read a word of it. I guess it is a good thing I am going to teach English. But I will work on that. I also sent in my packet of info in order to find out what team I'll be put together with when I go. So hopefully, I will know sometime at the beginning of May what city I'll be in and who I'll be with. I'm excited!! I'd appreciate the prayers and I hope you guys are doing great!!