Journal Reading

Prayer Requests:

• My kids (students) are taking the third grade TAKS test on Tuesday and Wednesday. Praying for 100% passing rate, and 90% commended rate.
• I am fighting a sinus infection, so healing.
• Wisdom in every area of life.
• Grace to learn Tagalog
• For the right students to be placed in my future classes

God is SOOO cool!!

In preparation for the future, I am reading through old journals. Last summer, I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) Summer School. The summer school program had never been done before, so I got to design the scope and sequence of everything. I had 10 middle schoolers who had been in the states for two years or less. They represented 5 different languages, and 8 different countries. I had all levels of English in my class, in one room. It was an absolute blast and blessing!

I woke up on July 1, 2009 and wrote the following:

Lord, today is the last day of summer school. I'm so sad! This was the best job in the world! I know that third grade will be good, but please open up a position for me to teach ESL like this. Could I do something like this through the church? We have a huge Spanish population. I would love to teach them English! God, you are the director of my steps. Open the doors that need to be opened. Close the doors that need to be closed. Only You know the difference.

God has far exceeded my expectations!!!! And check out the date! I arrive in the Philippines exactly one year from the day I prayed this! No, I won't be teaching Spanish speakers there, but that was just my interpretation of things.

God blows my mind. He is so fun, so kind, so caring. I love agreeing with His heart in prayer and then being totally surprised when He fulfills His will. :-)

Preparing

Prayer Requests:

• To hear and obey God more clearly than at any other time in my life
• Healing for my back, hip, and neck (I still go the chiropractor 3x/week and my massage therapist 1x/week as well as do daily physical therapy)
• Wisdom in how to prepare- especially time management and finances
• To finish well at my job- June 5th is my last day, so I still have a lot of teaching to do
• Wisdom in when and how to tell my kids what I'm doing (I want to speak the Name of Jesus when I do)
• Wisdom in what to take/ throw out/ sell/ give away/ etc. and when

God is so good. He is faithful. He does not change. I am more in love with Him today than when I first met Him.

I asked Him for a time to pull away from all my busyness and just be His. He is answering that cry of my heart. The sound of His voice and the peace of His presence are things I just cannot go without.

This weekend, my dad, a few God-sent men, and I built the framework for a storage shed in my parent's backyard. We had to clear out a bunch of junk under a carport thing that leaks, and replace the two main rotten support beams before we could build a floor and put in framework for walls.

At one point, it was just my dad and I. He had a 10+ pound metal stake balanced on his head with an 8 foot 2x6 on top of that while standing on a ladder. I was holding a 4x4 with one end on a jack, trying to place the other end on the metal beam so my dad could be relieved of his acrobatic stunt. You can bet your buttons I was calling in the angels of protection! If the beams had fallen from my dad's head, we both would have had some serious injuries!

The next step after raising the roof (literally), was to knock out the rotten beams and replace them with new ones. My dad was on the ladder again, shimmying the new beam into place. He called my mom over to hold a support pole and gave me the sledge hammer to help settle the new board in place. My mom was having words toward my dad about having to be in the way of the sledge hammer when out of no where we heard a voice. "I'm feeling the family love here!" Jeremy to the rescue!!!! He showed up at the PERFECT moment!!! He was able to sledge hammer the new beam in place and end the "family love" moment. I am SOOO grateful for him! He and my dad replaced the second beam and got the workings of the floor laid out.

That's when Don and Bev, my parent's best friends, showed up. Jeremy left to help a friend move, and I went home to shower and get my papers to grade. Later, Nathan showed up to "help coach" Don and my dad. I continued to grade papers, but got interrupted by being sent on an hour long run to get the wrong screws. :-) Around 6pm, I went out to inspect the progress. I found a new floor catching water from the leaky roof and the framework for walls and a door completed. A few buckets were put in place to collect the water, and we called it a job well done. We ended the building event with a well-deserved trip to Braum's for burgers and ice cream.

Soon, I will have a dry place to put the stuff I'm not taking with me. We just have to tar the roof and put walls on the frame. Anyone want to help? Haha!

My dad is my hero for taking the time, money, and love to make this place for my stuff. His support on this adventure (and my mom's) blows me away! I am so blessed!

Building

The excitement is building! In 85 days, I will be on my way to a country I've never seen before to work with a people I've never known before who speak a language I've never heard of before this time.

And I am STOKED about all of it!

I got to talk to Pat the other day. (She's the founder and director of IFL.) I learned a few more things about what I will be doing and how to pray for the ministry there. The following is probable, but not 100% set in stone:

I will teach English to struggling learners. (This part is set in stone.) Therefore, I will probably have all ages in my class. This is a class I don't think they haven't had before.

Pat is praying about having me start a pilot program for Special Education (special needs kids) that would be potentially be replicated in the 250+ schools IFL oversees throughout the Philippines. A reason that I wouldn't do this is because I do not speak the language, and that would be very difficult for these types of kids to learn from me. I am praying for a supernatural gift with the language- that it would come easily and effortlessly. I would LOVE to teach these types of kids!

IFL needs $1.@ million dollars to build a holding school and training center made out of steel and concrete that would replace the current wooden infrastructures. They want to start before school starts on June 1st and hope to have it completed by October. IFL applied for a grant from a Swiss company for $600,000 (I think) that they find out this week if they won. Please pray for financial provision for this project.

On a different note... I am still praying about what to do with my car and my stuff. I have ideas, but I need a word from the Lord. It would be great if He confirmed it through 2-3 witnesses, too! :-) My days and weekends are quickly running out!