Summer is coming!

We realize that it's been far too long since we've updated our blog, but that doesn't mean that we haven't been doing anything.  We've been plugging away with our preschoolers and being a little more involved in the afterschool program. I'm entering my last week with the preschool and then moving into the day camp schedule next week while Carrie will be staying with the preschool until she can get the new teacher for the summer transitioned in (she arrives early June).  We hope that the process for Carrie goes quickly so she can get into the day camps as soon as possible. She will be able to be somewhat involved in camps in the afternoons until then.

 

One thing that I feel like I've learned since we last posted was what kind of relationship I should be building with these kids.  There is one boy in the after school program that has a terrible anger problem.  The kind of anger where you feel like your walking on eggshells and any little thing will set him into this rage where he will not listen or talk to anyone.  If he is angry with another kid he will immediately seek revenge.  One day, after a tantrum I was talking with one of my fellow teachers and I said, "At what point do we tell their parents they their child is out of control?"  Their response was not one I was expecting.  They said, "The parents know what their child is like and it's not up to us to fix them.  It is our job to love them like God loves them."  That immediately sunk in and it has changed my entire mentality about teaching and how I interact with these kids.

Meanwhile, Carrie is learning how much of an impact we can have on a preschooler's beliefs: There is a boy that just turned 4 in my preschool class. Throughout the last few weeks the subject of the cross came up randomly throughout the day. One time we were on a walk and saw a cross on the mission campus. I talked with the kids what the cross means. I talked about how it reminds us of how Jesus died for us, but that he didn't stay dead, but came back to life. This certain boy said "My dad says there is no way someone can come back to life". I tried to explain to him why I believe Jesus did come back to life. A couple days later this same boy drew a cross on a whiteboard and showed me what he drew. I took that moment to talk about the cross again. He said once more, "My dad doesn't think he came back to life", but then he added "but I think he did". I couldn't help but smile. Maybe it's something he's learned at Preschool, or maybe somewhere else, but the important thing is that I should never underestimate what these children are taking in and how big their faith can be.

We've also had some fun in this Alaskan wilderness we live in.  We've been on a little boating outing as well as a picnic on a beach.  We saw a very cool Bald Eagle sighting just yesterday where we were walking back to the car from our picnic and saw all of these eagles on the beach.  We immediately knew that something had washed ashore - the eagles were just stuffing their beaks.  So we got real close and saw they had come across a bunch of fish remains.  I snapped about a hundred pictures in 15 minutes and just watched this awesome show.  Such amazing birds.

Prayer requests:

• That the summer will being smoothly (we have lots of knew staff coming in the next few weeks to volunteer for the summer).
• That Carrie's transition with the new teacher will go quickly and easily.
• That the kids we work with this summer will know God's love. 
• That we will remain in good health (quite a bit of sickness going around)