Peace

Peace.  Some people would describe peace as sitting by a calm streem, or living a worry free life. Websters dictionay says "serenity or quiet".  But this week I've learned that peace can come from many other unexpected places.  In the shouting of kids as they run to their classrooms in the moring, and the sound of their voices singing praises to God.  In the scared moments of teaching for the first time, and when rain is pouring into the classroom from the windows that won't close.  I even found peace as I watched 7 big high school senior guys walk into my classroom Monday morning. This week gave meaning to Philipians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus".  It was completely crazy.  At times I stood in front of my class wondering how on earth I would learn all their names, or wondering what I should say next because we already finished everything I had planned.  Their were moments I wasn't sure how to respond to questions they asked or things they did.  But God was there.  He was teaching me a new kind of peace.  The kind that comes from the scariest and hardest moments when all you can do is sit back and say "ok God, I trust you to make this work because their is no way I can do it".

Monday morning I got up bright and early at 5:45.  By 7:20 I was leaving my classroom and heading to staff worship.  On my way I discovered I was actually put on supervision duty, I wasn't really sure what that meant, but I went to where the kids were and introduced myself.  The staff on supervision are responsible for keeping check of the kids before school, during lunch, and after shcool.  I met a lot of the kids but none from my homeroom class of seniors.  I didn't know what to expect, would they listen to me? Respect me? Would they realize how young I was and ignore all authority I was supposed to have?  After flag raising Principal Raian introduced us.  The seniors cheered when I was announced as their homeroom teacher and Sabrina heard one of the sophomores whisper "Oh! The really white one!".  Heading to the classroom they all followed me, eager to see the room and wondering who I was.  It took everything within me to hide my fear after seeing 7 big high school guys, and 6 girls, all within a couple years of my own age, file into the room.  All this changed during chapel though.  I told them which side to sit on, and they did it! I told them to stop talking, and they said, "sorry miss" and sat quietly.  It wasn't easy, they tested me continually, trying to see if I would stand firm as the authority or let them walk all over me; something I was determined not to allow.  By the end of the day I was excited for the next!  I felt so much more confident in what I was doing, but the next day was still one giant unknown.
Tuesday we started the class rotation.  I started with a 20 min devotional with my seniors, stayed with them for Precalc, moved to juniors for Geometry, Sophomores for Algebra 2, and Freshmen for Algebra 1.  I spent the day going over all of our class procedures, rules, and goals and getting to know them.  None of my plans lasted the full 50 minutes so I discovered that teaching is like a full day of improv.  I came up with playing "Would You Rather" and several other games to get to know them better.  At the end I gave them a chance to ask me any questions they had.  The first question was, "Miss, how old are you?" I answered 85 :). They are never going to find out my age if I can help it! They wanted to know my favorite color, and where I was from.  One of the boys asked why I came to Yap since lots of the other islands have better housing and more people go to them.  I explained how I felt like God was calling me here and I wanted to go somewhere that really needed it.  He said thank you for coming, and though it's a small thing, it really gave me the encouragement I needed to get through the day. 
Each day had a new challenge.  I gave math evaluation tests, taught Micronesia History with no text book, and I was in charge of PE for my class.  I am not very athletic, at least not with most organized sports.  I still don't know what I'm going to do for an entire year of PE, but I know God has it under control.  Micronesia History was an entirely new adventure.  History is one of my favorite subjects, but I know absolutley nothing about Micronesia! I told them to write half a page on their family history and the history of their island.  Every single student wrote at least a page, they told me about which island they were from and about their culture.  It was so interesting to sit and read all they had to tell me.  I felt like I got to know them so much better.  They don't always get involved in class discussions, but they write.  When I ask them about themselves and things they struggle with they open up on paper.  I am praying we will be able to find a text book for me to look at before Monday, I don't know what else I can do without a textbook!
It's friday now, I survived the week! Looking back, it went better then I ever could have imagined.  It had it's rough patches, but it had a lot of highlights too.  I finally have down the names of all my seniors, I'm still working on some of the other grades.  They are starting to talk to me and interacting more in class.  I love walking into the classroom and hearing "Good morning Miss Rychelle" or "How are you Miss?".  I love spending my time helping kids with math and seeing their faces brighten when it finally makes sense.  I love teaching them new songs in music class and hearing them sing as they clean at the end of the day.  It makes me laugh to see the things they try to get away with; like trying to scrub a classmates head instead of the window during work time on Friday and tyring to convince me it takes two or three of them to go get one broom.  I learned they don't use tissues here when they thought it was hilarious for me to offer one when a student asked to blow his nose. I let one of the boys play my guitar to practice singing as a group for chapel on Monday.  They were excited to get to play my guitar, and I found some of them who were really quiet involving themselves in music.  At the end of the day a group of the boys brought me some flowers they put together as a necklace and spent extra time making sure the classroom was clean.  One of the girls stayed after to make the chalk board look neater and ask me about my weekend plans.  I know a lot of challenges are ahead, and their are a lot of unknowns; but I am so excited to face them.  I want to make a difference to these kids, I want to earn their respect and help them prepare for life after high school.  It seems like such an overwhelming task, but I still have peace.  I know God has it under control.