Math Week

This week I was given a challenge; make math fun for all 63 high schoolers.  I try to do fun activities in each class at least once a week.  A fun review game, solving with side walk chalk, or something like that.  Spending a whole week trying to involve the entire school though wasn't as easy.  I had the classes make math posters for starters.  They made some funny ones I think I will take home with me at the end of the year.  Some funny ones were "Mathematics is like love, simple idea but it tends to get complicated" or "Math is a stalker, it follows you everywhere".  One of my favorites shows me teaching at the chalkboard and a student praying at their bed, "Dear Jesus, please help Ms. Rychelle to cancel the algebra test tomorrow", on the bottom it says "As long as algebra is taught in schools, students will pray".  I also had a pi competition. I never really got into pi competitions in school.  I didn't see the point of memorizing a bunch of digits.  However, when I promised to make a pie for the person who could memorize the most digits, a had several students get really excited.  It became a huge competition!  The winning student recited 198 digits! I couldn't believe it! I also had a student recite 136 and another 100 digits.  I will have to make sure I make a really good pie :).  The last part of math week didn't go so well.  I was supposed to do an assembly at the end of the week involving all of the high school.  What do you do at a math assembly with over 60 students in 4 different math classes?!  The only thing I could think to do was Math Jeopardy.  I had 4 participants from each class to make two teams.  The idea wasn't so bad... but it did not go well.  I think those participating actually had a lot of fun, but the rest of the day was a disaster.
Sometimes I feel like I have so little control of the students.  We have no hallways, so it's hard to contain them inside the school.  Their are only 4 of us and 63 of them.  We don't have a tardy bell so attendence is only taken at the beginning of the day.  Lots of them have very little motivation to do their best, much less even try.  It often seems like a battle we can't win.  No matter how much we try to watch them, motivate them, and encourage them.  I finally learned on Friday what the problem was.  I've been too cosumed with what "I" can do to help them.  I pray for God's help and then I focus on what "I" can do.  I finally learned this Friday I need to stop being so selfish.  It doesn't matter who changes them or helps them, nobody but God can do that.  Instead of trying to be the hero I have a new prayer.  I'm praying for God to help my students. Work on their hearts, because that is the only thing that will really help change them.  All of this came about because of the chaos of Friday.  It was a particularly hard day.  It seemed like none of the students were listening to anything I was saying so I repeated everything at least 10 times.  They weren't following any instructions and they just didn't care about turning in or doing anything I was assigning.  I started to notice some of my students acting weird so I started keeping an eye on them.  I was pretty sure a few of them were either high or drunk.  Before I could do anything about it though I had to go set up for the math assembly.  I tried to find the principal but he had gone into town.  As I was trying to do all of this I noticed a problem.  Except for Sabrina, the other teachers weren't helping.  Since it was math related they just kind of stepped aside and let me handle all of the students.  So there I was, in the front of the chapel, trying to run the Jeopardy game, sending one of my girls out because she was drunk, and watching students just get up and leave the chapel with no way to stop them without constantly stopping the assembly and going looking for everyone outside.  It was a losing battle, when I tracked down a few students more had left, when I stopped the game to take care of a problem, more problems came up.  At the end of the day I just sat in my desk, close to tears, and prayed.  These students have so many problems I am clueless to help them with.  I learned a good lesson though.  I can really see how God is teaching me this year.  From now on, I need to rely more on God.  I know I will still have bad days like this, but I need to stop trying to be the miracle worker.  Every day I am praying for God to help my students, open their hearts to change, and use me in any way He can.  My request this week is for you to pray for my students too.  My heart just hurts for them.  The things they go through, family situations, and the decisions they make just hurt me to see.  Though I feel powerless, I know God can help them.  I'm looking forward to another fresh start on Monday :). 

Expect the Unexpected

You would think, after over 5 months in Yap, we would no longer be surprised by daily life.  However, the last few months have taught me not to try to predict what's going to happen.  As a student missionary in Yap you have to expect the unexpected.  No matter how routine the days become, everyday has something unique to adjust to.  This week is a great example.  As an answer to prayer both Pamela and Andrea were able to return this week! Pam still has some medical problems from the hospital here but they cleared her to come as long as she is careful.  We were so excited to have them back! It seemed like maybe for the first time all year we would have a full, healthy staff.  Then, two days after Andrea arrived, she stepped off a ledge onto a bottle that was left, which rolled her ankle.  I couldn't believe it when Jesse came running up to our apartment saying "Andrea broke her ankle!".  The first thing that came to mind was, "Why?!".  It seemed like she was trying so hard to follow God's will, and yet she was being struck down yet again.  It amazed me to see her smile even as they loaded her into the back of our van, with a mattress on the floor, to take her to the hospital since all the ambulances were busy.  She had a rough night, but she didn't lose faith.  That really inspired me.  We don't always, actually rarely, understand why things happen.  But we really don't have to worry about that, we just need to rely on God.  That is what I learned from Andrea this week.  She could be upset because she came back to the mission field after having Dengue just to get hurt again, but she wasn't.  It's so easy to be close to God and praising Him when everything is going well, just as you planned, what's hard is when everything goes wrong.  I've been thinking a lot about this the last few days and it really made me realize how selfish it is to think that way.  God went through so much for us in order to save us and give us a connection to God.  He promises to guide us and be with us if we will surrender to Him; and yet, as soon as things don't go as smoothly as I think they should, I want to complain and claim "it's not fair".  It seemed so silly when I though of it that way.  God already saved me from sin and planned out a future for me, I just need to rely on Him regardless of the circumstances. 
This week, aside from the above incident, went pretty well.  We had school off Friday for parent teacher conferences.  I had a lot more parents come this time!  I was talking with them most of the morning.  I had a couple moms talk to me for over 30 minutes desperate to figure out a way to help their kids.  We were able to come up with some ideas to hold them accountable and I was able to pray with them.  I really hope together we will be able to help some of the students that are really struggling.  We left church early today to Skye with Walla Walla University for vespers.  It was so great to listen to vespers, hear familiar voices, and talk with some past Yap SM's and friends after the service.  As much as I love it here I miss WWU and my friends there a lot.  It was really encouraging to talk to them for a bit and share some experiences we have had. 
Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for us and supporting us since the beginning.  This week, if you think of Yap, please pray for Andrea.  By a miracle the swelling stayed down enough for them to be able to set it straight and put it in a cast.  They are just waiting to find out if she needs surgery.  It's scary to have anything medical go on here, especially after what happened to Pam. 

5 Months Later...

5 months ago I was filled with questions.  What would Yap be like?  Would I be a good teacher?  Would the students listen to me?  Would I like it?  Why did God send me here?  Now halfway through my time here, I’m filled with different questions.  Am I doing enough?  How can I be the best teacher for my students, and the hardest question of all; how on earth will I be able to say good bye to my students and this island in another 5 months?  A year ago I couldn’t really explain to you why I chose Yap.  I just had a feeling, out of all the places I could go, that God wanted me in Yap.  I am so glad I listened! These last five months have been amazing.  They have included some of the hardest tasks I have ever faced.  God has been working on me and changing me.  I feel like I’m learning more then I’m teaching.  My students are teaching me patience.  I think it is a lesson that you can never really finish.  It’s on going, just when I think I’ve finally got it down my pride gets in the way and I find myself starting over.  I’m learning to be flexible.  Things rarely go as expected.  I have to change an entire class at the last minute because they still don’t understand yesterday’s lesson, the person who was supposed to be the pianist is gone, or the children story is needed with 5 minutes notice.  To say things don’t always go as planned is an understatement!  I’ve seen these last few months that God is here, even for the tiniest things.  My priorities in life have changed.  The things I want in life and my goals are slowly coming together.  I don’t know what God has in store for us here on Yap for the next 5 months, but I couldn’t be more excited to find out.  I’m sure it will involve new challenges for us and some hard lessons.  I have so many things I want to do for my students.  So many school events to plan, and ways I want to make a difference.  My prayer is that this island would use me up.  When I return in June I don’t want to think “What else could I have done?”.  I want to know that I gave everything I had.  Please keep us in your prayers! It is so encouraging to know we have family and friends supporting us.  Pam will be returning tonight; hopefully with good health for the rest of the year!  Another blessing to be thankful forJ. 


Highlight of the week… When I came in to teach sophomore music on Friday I found them ready to surprise one of the girls for her birthday.  I had to go talk to a disgruntled parent for a little while; when I came back they were all covered in cake! Frosting covered their faces and cake was in their hair.  I was laughing at them and saying, “What happened when I left?!” when they attacked me!  Frosting completely coated my face, they rubbed it through my hair and it dripped down on to my shirt!  Needless to say the music lesson didn’t happen, but we had a little fun before the school day endedJ.   

A Trip to the Store

Happy New Year! This week has been a busy one back at school, but I am so happy for break to be over! Those are words I never would have imagined saying.  It wasn't because break was bad, it was great! I just missed my students, and teaching every day.  I can tell that with teaching as my career I will never dread the end of breaks :).  This campus seemed too quiet after a while and it was so great to have the students back.  Their isn't much to say about the week.  It was more of the same I've told you about before.  Not to say it has become boring, teaching could never be boring, but it has definitely settled into a very familiar routine.  Their isn't really anything new or different to tell you about.  So instead I will tell you more about shopping here, I don't think I 've said much about it yet.

Shopping on Yap, or any of these islands, is an adventure.  You never really know exactly what you will find.  I don't think I have ever come back with everything on my shopping list, and I always end up with something I hadn't planned on.  The stores are entirely dependent on shipments.  Aside from a few fruits, nothing is grown or produced here.  Everything must be shipped.  Those working in the store don't even know exactly what will be in the next shipment, or when it will come.  Some weeks their is plenty of bread, eggs, onions, flour, and all sorts of things like that.  Then the next week you go shopping their won't be any of it.  We couldn't find wheat bread for over two months, and flour disappeared for 3 months.  This week I couldn't find any onions, and milk was low, but I randomly found taco shells!  In the states everything can be planned out perfectly.  You are pretty confident in finding eggs and beans at the store, but not here.  You have to be flexible! It's the same with clothing.  It's pretty funny to see the things that come in. I don't know where they get their clothing from, but they get really random things.  For example, they got a shipment of "Angry Bird" shirts in all different sizes that all of a sudden showed up at every store.  I don't think most of the people even know what "angry birds" is.  Shopping in Yap is a unique experience and it has taught me to be thankful for the little things.  Never before would I have imagined jumping up and down for joy in the grocery store because I found whole wheat bread, Alfredo sauce, or taco shells :). 

Happy Sabbath! I hope your new year is going well :).