A little Discouraged

I had a little discouragement. Katie moved into her apartment and it's on the small side. Small meaning the house build in mexico are bigger. I know this shouldn't discourage me, but we had other things pile on us. There aren't teacher guides, so that's a little discouraging. Makes it a little hard to plan, but I'm trying. Then Erick (another teacher) informed us that girl he replaced left because they wouldn't pay her because she didn't have her visa. I don't have my visa yet. Little more discouraging. Katie e-mailed Joan (she is the lady from HoyaEnglish) with our concerns in hopes that she will help us out. However she can't do anything until Monday because it is the weekend. I've trouble planning because that shattered confindence is coming back to haunt me. Why should I plan because I can't teach anyways? You aren't as good as think, so why bother? It's been a little rough, but I think I can do this. I hope I can do this.

This morning I got up this morning and went through my quiet time. One of my devotional books is Women of the Bible and I've just started so it's talking about Eve. One thing it pointed out was that after Eve and Adam ate the fruit, God proved clothes for them. If God proved clothes after they sinned, what will God do for me and He is the one who told me to come here? Why should I be downcast? God will take care of me. So after reading Woman of the Bible, I read The One Year Book of Hope. It had my read Lamentations. I read it and wrote down the verses that had meaning to me. Lame. 3:21-24 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulllness. I say to myself "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

So some other things about my stay. Katie and I kinda feel like we aren't in the world. We are kind of in on little world with very little interaction with the outside. This is mostly likely because we don't know the language. However we have decide that it is ok to feel this because we have each other. If we were here alone it might bother us. Next that things are different here. We see people in these pj that belong in the hostipal but are allowed to go out in public. There is this guy with an IV, he looks sick and like he should be in a hostipal but he wonders the streets smoking. It's just not normal. Out of all the people we have seen in the pjs he seems to be the sickest, the rest of them it's not as weird that they are out other than the fact that they are in pjs. I can watch TV, however I don't really have any choices. They play movies in english a lot. Most of them are not best movies and probably would never watch them, but I don't really have a choice at this point in time. Last night I found a show that seemed interesting. It's called Sitcom English and it's on the channel that the Korean watch to learn english, but it was a good show and it was funny.

Here are some pics

Yesterday I went to my school. It was just so great to go and see it. I really can't explain the feeling I'm having right now. First, I don't have to wear shoes. Nobody wear shoes. Everyone there is just so great and wonderful and nice. My school is very new. It opened up this past March. Do you see that? That was God. He was here starting things when I first resigned. I'm taking this another sign that I was meant to be here. My principal (Kelly) believes that should learn and be taught but she also agrees that they need time to be five and have fun also. Monday thru Thursday is the more formal instruction thing. I teach them converstation, phonics, math, and language arts. On Friday, we do cooking, and some science where they make something. We go on field trip once a month. They kids I'll be teaching are just as cute as the ones I left. It doesn't matter where in the world you are 5 year old behave the same. It's just amazing. Back in July the parents where at the school, Kelly had a meeting with them and she told them she was going to hire two more english teachers, since they had so many kinders sign up. She told them she was going to find the best teachers she could find. She hired me because she felt that would full fill her promise to the parents.

After I was done at work, Katie and I went to E-mart. It's a lot like wal-mart. The more time I spend with Katie, the more it is apparent that God thought this through too. Joy was praying that I would have friend over here and I do. Katie and I just seem to have so much in common that it is little weird. But I guess that is God. We wonder around the area last night and we just kinda went looking to see what was out there. It was neat.

Thoughts in an airport

So I am sitting in an airport in Portland as a stop to Korea. How did I get here? First by the great power God this has happened. He should get all the glory and power in this. Why aren't I sitting in school teaching Kindergarten right now as most of friends while if you have time to read you will find out.

This story goes back March. I sat down in my prinicpal Richard's office. He began to point out all things I did wrong and how I was not teaching up to "par". However my students showed me otherwise. He told me there had been no improvement at all and the best thing for me to do was resign. The night before Richard came in my classroom to evelateve me, I prayed that God would do his will in this. That if I was to stay at Cartwright he would open Richard's eyes and Richard would see all the things I saw. However he didn't. I had several "meeting" with Richard during the rest of the year where he contiued the beating. In the end I walked for Cartwright heart-broken, upset, lost confused and my confinendence shattered.

I didn't look for a job in March, April, May, June, or July. It just hurt too much. Beside I didn't know if I could teach. God was bring people in my life at this time and some of them would do something of the healing and others would just be there. I also spent time with the people who loved, but this wasn't helping. I started attend a church at Mesa at this time also and these people are just wonderful and loving and caring.

I went to a job fair that was pretty much useless or so I thought. I was given an ad for another job seeking website. So I went online and looked for a job. I found HoyaEnglish was looking for people to come teach in Korea. After so talking with a friend about Korea. I decided to apply, what was the worst that could happen. I would still be jobless. So I applied and the following Tuesday I was hired by the company. They began looking for a school to place me out. The next Tuesday I was called by a school in need of someone to teach Kindergarten. They had 40 extra kindergarteners sign up for school. So now I am sitting in an airport waiting to fly to Korea.

Watching God put this together has been on of the most thrilling things in my life. I'm excited to be doing this and really can't wait to meet my students.

Things that God has done:
Getting out my lease was cheaper than I thought
Jim took my dog
God laid it me on Tammy's heart
My last dinner in Phoenix I saw 5 church memembers at the resuartant
Kelly found us even though I wasn't flying out of Northwest like I had thought
Katie (a ASU grad) has the same flights and is also working for HoyaEnglish.
My father bowed his head to pray with Kelly and I.

Keep your eyes open as more is to come.