Everyday Life: School Edition, Day 3

Wednesday, oh, beloved hump day! The day we wait for and then look back at and say, “Was that really two days ago?” Today was a day of productivity and discipline! If you have missed it, I am now in the middle of doing a week-long stint called Everyday Life, The School Edition. Everyday because I describe what my day was like, and school edition because last time I did this mini-series I was on a holiday. Here is what a typical Wednesday looks like for me as an intern in Taiwan with Envision!

Morning

This morning I got up at 8, wishing oh so badly that I could turn over and go back to sleep again, but I finally pulled myself out of bed and began praying. Today I prayed for some people from the Aroma Church, my friend Joanna and her family, and for my own family and other friends like MoMo.

On the far left is my roommate, Andrea, and the rest are the summers BAM interns. They went hiking on Elephant Mountain tonight 🙂 Welcome to Taiwan usually includes this trip up to the top of Xiangshan.

Then I jogged over to the Aroma for morning prayer at 10 and found that everyone had moved to a nearby park to pray because of the construction next door. There were about 10 summer interns that just arrived here yesterday who gathered with the normal crew (Jesse, Envision leader; Chris O’Dell, pastor, Cafe owner; Steven, accountant; Mark, missional growth leader; and Cloud, pastor-in-training; Jaime, I don’t know her job name but she is helping with the menu and events and buying a new building; and me! Intern.)

Before leaving Aroma, I gathered all the sheet music for the worship songs I will be playing this Sunday from the prayer room in the basement of the Aroma. Then I went to the grocery store and found everything except bread for only God knows why, and so then went to the convenience store to get a loaf of expensive, unhealthy bread and some milk. At home, I planned my lessons and made lunch.

School

Today in first grade, I taught how to have a conversation on the telephone. They were so cute! I loved watching them laugh as we role-played conversations and played a game together. During break, Jennie (not to be confused with Jenny) came up and gave me a little hand-made envelope she had made for me. It says, “Give T. Skye spris” (Give Teacher Skye a surprise), and “Thank you T. Skye is my Ticher! T. Skye is my Ticher. I Love T. Skye!” (Thank you, T. Skye for being my teacher.) *sigh* This is the good part of teaching. 🙂

In sixth grade, I taught about adjectives and adverbs and we went through a couple pages in their textbook. But the cool part about class today was the “Word of the Day” time at the beginning.

I asked a boy named Max to choose a word for us, and interestingly enough, he chose “Respect”. I was not prepared for that (the last kid chose ‘biology’), and it really touched my heart. Max longs to be respected, but he isn’t. His parents do not pay much attention to him, I think, and his elder brother steals from him and picks on him all the time. He is not very well-liked in school either, neither in Chinese school nor our school (Sunshine American School), so it was cool to have that chance to speak to his desire.

L>R: Diego (smiling) and Max (not smiling) Max really needs to be shown love

We talked about how we should respect others, how we want others to respect us, you know, the normal things. But we also talked about who deserves respect. Criminals? Murderers? Parents? Even parents who abuse you? We came up with these things: even murderers are respected when they are given a fair trial before being sent to …, and you can respect someone even if you do not do everything they want you to do. Respect does the right thing. It loves. Also, some people may treat you well, but that does not mean they are respecting you. I told them I hoped they could be people that others respect, and if not, why?

Both times I said this, they were completely silent. I could see the searching on their faces.

Evening

This evening I again went to the grocery store (everything is so convenient to get–just a walk down the street– that we often buy meals or things as we need them, even meal to meal) and came home. I practiced the music for worship team and typed my weekly report (week 18!!! two more weeks!!!) for both classes while getting distracted by Brittany and Justin watching the show Elementary on the TV. I really like that show! 🙂

I exercised a tiny bit and now I am just finishing my blog, at almost 1 am. Which is, of course, normal for me. 🙂

Important people:

• New interns– please pray for the new Business as Missions (BAM) interns. They just started today.
• Jennie– she came into my class late with no English at all (the others had been to a Sunshine kindergarten and could already speak some English), and hardly spoke above a whisper. She now gets great grades and usually speaks loud enough to hear, sometimes surprising me with her silly antics and cute expressions.
• Max– a wild ball of emotions, younger than the others in his class by two grades. Usually a trouble-maker, but much better today than usual.

 

Please Pray!

• Please pray for my sister, Beth. I don’t know all the details, but she is in the hospital. Please pray for her health, especially mental health. Pray that this turns her heavy, broken heart towards Jesus. Thanks.
• Please pray for Jennie to feel confident in her abilities and to teach and encourage other kids to do the same when they feel scared.
• Please pray for Max to feel the love of Jesus Christ and to know him as his savior. (Pray for all the kids that way.) Please pray that he would not learn the behaviors of his brother or ‘friends’, but be able to stand against that and choose the way of love despite bullying.
• Please pray for Matt Messer as he travels home to California today and for a good job for him. Pray for his sister, Becca as she stays on as a longer-term “resident” with Envision.

 

Keep the Faith! God is doing things for our good, for a very good purpose. Trust in him. Time is short!! Spread the gospel before Jesus’ return!

 

Skyebirdie

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