The time is very quickly approaching that I need to be applying for teaching jobs for next year. Last week I went through different districts and compiled information about each of their application processes. First thing on the to-do list is making my resume. I'm so excited. (I hope you caught the sarcasm there...)
It's hard to know what my plan of attack should be. The district that I probably have the best chance of getting hired in is absolutely lowest on my list of preferences.
Despite prayers for direction, I feel direction-less.
If you think about it, please pray that I will, whatever the outcome, accept that this is what God has in store for me.
I am both excited for the possibilities and nervous of what the outcome might be.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
one really long day.
I received a call Thursday night to sub in a junior high History class on Friday. I wasn't terribly excited about it, but the call came at 9:56 pm (10pm is the end of the calling time), so I figured time was running out to accept.
Let me back up and say that I had received a call a couple of hours earlier, but my phone was acting crazy. I was able to answer the phone, but when it came time to put in my password to hear the job, my phone wouldn't let me press the buttons. Awesome. I ended up having to end the call and reboot the phone. Got another call a few minutes later, still acting weird, but I was able to press and hold the numbers and it finally went through. Of course, the call was for March 22, but it was a job nonetheless. I rebooted it again and everything seemed fine.
Ok, back to the story. I walked into the school office a couple minutes before 8am, which was my call time. Of course, the teacher I was subbing for had morning duty starting at 8. Awesome. So I rushed to the classroom, but my stuff down, and went outside to stand in the cold to watch junior highers stand around. Queue boring day. It was an 8th grade U.S. History class, in which I had to do the same thing over for 6 periods. I figured as much when I took the job. The part I was not a fan of was that they were given a 4 page handout to read and answer 25 questions from. There were TAs in all the periods, so they sat at the teacher's desk in the back, which meant I had to sit in the front on a stool behind the podium. For about 6 hours. While I just sat there doing nothing. It was probably one of the longest, most boring days of my life.
I would have gladly made $10 less that day and subbed in the pre-K that morning. I received a call from them trying to fill an immediate position. Sorry, I'm having a boring day in junior high...
(Don't get me wrong, I was thankful that I had a job at all.)
Let me back up and say that I had received a call a couple of hours earlier, but my phone was acting crazy. I was able to answer the phone, but when it came time to put in my password to hear the job, my phone wouldn't let me press the buttons. Awesome. I ended up having to end the call and reboot the phone. Got another call a few minutes later, still acting weird, but I was able to press and hold the numbers and it finally went through. Of course, the call was for March 22, but it was a job nonetheless. I rebooted it again and everything seemed fine.
Ok, back to the story. I walked into the school office a couple minutes before 8am, which was my call time. Of course, the teacher I was subbing for had morning duty starting at 8. Awesome. So I rushed to the classroom, but my stuff down, and went outside to stand in the cold to watch junior highers stand around. Queue boring day. It was an 8th grade U.S. History class, in which I had to do the same thing over for 6 periods. I figured as much when I took the job. The part I was not a fan of was that they were given a 4 page handout to read and answer 25 questions from. There were TAs in all the periods, so they sat at the teacher's desk in the back, which meant I had to sit in the front on a stool behind the podium. For about 6 hours. While I just sat there doing nothing. It was probably one of the longest, most boring days of my life.
I would have gladly made $10 less that day and subbed in the pre-K that morning. I received a call from them trying to fill an immediate position. Sorry, I'm having a boring day in junior high...
(Don't get me wrong, I was thankful that I had a job at all.)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
sorry for the neglect.
I thought I would take a quick break from my (slowly arriving) Slovenia updates. Life has been busy this month as I jumped right back into things. Three classes, plus starting my big research project to finish my degree, a little work subbing, and a 6-day trip to Washington in there has kept my last three weeks very busy.
The first weekend was both my grandma and my mom's birthdays. This meant birthday celebrations. Lindsay came home Friday the 4th and the two of us and my mom went to the spa to get facials. We had yummy sandwiches for lunch, then they went to pick up my grandma (my aunt's car broke down on the way to Bakersfield) and took her to her hair appointment. If there's one thing we all know, it's don't mess with the hair appointment. I, on the other hand, went back to the world of homework. Saturday we did some errands, looked at some model homes, mostly for fun, but partially to get an idea of what's out there for the future home purchases of both my sister and me, and then we all went to dinner at P.F. Chang's for the birthdays. Sunday was Super Bowl day, as well as Mom's birthday. Lindsay was nice enough to get up and make breakfast and then the rest of the day was resting for my parents and homeworking for me. I'm still readjusting to the reality of always having loads of homework to accomplish.
Monday was class and business as usual. Tuesday I tried to do way too much. Wednesday was the day I set off for Washington. I had a fantastic time visiting my friend Caitlin, mostly just hanging out, but also doing some wedding planning for her. My return flight was scheduled for Monday so that I would have plenty of time to get to my class. The only problem was that my flights were delayed, delayed, and then delayed again. Apparently San Francisco was having weather issues, as well as a runway closed due to construction. My goodness, it was a mess there. I made it back to Burbank around 5pm, 30 minutes after my class started. With good traffic, it takes about an hour, hour and fifteen minutes to get to school. That put me at 6:00-6:15. But, it was 5:00. Which would probably put me there closer to 6:30-6:45. Seeing as how my class ends at 7, I opted to just drive home instead. Not worth the effort for a few minutes. As it was, I made it through LA driving north in about 10 minutes and I was in my house by 6:30. I really didn't want to miss class, but since there was nothing I could really do about it, it was very nice to get home so early.
Wednesday morning (the 16th) I got a phone call at 6am for an 11am sub job. Boy, I love being awakened at that hour for a half day job :) So I get to the school around 11 and find out that it's a PM Kindergarten class. But, I was subbing for the AM teacher, which meant I just had to prep work, recess duty, and help with a reading group. Plus, Wednesdays are my favorite day to sub because it's an early out day every week. It was such a strange sub job, but a nice change. Sure, I can cut, fold, and trace!
Thursday I had a job subbing in the Pre-K class that I have been in many times before. It was good, but I don't really remember any good stories. I think there was something funny, so I'll have to try to remember. Anyway, the worst part of the day was that I woke up feeling like I might be getting sick. By the time I was done working at 5pm, I was sure that I was. That sickness characterized the rest of my weekend. I didn't feel well, but I definitely didn't get the cold as bad as I could have. By Sunday afternoon I was feeling pretty good, Monday I felt really good, and yesterday the only remnant was a slightly stuffy nose.
Yesterday was a productive day. I went to do observations for my research project, did some homework, did some research about applying to districts for a job in the fall (yikes!), and then hosted Bible Study here last night.
That brings me to today. I was hoping to sub, since Wednesday is my favorite day to sub, and I need the work, but no call. So, it's lunch with my mom and then some homework, I'm sure. My plans for the rest of this week and weekend are getting a lot of homework done for the next few weeks. We are having family here, it's my birthday a week from today, and then more fun events that I don't want to have to be doing homework through. Sounds fun, right?
The first weekend was both my grandma and my mom's birthdays. This meant birthday celebrations. Lindsay came home Friday the 4th and the two of us and my mom went to the spa to get facials. We had yummy sandwiches for lunch, then they went to pick up my grandma (my aunt's car broke down on the way to Bakersfield) and took her to her hair appointment. If there's one thing we all know, it's don't mess with the hair appointment. I, on the other hand, went back to the world of homework. Saturday we did some errands, looked at some model homes, mostly for fun, but partially to get an idea of what's out there for the future home purchases of both my sister and me, and then we all went to dinner at P.F. Chang's for the birthdays. Sunday was Super Bowl day, as well as Mom's birthday. Lindsay was nice enough to get up and make breakfast and then the rest of the day was resting for my parents and homeworking for me. I'm still readjusting to the reality of always having loads of homework to accomplish.
Monday was class and business as usual. Tuesday I tried to do way too much. Wednesday was the day I set off for Washington. I had a fantastic time visiting my friend Caitlin, mostly just hanging out, but also doing some wedding planning for her. My return flight was scheduled for Monday so that I would have plenty of time to get to my class. The only problem was that my flights were delayed, delayed, and then delayed again. Apparently San Francisco was having weather issues, as well as a runway closed due to construction. My goodness, it was a mess there. I made it back to Burbank around 5pm, 30 minutes after my class started. With good traffic, it takes about an hour, hour and fifteen minutes to get to school. That put me at 6:00-6:15. But, it was 5:00. Which would probably put me there closer to 6:30-6:45. Seeing as how my class ends at 7, I opted to just drive home instead. Not worth the effort for a few minutes. As it was, I made it through LA driving north in about 10 minutes and I was in my house by 6:30. I really didn't want to miss class, but since there was nothing I could really do about it, it was very nice to get home so early.
Wednesday morning (the 16th) I got a phone call at 6am for an 11am sub job. Boy, I love being awakened at that hour for a half day job :) So I get to the school around 11 and find out that it's a PM Kindergarten class. But, I was subbing for the AM teacher, which meant I just had to prep work, recess duty, and help with a reading group. Plus, Wednesdays are my favorite day to sub because it's an early out day every week. It was such a strange sub job, but a nice change. Sure, I can cut, fold, and trace!
Thursday I had a job subbing in the Pre-K class that I have been in many times before. It was good, but I don't really remember any good stories. I think there was something funny, so I'll have to try to remember. Anyway, the worst part of the day was that I woke up feeling like I might be getting sick. By the time I was done working at 5pm, I was sure that I was. That sickness characterized the rest of my weekend. I didn't feel well, but I definitely didn't get the cold as bad as I could have. By Sunday afternoon I was feeling pretty good, Monday I felt really good, and yesterday the only remnant was a slightly stuffy nose.
Yesterday was a productive day. I went to do observations for my research project, did some homework, did some research about applying to districts for a job in the fall (yikes!), and then hosted Bible Study here last night.
That brings me to today. I was hoping to sub, since Wednesday is my favorite day to sub, and I need the work, but no call. So, it's lunch with my mom and then some homework, I'm sure. My plans for the rest of this week and weekend are getting a lot of homework done for the next few weeks. We are having family here, it's my birthday a week from today, and then more fun events that I don't want to have to be doing homework through. Sounds fun, right?
Friday, February 18, 2011
days three and four: and the work begins.
Saturday morning our wakeup call came at 5:50. May I just say, those extra 10 minutes really would have been nice.
Nevertheless, we were up and at it shortly after that, getting ready in time to make it to breakfast by 7:30. I discovered at breakfast that morning that Europeans, or at least Slovenians, have a different standard of temperature when it comes to yogurt. It was always slightly cool and had a bit of a grainy texture. Hmm, no thanks. I was thankful for all of the fresh fruit they had at every meal. Never have I had so many meals consist predominantly of fruit. Anyway, after breakfast we had our team devotions and got to work setting up all of our rooms. Here is the wall the decoration folks put up:
By 4:00pm or so, all of the rooms were set up and we were ready for action. Erin and I decided to venture outdoors and get a bit of fresh air.
It was freezing outside, so we walked for less than 20 minutes, and then went back inside to thaw out. The team had dinner and the kids started arriving around 5:45. We did worship songs with them, showed them the opening movie that talked about the 10/40 window, then went back to our class and decorated tote bags and told taught them a bit more. These kids came from all over Eastern Europe and not all of them spoke English. It was interesting to me to see how these kids got along without knowing much or any English. Some of the other kids served as interpreters, others we just did the best we could with. They all seemed to have fun, and that's the most important thing. The kids left around 8, then our team had to get set up for the morning. There was a bit of a learning curve on how to work together and how that would look in our classes. Had a team debrief, talking over the evening, tweaked a few things, then off to our rooms and off to bed. I got more sleep than two hours, but it still wasn't enough.
 |
| View from the balcony. Beginning of sunrise over the Adriatic Sea. |
Nevertheless, we were up and at it shortly after that, getting ready in time to make it to breakfast by 7:30. I discovered at breakfast that morning that Europeans, or at least Slovenians, have a different standard of temperature when it comes to yogurt. It was always slightly cool and had a bit of a grainy texture. Hmm, no thanks. I was thankful for all of the fresh fruit they had at every meal. Never have I had so many meals consist predominantly of fruit. Anyway, after breakfast we had our team devotions and got to work setting up all of our rooms. Here is the wall the decoration folks put up:
Sunday morning, the alarm went off at 5:50. Again, much too early, but at least this time it was intentional. Courtney took the first shower while I tried to rouse myself awake. We were at breakfast by 7:00, team devotions by 7:30, then a few minutes to prep for the day, and the kids started arriving 8:30ish. It was my first day to teach and the kids were learning about the Tajik people living in Tajikistan. Overall, the morning went well, but it still seemed a little like things were in slight chaos in the class. It's bound to feel that way with 47 kids ages 6-8, but we figured there had to be something we could be doing better.
Next, it was lunchtime. Let me say, one of the worst things about the meal schedule was that it was adapted to the conference schedule. Which means, as soon as the session got out, the parents came to pick up their kids, and everyone descended on the dining room all at once. By the time our team went down 15-20 minutes later, it was just about enough time for all the seats to be taken and the food to be well picked over. Not that the food was all that wonderful to begin with, but it's always nice to get a bit of a selection. Anyway, we had the afternoon "off," but had a few things to prepare, then Courtney and I got in a short (too short) nap. It was that I'm not sure that it helped, I just felt drugged after it kind of nap. That evening we had our first movie night, which featured "Up." One of the guys on our team created a script and a puppet show that coincided with the movie to incorporate a message in it. It was creative and the kids loved it. The only problem was that we had some technical difficulties at the beginning, which caused us to start 30 minutes late, and having to cut the movie short. All in all, it was a good day (other than the fact that I felt like I was sleepwalking at times). Team debrief, then it was off to bed.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
days one and two: journey to slovenia.
This post covers days one and two of my trip, mostly because 1) the lines blur together as to where each day starts and ends because of the time change and 2) I have no pictures of these days. Probably best because if I looked like I felt, pictures are highly unnecessary.
The journey began on Thursday, January 20. Our team of 23, family, friends, and drivers all arrived at church around 11am where we fairly quickly loaded the trailer, said a prayer and goodbyes, and headed on down the road to Los Angeles and LAX. My parents drove one of the vehicles, so I didn't have to say farewell yet. The trip was pretty easy, minus the part where the vehicle in front got off on some random exit and started driving away from the direction we should have been headed. Thank you, iPhone, for setting us back on course. We all descended upon In N Out right next to LAX and had one last familiar meal before leaving the US. After what seemed like forever, but probably really wasn't, we loaded ourselves back in the vehicles and drove about 1 more mile to the airport, unloaded fairly smoothly at LAX (considering we had 60+ pieces of luggage among us), and got in line to check in with the airline. Again, smooth. Said my so-longs to mom and dad, and we were headed through security. A few people got randomly chosen for extra screening, but other than that, smooth sailing.
We arrived at our gate about 4 hours early, so we had a bit of time to kill. Our resident Rec(reation) guy, Chris, led the team in some calisthenics, much to the entertainment of the few other people populating our gate. We sat, and stood, and sat some more before it was finally time to board the plane. I was pleased to find out that I had nobody sitting next to me on the flight, especially since I could stretch out a little and go to sleep on the all-night, almost 12 hour flight to Zurich.
The airline fed us dinner, which was a decent tortellini with some sort of tomato sauce, and then I settled in to watch a movie. I watched Charlie St. Cloud, which was pretty good, and then started The American. I think I watched all of 5 minutes before I got too sleepy to keep my eyes open. Sleepy? Yes. Actually fell asleep? No. I almost drifted off a few times, but something always woke me up. There was only one instance when I actually, literally started to doze off sometime in the middle of the night. Just as I was falling asleep the flight attendant was shaking my arm to wake me up (you can imagine how happy I was). Apparently the woman in front of me was traveling with her two kids, who had fallen asleep across all three seats. She wanted to sit in the empty seat next to me. I was unhappy and incredibly tired, and that was the only time I almost fell asleep. After what seemed like many sleepless hours later, the rest of the plane began to wake up and we were fed breakfast. About 2 hours later, we landed in Zurich, where it was around 4pm. We deplaned and congregated as a group, trying to figure out our plan. The dilemma was that the airport does not assign gate numbers for flights until 1-2 hours before departure and we had about 5 hours to kill. On top of that, the gate the we entered required us to take a train to get to the other gates and passport control. We took the train to the main terminal and found a place to park the crew and our luggage. We surveyed the food landscape and decided that Burger King was our best option to eat as a group. Finally our gate was assigned and we headed off to Gate A, which required us to go through another security checkpoint. After a bit more waiting, we finally boarded our plane and took off for Slovenia.
The flight was just about an hour long. Again, we deplaned and headed to baggage claim, where our baggage came off the plane almost faster than we could grab. Praise God that everything arrived with us! After deciding that everyone had all of their bags, we caravaned out the door, following the signs, and ended up outside the airport. We still don't know if we missed customs, or if it just wasn't there? We quickly loaded onto our bus, but needed to wait a bit for another flight to land that had missionaries also headed to the same conference and were riding on the same bus. Unfortunately for them, we had comandeered all of the baggage room below the bus, but we made it work.
About two hours later, now nearing midnight, we arrived at our hotel/conference center, unloaded the bus, got checked in, received our room assignments, received our orders for the next day, and went to our rooms. Upon arriving in my room with my roommate (and friend) Courtney, we quickly learned that the mattresses on our beds were like boards. It jarred you a little bit when you first sat or laid down. Not the easiest thing to get comfortable on. As I learned throughout the week, though, I must not have been tired enough that first night, because the bed became more comfortable as the week went on and the more exhausted I became. I ended up falling asleep around 4am, which I was especially thrilled about when I had to get up at 6am.
The End.
(Ok, that's where this post ends. I'll continue the chronicle later...)
The journey began on Thursday, January 20. Our team of 23, family, friends, and drivers all arrived at church around 11am where we fairly quickly loaded the trailer, said a prayer and goodbyes, and headed on down the road to Los Angeles and LAX. My parents drove one of the vehicles, so I didn't have to say farewell yet. The trip was pretty easy, minus the part where the vehicle in front got off on some random exit and started driving away from the direction we should have been headed. Thank you, iPhone, for setting us back on course. We all descended upon In N Out right next to LAX and had one last familiar meal before leaving the US. After what seemed like forever, but probably really wasn't, we loaded ourselves back in the vehicles and drove about 1 more mile to the airport, unloaded fairly smoothly at LAX (considering we had 60+ pieces of luggage among us), and got in line to check in with the airline. Again, smooth. Said my so-longs to mom and dad, and we were headed through security. A few people got randomly chosen for extra screening, but other than that, smooth sailing.
We arrived at our gate about 4 hours early, so we had a bit of time to kill. Our resident Rec(reation) guy, Chris, led the team in some calisthenics, much to the entertainment of the few other people populating our gate. We sat, and stood, and sat some more before it was finally time to board the plane. I was pleased to find out that I had nobody sitting next to me on the flight, especially since I could stretch out a little and go to sleep on the all-night, almost 12 hour flight to Zurich.
The airline fed us dinner, which was a decent tortellini with some sort of tomato sauce, and then I settled in to watch a movie. I watched Charlie St. Cloud, which was pretty good, and then started The American. I think I watched all of 5 minutes before I got too sleepy to keep my eyes open. Sleepy? Yes. Actually fell asleep? No. I almost drifted off a few times, but something always woke me up. There was only one instance when I actually, literally started to doze off sometime in the middle of the night. Just as I was falling asleep the flight attendant was shaking my arm to wake me up (you can imagine how happy I was). Apparently the woman in front of me was traveling with her two kids, who had fallen asleep across all three seats. She wanted to sit in the empty seat next to me. I was unhappy and incredibly tired, and that was the only time I almost fell asleep. After what seemed like many sleepless hours later, the rest of the plane began to wake up and we were fed breakfast. About 2 hours later, we landed in Zurich, where it was around 4pm. We deplaned and congregated as a group, trying to figure out our plan. The dilemma was that the airport does not assign gate numbers for flights until 1-2 hours before departure and we had about 5 hours to kill. On top of that, the gate the we entered required us to take a train to get to the other gates and passport control. We took the train to the main terminal and found a place to park the crew and our luggage. We surveyed the food landscape and decided that Burger King was our best option to eat as a group. Finally our gate was assigned and we headed off to Gate A, which required us to go through another security checkpoint. After a bit more waiting, we finally boarded our plane and took off for Slovenia.
The flight was just about an hour long. Again, we deplaned and headed to baggage claim, where our baggage came off the plane almost faster than we could grab. Praise God that everything arrived with us! After deciding that everyone had all of their bags, we caravaned out the door, following the signs, and ended up outside the airport. We still don't know if we missed customs, or if it just wasn't there? We quickly loaded onto our bus, but needed to wait a bit for another flight to land that had missionaries also headed to the same conference and were riding on the same bus. Unfortunately for them, we had comandeered all of the baggage room below the bus, but we made it work.
About two hours later, now nearing midnight, we arrived at our hotel/conference center, unloaded the bus, got checked in, received our room assignments, received our orders for the next day, and went to our rooms. Upon arriving in my room with my roommate (and friend) Courtney, we quickly learned that the mattresses on our beds were like boards. It jarred you a little bit when you first sat or laid down. Not the easiest thing to get comfortable on. As I learned throughout the week, though, I must not have been tired enough that first night, because the bed became more comfortable as the week went on and the more exhausted I became. I ended up falling asleep around 4am, which I was especially thrilled about when I had to get up at 6am.
The End.
(Ok, that's where this post ends. I'll continue the chronicle later...)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
hit the ground running.
That's exactly what I've done since returning home Sunday night from Slovenia! We arrived at LAX around 4:45pm, but had to get 23 people through baggage claim and customs. I think we finally left the airport around 6, stopped for dinner in Santa Clarita, got to the church and unloaded, and finally made it home around 10pm. I pretty much carried everything upstairs, put on my pajamas, and crawled into bed.
The trip was amazing! It was a ton of work, I was exhausted most of the time, but it was totally worth all of the hard work and preparation. I took about 300 pictures myself, a few of which I'll share with you soon. I plan to give you a better summary of each day along with pictures. But, I can't do that all right now, so here is a quick summary of the trip.
We left Thursday, Jan 20 and arrived at the hotel just after midnight on Saturday morning, Jan 22. Talk about a LONG trip! We got little sleep that night and got right to work Saturday morning, getting everything set up and prepared for our first evening session on Saturday night. The class I worked with was 6-8 year olds, about 45 of them. We started with 7 teachers and added 1 more about halfway through the week because we just needed another set of hands! Our purpose was to put on a conference for the kids that focused on different unreached people groups living in the 10/40 window. Each day for 5 days we focused on a different group, learning about where they live, what their lives are like, tried to follow their eating customs at snack time, and learned about how to reach them.
I knew that the parents would appreciate our service, but I completely underestimated just how much this would mean to them. Typically, these kids only get this kind of Sunday school/VBS experience for one week every 3 years. Most of them have friends all over the world, many of which they only get to see this one week every 3 years. What a wonderful thing to provide this experience that the kids rarely or never get! The tears on their faces and hugs as we said good-bye on Thursday night showed us just how much this experience meant to these kids. Suddenly it seemed like all the work we had done was really no trouble at all and that we would do it again in a heartbeat to minister to these kids and their parents. I was so blessed to be a part of this team!
Since arriving home (and after waking out of my mini-coma Monday morning), I got my laundry started, got myself ready, and hit the road with Mom headed down to school. She went with me for safety reasons, just in case I was too tired to drive home. Slovenia is 9 hours ahead of California, so it's probably going to take about a week to get back into the swing of things. We had Mexican food for lunch (something I had definitely been missing), Berry Cool yogurt for dessert (yum!) and then it was time for class. We hit the road again about 7:15 after my class, stopped at the outlet mall for about 30 minutes, and then continued on home. About 30-40 minutes away from home, I decided I was just too sleepy, so we pulled over and switched seats. I know I could have kept myself awake if I had had to, but it was wonderful that Mom was there so I didn't have to.
Today I tried to play catch up and figure out what needed to be done. I was told that coming back home, I might feel disoriented. I'd say it's more like disorganized. It seems like I can't really figure out what needs to be done. I checked all my bank accounts, emails, etc. and tried to see where everything stands. I've been thinking so much about the class I needed to go to on Monday night, that I almost forgot about starting the other two classes as well. Starting the new semester is chaotic enough, let alone starting it while experiencing some jet lag!
I'll get the pictures on my computer soon and share them soon after that...I know you can't wait :)
The trip was amazing! It was a ton of work, I was exhausted most of the time, but it was totally worth all of the hard work and preparation. I took about 300 pictures myself, a few of which I'll share with you soon. I plan to give you a better summary of each day along with pictures. But, I can't do that all right now, so here is a quick summary of the trip.
We left Thursday, Jan 20 and arrived at the hotel just after midnight on Saturday morning, Jan 22. Talk about a LONG trip! We got little sleep that night and got right to work Saturday morning, getting everything set up and prepared for our first evening session on Saturday night. The class I worked with was 6-8 year olds, about 45 of them. We started with 7 teachers and added 1 more about halfway through the week because we just needed another set of hands! Our purpose was to put on a conference for the kids that focused on different unreached people groups living in the 10/40 window. Each day for 5 days we focused on a different group, learning about where they live, what their lives are like, tried to follow their eating customs at snack time, and learned about how to reach them.
I knew that the parents would appreciate our service, but I completely underestimated just how much this would mean to them. Typically, these kids only get this kind of Sunday school/VBS experience for one week every 3 years. Most of them have friends all over the world, many of which they only get to see this one week every 3 years. What a wonderful thing to provide this experience that the kids rarely or never get! The tears on their faces and hugs as we said good-bye on Thursday night showed us just how much this experience meant to these kids. Suddenly it seemed like all the work we had done was really no trouble at all and that we would do it again in a heartbeat to minister to these kids and their parents. I was so blessed to be a part of this team!
Since arriving home (and after waking out of my mini-coma Monday morning), I got my laundry started, got myself ready, and hit the road with Mom headed down to school. She went with me for safety reasons, just in case I was too tired to drive home. Slovenia is 9 hours ahead of California, so it's probably going to take about a week to get back into the swing of things. We had Mexican food for lunch (something I had definitely been missing), Berry Cool yogurt for dessert (yum!) and then it was time for class. We hit the road again about 7:15 after my class, stopped at the outlet mall for about 30 minutes, and then continued on home. About 30-40 minutes away from home, I decided I was just too sleepy, so we pulled over and switched seats. I know I could have kept myself awake if I had had to, but it was wonderful that Mom was there so I didn't have to.
Today I tried to play catch up and figure out what needed to be done. I was told that coming back home, I might feel disoriented. I'd say it's more like disorganized. It seems like I can't really figure out what needs to be done. I checked all my bank accounts, emails, etc. and tried to see where everything stands. I've been thinking so much about the class I needed to go to on Monday night, that I almost forgot about starting the other two classes as well. Starting the new semester is chaotic enough, let alone starting it while experiencing some jet lag!
I'll get the pictures on my computer soon and share them soon after that...I know you can't wait :)
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