This was written a couple of weeks ago, but I am just now
getting around to posting it. :)
Today marks the end of year 2 teaching in Bolivia. Once again I sit in an empty classroom reflecting on what the year has been and what next year will hold.
A couple of weeks ago our school was visited by an accreditation team from the States. This was a visit we had been planning for and working towards for 2 years. After a successful completion of the visit (yay!), we celebrated with a cook out and a staff softball game. Initially I was reluctant to play, given my lack of coordination with any sport involving a ball. But then I realized, “Wait, I’m with a group of people I can trust, a group who love and support me, so my ability level doesn’t really matter here.” With that thought in mind, I spent the next couple of hours having a great time, playing softball under the clear, blue Bolivian sky. In many ways that experience could sum up my year here; learning to trust myself, learning to trust others, learning to trust God and realizing that some times the scariest things are the best things, and all against the beautiful backdrop of God's rich grace and love, clear and bright as the brilliant sky I'm blessed to live under.
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| Beautiful Day to play ball! |
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| Team 1 gloating over their win. :) Gotta love keeping score right on the wall with just a rock! |
Next year I will transition to teaching third grade. I have loved my 5th grade students, but am really looking forward to working with a younger age group again and to having a fresh start in a new classroom. Though this will be my 3rd year at HIS, it feels like a new season. Our school will have a brand new administration team, my roommate (who has become a best friend) will no longer be here and I will have two new roommates who I haven’t met before. I am excited for all the newness, but also aware that along with the freshness transition brings, also comes an adjustment period and sometimes, great difficulty.
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| Last day of school movie party! |
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| Final words of wisdom and love from Mr. Frost |
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| My beautiful babies! |
With all the people transitioning in and out, the end of the year also called for many goodbyes; not my favorite thing to do. I could share my own thoughts about saying goodbye but I read something recently in a blog that really resonated with me and I just don't think I could say it any better. The author, Kate Eden King, expresses it like this, "Goodbye isn’t just something you say but something you do. We hugged each other tight. We looked each other in the eye. We said brief but meaningful things to each other, affirmations and blessings...I’m tired this week, not just from the cleaning and packing, but from the intense emotional engagement that goodbyes entail. Social media muddies the waters when it comes to farewells. I will ‘see’ many friends again on Facebook, and we’ll share photos, chat and maybe talk on Skype. I love that. However, it’s also deceptive. We lose the connection in real space and time of two people standing together and knowing (even if we rarely say it) 'You matter to me. You are part of my life and I am richer for it'. Missing someone is a longing to be with them: the laughing, crying, eating, playing, breathing, living-life-together presence that the internet cannot replicate." So, it is with that longing but also with the knowledge that I am a richer and better person for having shared a season of life together, that I say goodbye. (Read the article in its entirety here: https://kateedenking.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/the-anatomy-of-goodbye/).
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| Saying goodbye to Amelia (our director's daughter). |
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| Saying goodbye to my dear friend Holly. She was the first contact I had with HIS 2 1/2 years ago and has remained a faithful friend and encouragement from that moment on. |
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| Leaving school for the last time with Katie, my roommate. |
Thank you for being a part of my year, and a part of my students’ lives. I would not be able to love and teach them well without the faithful prayers and love of you, my family and friends. I look forward to being in the States for several weeks this summer and hope to catch up with many of you! May you experience a summer rich with God's love.
"Many are asking, 'Who can show us any good?'
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord." Psalm 4:6
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| The morning light shining on HIS |
