March 7, 2007
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I am teaching English I for the seminary. keeping attendence, giving a midterm and final test and everything. nice. Carlos asked me yesterday “If the word is ‘toothbrush’, if i have two of them, are they called ‘teethbrush?’”
it made me think. and laugh. it does make sense…
i think learning is based on a couple seconds of actually opening your brain and understanding what you learned. then taking hours and a lifetime to really use and apply it. i sat down tonight and studied Portuguese and actually got somewhere. i couldn’t force it–it was just the right time. Now i’ll spend the next couple months trying to use all the grammer i know. bleh.
we are working on putting together a newsletter about Brasil. This is what Heather wrote about the school (and a neat story i wanted to share with you)
“The
school has just started its second school year in February. We have a
total of 36 kids enrolled. We are still harvesting the results from last year’s
hard work…Felipe, who came to our school after being “invited to
leave” from a neighbouring town school because of aggressive behaviour has
become the “protector” of a very shy and scared new kid in the
class.. No one dares to mess with him…he’s as strong as an ox and as gentle as
a teddy bear.. His mother came to pick him up yesterday. She’s moving to
town to be close to the school and she was in tears as she thanked me for the
change the school had made in her son’s life…he turned a new leaf… but we all
know that Jesus is the one who made the difference in his heart! Isn’t it
wonderful? Praise the Lord! Please pray for him and his catholic mother,
Michelle and aunt Ednalda ,who is our new geography teacher, one of the 3
non-born-again Christians in our staff, and who are very open to the gospel.All
the kids, and even the parents are excited about the new enlarged school (we
are now teaching K3-5th grade). The new playground was a BIG
hit. Kenny Smith, a custom cabinet maker from Kansas made a gorgeous wood
playground Fort, which was enlarged with a castle keep with slides and
sandbox; and Heather’s father (a retired Salvation Army missionary) painted
English toy soldiers as sentries at the Castle gate.One
father was so excited about the school that he really wanted to help remodel
the building and paid this year’s and NEXT YEAR’S tuition in advance to buy new
(safer)flooring for the entrance, meeting hall, library, dining room and
hallways. Other changes are in progress, turning more of the rooms into
classrooms, and putting up a gate around the front of the Alcance, including
security cameras.”Another good story is Heitor, who came to school today with his coveted 3 merits. he’s been having a lot of demerits lately. So he came and gave his merits to Tele and asked “Sir, i am giving these back to you–can i have a fresh start?”
Thank God for fresh starts.
Words are worth so little
and yet they are all i have
to try to explain
what i want my life to say
to mean
to count for…
