Back to School!

This week on the race, the Gospel Girls got to go to school!

Down the road from our Hope Mountain home is a small community school where kids of almost any age attend. This past Monday morning we got all dressed up and ready with our lesson plans to teach kids some good ole fashion ABC’s in English. However, like most of this trip, things did not go exactly according to plan.

We arrived around 8am after our host, Vicki, took us to get juice boxes and a snack for breakfast. We were met by the school administrator and the school’s social studies teacher, Manuel. Manuel happened to also be the schools only English teacher, but any English he knows he learned from teaching himself through TV, music, and other media resources. In his broken English he tried to explain to us (who know almost no Spanish by the way) what the plans for the day was. The students at the school already know their English ABC’s so the new plan for the day was for us to skim through the books Manuel gave us with English lesson plans to come up with plans to teach them colors, body parts, and classroom objects.

If you can, imagine 6 American women, who know little to no Spanish, being left alone in a classroom full of kids anywhere between the ages 8 to 15, who know little to no English, to teach a 30-45 minute lesson plan for 4-5 classes. It was exactly as entertaining as you think it would be. I can’t tell you how many times we misspoke in Spanish and had the kids laugh at us, but I will say the kids had so much grace for us and despite a language barrier laughter bridged the gap between two groups of total strangers. We taught the kids “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” for the body parts, and played Simon Says (or as they called it “Simone dice”) to test their understanding. Colors were pretty easy to teach since we know our Spanish colors, and for teaching classroom objects we played a “Where is a…” game (or as my Spanish speaking children taught me “Dónde está un…” By the end of the morning, I feel like I learned just as much as they did. We laughed so much, and we were able to make some personal connections with a few of the students. Unfortunately, Monday is supposed to be our only day of teaching at the school so unless we see the kids out playing in the street, which we sometimes do, we can’t build on the new acquaintanceship that we made.

Almost everything in the DR closes between 12-2 for siesta so at noon we left the school to go home for lunch and make our game plan for the afternoon at the school. We were told to prepare a Bible study to share with the afternoon kids, who were between preschool and 2nd grade. We decided on the parable of the lost coin in Luke 15. We had my teammate, Amanda, read the story with a Spanish Bible we borrowed from Vicki so that the kids could understand. After we read the parable, we had Ashley act out the scene with some paper coins that we handmade on our siesta break. She would leave the room so that I could hide her coin and then come in, count her coins in Spanish, then start crying out “Dónde está?” (which in retrospect is “Where is?” so I’m sure the kids were a bit confused.) After Ashley found her precious coin, we made the kids close their eyes as we hid the ten coins around the room for them to find for a game. They had so much fun finding the coins and would jump and shout with excitement when they got them all. It made a great segway for our point that just like the woman, God rejoices over us. We had the kids write down “Eres precioso/a para Dios!” on note cards to take home as reminders that they are precious to God. 

Our experience at the school is definitely my favorite so far. The hugs and the laughter as we built relationships and shared the gospel with the kids has brought me such great joy in the Lord. I was blessed to have one extra day at the school this week when I got picked to be on the team that drew and painted a mural on the school’s wall. I got to see all of the same kids again, and give them hugs and high-fives.  I think our squad leader, James, said it well when he said “I found the best thing to invest into children is love and joy because it will radiate out of them so pure and genuine for all to see, and them to cherish.” I still couldn’t understand a word that they said to me when I went back, but I smiled and nodded the entire time with great joy. I hope that God continues to provide opportunities for my team and squad to invest in kids as we prepare to go to Haiti next month and then move onto Africa after that.

Thank you guys for following my journey! God is absolutely amazing and beautiful in the things He is doing on this race. I miss all of you back at home very much and am grateful for the support and love you have shown me. I hope you guys know that the stories and blogs I get to share are made possible because of the support that financially got me here, as well as the support that emotionally and spiritually keeps me going. I am praying for you guys that God showers you with the same amount of growth and blessing He is showering me with this year. I’m so excited for what is to come and I hope you are too!

Also, you remember how I asked you guys to pray for rain? Well its been down pouring hardcore everyday since! I heard a tropical storm may potentially be forming so uh… great work guys! Your prayers may be a bit more powerful than I intended them to be. Feel free to calm that down a bit. Maybe ask for just some light afternoon showers? I’m not worried, I’m just saying… Haha, in all seriousness God is a great God. It’s exciting to see His answers when more people start to pray. Let’s just hope He will turn the faucet off before we drown here in the DR and Haiti.