A Day in the Life of the International School Teacher

As many of you may know, I have been doing my 16 week student teaching placement in an international school here. Since a number of you are teachers and since I assume most of you went to a school, I thought I'd share a little of what the experience is like in an international school. The school follows a British educational system so it has grades from Kindergarten to Grade 13. Supposedly, children who graduate from a system that goes up to 13 are better prepared to enter the workforce even if they do not go to university right away. In total, the student body numbers just under 200.

For the first 2 months of my practical, I taught in a third grade classroom of 14 wonderful students. Yes, class sizes are incredibly small compared to U.S. standards, and every class has a full-time teacher's assistant as well. Mine was amazing! You might be beginning to think this was a walk in the park for me, but let me introduce you to my students. I had 11 boys and 3 girls...tables already turned against me, so to speak. Only 3 of my students came from homes where English is their first language. Six of my students were still receiving daily support for English language learning. Two others received special educational support. Then, we can talk about cultural background: 4 East Asian students, 4 South Asian students, 1 European student, 2 Americans, 2 bi-cultural students, and one Canadian.

On some days I was dealing with who said what bad word to whom in Korean while I was trying to make a lesson have enough visual aids to support a child who needed it. At other times, I answered countless "What does ____ mean?" questions during a lesson on whatever that I thought would be pretty straightforward. I often contemplated moving students around the room to deal with behavioral issues, but at every possible arrangement, I had to think, "How is this going to affect that student?" Usually a move of any kind would disrupt the very delicate balance I managed to hold onto. Even though the idea of a small classroom sounds nice, I think there actually needed to be more "balance" kids in the mix. There were new challenges every day of this first half of the placement, but the kids were amazing to work with. I learned that teaching is no easy task. It can make even the toughest person weak in the knees and so incredibly aware of his/her inadequacy.

Now, I will make a confession. This was the first university course I have made less than an A in (I realize that I am ridiculously nerdy), and boy, did that sting. Nothing like snapping you from the daydream that you've had it altogether academically for 5 years so you must already be an awesome teacher. Guess what? Apparently, I still have a lot to learn, and that's what was abundantly clear from this experience. Yes, the environment is one that I know and live in, but attaining excellence is a process, not a single leap that I have overnight. You know what I learned most of all though? I need my Lord so much! How easy it is to fall upon our own strength for whatever it is that we do everyday. Then...how quickly we find ourselves impatient, snappy towards to the ones we love and serve, unwilling to budge, prideful and arrogant, and so much more. As I head in to the next 8 weeks of the placement, I know there will be some things I will do differently, but most of all, I will cling to the One most capable of transforming this inadequate human into His vessel of honor.

What Makes an Airport?

We in America take our airports for granted. Many of us live within an hour drive of an airport that has at least a half a dozen different airlines (O’Hare has 55) flying in and out of it on multiple runways that are long enough to land a variety of large planes. Our airports are full of shops, eateries, and usually at least enough chairs for half of the people waiting for your flight to sit down. The buildings are massive structures, and most airport terminals are so large and so spread out that they have trains to link them. If you have ever been to DFW, you understand that you usually spend more time commuting between terminals than you do actually flying on an airplane. 

Airports here in the mountains are a little bit different. Actually the only thing they have in common with airports in the US is that occasionally airplanes land and take off at the place called the “airport.” Here are a list of things you may find surprising if you visited the mountain airport that we frequently fly to:

1. The “road” to the airport is a single lane road. What I mean by “single lane” is that one person can walk at a time. In the case of someone coming the other way, you have to climb up on the side of the hill to allow that person to pass. No car, truck, or even motorcycle has ever visited the airport.
2. The airport building is a rough wooden structure that is approximately 12 feet wide by 20 feet deep. It has no roof. The “wall” facing the runway is chain link. It is a very, very dusty place. 
3. The runway is dirt, and it is far from flat. Apart from the pits and bumps, it runs uphill at about a 5% grade. When the airplanes start their taxi they are heading away from the “terminal” that has a chain link wall. And the runway is dirt. Loose dirt. If you don’t turn away, your mouth, nose, and eyes will be filled with a pound of dust. Tasty. Since there is no Cinnabon, this is the only way to grab a bite before your flight. 
4. During take off and landing there are usually 20-30 people hanging out on the side of the runway. About five of them work for the airline, and another five are police or military. Everyone else just wants to see the airplane or are trying to fetch their luggage. 
5. After a plane lands the luggage is unceremoniously flopped out of the cargo hold onto the dirt. After the plane takes off again you can go pick it up. 
6. There are two airlines that fly in and out. One flies nine-seat planes, and the other flies 16-seaters. There is no beverage service, but there are three point harnesses for every seat. 
7. There are no chairs in the “terminal.” Or free wifi. 

So what makes an airport. Well, I guess very little. The important thing seems to be that a plane occasionally lands or takes off. That’s about it. 

Airport Terminal 1A

Miracle

Three months ago my two ministry partners and I visited a village high in the himalayas and heard that a friend of ours, for the fifth year in a row, was facing the death of a loved one. In the past four years, he lost his father, his only son, and two other relatives. This year his wife had just given birth to another son, but the pregnancy had caused complications to her own health. When we arrived in the smoke filled home, we saw a woman covered in blankets and barely alive lying in the corner. As we sat down on the dirty floor, we heard a small sound come from a nearby basket. I searched through the layers of sheep skins to find a tiny, malnourished baby boy no more than six pounds, but already six weeks old. His mother seemed to be suffering from congestive heart failure, or some other heart condition, and was barely able to move. There was nothing we could do. We had no medicines. We told the husband that we believed in a God that could heal and told him the story of Jairus and the healing/resurrection of his daughter in Mark 5. He invited us to pray for his family, and we called out to God to have mercy on this family. An hour later we were in tears and had yet to see God move mightily in this woman’s life. With heavy hearts, we moved on to the next house we needed to visit. Two days later, we received word that the woman had died, and the family’s neighbors suspected the baby boy would be next. For three months, we heard no news, and the village they live in has no phone connection whatsoever. This past month we were attending a festival, and a little girl ran up to me. I recognized her as the little baby’s older sister. She told us her little brother was still alive! Among the people we work with 1 in 17 mothers die in child birth, and the infant mortality rate is at 50%! The fact that this little baby made it to 6 months old is an absolute miracle. Our prayer is that this miracle would swing the door of his father’s heart wide-open to receive the God of miracles. 

The Best Supporters in the World

This is a blog I have been meaning to write for several months. You may guess that everyone in my position says this, but they don’t. The sad fact is that many people like us are under supported financially. Many people don’t like to go on home-leave because it’s draining. Some feel as though they don’t have support, that they are all alone on the field. What is even more common, though, is others in our line of work who go home to unwelcoming supporters who are ready to send them back out immediately or the opposite extreme, supporters who just try to convince them to stay home.

That hasn’t been our experience. We have all the support we need. You all are so generous and give so sacrificially. When we are on home leave and visit all of you, we are so energized to hear that people are praying for us, thinking about us regularly, and invested in our work. We don’t feel alone on the field. You communicate with us. You tell us how your praying, and you think about our needs. You are happy to have us home, and make us feel a part of your congregations. At at the same time you know our calling is not in the U.S., and you always send us off well.

We have the best supporters in the world. You have welcomed us into your homes for meals, taken us out to restaurants, let us borrow your cars, given extra special gifts to take care of specific needs, made us feel at home in your churches, surprised us with your thoughtfulness, prayed regularly, loved on our kids, and sent us off well with us knowing that we are just the visible parts of a much larger team.

Thank you.

Buying Time

It has been way too long since I wrote an entry on this blog. Life, motherhood, school, and just general cranial disorganization has contributed to a serious lack of content. We recently moved into our new flat, and the craziness of it all has left me thinking about how I can manage to cram all the things I need to do into a day. At the end of the day, I often feel like the "to do" list has only grown longer. Those same days are typically ones filled with the frustrations of trying to teach two toddlers to grow into godly children despite their being the seeds of the Fall just like their parents and all the time that is consumed trying to keep a house cleaned, laundered, and fed in the South Asian context where neither electricity or water are particularly dependable. I have been challenged by the thought of how one, whether overseas worker or person living at home, buys more time. How do you carve time away from other less important things to place that oh-so-valuable time where it really belongs? We know that time is precious, but how do we get more?

In those few moments I have to just be quiet at the start and close of the day, I have been reading a book called One Thousand Gifts about a woman's journey to transforming her life from one of ingratitude and dissatisfaction to one of thanksgiving and joy. Eucharisteo. She commented in the book of the difficulty of taking time to say thank you when she had so little time to begin with. In giving thanks for all the little things throughout a day, from the warm smiles of her children playing outside to the curls of cheese she piled on a pizza, she began to feel a sense of having more time, similar to when Jesus gave thanks before feeding the crowds--that thanks took a little and made a lot. Essentially, this slowing of the heart and mind to recognize every gift from our Maker slowed time, gave her more, because she began to live fully in every moment. Another person in the book commented, "Wherever you are, be fully there." This week, I have been battling my scatterbrained nature to instead stop and live fully in each moment, rather than rattling off "to do" lists in my head while someone talked to me. I am learning, despite the fact that my flesh does not want to be taught, that thanksgiving has a transformative effect. Maybe it really is how we begin to buy time in this precious, short life.

2011 is over

Well today is the last day of 2011. We have been in America the last 6 months, and therefore, very little has been posted to this blog. All that is about to change. We will be back in Asia in two and half weeks, and life will be more interesting. It's not that life in America is boring, but it's normal. We enjoy normal, but we are ready to get back to our crazy home half a world a way.

2011 has been a great year for us because of you guys. Your prayers have accomplished much. God has done great things. If you are thinking, "But I haven't been praying," then you are missing out on an amazing opportunity to be a part of what God is doing. The first half of this year was full of firsts. Being in the studio recording the first worship songs in the Tazig language, recording the first scripture in the Tazig language, and P.J.'s first trip to Tazig land to deliver those first scriptures and songs. We are so thankful for the work God has given us and the wonderful partners He has brought us together with to learn from, encourage, and labor together with.

The second half of the year has been a wonderful time with all of you and our amazing families that love and support us in all we do. We have seen God provide as He always does and have partnered together with three new churches! We've been able to spread the news in Illinois, Ohio, and Virginia, about the great need for workers all around the world and share specifically about the Tazig people.

It's been a great year. 2012 is going to be even better. We can feel it.

Content

After our first three years in South Asia, we had a long list of things we were looking forward to in the U.S. On the top of that list then and now was, of course, family and friends, but that was just the beginning of our list back then. We had a long list of things we wanted to do, experience, eat, and see. We couldn’t wait to dry our clothes in a dryer, drink water out of a tap, eat some ribs, go to Wal-Mart (and Home Depot), and frequently visit that beautiful American invention called the supermarket! After three years, we were desperately longing for advanced western civilization.

We find ourselves in a different position now three and a half years later. We have been back here in South Asia for another two and a half years, and we find ourselves ready to be “home”, but not desperate to be there. We have been thinking and talking a lot about this and asking ourselves the question “Why?” What is different this time? Have we just become more South Asian and feel more at home here? Yes, possibly. Is it because we are now living in the place where we feel like God wants us long term and so we have put down more roots and made this place more our home than our previous city? Yes, I think that is part of it, too. This place is our home. We have now lived more than five combined years in South Asia, and our personal culture has changed. Naomi has lived in Asia nearly 90% of her life. Ezra has lived here 100% of his life. They know no other home than Asia. So we have changed, and our kids have grown up here.

Something else has changed as well: Our memory of the beauty of American has become more realistic. When we were leaving the first time, America was more or less perfection in our minds, and as you all know, that is not true.
So, this time there is a shorter list of things we are looking forward to and now there is a list of things we will miss from here. P.J. is going to miss getting a real haircut, a straight-razor shave, and head massage for $1.50. We are both going to miss being able to go out to a nice restaurant and spending only $15-20. We will miss our friends here, and we will definitely miss our work.

Really what I am saying is that we are content. We are content here, and we will be content in the U.S, and contentedness is the best place to be.