My Kiddos...

Well another week is almost done and it is unbelievable to think that I have been here for 3 full weeks tomorrow. My time has flown by. I really like numbers and I often think in fractions so my thought this week was, "Wow...I am 3/8 of my way done." Next week, I get to jump to 1/2 of my time being done. (Random fact about me: I think in fractions all the times...it's messed up.) Anyways, back to being here for three weeks. Wow...crazy. In one sense, I feel like I just got here. In another sense, I feel like I've been here for a really long time, mainly due to the fact that I have already built relationships. Nonetheless, I am loving my time here in Germany and I am so blessed to have this opportunity.

I realized I haven't shared a ton about the school I am at and being that the school is my main objective here, I thought it might be good to share. For those of you who don't know, I am in fifth grade in the tiny town of Sitzenkirch. Sitzenkirch is only a five minute drive out of Kandern and it is an absolutely breathtaking drive. There are beautiful fields and mountains that are on either side of the road the whole way up to school. When you pull into the driveway, to the back is the most gorgeous mountain that has been colored with the deep red, orange, and yellow of autumn. Those colors are slowly fading but the view is still breathtaking. Out the window of our classroom, there is a castle in the distance. Yes...that's right, a castle. Crazy!!! And on top of that there is a field that literally comes up to our window so at times we will be startled by the loud sound of a cow mooing only a few feet away. Last week, a calf thought it would be fun to distract all of our students by playing a running game. It was somewhat ilke the basketball practice drill we all dreaded in middle school, suicides, where you had to run from one end of the court to the other. Yea, that was pretty much what the calf was doing, except it's court was a field of grass. The students were highly entertained, not by social studies or math, but by the biology outside.

As for my kiddos, I just love them. There is such a wide variety of students and personalities which makes teaching all the more fun. It's a difficult class in the sense that there is a wide range of strengths and weaknesses but as for behavior, they are wonderful. My teacher, Rob, is a great guy who just loves the students so much. He and his family have been missionaries here for over 10 years and are actually with the EFCA mission (for those of you who dont know, I attend an EFCA church back home). It was fun to find that connection. Rob is an excellent teacher, especially of the Bible, and I love the morning devotion time because he truly knows how to bring Scripture to life with these kids. They literally soak up his words as he reads the Bible with passion and excitement.

One thing I love about our classroom is how much we laugh. Laughter is very frequent and today is just one example of why kids say the darndest things. I was teaching a lesson on colonial America and we were discussing the Puritans and Quakers. We started talking about our faith and witnessing and I asked the students whether it was a good approach to go into a crowd of people that believe differently than you do and just start "shoving" the Bible at them. One girl raised her hand and said, "Yea it's probably not a good idea to go into a crowd and start screaming John 3:16 in people's faces." Good point, I thought. Screaming in people's faces generally doesn't go over so well.

I continued. "How many of you have ever had someone say to you, 'There's just something different about you but I can't put my finger on it?' Has that ever happened to any of you? How about someone you know?" The students looked a bit baffled. We had just been talking about sharing our faith, may I remind you, so the question was relating to Jesus being the defining factor that sets us apart. The kids didn't quite grasp that.

One girl raised her hand and very excitedly answered, "Yea my eyes, they change from brown to blue sometimes and my hair, it changes from brown to blonde. That makes me different." I stifled back laughter and tried to explain that I wasn't talking about physical differences but spiritual differences. Before I had decent time to explain, another little boy raised his hand.

"Well, I have hearing aids and that definitely makes me different." Oh sweet child. Not quite what I was looking for but I'm glad you know it's okay that God made us all unique. Needless to say, I love the kids. There's even a little boy in first grade that I really just want to bring home with me. He has cerebral palsy and he is just the most precious child. The little stinker tricked me though when I thought he only spoke German. (The school is bilingual.) He actually is totally an English speaker but he knew just enough German to fool me. Kids can be tricky.

Pretty much, what I am getting at is I love the school and the blessing of working with these precious children every day. What an amazing gift! Just as God loves each of these children and has designed them with a purpose, He has also created you as a precious and unique creation. What an awesome God we serve that He knows the number of hairs on our head and the number of grains of sand on the seashore. My God is the one and only awesome God, deserving of all glory and praise!