“In my head rang the words that my Father said; you’re never far, I will be where you are, and when you come to me, you can bet I will open my arms. Welcome home you, I know you by name, how do you do? I shine because of you today, so come in sit down, tell me how you are, hello son, it’s good just to see your face…”

As for the title of this blog, this is part of a song (Welcome Home (you) by Brian Littrel) that I have been listening to and has been in my head a lot lately. I think it is such a wonderful representation of how our relationship with God should be and it shows how excited God really is when we come into His presence and how much He longs to know us. I feel like my relationship with God has been growing deeper which is really exciting. I feel like God called me here to grow me a lot, it may not always be easy, but He is with me and loves me and the growth is so good for me.
So, this past week was the first week of school. School started on Tuesday. Monday was the first chance we got to decorate rooms, so it was busy! I have three classes (two 2nd grades and a 6th), so I had a space to decorate in each. I also tried to help the three teachers out as much as I could because that’s a lot to do in one day. I was at the school from 8 in the morning until 7 at night. The first few days of school were a little crazy. We had some scheduling conflicts, so things changed around a lot. We also didn’t have our books until mid-second day and I don’t have notebooks or journals yet because I got here after they ordered things. I consider myself a pretty go-with-the-flow, more relaxed kind of person. In training we took a strengths finder test and one of mine was adaptability, and I remember them saying that will be really good for where you are going. It is definitely the truth, and I am working on being more adaptable. Things are extremely relaxed and go-with-the-flow here. So, it definitely takes some getting used too, I definitely don’t think it is bad. The kids are definitely very active and chatty as well. I wasn’t really ready for how different it would be teaching here. The first two days were a little rough, their attention spans were extremely short (especially in 2nd), and they didn’t really want to listen (more so than I am used to). But I just was reminded that I am just going to have to keep trying different things to see what works, and break up the class a lot to hold their attention, and I just prayed hard and asked God to be my strength and the third and fourth days were definitely better. The kids are super loving though. I really enjoy that. And there aren’t as many like restrictions and what not here, so the kids hug you a lot and they even told us in training (at the school) to give the kids a hug and kiss (a kiss on the cheek is the greeting and good bye here) before they leave to make them feel loved and welcome here. I really do enjoy the kids a lot and just the people and their warmness in general. It makes you feel cared for and important. Okay, so I should share a funny kid story…Friday all the kids commented on how much they liked my necklace. One little girl especially liked it and she asked where I got it. And I was like it was a gift from a friend. And she goes, oh from Miss Megan (the other English teacher here from the states). I said to Megan, yeah because your my only friend…haha…I love kids and how their minds work
In news other than school, I finished language classes this week. It’s good and bad. Bad because I loved my teacher and loved the classes. I feel like they really helped to improve my Spanish. But good because this last week I finished at school, hustled home to eat lunch, then rushed to get there and between traveling and class it’s almost a 4 hour process, so needless to say, I was exhausted. The last two weekends Megan and I have gone on adventures to find things, especially teacher supplies (I am definitely kicking myself for not bringing more of that stuff with me). It’s definitely an adventure here because, generally you have to go to separate stores to get each thing, like if you want folders or notebooks you go to the libreria, if you need like computer stuff or hardware type stuff a ferreteria, we went to a plasticeria to get Megan a flyswatter, etc. We did find one like big flea market type place that had lots of varieties of stuff. Oh and I have been here 3 weeks now (wow!) and next weekend Megan, Mary, and I are moving into our apartment! (I will definitely miss my host family though) Okay, I’ll stop now, this is already very long.
Prayer request: There are a lot of festivals here (especially near where my language class was) and I hear they are like religious type festivals and there is a lot of drinking. I walked by one and I was shocked at how much alcohol I saw, and there were lots of kids there watching that, which is sad. Don’t worry, it’s not like dangerous to me or anything, I just feel the need to pray for the people and against the festivals, so if you would join me in that that would be awesome! Thanks! <3