haircuts?
Well, I am at the end of another week. We don´t have classes tomorrow because all the teachers are going to an ACSI conference both Friday and Saturday. So it is nice to have a day off from teaching, but we are going to be sitting in conferences from 8 until 6. Saturday is only a half day, so we are going to go hiking up in the mountains with Erin Sheehy and some of her friends (because the conference is at a school up in the mountains).
This past week went pretty well for me. The students seemed to be more attentive than usual, but that is probably because I am developing a little bit of a reputation. I suspended five more students for cheating this week- so now all the students know that I don't mess around. These five boys cheated on a quiz the day after I gave their whole class a lecture on cheating and threatened to suspend them. I hope that they learned their lesson.
On a different subject, the seniors decided to involve Brian, Jason and I in one of their fundraising projects. All three of us have beards (Brian and I more than Jason), and beards are not the "cool" thing to have in Honduras. No one has beards here, except for a few who have the pencil thin, really shaped-type beards. So for the month of October, the senior class is going to collect money from the rest of the students and if they collect enough money (about $100 per person), we will shave our beards. If they collect even more money, then they can cut our hair too. I don't know how much they will raise, but I suspect that we won't have to cut too much off.
ups and downs
This past week had a lot of ups and downs in it. Classes were pretty trying at times, and I had to deal with a few more instances of cheating in two of my classes. The students just don't think that I will actually catch on to their little tricks. So I got pretty mad at one of my classes and threatened to suspend them all... and now they are behaving a little bit better. But seriously, the students just don't seem to learn.
Friday night we went out to this really nice Mexican steak place with some of the other teachers from school. It ended up being Brian, Jason and I with four other middle-aged, single women. They are all really great, but it was a little awkard anyway. The food at this place is amazing- seriously some of the best steak I have ever had. You all should come visit me just so you can eat at this place.
Saturday we invited Limber, one of our guards, to come to church with us. We had asked him once before and he wasn't able to go, but this time he assured us that he would be there. So Sunday morning we went to church and waited around for him, but he still hadn't shown up 30 minutes into the service. So we decided to just go in. Then at the end of the service, the pastor gave an altar call and Limber came from the back of the church and accepted Christ! We had been talking to him a lot and lots of people had been praying for him. So I wasn't really suprised when the Lord worked in his life this morning. Glory to Christ!
the encuentro
I spent this past weekend at a retreat center about an hour outside of Tegucigalpa in the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. The mountains are different than in the States- they are shaped differently and aren't as tall, but I still consider them mountains. 160 young men went ranging in age from 12-25 and most of them were new Christians (less than a year) or not Christians at all. We spent the weekend going through different "conferences" with the big group and we also had time in small groups. The retreat was basically set up in the progression of salvation: conviction, confession, liberation and then filling. Several guys accepted Christ for the first time and lots of others had their lives completely changed. The Lord came in power, cleansed hearts and set people free. A lot of the guys that came were into drugs and lots of other stuff, and they were set free.
I had a good weekend too. I was refreshed and felt called to complete obedience once again. Plus it was just great to see God move in so many guy's lives. However, there were some things that didn't sit well with me... there was a lot of focus on outward manifestations of the Lord's work, which doesn't bother me too much, but this weekend I felt like it was focused on more than it should have been. The role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ, not ourselves. But all in all, I felt like the weekend was really beneficial for everyone.
On Sunday, Brian and I were laying around in our dorm and all of a sudden something dropped down onto my leg. I thought that someone had thrown something at me, but when I looked down there was a 3 inch scorpion on my leg! Right away it started crawling up my leg towards my stomach and I kinda yelled out. I couldn't slap it away with my hand because it had a big stinger sticking up, so I just sat there frozen. Then right as it was about to crawl up my shirt, Brian grabbed his Bible and smashed it. Gracias por la Palabra de Dios! That was actually the biggest scorpion that I have seen in real life and it almost stung me. I talked to some of the Hondurans and they didn't seem to think that it was that big of a deal, but I would have had to go to the hospital if it had stung me.
Here are some pictures of us and our new hammock...
Starting Off
This is the beginning of what I hope will be a long and fruitful blog... a blog which will chronicle my weekly (or sometimes daily) exploits. I am not always the best at giving updates, but I will do my best.
Tomorrow is Independence Day for all of Central America, so we have today and tomorrow off from school. It is a nice little break to recover from the first two weeks of school and get some grading done. Tonight we are going out with Erin Sheehy and some of her friends who all teach at another school here in Tegucigalpa. Brian and I know Erin from Wheaton, and she actually did Youth Hostel Ministry the year that I helped lead it. I think we are going to eat at Big Baliatas (a type of Honduran food) and then to their house for dessert. Tomorrow we are going to watch some parades downtown, then we head out for the encuentro...
