Friday - God is Amazing

This morning, I knew I had a busy day, so I was up by 4:45 for my morning walk. I took off for Zakimi Castle and did a walk around the grounds again. When I got done, I thought I would explore up near the township hall and then get home by about 6:00. Hmmm...I didn't realize how turned around I could get when many new, large, buildings were build around the town hall. Somehow instead of going right, I went left! I wound up down by the Royal Restaurant (for those of you who have been here) and didn't get home until 6:45!!! That left me only 15 minutes to get ready for school and a meeting I was supposed to have at 7:00 AM. No time to shower, but I made it. I don't think anyone noticed any lack of showering....

One of my biggest concerns was that I allow God to direct the direction my classroom operates this summer. It is important that these students get continued English instruction, practice writing, listening and reading, but I came over to help share Jesus with them as well. I wanted to ensure that I talked about Christ during class and not just during our morning chapel times.

Well, this year, God has been gracious to answer that prayer, but I often have to pray for wisdom to direct and guide the conversations we have. For the past two weeks, my class will often bring up the celebrations the Okinawans have to honor their dead relatives, ghosts, or talks about ancestor worship. While most of my class loves Jesus, they also come from homes that teach them to fear ghosts and pray to their ancestors. Today we had many discussions and we had to talk about how we can share Jesus with those we love, but we cannot force anyone else to believe. God will have to be the one to soften hearts. It always amazes me that kids so young have to make decisions to worship Jesus (as the ONLY true God) and still honor their parents and their religious requests. We have had many discussions about that.

Today, in addition to those discussions, I finished reading the book Stone Fox to the kids. It is a rather emotional book about a sled dog. I found that I (the "harsh scandinavian" that I am - and non-animal lover) was a bit too choked up to read at times. Himari had to take the book and read for me. We were able to discuss how Christians behave in different circumstances.

I am always blessed when I hear my class pray.

In the afternoon, we took the entire elementary bowling again. I was sitting with some second graders who found it VERY funny that three of the adults on the bus fell asleep in the short drive back to school (I was one of them!) At the end of the day, I was able to officially turn over the title of "administrator" to Anne Bezner who has returned from China. On Tuesday, when classes resume, I will ONLY be a 3rd grade teacher! Yippeeee!!!

After school I had orgnized a snorkeling party. Many of the missionaries met behind the apartments and we took off. It was the most interesting snorkeling adventure I've ever been on. There were 6 of us that went, but we all went in our own directions! To make matters worse, none of us were quite sure exactly where the reef was. We could only remember part of Max's directions - perhaps that's why we were all so spread out. By the end of our time, I believe we had all seen some amazing coral and fish, but I'm not sure we all saw the same things at all. It was funny. We then went to dinner at a Hawaiian Restaurant. We were exhausted by 9:00!!!

I even ate the flower!!!