Today is my last day at school.  I am sure that I will cry.  Nine months of pouring into students...now it is time to let them fly!

Some of you read my ranting about my bad day that I had a week and a half ago.  I guess if I was going to complain about it I should have updated everyone about how it turned out pretty well.

That evening I was thinking that I was going to have my car towed in the morning.  When I called the next morning to have it towed, I told the mechanic my story about hitting the deer and my car not starting.  When I finished with my story, he asked me if I had a Ford.  I couldn't believe that he knew what kind of far that I had.  Evidentally, Fords have an inertia switch that is turns the fuel pump off after there has been an impact. 

Later that morning the man from my church who helped me out the previous night called me and told me that he had been able to to flip the switch and that my car was working.  I was so happy and blessed to have friends to help me out. 

Dear Friends

I was thinking about how long I have been gone this summer and I really could not believe how time has passed by so quickly.  It has now been four weeks since I left Minnesota.  The weeks have passed by and have been so full.  However, our Father has been so faithful in keeping his promises, showing His blessings and giving strength for each day!

During this past week, I have learned several things…
•    I can forecast rain…there is a 10% chance of rain when I remember my umbrella and an 75% chance of rain when I forget it….I forgot it four times last week, and I was got soaked three times. ☺
•    There are two members of my team who first exchanged Valentines on Monday and then got married on Wednesday.  Some of the students thought that our dramatization was real…it was pretty funny…not for them…for me ☺
•    Quarter to eleven at night is apparently an appropriate time for a Vietnamese man to knock on the door of my hotel room to tell me that he is “ thirty-three and single”.  I told him that I was tired and had to go to bed.  Well, that’s the short version…I changed rooms two nights later…for that and other reasons.  ☺
•    In the words of one of the teachers on my team, I have “uber mad ballroom skills” as I taught our students how to dances from around the world. 

On a serious note, this past week marked the end of the first half of our English camp at Amsterdam High School.  It has been so wonderful to see each of the teachers develop relationships with the students in their classroom, and hear about significant conversations that they have had.  In one classroom, a teacher discovered two brothers who are also our brothers through our Father.  They lived with their family in Australia when they first heard of our Father and their entire family came to believe.  Here in Hanoi, they did not know of a gathering that they could attend, however, we have been made aware of a gathering that they can attend and hope to go with them next Sunday. 

Another teacher led his class in a discussion, which first started discussing discrimination and the rightness and wrongness of those thoughts and actions.  This then led in to a conversation in which they discussed as a class how discrimination could be righted.  Through examination of argument and logic, the entire class ended up deciding that only our Father could fix and clear them of judgments that they had made of other individuals. 

I feel so blessed to be a part of this team of teachers that is so united in purpose for the last two weeks that we have here in Hanoi.  Each member of my team has been dedicated to our purpose and has been very intentional about establishing relationships with his/her students.  I have had the joy of joining each of the classes for several of their activities and have been able to get to know several of the students on a more personal basis.  

In many ways, I don’t see my role as being directly related to interacting with and developing relationships with the students.  Although I have been able to do that, I have enjoyed developing relationships with several of the teachers at the school who are at school when we have our morning, afternoon, or evening activities to be sure that everything goes smoothly.  I also see a major part of my role being her being of encouragement to the teachers, to pour into them so that they may then be able to pour into their students.   One part of that involves having conversations with them and discussing how their class and time in Hanoi is going and another part of that involves laying out guidelines…well, let me just say that they two guys on my team tease me about being their mom…I guess that means we’re getting a long, right!?!

This next week, we are going to be discussing various North American holidays with Christmas and Easter being discussed on Wednesday and Thursday.  If you could lift up these conversations and presentations, we desperately want His love and plan to be clearly communicated with our students so that they might know Him.  Please continue to lift up continued strength and health.  We are all healthy except one of my guys who has slightly sprained his ankle.  I try to convince him to take it easy, but he doesn’t like to listen too well. 

Thank you so much for all of your support!  It is felt and an encouragement to everyone on my team! 

For His Glory!