The Month of March

Sometimes I confuse myself. For a while now, I have been counting down the days till I get to fly home for my brother's wedding and see my family; and most days, those numbers just do not seam to be descending at a very rapid pace, at all! But yet, a month can fly by, and I still have not sent out another update! And so, here we are, seven days into April...which does, in fact, mean that in 11 days I will be boarding a plane to fly home and spend a week with my family! Excited much?! That's and understatement! 

The beginning of March marked 6 weeks until the end of the second Trimester. I surveyed the progress of my first graders and to my not-so-surprised realization, we were a little behind schedule. Yaaay! I decided to put them to the test and see how fast they really could move! And they did awesome! So proud of them. They put their minds to it, and we are pretty much back on schedule! But we did stop working and have a few days of fun. 

Since I am a huge Dr. Seuss fan, and so is my class, we celebrated his birthday...

 All my "things" and their Cat-in-the-Hat cake. 

Lunch bell rings....Miss Nolt decides to quick take a photo before they all eat and get ketchup and such all over their uniforms. Bad idea. "I'm hungry"..."It's too sunny"..."My hair is blowing away"....next time we will do it first thing in the morning when the excitement level is higher. 

SPORTS DAY

After weeks and weeks of practicing, it finally came. The weather was perfect and it was a great day full of energized children, good food, cheering parents, and teachers running hither and yon. 

 Pastor John started off the day with a small devotional...

 Natalie and I stop for a photo,while we are still feeling energetic and happy...

My first graders and a couple mothers. Yes, red is LaBorie's color, Yellow is Laura, and Green is the Limes. 

Girls 100 meter dash

 Boys 100 meter dash

 David competing in Lime-on-Spoon

100 meter bag race

400 meter race

 These boys are incredible...

 Joshim competing in the high jump.

 Me and my clip board became very close friends.

Parents Tug-of-War....now that was something to see! =D

 A super at the Aquarium....Mark and Jonathan were here for a total of 6 weeks, working on the remodeling project at church. We had lots of good times doing different things. Kinda felt like we actually had a small youth group.

We went Kyacking on the ocean, off this beautiful beach, one Saturday....it was quite an adventure! 

 Another Saturday we hiked Mt. St. Catherine's, Grenada's tallest mountain. 

 A glimps of what the trail looked like, at a dry spot. It was  a good hike, and definitely worth it!

 We reach! Yes, it really was cold! I know, I know, some of you are rolling your eyes saying, "You're always cold" =)

My hiking partner, Rhonda.

 Mark laying tile

 James cutting tile

 Jonathan mixing the glue for the tiles

Since the guys worked many hours on the church building, they were almost able to complete it before they left. Now we are getting to enjoy having a lovely church building again. 

Our first Sunday back in church

 We had fellowship meal afterwards...

 Carter and David

 Christy, Josh and Becky enjoying their food

Natalie, Shivani and I

Two of my Bible clubs children at the park for their attendance reward.

We took our 2nd Trimester field trip last Friday to Belmont Plantations, where they grow, harvest and make chocolate.

 Showing us how they dry the cocoa bean

 Watching the video on how the chocolate is made. It's a bit different than going to Hershey Chocolate world. 

The monkeys.

 My students....they are the best

 Natalie and Kerriana

 Keli and I

One of my little girls, Rebekah 

Eating lunch along the Old Airport runway

Natalie and I's Sunday afternoon project for an after church snack...Banana Cream Pie! 

****************************************************

"This broken world is cradled by a Savior, 

and nothing here can take him by surprise. 

Someday all this hurting will be over,

and every tear will be wiped away and dried,

but for now we are living in a broken world,

But not for long, no not for long."

Being surrounded by children who come from broken families...walking the roads and seeing all the drunk men wasting away their life....locking and hiding things if you don't want them to disappear, the loud music rolling from the shop parties every Friday night....Our world is broken, full of hurting, bitter people, desperately in need of a Savior. I have been reminded of this a lot over the past few weeks, dealing with a situation with one of my students. But praise the Lord, we won't be living in this broken world much longer. That day just can't come soon enough.

Have a wonderful week!

A Flashback of February

You know that phrase, "Blink, and ya just might miss it"? Well, I have come to the conclusion that I have been doing far to much blinking. Cause I'm fairly certain just yesterday we were only halfway through January and now we are completed with February. Yeah, so I think I will stop blinking. The thought alone of only having 16 more weeks of school left sounds unrealistic. 

Life in LaBorie through the month of February was full of excitement, just like it has been for the past while. We started out with a weekend youth mission trip to one of Grenada's islands, Carriacou. It was my first time off this small island in 6 months, and so that idea alone was exciting. The trip went very well and we had a great time. 

 The Osprey, our boat we took to Carriacou

 Good-bye Grenada...standing by the rail around the boat and feeling 

the ocean breeze was incredible.

My sister's and I with our Bandanna's =) They sure were a winner...the breeze was intense!

We stayed at this hotel and it was lovely. 

The view from my hotel room balcony 

Just some of the beautiful scenery around the island.

 I was definitely a fan, and really wanna go back again sometime!

 Friday afternoon we spent time walking around and handing out invitations for a crusade that evening, and a Children's Bible School on Saturday. Crusade started out a bit different that we hoped when we found out the place we were going to set up on the street, was going to be occupied by the sound system for an Independence party. So we started out our service at a different spot. There was not a lot of people around and I think we were all feeling a bit discouraged. Halfway through our service we discovered the DJ and his equipment had moved away, so we moved to that location and had a lot more people around to share with. God was definitely working and we felt to grateful for how everything worked out.

Saturday morning, some of us who think we can't function properly without our morning caffeine, went on a coffee search. We found this awesome little restaurant out on a deck by the ocean.

 Coffee, sunrise, ocean and friends....doesn't get much better.

Trying to pose and disguise our morning faces.

 Saturday we had a Children's Bible School for any of the children we could round up. We divided the children into groups and they moved around to the different stations that we had. Here is a group at the "Bible Lesson" station.

 Playing games....

 Making a craft

 The finished product

 Natalie and her little friend.

 It was the weekend before Independence, and they had a lot of bunting hanging across the streets.

 Sea shells painted in Grenada colors lining the edge of the streets.

Packing up and boarding for the trip home.

February 7th is Grenada's Independence Day. It's a big thing down here to dress in Grenada colors and really celebrate the day...and so, we did! =)

Independence day in our colorful dresses...

My precious 1st graders.

 It's amazing how a day out of uniforms can change their behavior. Such silliness and craziness all day long.

 The preschool from up the road walked down the streets singing a little Grenada song. So cute.

 Renel

 Cyle

 Jamal

 Darrell

Rebekah

 David

We made little flags

Joshim

Celina, Summerz and I

 Leandrah, a cute little third grader

 One of my students, Rebekah

 Miss Independence! Summerz was very cute in her festive outfit

Micah and Summerz

The Second Saturday in February was Daniel and Angie's wedding. There was lots of visitors and excitement, but all in all it went well, and was a great day!

 Josh and Becky handing out programs

 The Newlyweds

Danesha, Brianna and I

Hmmm...to think that 6 or 7 years ago a photo of us would probably been taken in side the NHMS school walls?! Time flies....can't believe your actually married!

 Was wonderful to catch up with this woman again. It's amazing how much can change in 6 months...=)

 Beautiful Bride

We joined the Limes Mennonite School in Cross Country...

My worn out, tired first graders

 Cyle, Jamal and David

Rebekah and Cyle, best of friends.

 Darrell, hot and sweaty, pulling his normal "I'm not gonna smile for the picture" look.

Davy...he won the 1st place medal of the younger age division in LaBorie

 We like to go exploring some Sunday afternoons. We hiked out to this natural land bridge. Was definitely worth all the rock climbing and wetness!

Michelle came down for Angie's wedding. Twas lovely to hangout with her again.

 Watching the Virgin Atlantic take off.

A day on the beach with the Fox children...

 Caleb being buried in sand

Davy digging for water...

 Joshy was the faithful little water boy for the "sand-castle makers"

 Becky

Another Sunday afternoon excursion...Ryan and Jonathan climbing palm trees.

Jamal's birthday celebration...

 I like to call him "Curious George"....He is a small little man who has endless amounts of energy, is very curious, loves to climb, and he has a full, beaming smile, just like George! And to top it off, his favorite books to read ARE Curious George! So....hence the cupcake theme.

Renel also took 7 years this month. After we had Jamal's birthday party, she informed me that she likes Dora the Explorer. =) So, I made little Dora cupcakes for her.

Our Church/School building is still under construction. So for the past 2 months we have been having church under Ryan and Jame's house.

There has been quite a few work crews here over the past number of weeks and so things have been moving fairly fast.

The lovely red roof

 The front of the church. The nice room to the left is all added on. It used to be only to the middle wall.

The back of the church. The two rooms to the right are new and also the balcony is an addition as well. In a month or so we are hoping to have most of it completed.

So....that was some of the excitement packed into the month of February. Along with that, last week was a full week of crusade. Daniel Pollard was here, and it was an incredible week of meetings. There was a great turnout and it was really awesome to see him connect with the people so well, beings he was born in Trinidad (a neighboring island) that is a lot like Grenada.

I was challenged and encouraged a lot through the meetings. He often emphasized how deep God's love is for us and that He chose us, and set us apart for a purpose, even before our birth. He also really challenged us to let God have control in each of our battles, because the battle is not ours, it's the Lords.

Life here has been extremely busy and rather hectic....so it was a great reminder to give all my anxieties to God, he's got it under control. Living a life of service isn't a breeze and I was encouraged by Paul's life this past week as I was reading in 2 Corinthians 4:6-10.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have [this] treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."

Paul willingly served the Corinthian church even though the people disappointed him. Serving people requires a sacrifice of time and personal desires. Paul's focus, however, was not on the perishable container but on it's priceless contents--God's power dwelling in us. Even though I am weak, God uses me to do His work, and fulfill his purpose for my life. Knowing that the power is His, not mine, should motivate me to keep my daily contact with God, who is my power source. My responsibility is to let people see God through me.

Paul also reminds me that even though I may think I'm at the end of my rope, I am never at the end of hope. My body is subject to sin and suffering, but He will never abandon me. Because Christ already won the battle, all my humiliations, trials, and risks are opportunities for Christ to demonstrate His power and presence through me.

When opposition, slander, or disappointment threaten to rob you of the victory, remember that NO ONE can destroy what God has accomplished thought you! Just some thoughts that challenged me and so I thought I would pass them on.

Blessings on your week- Janisa