Thank you all so much for your faithful prayers! God has been teaching our team so much this week here in Singapore!
This week God has blessed me with an extremely energetic group of kids in CI. Our team of kids is so much fun, but I have never taught such a rowdy group of kids before in my life. Praise God for giving me an incredible love for each of these kids, despite their craziness! During each lesson, I am interrupted after every sentence by a different kid wanting to tell me a random comment or story. Whenever we switch activities, I have to yell really loud to get their attention because they are all talking/yelling/screaming/laughing so loudly that they can't hear me otherwise. When the kids leave our classroom, if I don't hold on to them, they take off running and screaming down the hall.
My biggest challenge this week has been one of our 6 year old boys. He is so smart, but he also has an amazing amount of energy, and I think he is the most active kid here in CI this year. The first thing he did when he came into our classroom was crawl under the desks into another team's space and run around in circles on the other side of the room. During large group, he stands up on the chairs and walks all the way down the row (and if I don't grab him, all the way up onto the stage.) He is so adorable, and I love him so much, but I don't know how to make him listen to me. Even after I told him to stop, he kept turning off the lights in the room. When I tell him to walk, he takes off running and screaming down the hall. Even after I take him aside and give him firm instructions, he turns around and forgets everything I've told him.
After CI on Wednesday night, I was so frustrated with our whole group of kids. I felt terrible because I felt like I was doing a terrible job of controlling the kids. I didn't understand why the kids wouldn't behave or listen to anything I said. But praise God for my assistant Jeremy who encouraged me by reminding me that God made these kids rowdy, so that's just the way that they are. The whole time I had been trying to make these crazy kids behave like normal kids, but God changed my attitude, and I started to realize that sometimes, its ok to just let the kids be rowdy.
On Thursday night, I was able to put aside my worries and just have fun with the kids. The kids were still pretty crazy, but I had a much better time because I accepted their rowdiness. While Jeremy finished teaching the craft with the rest of the kids, I took the two craziest boys out to the longest hall I could find. We ran up and down the hall playing tag until they had used up all their energy. When we came back in for my lesson, my crazy kid lay on the floor exhausted, but before the end of my very short lesson, he was already sitting back up and interrupting me every other sentence.
Tomorrow (Saturday) will be our last day with the kids, and it will be a long day: 9am-6pm. Please pray that our kids would be able to sit still and listen long enough to learn what God wants to teach them and for their salvation and growth. Please also pray that God would bless all of us teachers with wisdom, creativity, patience, and energy as we show God's love to the kids.
On Sunday morning we will fly to Jakarta for our last week of CI. Please continue to pray for us as we finish up with our last week of CI in Jakarta!
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Rosalee
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