puppy pictured below passed. udder brudder and mudder sick, too. pwease, pway for dem.

also, please, pray for productivity and preparation during vacation.

and praise God for the torrential rains previously this week.

peace!
-ee

don't stop...

Emily and I have been overloaded with the end of the semester. Please, continue to pray that we get everything finished for our classes that we need to.

We are also in DESPERATE need of rain.

Also, could you please pray for SD, our doggie. She has some sort of horrible skin condition. The puppy in the picture below is hers. She had four - one was born dead and another one was dead the next morning. Two are alive and seem healthy though. Emily and I (and Matt, Peterson, and Nico) are loving on them. They still haven't opened their eyes yet. One has a spot on his head in the shape of a heart so I named him Agape. The other one I named Phileo.

Oh, and our parents are coming on Tuesday! Pray for safety and a wonderful time here!

God is good.

Staff Devotions

Anyone may share on Friday. Here was the outcome this morning:

Philippians... I shared the passages I sent you all last night.

Linda added...
2 Timothy 2:24-26 "And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will."

Vice added...
John 8:42-47 "Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.'"

Director added...
2 Corinthians 12:6-10 "Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from beig too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, harships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Ana added...
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
And then I heard Linda say under her breath, "And verse 24." Verse 24, "He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it."

Thank you for your prayers. Please, continue

God knows.

It’s almost 10:30PM on Thursday night and I can’t sleep. Frustration, anger, impatience, wanting to give up… you pick. I turn on my flash light (the power is out until midnight) and ask the Lord, “Can you please enlighten me? Where should I turn?” My Bible opens to a page which is currently easily removable from the binding – always reminds me of the Church in other places of the world where people get a page at a time. The book of Philippians. The little book of joy.

Philippians 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” I suppose I could have closed my Bible right then and happily drifted into la-la land. But I didn’t.

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Now would be a good time to tell the world that I am incredibly grateful to God for my junior high pastor Scott Koop and how God has used him to have an incredible impact on my life. One, out of the thousands of things, was a song that repeated Philippians 1:6 over and over again. I still get it stuck in my head sometimes, as do I the many other songs we sang to the Lord. Praise God that He has truly shown me how reliable He is, that He holds true no matter what, that His love endures forever. Praise God that He has opened my eyes to see this incredible truth. Many times it has been the only belief that has made me to endure.

Philippians 2:12b-16a “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…” God has given me a belief in Him that makes me think I cannot pick and choose what to do for Him in this life but that I must do ALL for Him in this life. Perhaps, you could say, I do not always fear God in my day-to-day life because I do choose to sin many times, however, because of God’s all-sufficient grace, ultimately, I do choose whether in public or in secret to do right because God sees and will act accordingly. Without grumbling? Oh, I pray for such an earnest trust as to never question the God of the universe! “But why is this so incredibly difficult and frustrating, Lord? Make me a light of your glory to this generation!”

Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Reasonable? With these students? Anisi ei! (Help me!)

PLEASE, PRAY FOR MY STUDENTS AND, PLEASE, PRAY FOR ME!

After the incident with Maverick on Wednesday I couldn’t sleep because I was so worried about him. I thought of all these things I could say or do but God just told me to pray, that it was the best thing I could do. So I prayed.

It’s the end of the semester and I have finals to make and papers to grade and I’m normally a very organized person. Well, I am organized still but I just have a lot of stuff on my plate. All of the staff and students do. In my prayers at the beginning of each of my classes I’ve been praying for patience and forgiveness for staff and students in these last two weeks of classes.

Director selected me to be the overseer of the Christmas program. I thought that meant that I was going to oversee what the students were organizing, practicing, and doing. Hah – I better get started organizing, practicing, and doing or nothing is going to happen.

I was talking to Emily about one of my classes and she said, “Wait. I thought this other class was your naughty class.” With my eyes already rolling, I laughed and said, “The naughty class is whatever class I’m teaching at the moment.” I do have to admit that I must omit my Jr. AP class, not that they’re perfect but the majority (of the 8 – hee, no wonder it’s easier to handle) do genuinely want to learn, I believe.

My sophomore class is insane. I cannot even settle the class down when I go in there. Nothing I say or do get them quiet. I try yelling, whispering, staring, whistling, writing people’s names on detention – NOTHING WORKS! It takes me ten minutes (ok, maybe that’s a little exaggerated) to get them quiet for prayer and as soon as I say “amen” they go right back to what they were doing. How do I eventually get them to settle down? I don’t. I fold my hands, close my eyes, and pray. Normally a few respectful classmates will quiet them down. I believe it’s just another way God shows His mercy to me.

A few of my sophomores are just consistently disrespectful over and over and over again. It’s not always totally blatant but it’s every day, in every way, for everything. Honestly, I can do nothing. Well, until the other night when God reminded me, concerning Mav, the best thing was always prayer.

If you know me, you probably know that I want to lecture. I’m not talking boring lecture, I’m talking interactive lecture. I try. I fail. Every once in awhile I try again. I fail again. The class would have to listen and take turns talking (about the subject that we were actually talking about) but it just really doesn’t work. I hate written questions, especially day after day after day after day. (Not that those are the only two things that I do in class. Not at all. Ask Matt Chiles.)

Detention? That’s a whole other story and it’s 11:15PM now.

Yesterday I told my junior regular class that they had a quiz today. I knew that the quiz would not take them the entire period so at the beginning of class I told them to take out their notebooks for some review which would help them for the quiz. I wish I had a tape recorder to play the sounds that came out of their little voice boxes. I was shocked. I told them to trust me. I knew that they knew the information on the quiz; they didn’t have to worry about finishing it in time. I would give them plenty of time. They continued to whine and then get even more upset. One student said, “We don’t know it. We don’t know any of it. We’re all going to fail.” One threw his notebook on the desk and walked out of my class. Another did the same although, thankfully, he came back. All because they didn’t trust me about giving them enough time on a stupid quiz! I was so frustrated with them. Before I gave them the quiz, I began to lecture one of the biggest complainers about learning. I told him that I believe that I’m not the best teacher and there are probably a lot of things that make it very hard for him to learn from me, but I also told him that I COULD NOT MAKE HIM LEARN. I pointed at precious Augustina. I told him that she wanted to learn and every day came in and did the assignments so that she would understand the information and that’s why she could do well on the tests and quizzes because SHE had studied and worked her brain to LEARN. I CANNOT MAKE THEM LEARN. And I don’t know how to teach them how to use the muscle God has given them to learn.

*sigh* Perhaps this all sounds harsh to you. You’re thinking, “Woah, Katie, back off. Be patient and kind and loving.” My first comment is – you try teaching here. My second comment is – I admit I was frustrated. If I am here to help these kids academically then I am not doing a very good job if they are learning nothing.

If I am here to share Jesus Christ with them… sometimes I feel like they’re so hard hearted and mixed up and twisted that it’s useless. Wow. Do I want to admit that to all of my supporters? …I want to love them. I want to show and tell of Christ to them. That He is the most important thing in the whole world and beyond and the only One who will bring them true happiness because He is their Creator and loves them so incredibly much.

So I was thinking… Why did all this happen in less than 24 hours? The deceitful lion has attacked. Satan.

Why? Here are some good things that have been happening:

Maverick did come to school today. Although not his all-smiles self, he spoke to me and later to Vice about the incident. He was quite repentant. Maverick loves Jesus.

Emily had quite a good discussion with some of her Sr. APs on Wednesday. One of the things that had come up was what was going to make them happy. Emily asked them, “Is Miss Katie happy?” Franky eventually said, “Yes. She once told us it’s because of Jesus and living for Him.” I guess they have learned something.

My Junior Regular quiz grades were fine. A couple As, a B, many Cs. They do know the information. I told them they knew it. And, of course, they had 15 min. to spare after they were finished.

Alvin is not only doing well and working hard in my class but he is learning and thinking. In fact, he wrote the three best theses in my class the other day.

I also have had good conversations with some Sr. APs. It comes down to what the most important thing in life is. What do you believe in? What is true? Why are you here? What are you going to choose?

And as the great woman of faith, Mary Ewart, said, “Jesus is the answer to everything.”

God put me here right now. His reasons? I believe they’re legit.

I’m begging and pleading for your prayers. We are all in desperate need.

And may the one true God of all grace, mercy, goodness, love, and peace bless you for your participation with us.

...10 min. to midnight.

Miss Irene & Mavrick

Miss Irene is a first-year teacher here at Mizpah. She previously taught in the Philipines. She is an example to me as I see her deep love for the students and commitment to prayer. This morning she asked for prayer regarding Maverick. She said he was very disruptive in her class and she didn't know what to do.

I told her that Miss Katie and I felt that Maverick was indeed a Christian because of his professed love for Christ, and also his involvement in Logan's youth group - why, to see him sing on Sunday morning had brought a smile to my face, for I felt certain that he was truly worshiping.

Last quarter, Maverick failed my class and Katie's, mostly because of excessive absences (I think he had 15). Miss Katie and I told him we would buy him pizza if he came to school every day of the 2nd quarter. He has not only been at school EVERY day, but he even has an A in art class!

Last week, however, he expressed to me the frustration he had in math class (Miss Irene's class). He felt that she only made it more confusing, and that is why he was doing poorly. Apparently, today during her class she and he had some sort of conflict. In the end, she was taking him to the Vice-principal's office, when he apparently threw a rock in her direction, and then left school.

Pray for Miss Irene, who sat in the office with tears, for she truly loves her students and want to help them learn. Pray for Mavrick to see his sin for what it is and seek forgiveness. Pray for the administration to know how to deal with the situation most appropriately. Pray for all of the teachers to have wisdom when we encounter situations like this. Pray for us to demonstrate godly love, self-discipline and self-control, so that if are students were to imitate us, they would be imitating Christ.

Please, pray for me as I have Senior Art class in 28 minutes, and that is my most dreaded class. *sigh* Pray for reconciliation where relationships with students have been broken, pray for mutual love and respect. Pray that they will love and enjoy art as they see the beauty that God created, and the capacity they have to create as well. Pray that they will not get frustrated and give up. Pray for them to look to the future, and form some godly goals and post-graduation plans.

Oh, pray also for Burson. Miss Katie and I had taken a special interest in cultivating his spoken English, as he is quite shy. For a few days, we were ecstatic at his finally warming up to us and speaking a few words to us in English, rather than Chuukese. Today in Sr. Reading class he was wearing a red bandana (sp?). Director had just made an announcement in chapel (about 20 minutes prior) that if students were wearing red or blue gang-related bandanas, they would be confiscated and not returned. I asked Burnson to remove, and give me the bandana. He removed it, but put it in his pocket. I told him that if he didn't give it to me, I would go get Vice, which I proceeded to do. When Vice and I returned to class, Burnson had disappeared. I feel bad for the fact that I give sooooo much grace, and then one time I say: that's enough, today there will be consequences for your actions. Unfortunately, lack of grace sometimes falls on the student that is not necessarily the most "nukumach." But what am I to do? I cannot be perfectly just. Pray that Burnson will recognized that he erred, and all the students will learn to respect authority. They generally have "respect" for Director and Vice - or at least a fear of the consequences these two men can impose. Today in class, I wanted them to see that Vice was on my side, help them to recognize my authority. After the episode, they did work quietly for the remainder of the period (well, I suppose they got restless the last few minutes).

Ok...KEEP PRAYIN'

Please, PRAY FOR ME...

to have Christlike love for my students. Also, for me to remember that I am here because I love God, and am here to serve Him.

Medium-Well

Today I went on a picnic with some of the Seniors and Sophomores… Russell, Randy, Evangeline, Doralyn, Arlene, Franky, Isaiah, Kendal, ES, Headley, Charleen, Onolyn, WayOne, Kieko, Maimai, Mayleen, Ray, Matt, Mor-M, Tony, Miss Pearl, and me. Oh, and McKay, an 8th grader, and Sympath, a junior.

I went down to the school at about 8:40. We left school around 10:20. With a few stops along the way, we finally arrived at Ana’s Resort. This is where Manuel and Mihamm had taken Emily and me one day and we took pictures of the turtles. Despite the trash that is EVERYWHERE upon entering, it actually is a very beautiful spot.

We went swimming in the ocean water pool. It was all tiled and had ocean water continually being filtered in and out. We played with the Frisbee and the football. Then we went swimming in the ocean and used the kayaks they had available. And, of course, we ate chicken and rice – you really don’t understand because this chicken is THE BEST chicken in the world. It is very very very good.

I think most of the kids were genuinely glad I went with them. And I am definitely glad that Miss Pearl came.

So despite the fact that I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so anxious that today was going to turn out horrible and for the fact that when I did a bag search I did find and confiscate some drugs and the fact that I now have a fairly bad sunburn… I have to admit that I’m glad I went.

Thank you, Lord.

OH! I forgot one of the best parts... I raced with two high school boys in the pool and won -- TWICE!