Por Fin. . .

Hey Everyone! I'm still alive - after a very busy - crazy week. I haven't had internet for about a week that is why you haven't heard from me. I have begun partial of my 'duties' this week. School started on Monday, even though I do not teach on Monday's I was up at 5:30 to be ready to be at the school at 6:30 to see how things are run, what takes place in the morning, to meet the principal and other faculty of the school. My jobs at the school are 1st and foremost teaching English and Christian Education. English I teach Pre-school - 6th grade and I have the students anywhere from 30 mins to an hour 1 day a week! Which presents a challenge in itself, to get to know the students and gain their trust and respect. Tuesdays mornings I also teach Christian Education for the 2nd graders for an hour. (Which I was told at 7:00 Tuesday morning - as I was supposed to be teaching the class) Needless today I was not prepared to teach 2nd graders for an hour - with 0 curriculum or materials.
Tuesday night I came back to write for advice - and make specific lesson plans which keep the students occupied and doing something - and wednesday and thursday classes went 100% better. It should be a challenge but a lot of fun at the same time because all materials are limited it's even hard to make copies for handouts - I don't like giving students busywork 'copying' from the board but that's what works for them - for a while of course. The students I am working with come from the poorests parts of Venezuela and are a challenge for discipline and respect. I love them though. I know that with the Lord's help, patience, and love for the students this will be awesome.
My 2nd job here at the school is working with the International Child Care Office helping out with whateer they need done and the major part soon will be translating letters from English to Spanish and Spanish to English. I think it will be a lot of fun.
Monday night I started studying here in the Seminary I have 2 classes every Monday night, Wesleyan Theology, and History of Discipline of the FMC - they will both be a little challenging b/c the majority of the grade comes from expositions - Speaking giving speeches and explaining things in SPANISH of course... I don't like giving speeches in English let alone Spanish.. It will be good for me though.
Wednesday nights are prayer meeting at the church... Wednesday was also the day I moved to Paul and Sue's House in Parquicito. . . aka my new house, my house for 2 years!!! It was good to be able to have 'my own room' and un pack and get more settled in in a house. The house is 2 houses down from the church there, it makes it very nice.
Thursday, taught here at the school, went back to the house and I am becoming a HUGE fan of this siesta thing from 12 til 3 I can go home eat lunch take a nap, then finish lesson plans, devotionals, whatever else I have to do. A tradition out there is sit w/ plastic lawn chairs on the side walks and talk with the neighbors... I met a lot of my neighbors and some of the 'guys' if you will from the area as we were sitting there talking 2 trucks drive by with 4 police in each of them, then a little bit later another truck w/ 4 more police drives by, then 15 motocycles w/ 2 police each on them, drive by, and then a truck that looks like dog pound trucks drives by - it was pretty exciting one of the guys that was sitting there with us was walking down the street and the police stoped him and padded him to check for guns and drugs... A different world for me.. Everyone there assures me that I will be fine and not to worry!! I haven't had any problems so far. ..
Paul tells me that I am going to start driving on Wednesday, I haven't worked up enough courage to drive here yet. . . Roads here are awful, they have random unmarked speed bumps everywhere, and where there are not speed bumps there are lots of holes in the road!!!! Basically here there are no rules, no stop signs, no speed limits, there are now traffic lights but you have to be careful b/c they do not obey the lights either...
Oh, this week we don't have classes on Tuesday b/c it is "Teacher Appreciation Day" - I don't have to teach until wednesday and they asked me to do the devotional for Tuesday morning so I need to start preparing lessons and the devotional. Then the 24th Lori is returning to help with orientation for me and showing me more of the 'ropes' here, the 25th -26th there is a retreat for all the staff of the school at some beack and I am going to. Then feb 1 - 19th Paul and Sue, Lori, Eddie - will be going to Caracas to help with the VISA team that is coming and I will be staying in the house with Keila to continue teaching at the school and the 16th of Feb is Conference here and a superintendent from the US is coming and I will most likely have to translate for him!!
I am doing very well, getting used to everything and how things work around here, it will take more time.. I am feeling more comfortable and confident as the days pass. Thank you all for your prayers....

I have a cell phone now here in Venezuela and the way of communication here is like 99% text messages so if You want to text me I should recieve it you can also call the cell -

#011 58 424 932 9085

I don't have internet hooked up, working at my house yet - I will try to update as I can, I have mondays and Fridays 'free' I will try to make a routine of updating every friday..... Keep praying, pray for the churches, dissension in the churches, for the students of the school... Thanks!!!