Am I loving my brother?

My students are learning all about Nehemiah this week, so I’ve spent the weekend reading through the first six chapters, thinking about the warrior that he was and how my kids have a lot of fighting to do.

 

This morning, my first truly cold morning in Bolivia in the last nine months, I sat wrapped up in a blanket, sipping coffee and reading chapter five.  I guess it’s confession time. I have been a lot about survival this year.  I haven’t been loving my Christian brothers and sisters like I know I should, with the excuse that I have enough to do just getting myself taken care of.

 

So it was extra-convicting to read about the Jews who were not being kind to their brothers in Nehemiah 5:9- “The thing that you are doing is not good.  Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?”

 

The way we treat those around us is what those who don’t follow Christ see and label “Christian.”  Am I loving my brother to “prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?”  Are you?

Deeper than the day-to-day

I realized at the end of last year that I was really missing being challenged to think about what I believe.  Four years of Bible college had me thinking every minute.  In contrast, teaching fifth grade has me cramming facts into my head.


So I've been trying to feed my brain information that makes me think.


- My friend's friend Jenny writes a blog.  This post made me think about my desire for acceptance and what identifies me.


- I am listening to my MN church's sermons every week before I go to bed.  This sermon by John Piper was about textual criticism (a linguist's dream!) and the woman caught in adultery.  This at the end caught me, "Come to Jesus for grace, and set your face to sin no more."


- I am reading Changing Tides: Latin America and World Mission Today by Samuel Escobar. I've been wanting to read Escobar's work for a long time, and I found one of his books at a garage sale here for less than a dollar!  :)  I'm just starting, but so far- very interesting.  Here's a quote I liked, "Today, at the beginning of a new century, we are more aware than ever that missionaries are vessels of clay, bearers of the glory of the gospel, who are themselves weak and likely to break...the missionary task as an enterprise [is] carried out by persons who are fragile and weak, subject to contingencies like perils, suffering, and persecution."


- And from the Word: Isaiah 44:22- "I have blotted out your transgression like a cloud and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you." and Isaiah 44:5- "This one will say, 'I am the Lord's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's,' and name himself by the name of Israel."

Reader's Theater

As the scaredy-cat (spelling, anyone?) newbie teacher in me looked for a way to put off the daunting-sounding "lit circles,"  I bit off more than I should have chewed.  I thought, "Oh, I'll just put off lit circles for one more week by going through a Reader's Theater play."  Reader's Theater is students reading their lines and acting out their parts-- like a really relaxed play. It actually wasn't a bad idea for me to spend a few days working with my students to improve their reading fluency; my lack of foresight came in when I decided that since we needed an audience, we would invite all students from Pre-K to second grade along with all of my students' parents!!!


Needless to say, I've been very stressed out the last few days prepping and praying that God would make these things go smoothly and without big problems.  I'm a people-pleaser, as many of you know, and the idea of some parents not liking our Reader's Theater was more than I could handle.  


PRAISE GOD! my housemate Adreana, who used to teach at the school, came yesterday and today to help me keep my kids in order to practice and perform.  And despite my worst fears, the kids did great!  They made me so proud!  Here are a few pictures of them performing.

Reverend, Mrs. Smith, and Uncle George discuss Isaac Newton's future

Isaac Newton teaches his brother and sisters about wind

Group One lines up for a bow

Group Two takes the stage

I'm looking forward to a normal day at school tomorrow, and tonight I went over to the Orphanage, Talita Cumi, that is two houses away from us and just chilled with the kids there for a bit.  I feel like after having such a narrow focus of pleasing parents for a few days, I have had my eyes open to see God's bigger picture.  Pray that I would be able to share that bigger picture with my kids.

 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

-Galatians 1:10