Thankfulness

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Of course everyone back home has just finished celebrating Thanksgiving.  I’m sure your stomachs are full from the amount of food you ingested and your hearts are light because of the praise and acknowledgement you have given to the Lord for the things He has blessed you with.

Although I am not in America, I still had the opportunity to celebrate the wonderfully cherished holiday with my fellow Americans here in Ethiopia.  In fact, I had three separate occasions to fill my stomach!  I definitely was not disappointed in the food or the company.  It was great!

Being in the spirit of thanksgiving was rejuvenating, and honestly I am thankful for the time to reflect on the things I am thankful for and the acknowledgement of God’s faithfulness over this past year.  I even had the opportunity to strategically teach the best part of Thanksgiving in my class.   Grade one was in charge of the prayer time in chapel last Friday.  This entails coming up with some creative prayer element for my students to lead/participate in.  I thought and thought about what we could do, and then it hit me!  Let the students draw and write a prayer to God about something they can thank Him for; a Thank you God for….prayer. 

Before we started the project, I had the students go around the room and share the things they are thankful for.  The responses were humorous, wonderful, and honest.  Among the responses were: thank you God for my house, my friends, my family, my school, my baby (baby sister), my cat, my hair (cute), and my all-time favorite ‘that Miss Cawood is not an only child!’  Yes, this was one of my student’s prayers, and she drew a wonderful picture of me and my siblings.

However, the best response was ‘that Jesus died for my sins.”  I did not even have to promote that one.  One of my 6 year old students came up with that on his own.  After this student said that, of course many of them felt compelled to draw or at least write that in the caption of their picture.  When my students got up to share in chapel, I had a handful of students share their beautiful pictures and wonderful prayers with their peers; they also shared the gospel!

My students got it right!  The most precious gift we have to be grateful/thankful for is the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.  We would be lost and unable to enjoy the many other things we have to be thankful for without this gift.  But then God also gives us the gift of choosing.  We have the choice to accept His gift or reject it.  Family and friends, I so hope you choose the former!  But not only choose His gift of salvation, but also draw from the benefits of His gift this side of Heaven; His riches, His faithfulness, and His peace.

I’m thankful for so many things; I would have to be callous not to acknowledge how lucky I am when I look around my surroundings here in Ethiopia.  There is poverty, sickness, and despair all around me.  I am grateful for the provisional blessings God has given me: my cozy apartment with a nice warm bed, my wonderful bathtub, my closet full of clothing, the food in my refrigerator, the money in my bank account, etc. 

However, I am even more grateful for the intangible gifts and support God has given me.  The love from and for my beautiful family, amazing friends at home that I miss dearly and wonderful new friends I am making here, the peace that I am living in the center of God’s will, and the intimate relationship I get to share with my Heavenly Father!

I’m thankful for Bingham and the unbelievable support I am receiving as a first year teacher.  I’m so lucky to be supported by an encouraging staff, a supportive administration, and parents who truly are committed to their student’s educational success.

Lastly, I am thankful for my class of Grade one students!  I thought I never wanted to teach the lower elementary grades.  However, I am honestly enjoying my time as a first grade teacher.  The students have such a zeal for learning.  They soak in everything that I teach them.  And my class of students in particular, loves to sing, and they have the sweetest angelic voices! 

My list could go on, but instead of exhausting you with my list, I want to encourage you to continue to count your blessings.  Let’s not just make it a Thanksgiving tradition.  For God’s word says to give thanks in all circumstances!

Community Life

One of the things I cherish most about Ethiopia is the community life that I experience daily.  For those of you who don’t know, I live on the compound of the school that I am teaching.  Thirteen teachers and their families along with twelve single teachers live here on the compound as well.  It is a situation in which you actually know the neighbors that live next door.  And not just know them, share life with them.

During the month that I have lived here in Addis, I have only eaten dinner by myself 4 nights, and all of those were by choice.  There is almost always a dinner invitation at someone’s apartment or a group of teachers that make a plan to go out for dinner.  As you share a meal with these people and their families, you get to know their stories- how they got here.  It’s wonderful to be surrounded by people who have shared interests, but very unique experiences. 

I’m surrounded by men and women my age that have too, left everything behind to come here by themselves.  They have come to answer a calling that God has placed on their lives whether it be for a year or a lifetime.  I’m also surrounded by couples and families that have submitted to a life dedicated to the mission of God.  The wisdom and life many of them have lived is amazing and inspiring. 

Not only do you share meals with the people that live here, but you share your heart and your love for God, people, tea and pastries.  Every morning, we start the day by having a devotion and prayer time before school.  Each teacher is assigned a week during the school year, and he or she prepares a 5-10 minute devotion to start the day.  Then we share prayer requests, and break into small groups to lift up the day, our students, and the burdens on our colleagues’ hearts.  It’s hard not to be reminded daily why you are here, and what you are called to do:  invest in the lives of these children.

One of my absolute favorite parts of the day that I look forward to is 10:20am, morning tea!  Every day, the faculty meets together for morning tea from 10:20-10:45 for a spot of tea or coffee and a really yummy treat!  It’s a break from the morning, and time to re-energize and check in with others to see how their day is going.  The students also get a break for a snack and morning recess.  It’s good for both the students and their teacher!!

Every Monday night, I meet with a group of single female teachers for a Bible study.  It’s the perfect way to start our week.  It is a time where we get into God’s word and talk about the struggles that we face as singles, women, teaching, and living in a foreign country.  We go into detail about the burdens that are weighing us down, and we individually lift each other up in prayer.

You also never have to sit at home on the weekend, unless you want to, which is treasured at times.  However, there is always something to do with others.  The group of single teachers that live here are always getting into some kind of mischief.  From Nacho Libre Mexican dinner night, to the Harry Potter premier, birthday bowling, movie night in the staff lounge (almost always a chick flick, poor guys, we out number them), dinner either Ethiopian style or at an American food restaurant, and almost always by tradition, ending the night with a cup of coffee at Kaldi’s.  I can’t think of a better way to spend my first year teaching!

I’m truly having the time of my life.  That is not to say that I don’t miss others at home, because I do, but living in a community is the best medicine, in my opinion, to treat the hardest obstacle of leaving home, missing others.  That and surprise letters and care packages from loved ones!

;-)

I miss you all, but know that I am being taken care of, and living my life to the fullest.

First Week of Teaching

The Early Childhood Education program I graduated from at Dalton State’s mission was to create Caring, Collaborative, Competent, and Reflective educators.  When graduation time came, I swore I NEVER wanted to reflect upon a reflection again.  However, Dalton State’s ECE Program was successful; I naturally feel compelled to record and reflect on my first week of teaching.

Most people would view my first week as a huge success.  First and foremost, I survived along with my 23 students!  No one was physically hurt in my classroom.  There were a few hurt feelings, and unloving things said and done, but I addressed those in a very calm and professional matter, with the Christian perspective of, “Now did that decision express to your classmate that you love them?  Remember we are supposed to love God first, and then love your neighbor, and be kind to them.”  I feel that it set a positive tone for our classroom environment.

I knew all of the students names before 9:00am on Monday morning; which as any teacher knows gives you an inevitable sense of control and authority you could not have otherwise.  Saying, “kid in the red shirt, quit talking to your neighbor,” isn’t quite as effective as calling on the student by name.

We often had fun, while learning, by playing new games.  The students look forward to playing Miss Cawood vs. the Students at the end of the day, which also provides me an opportunity to verbally assess if the students learned the objectives of the day.

I decided to have a show-and-tell time with my students that provided the students an opportunity to personally relate to the thematic social studies unit we started called, “Traveling Around the World”.  Show-and-tell is a huge success, and the students look forward to it every day!  In most school settings, you would not have the opportunity to have a show-and-tell time for students to bring things they have gotten from places they have traveled in another country.  In most schools, several students have never traveled outside of the city they live in.  However, all of my students have traveled outside of the country multiple times.  Many of them have traveled to countries I have only dreamed about.  The classroom dynamics are amazing.  Not only is it a great way for the students to personally relate to our unit on continents, but I am able to get a snapshot of the students personalities and interests!  The items they choose to bring are adorable: a toy airplane from the airport in California, seashells from the beach in Dubai, a euro from Finland, a children’s song book from Switzerland, and safari animals from Kenya.  It’s wonderful! 

There were many other things I could look back on and be happy about.  However, at the end of the week, my thoughts were more focused on the things I should have done, or the things that did not go as planned, or the things that were totally unexpected.

I had the bright idea to implement Literacy Centers into the classroom.  The students have not been exposed to Literacy Centers, so this was a whole new world.  After spending the first 2 days, explicitly going over each of the centers, and what they should do while in each center, we started the literacy rotations.  It was chaos!  It was like the students had no idea what we had spent the last 2 days doing.  They looked lost, with no direction.  I was unable to be in 6 places at once, so students were coming up to me while I was with another center asking what they were supposed to be doing.  The students in the listening center could not agree on a book to listen to.  The students in the sight word center were fighting over who was going to be the person that kept the time for the flash card challenge.  I was putting out fires left and right!  And don’t even get me started on the groups’ inability to line up in order to rotate to the next center.  Kids were fighting over who was in the front of the line.  “Miss Cawood, I was here first, and so and so came and got in front of me.”  I felt as if I was going to lose my mind, and I asked myself, “What were you thinking?”

Thankfully, by Friday, the center rotations were a little better.  Now all of the groups have successfully rotated through all 6 centers.  So hopefully, on Monday, the students will at least have some idea of what they are supposed to be doing.  If not, I will have to re-evaluate!

I learned that 1^st graders have a MUCH shorter attention span than 5^th graders (the grade in which I did my student teaching).  I have to continually remind them that, “we raise our hand before speaking out,” or “how are we supposed to be sitting on the floor, that’s right, criss cross applesauce, on your bottoms,” or “are we supposed to be talking to our neighbors when someone else is talking?”  I feel like I am a broken record!  In 5^th grade, you can expect to give them one verbal warning before they have to experience the consequences of their decisions.  However, if I only gave my students one verbal warning, many of them would be on red part of the Ethiopian flag before 10:00am!

Those were a few of my frustrations.  Not to mention I forgot to turn in my 2 students’ names that would receive character awards in chapel on time.  So I had to make my own certificates just to ensure that my class would not be the only one without awards.  I also forgot to check on something for a parent, in which I told them I would check on.  Great first impression of Miss Cawood!

Haha….I can laugh about some of these things today, but last week, it was trying to say the least.  Welcome to the world of teaching!  I feel that this is just the beginning.  However, when it is all said and done, I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing!  So cheers to week one being completed, and best of luck for week two!

Never Say Never

You’ve always heard the phrase, ‘never say never.’  I think it is a very wise and applicable saying for anyone to consider.  The person that coined that phrase obviously said never to something that turned out being a reality for him.  Have you ever said, “I will never…,” to something?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I am surrounded by realities of something I either thought or actually said, “I will never do…”  Sometimes I said these statements out of fear, others ignorance, and still others indifference.  But I believe my God is a God that requires you to take on the tasks that you would NEVER do otherwise.  I say ‘my God’ because I can provide multiple examples of this nature in my own life.

I have meditated on this thought for a while now.  Why do we often say we do not want to do this or that, and this or that is actually what we are meant to do?  Is it because the enemy knows what we are called to do, and he tries his hardest to prevent us from following the path?  Does he introduce irrational fears into our minds to cause us to run from our God given destinies? 

Or is it a part of our human nature to strive for only the things the world sees as successful, promising, or right?  Is it our nature that sees anything that would not fit in these categories as unappealing?

No matter what is ‘in’ us causing us to withdraw from these things, God uses it for His glory.  God is glorified when you submit a desire to His will or agree to an unwanted desire for Him.  He is glorified when you face an irrational fear with the peace that transcends all understanding.  He is glorified when you acknowledge that the thing you feared, turned out to be exactly what you were created for.  It pleases Him for you to admit that He knows you better than you know yourself.  He is after all your Creator, Father, Savior, and Lord.

So what did I say ‘never’ to that has caused me to think about these things?  Well where should I start?  I remember a scared teenage girl in 2006 saying to God, “I don’t want to be a foreign missionary, please don’t call me to be a missionary.  Anything but that!”  I was so afraid God would ask me to leave my country, my people, and my family to live in a 3^rd world country.  It took months of wrestling with that fear before I gave it to God. I can still remember the exact moment I submitted myself to that calling if it was His will.  Do you know what I experienced after? PEACE.  Of course it wasn’t until about 8 months ago that I knew for sure that was what God was calling me to.

You can also ask all of my colleagues and even some of my professors, I said multiple times, “I do not want to teach the younger elementary grades.”  I prefer 4^th-8^th grade students.  However, I am the Grade 1 teacher at this school.  I am surrounded by 6 & 7 year olds every day, and I am thankful and humbled.  Have you ever heard the prayers of a 6 year old?  They are so innocent and full of faith.  You can’t help but smile when you see them raising their hand high to pray for their friend who has a broken arm.  Their prayers are filled with requests we would never think of.  “God please let her surgery be fun,” or “when they bring the baby home, please God don’t let her cry on the plane.”

Or how about the time I said I would never work in a private Christian school.  I could not think of a more encouraging atmosphere than a Christian school, made up of faculty whose priority is providing “quality, culturally sensitive education in a Christian environment which encourages the students to impact the world for God’s glory.”  Our school is going through an accreditation process through the Association of Christian Schools International.  The representative for Africa visited the school this week, and facilitated a couple of professional development sessions.  He spoke of the movement going on in Africa through Christian schools.  The leaders in African countries realize the significance of quality Christian education, and the fact that the most effective way to attack some of the problems in Africa, is to raise up a competent generation of children who have the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ, to reach the world and make a difference.  Wow, what an honor, to be a part of a movement such as this!

I bet God chuckled when I made these, “I will never…” statements!  I’m sure He was thinking, “Sweet Malisa, if only you knew what I have in store for you.  It is immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine.”  Of course it was more than I could imagine!  I was closed off to it, and I was thinking in the ways of man, not in the ways of God. 

In Isaiah 55, God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

My word of encouragement to you is to think about the things that you will never do!  Why won’t you do them?  Are you afraid?  Is it not wise?  Is it not financially appealing?  Maybe you are closed off to the ways of God, and are at a risk of missing what He has in store for you.  Take it from someone who is thankful that she did not close herself off to the plans of God. You too will be blessed “immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine.”