Little Things are the Big Things

I think it's hard for me to post on a regular basis because life just becomes so normal here, so I have less and less "interesting" things to talk about. However, there have been some things that are worth mentioning, I just kept forgetting!

First, last Tuesday was TOMS One Day Without Shoes! Sadly, I couldn't talk my students into going totally barefoot, but they did succeed in only wearing socks. :) It was a really good day.

First, last week our school had a talent show for the high school students. The whole week leading up to the talent show, kids were practicing the skits and songs they were going to perform, and then the big day got here. It was supposed to be outside, and that got rained out in about 10 minutes, so they moved it inside because we (miraculously) still had power. I was so proud of my students! I love seeing them in settings other than the classroom because it brings out their true personalities. All of them had super impressive performances and it just made me love my kids more than I already do.

Grade 7 kids so proud of themselves after the talent show.

Last week was also exciting because our grade 8 class had a surprise visitor! None other than Si Robertson himself! Yep, I thought it'd be fun to dress up and share about "my" life to demonstrate what it is I am expecting THEM to do for their final project for this parcial. All the kids know how obsessed I am with the Duck Dynasty family that it was not a surprise when they saw him come to class. :) I will tell you, though, it's HARD finding the right clothes to pull this off! I did it, though, and it didn't look too bad, either!

We had cinco de mayo on Monday, which was really just an "excuse" for us to have a bunch of Mexican food, and man was it delicious!!!! Our house should really celebrate cinco de mayo every day...or at least once every week!

Tonight there was a performance of Romeo and Juliet at one of the other bilingual schools. We were all really excited about it, but unfortunately because of the rain, it was really hard to hear the people and what they were saying. The play itself may not have been everything we had hoped it would be, but you could tell there was a LOT of preparation that went into it and they did the very best they could. We went in true Honduran style, packing 13 people into a car that should probably only ever hold 7, at the MOST. If nothing else, it was pretty entertaining to watch all the grade 9 students cram into the car. Some things you just can't see anywhere but in Honduras.

To top it all off, last Saturday, I went to the airport to greet my dear friends from Springfield church of God as they arrived here to do their mission trip with Heart to Honduras! What a great time it was seeing them and also seeing all the Honduran translators I made friends with 4 years ago! It was great being back in the same place where I first fell in love with Honduras. I was thrilled to meet a new, younger member added to their group, and I suppose I was excited to see Rita, the crazy lady I now call my sweet friend.

Rita and me, finally reunited so we can just continue bickering with each other like we ALWAYS do. Love her!

Speaking of rain, it is rainy season here now, and it rains ALL THE TIME. I happen to love the rain, except when I have to walk in it. :) What a comforting sound from home. Home, the place in Springfield I get to go back to in just under 2 months now. I want the time to go quickly and slowly all at the same time. Until then, I am going to keep enjoying these little things and remember that they are what will be the big things later on.

After the trek up Ambassador Mountain. Life really is beautiful.

Best Friends Take Honduras (Part 2)

This is coming way later than I would have liked it to, but here it is, the rest of my fabulous week with mis amigas!

We had a nice, peaceful morning on Tuesday, went into town and had a fantastic lunch of iced chai and ice cream (lunch of champions, obviously). Then, we got a bus to a hiking spot called Panacam, where I had tons of interesting talks with the men sitting next to me. Talk about broken Spanish. Eesh! We got a ride up the mountain (or glorified hill, really) in a tuk tuk (moto taxi, all the rage here). We eventually found our way to our room for the night and had plenty of time to get some delicious dinner and then read for a looong time. That was one of my favorite parts about my break, I never get to read quite enough.

We woke up early Wednesday morning and began our hike. I was pretty thrilled to find out that my second time doing this hike was a lot better, and I barely felt like I was dying at all. So, that's exciting! We stopped and took pictures of the two beautiful waterfalls along the way and then came back to our room to clean up. On our way back to Sigua, we stopped along the highway at the lake to get the best fish you will ever eat in your life. Ahhhhh, I love the fish here, seriously. And my friends love it just as much as me. :)

Getting a bus back to Sigua from the fish restaurant was pretty interesting. We stood in front of the place for a while, and then were told the buses never stop here, so we kept moving further down the road. We ended up witnessing an arrest take place while waiting! Don't worry, our lives were never in danger, but it was pretty loud with lots of people yelling and some people bleeding, too. Then, finally, we got a bus back. It was one of those smaller buses and it was already packed full BEFORE we got on. Morgan ended up being able to sit down, not in a seat, but on the floor, while Debra and I held on for dear life with no room to plant our feet and barely anything to hang onto. We crossed a lot of personal space boundaries that don't actually exist here. The man standing up right behind me was actually able to go into full sleep mode...I was so impressed!

Finally, we got off the bus and made it back to the house, and later went to dinner at another favorite baleada place around here. Yum! Then we were super lazy and laid around reading books until we fell asleep. In the morning, Debra woke up feeling like death, so we laid low that day. Morgan and I went to the Children's Home to hang out with the kids there who didn't go anywhere for their spring break. Then, Thursday night we didn't do much except watch a bunch of movies, which is always fun, especially with my best friends!

Friday morning, we headed out with some friends to see the sawdust carpets, literally carpets made out of sand that are only on display for a day to celebrate Good Friday. They. Are. Beautiful. You almost just have to see them in person for yourself to know what I mean. We finished the day eating Pizza Hut and just enjoyed a day with friends.

Sadly, our time had to come to a close and we got on a bus (a NICE bus that we didn't have to wait for on the side of the road and they even played a movie for us while we rode!) and went to San Pedro. Then, we said our goodbyes. Luckily, they made their flight just in time, since the line to pay their exit fee out of the country was ridiculously long that morning!

It's funny, Debra had tears when they first got here, and I had tears when they left. It's been a hard adjustment back to life without them here at my house and in my life everyday. Even though it was only a week, it did my soul so much good. Love these girls and am forever grateful they were able to make the trip down.

God is good, that I know for sure. Can't wait for our next Honduran adventure we have together!

Best Friends Take Honduras (Part 1)

On April 12th, I had some very special visitors come to see me...last January, my sweet friends Debra and Morgan told me they wanted to come visit during my spring break, which also happened to be Morgan's spring break, too. Talk about perfect timing! Before we knew it, tickets were bought and plans were set in motion. I quickly learned that during Semana Santa (Holy Week for all of Honduras), it's not uncommon for most people to pick up and head out to a beach for the week. Not only that, but Thursday and Friday before Easter, practically our whole town shuts down. Still, we were able to pack some really fun trips into our time, and more importantly they got to see what the real Siguatepeque is like.

They were scheduled to arrive at 11:30 at the airport, which is 2 hours away from my house. However, due to lots of delayed flights and not being able to Apparate themselves to the next terminal gate (Yes, I just made a Harry Potter reference...), they were put on an extra flight to get them here around 4 p.m. instead. My good friend, Hector, was kind enough to drive me to get them since taking a bus in that late would have been impossible. As soon as I walked into the airport, I looked around quickly and saw them running toward me! Ahhhh, what a sweet reunion!

On the way home, we stopped at my favorite baleada place, and they of course LOVED them. Right after dinner they immediately passed out from exhaustion, and so did I, since I was too excited to sleep much the night before! Sunday morning, we went to church, exchanged money for them and bought bus tickets to get back to the airport the next Saturday (those two events were extremely comical to watch, I'm sure. I have enough Spanish to get myself by, I know how to order most food so I don't go hungry, and I know how to tell the taxi driver where to take me. I do not, however, have a lot of practice in buying a bus ticket, but between Morgan and me, and Debra for moral support, we got the job done.) We finished the daily outings by visiting the market, which was really enjoyable to watch them take it all in for the first time The market can seem really overwhelming, but it's really fun to buy fruits and veggies, and (try your best) to speak Spanish with the people. After a much needed time of relaxation, we went to dinner that night for pupusas, which also proved to be a winner for my friends. :)

Monday morning, despite my gigantic amount of fear about taking a bus to the capital city, we headed out for Tegucigalpa to meet up with a friend of Morgan's who's living there working for a ministry called Zion's Gate. We got a bus easily enough, although there was barely enough room for me to fit on my seat, but then when we were 9 miles away from the city, we got stopped at a typical police stop and stayed there FOR AN HOUR!! We finally got tired enough and got outside to take a few selfies, then we were finally able to leave. After three phone calls to get directions to the ministry, our taxi driver got us there and we enjoyed a few hours seeing what they do and how they are helping further God's kingdom. I love hearing testimonies of faith from other believers and how God is working. Let's just say, I was reminded once again just how living and active a relationship can look like.

Making or way BACK to Sigua was a little more interesting. We literally waited an hour to get a bus back, and every single one that passed as we waited at the bus stop was NOT heading in our direction. Eventually, a bus pulled up, that barely had any people on it, and took us back home. I was never so relieved to see the signs for Sigua in all my time here as I was then. This trip was really scary for me, only because there is an extra amount of caution you have to take when going to this city because of the "danger factor". I just want to say that what we experienced was anything but dangerous. That day trip changed my view of the people of Honduras so much, and all for the better. People in this country are among the nicest and kindest I know, certainly more kind than what I experience most days in the States. We could learn a thing or two from the people here. God is alive and active and certainly working in the hearts and lives of Hondurans, no matter what it might say on paper. Just spend a few days here and you will soon realize, as long as you are careful and pay attention to your surroundings, there's really not much that is "threatening" to your safety.

We ended the day with a night of pizza and watching Frozen, aka eating the best pizza EVER and watching one of the best movies ever made as well. :) Top that off with having these girls here with me to share it? #Priceless

These are the Days

This last month has been a whirlwind of fun adventures and new realizations of just how good God really is. For starters, I get to live in the most beautiful country that I've ever been to my entire life, it's not just a short visit.

After returning from Christmas break, I quickly realized that life here (or anywhere) is much more fun when you get out and really LIVE it! A couple weekends ago, we went on a super fun day trip to a beautiful waterfall, a cool Honduran version of a swimming pool (little fishies included at no extra charge, of course) and even did a rope swing! Then we had a quick photo shoot on an overly large sized chair painted like the Honduran flag and had an amazing lunch with the lake as our wonderful view. Tilapia here is better than any other that I've had, you should try it if you ever find yourself down this way. :)

That day was easily one of my single most favorite days, mainly because of the simplicity of it. That, and of course the good company. I love the people I get to do life with here.

Last weekend, we had another fun Saturday, road tripping with a caravan of about 20 gringas (white people) to the Hot Springs. Seriously, it's out in the middle of nowhere unless you know where you're going. Hot is an understatement for these springs, as you could definitely cook an egg in these waters, which I very well did, in fact! Seriously, though, it was so good getting to hang out and chill with some terrific missionary friends, and doing some light rock climbing was just as wonderful, although our muscles were SERIOUSLY feeling it the next few days. I also made the mistake of wearing sunscreen with spf 30 when my skin has always needed 50...oops! Let's just say I still have a sunburn more than a week later! #LessonLearned

The view from where I lounged most of the day.
They're fun to climb around on, too!

I told you I cooked an egg....

This past weekend was our quarterly Girls Night that we do here at the school for high school girls, and this time we invited those crazy 6th grade girls, too. Not only that, but Miss Sarah and I decided to make it a sleepover because we've had so many requests for one. From 7:30 p.m. to about 10:00 a.m., the school was full of energetic girls who just wanna have some fun. We had a dance party (thanks to the awesome student teachers who actually like to dance), a bonfire where we learned some new Spanish songs and taught them some from America and Canada, and before we settled in watching movies for the night, some of the girls wanted to get wet. I thought this a rather odd request, but we said if they filled up buckets, we would dump them on them. Well, in case you didn't see it coming, like I very much so did not, those buckets of water were thrown at US in about 2 seconds. There are few things I despise more than wearing jeans that are dripping wet, but even so, it turned out being the highlight of Girls Night, throwing water on the teachers and being super silly is sometimes all you need to wind down from a stressful week of final exams. Thank You, Lord, for giving me these wonderful kids to witness and watch them grow into strong women of faith. Thank You for giving us nights where we can forget about all the work and just let loose and have fun.

Some of my crazy grade 7 ladies.

After all the sleepover fun was done and over with, I got some work done and then felt the sleepiness kick in, that's what happens with only 3 solid hours of sleep, I guess! A 3 hour nap on a Saturday afternoon is quite fantastic. Follow that up with the best chicken baleadas in town for dinner, doing the Cha Cha slide in our living room with some of my favorite friends here, finished off with yet another circus experience! That is what I call a perfect day.

Perfection looks different for all of us, including church, which Caitlin and I tried a new experience of that this morning when she had the brilliant idea to listen to a church sermon out in our little kiddy pool while sunbathing. Not gonna lie, traditional church services will be hard to get used to from now on, so relaxing chilling in a pool in a swimsuit instead of sitting in a pew.

All that to say, Honduras has taught me a lot in the past few weeks. It's taught me how God loves to show up in completely unexpected ways just to remind you just how special you are to Him. Today, I'm fighting the urge to be sad because of some recent circumstances with a friend here, but I'm convinced that everything, and I do mean everything, happens for a beautiful reason that God rarely reveals on OUR timetable.

I have great friends here that I can't imagine having this experience without.
I have encouragement in everyday conversations with the people here in my life.
I have skype dates with the people from my other home whom I miss daily.
I have students that I love more than I ever thought I possibly could.
I have views of the mountains that are beyond belief.
I have hope that life can only get better, even when there ARE moments of harsh reality.
I have joy in a Father who loves me and directs my path even when I feel completely lost.
I have more moments of laughter in the simplest things.
And I have a place I call home.
Honduras.

The Place Where You Suffer

So there’s this song that has been hitting my soul a lot over the past 24 hours. I’ve had this woman’s music on my iTunes for well over 2 weeks now, and have listened to this song before, yet never heard the true meaning of it until I looked up the lyrics. I have always been one to appreciate music, and even more so the lyrics to those specific tunes. This song really doesn’t come off as one that “sounds” all that exciting, but when you take in the words and listen to the real message, it is beautiful, breathtaking, and gut-wrenching all at once.

For the last few days, the theme in my life has been on relationships. I have been struggling with how I am not only content with my life as a single woman, but truly loving and embracing it at the moment. Having said that, it seems to be easy for non-single people to call out that maybe I need to focus on finding a husband. Hmmm, maybe if I were interested in finding one right now, I would be okay with that statement. BUT, I have no desire to be in a romantic relationship right now. I love the ways God reveals Himself to me in my singleness, and I know that, for me, my relationship with Christ will continue to blossom much more if I don’t add a man to the equation. I’m not saying I never will get married, but I am saying that in this season, it’s really not even on my radar. I just wish it would get off of some other peoples’ radar, too. 

Anyway, because of much of these kinds of conversations coming up in my life,when I heard this song, "Come Close Now", by Christa Wells, I couldn't help but play it over and over and over again because it spoke such truth to me.

“I’m afraid of the space where you suffer

Where you sit in the smoke and the burn
I can’t handle the choke or the danger
Of my own foolish, inadequate words
I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

How often are we afraid of the pain someone else is going through? How often do we think “Man, I’m not going to be able to say anything or do anything that is going to help them, and I sure don’t want to make it harder for them. I think it’s best if I just stay away. I’ll make sure to pray for them, though.”?

Friends, prayer is a GREAT tool. It is how we can interact with God whenever we want and however we want. It’s what He constantly wants us to do because He always wants to be chatting with us. In this scenario, though, when we have people in our lives who we know, but don’t really ever get close to, what does that honestly say about our lives? Even more so, what does it say about our walks with Jesus Christ if ALL we're doing is praying for them? So many times in scripture, He was known to be doing life with people. He hung out with sinners. He spent time with His disciples. He showed He cared by more than saying, “I’ll make sure I talk to my Father about that”, and then just walking away. He sat with them. He ate with them. He listened to their stories.

In today’s world, He would have done more than just send them a sweet message via facebook or twitter or some other social media. He would seek them out. He would let them know He wanted to spend real, actual time with them.

This song’s main focus talks about people going through “fires”, which I will post more on that later. If we think about others’ trials, or just daily living, as fires, it makes it scarier. It makes it more real. It makes it even harder to approach them. Yet, here’s God saying, “Go after them. Go love them. Go sit and talk with them. Or even better, go sit and be silent with them.”

“I’m afraid of the place where you suffer, where you sit in the smoke and the danger” 

We’re afraid to enter in to that place with them. Why? I think the next lines help sum that up.

 “I can’t handle the choke or the danger. Of my own foolish, inadequate words. I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

It’s okay to admit that we don’t have the words to make life easier for a friend. Really, we don’t have those healing words that make the pain go away. We don’t have the power to erase pain. Christ does. And HE calls us to love people where they are by being there. By showing interest in them. By going the extra mile to make ourselves available to them. That last line of that verse above is what I keep settling on. Yeah, I don’t have the right words. However, I CAN come sit with you. I CAN make myself available. I CAN let you know by my actions that I really am here. We can all do that. These lyrics sound as if this person went to their friend’s house and, even though their friend is in pain, is saying, “I’m going to be right here for you, if you want to talk or if you just want me to come and sit with you.”

I want to embrace relationships. I want to embrace the opportunities I’m given to love those around me simply with my presence. Most of the time, those hurting friends of ours don’t want words, because they already know we will fail them with those words. What they want is us to be there. To love them. To not give up on them even if they give up on themselves.

Let’s go in and be part of that place where suffering occurs. Let’s go sit right outside and let others know that we’re here for them.

Best Day Ever? Yes!

I must say, life since my last blog has been full of little surprises, some welcomed, some not so much. For starters, a few days after I last wrote, I got a wonderful surprise on my doorstep! It came in the form of my good friend, Rob, who I was fully expecting to have to go get him at the bus stop. However, he made the trip straight to my school and 2 hours before I was going to leave to pick him up, he's right in front of me in the flesh!!! It's a super weird/awesome feeling to have someone here in this country who already knows all about my life before ending up here. It's like all the work and stress of having to explain yourself to the people around you just goes away. What was even better was getting to show him around town, introduce him to all my favorite foods that he'll never get to experience in the States. I think the coolest part is that neither one of us really tried to meet up here. He was doing some mission work in Guatemala and was going to be in Honduras for part of it. You can read his blog about his time there here: http://crobarnett.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/zions-gate/ . I just mentioned he should come visit since he wouldn't be so far away. God works things out in really incredible, incomprehensible ways sometimes. I mean, we went hiking one day while he was here and as we were looking out at the absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains that are almost anywhere you go in Honduras, we just couldn't believe that we were experiencing that moment together! Rob and I used to be on the worship team at our campus ministry, Christian Student Fellowship, together. If you would have told us 3 years ago that we'd be hanging out at my home in Honduras now, clearly we would have thought that was crazy. Yet, there we were.

     Not only that, but Rob got to meet my kids, and we got to have some good, deep conversations about where our hearts are at with where we both feel like God is calling us to next. Like he told all of my students, it's actually exciting to not know what's next in our lives, but to just blindly follow Him and keep constant communion with Him. It was so good to have him here and see life from his perspective. So thankful to have that time with him, and excited to see how our paths may cross again in the future!

Since returning back to school, I've seen absolutely no improvement in the classroom some days, and then other days I am filled with so much hope because it actually went WELL. Today, I just need to share that I had my "BEST. DAY. EVERRRR!" (Quoting from Tangled, of course!) I'm not saying it was perfect, or even great. However, looking at it as a whole, I didn't have a single class where I thought, "ugh, this is never going to get any better". My students have started getting used to this new behavior chart we introduced in high school, mainly for my benefit because we need a better way of disciplining them. To my great surprise, it's working!!! That doesn't mean it'll work every day, but for the days it does, I am so thankful.

I had my 9th grade students do a comparison of old English (aka New King James) and new, modern English (aka The Message) while looking at 1 Corinthians 13. Many of them made the comment, "we never get in the Bible." Sadly, that's all too true, and a fact I really want to change. As we read through what all the things love looks like, I saw them genuinely responding. I asked them if anything stuck out to them, maybe something they felt like they could work on more, or something that encouraged them or they just enjoyed reading. I gave them 10 minutes in class to write a response, and one of my more "in-tune" students said, "why don't we replace the word love with our name?" So, I had them read the verses to themselves again and put their own name in place of 'love'. As I watched them read it again, I saw them take it seriously, and as they wrote their answers, the bell was getting ready to ring and they all still had so much more to say. They not only like being in the Word, but they crave it. Just like we all should. I let them take it home with them so they could take more time to think up real, genuine answers. I am really excited to see where this goes, and even more excited an encouraged to do this kind of thing with them more often! I've made it too easy to just let those lessons go undone because we have so much else to do, but the reality is, some of these kids may never go deeper in their relationships with Christ unless their teachers (at their Christian school) not only gives them the opportunity, but puts it in the lesson plan.

Here's to an exciting, Christ-filled rest of the school year! I can't wait to report back again with even more ways the Lord gives me to reach these students with His truth!

See, if we really have Christ inside of us, then we have love, because that's what He is. God is love. In light of that, our lives should mimic this. I've still got a long way to go, but it's never a bad idea to evaluate where we're at and just what exactly we're doing for the Kingdom. Just in case you're interested in reading those same verses and replacing YOUR name with the word 'love, here you go:

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Love doesn’t have a swelled head,
Love doesn’t force itself on others,
Love isn’t always “me first,”
Love doesn’t fly off the handle,
Love doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Love doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Love puts up with anything,
Love trusts God always,
Love always looks for the best,
Love never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

A Work In Progress

This week has been a new realization for me. Well, maybe not new, but definitely a difficult pill to swallow either way. You see, I’m discovering how bad I am at problem solving, especially right on the spot, which is really the only time I ever need to problem solve, anyway. I’ve had a rough few days of just total disrespect and kids not caring in one of my classes. It is super frustrating. We literally had one class where we didn’t get anything done because I kept waiting for them to be quiet. That time never came, though. The only thing that did was the bell. As much as I should have cared, I really just couldn’t wait to get out of there. Then, yesterday, the same thing started to happen However, this time, one of my students who really does want to learn practically begged me to continue even a midst the chaos that was my classroom at that moment. In my head, I was freaking out because I literally had no idea how to still teach the one of two kids who still wanted to learn and let it still be effective when the rest of the class was acting like complete idiots. I hate wasting time, especially when it is my own. I feel like when I talk and nobody is listening, I am making the biggest possible waste of my time. The ironic thing is that even if I only have ONE kid willing to listen anymore, it’s still enough. I became a teacher because I wanted to make a difference. Maybe right now my only chance to make a difference in this particular class is to only teach to the one who wants it. That’s hard to accept, but I should really be counting my blessings that I even HAVE one willing to still listen and learn!

Today, I had a double block with this same class, and man, by the time Friday hits, we are all just tired of one another. Go figure. Well, the same thing started to happen, only this time, I had two boys instead of one pushing me to keep teaching even though there was so much talking going on. I decided to only give the worksheet to the kids showing they were honestly invested in the activity. The other ones I told would receive a zero if they chose to act that way all class. Miraculously, they started to figure it out and every kid earned a worksheet to fill out. Now, I am a firm believer that your behavior should affect your grade, because grades area big motivator. I had that whole class quiet and attentive and ready to hear what I was presenting them with. Wow! It was a beautiful ripple effect where they saw their actions had direct consequences, but they could also choose to change their behavior and earn their chance back.

We did another activity afterwards, where they also needed a worksheet from me, and again, I only gave the paper to the kids showing honest attention. Even then, I had 4 more kids who earned a worksheet from the very beginning than I did with the first thing we did. Again, they figured out that I was serious, but they also understood that I wanted them to be involved, but they had to earn it at this point.

Who knows if this will ever work again for me, but I cannot tell you how thankful I am that it worked today. Yes, today was a good day! It’s exciting to say that, mostly because every single day, someone asks me how it went and I always say, “Not great, but it could have been worse.” Today, I was genuinely able to say that every class of mine was good. Again, not great, but shoot, I’ll take what I can get. J

The day ended on an even better note because we had another girls’ night for our high school ladies. I love hanging out with them outside of class time. It’s like getting this beautiful glimpse into what they will be like when they really grow up. However, at the same time, I get to see their childish, romantic side when we watch the movie, Frozen, and the girls all “ooh” and “ah” at seemingly cheesy scenes. I can’t talk, though, because it happens to be my favorite movie. It’s just great to see sides of them I could never see when I’m just Miss Brenna.

Although I feel it’s harder being back here now than it was for the first part of the year, I still feel incredibly blessed to be here with these people, both big and small, and get to do life with them. I have a long way to go before I feel like I’m really helping them along in a significant way as far as their academic career goes, but I know God has given me a gift to share with them. It may just not be found inside the classroom so much as outside of it.

Still finding my way, but either way, it’s a beautiful journey.

Until next time….