First Days

Whew...after a mad dash, a pile of preparation, and a ton of meetings, we figured it was time to actually begin the teaching part of our adventure. I think I can speak for most when I say by the time Saturday came along, no one was quite as prepared as they had hoped to be. I looked around my classroom on Saturday evening and thought, "Well, it's as good as it's going to get." And it truly did look good. A huge banner across the top of my room, fun bulletin boards that I did myself (all by myself...haven't done that before), and plenty of room for improvement for the next few months.

So, feeling like a kid on the night before the first day of school, I chose my best first-day-of-teaching outfit, complete with my favorite underwear, and went to sleep. Since I've never worked more in my entire life, I slept quite well! Monday finally arrived and as I was walking to my classroom I started seeing a bunch of little people running around, some excited to be in school, and others dragging just a bit. The only thing that went through my mind was, "Uh, I don't actually know what to do with them. The room looks great, but...uh...a little help here?????" Needless to say, the first day wasn't quite as smooth as I expected.

Let's first say that God is great at destroying preconceived ideas. I always thought Asian kids loved school, worked hard, and hardly ever misbehaved in class. This was the first preconceived idea to be shot down as the noise level in my classroom was slowly rising to uncontrollable. Then I thought that lesson planning and preparation would be easy because I was so efficient at Franklin. This was the second to be utterly mutilated as I found myself lesson planning at 7:00 pm on more than one evening. Then I thought how much they would love me as their teacher and do everything I told me quickly and quietly. Wow, this one only took about 5 minutes to be destroyed...on day one! It was exhausting to hold onto my ideas of what 'should' be while trying to reconcile it with reality.

Tuesday and Wednesday didn't go much better. As the days went on, I found myself getting more and more beat down, even to the point of thinking, "Two years? I can't retired and do something else for two years?" I even began to plan my retirement party and think about the next great adventure of life I could begin. God finally got a hold of me on Thursday morning when I was throwing a tantrum about going to school. He gently reminded me of why I am here and what my purpose was and how that can only be accomplished if I get out of the way. "Oh sweet Jesus inside me, HELP!" was all I could say to that. And He actually did help (surprise I know). I found myself teaching in HIS power, not mine. He is the only one that can accomplish anything in me for these kids. Why do I work so hard to understand and live out what is already true of me? I know I will learn this lesson every week for the next two years...and then the next two years after that. I know this was not the first week of throwing tantrums in the morning. But I also know that He wants to give me new grace for each day. Please continue to pray that I would die to myself daily so I can watch God work mightily through me. This is the only way that I can accomplish anything He has called me to do here in Okinawa!

On tap for this weekend? SLEEP! Open house is over and I worked hard to have my work finished this weekend. I have a few good books and look forward to staying in my pj's! Thank you again for your faithful prayers. I could do NOTHING without them!