Swept Away

I cannot stop bouncing around right now! I am in one of those crazy moods where I am talking in all sorts of accents and making all sorts of impressions! I am genuinely full of His Joy! Today I had such a beautifully blessed day! I went to office hours this morning, listened to a great message from Adorn, and then went with my co-worker Aileen to lunch! She is such a sweet person and I showed her my favorite ice cream bar afterward! She thought I was crazy because it is "too cold" to be eating ice cream! Well, it's an American girl thing to eat dessert/ice cream at any point during the day in any kind of weather!! When we got back to the office, she shared some of her vacation photos with me from last year! Then, I asked if I could show her the few photos of my family I had on my computer! She became really excited and moved her chair over to my desk! I showed her pictures from my going away party and explained who people were and how my sister told us she was pregnant right before we left! It brought me such a joyful heart to share my family and home with her! Then, another coworker, Linda, walked in and got really excited to see the photos too! So I started from the beginning again! When I showed pictures of my sister and my parents, they're comments were like the following:
"Oh yes, you don't look like your sister"
"That is your father? Oh, he is so young though!"
"Your mother is very pretty"
"Where is your brother? Oh, oh yes he is handsome" I then explained Madeline was his girlfriend... they ohhed and ahhed.. Linda said, "but she is not from another country, she is so dark"
I laughed so hard at this! Mad, they thought you were a foreigner and perhaps it's because your tan skin is sooo obvious next to bran's albino skin ;)
They also said I looked like my brother and of this I am proud because I believe he's a rather good-looking guy! It was so fun to share this part of my heart with them! They asked me to bring more photos tomorrow and I am so excited to continue to talk about the most amazing people in my life!

After this great time of office hours, I went with my teammate Colby over to our second English Corner! The first one was on Tuesday and it was miserable because only 4 people showed up out of the anticipated number of 100 students!! Colby and I are co-teaching and we decided I would plan and lead Tuesday's class and he would plan and lead thursday's. On the day we don't lead we will assist the other in whatever way they need. So I grinned and beared the awkward lesson plan I had made for group activity on Tuesday for the four students present. Today however was a completely different ballgame!! We showed up and Colby had planned a lesson on Technology. Not to our surprise, his powerpoint and technology hook-up did not work! The bell rang, and instead of four faces staring at us expectantly, there were about thirty. My heart instantly picked up speed... but as it did I glanced over to Colby as he was trying to hook-up the power point- unfortunately he appeared super frazzled by the circumstances. With his panic, I knew I needed to step up to the plate as his teammate! I mean for goodness sakes, the bell had rung and we ARE the teachers! So, I swallowed my hummingbird heartbeat and stepped toward the class with a confident smile!
"Good Afternoon class"
They replied in unison, "Good afternoon teacher" I smiled even wider. Yes, I loved the challenge of improvising!
"I am so glad to see so many faces! Last class we only had FOUR students show up! We are so excited to have more of you here! I am going to introduce myself and Mr. Reed to you because there are so many more of you!" I proceeded to talk slowly, sharing about myself and giving them opportunity to ask questions! They asked a few questions, and at this point, Colby was still messing around with the computer and I knew that it would be yet a while longer. Even though he was supposed to be teaching today, I was running out of introductory things... so I choose to give a preface of the lesson plan. Unfortunately, my knowledge of technology is SO LIMITED! I am so technologically illiterate because my older sister was always so good at figuring the electronic stuff out! She loved reading directions and figuring things out! So, I tried my very best to pull out what little I knew and provide an introduction to the subject. I asked how many of them had cell phones....
.... they replied in unison "We all do".... DUH Courtney! Okay... moving on... I asked them what functions technology had, and what they liked best about having technology. Finally, Colby stepped up to take the class over and he had much more background than I did. The class began running a bit more smoothly. However, we have very different approaches to methodology and it will be interesting to collaborate in order to capitalize on each of our strengths! One of my favorite parts of the class was this girl named, Candi! (Okay sidenote, each of the students has an English name that they pick... and they are a crack up seriously! Some examples of their names: Think, Little Monkey, Bridge, Key, and Kesha to name a few) Anyways, Candi came in late to class and was just a ball of energy! Probably why I was drawn to her from the beginning! Throughout class she would shout out random English words in answering Colby's questions and most of her answers would elicit laughter from the rest of the class... okay now I realized another reason I was drawn to her... I was that class clown in my poli sci classes making the most random and dumb jokes disrupting everyone! During one of the group questions and answer activities, I went over to her table and talked with them. She explained how her mother's side is Korean and her parents are in Korea right now. She said "they are so far away". I said "Oh I can relate! My family is so far away too and I miss them!" She immediately lunged across her desk and grabbed my hands and arms wrapping hers around mine and she pressed her head down then shot it back up and said "ah we are the same". Oh. my. goodness. Yes please Father! This is why I'm here!! These students are SO lovable and I couldn't help but think how precious His daughter was that grabbed me as if to comfort me! I was initially stunned by her invasion of my personal space ( I am NOT a touchy person) but my heart was instantly softened! Later as I stood by the door saying goodbye to the students as they left at the end of the class, Candi walked by and waved at me... and then suddenly, I was attacked from the back when arms reached around me and squeezed me in a hug! Shocked I turned around to see who was hugging me, and just as quickly as she grabbed on, she let go and giggled and ran away... I got a small glance and smiled because it had been Candi. Who knows what prompted her impulsive decision to hug me, but the Father knew it was exactly what I needed! I have been lighter ever since I felt loved from this girl named Candi! Standing in front of the classroom  here, I feel blessed. I feel as though this is where I belong. The comfort I feel in front of the class and love for the students that I feel here so far often scares me. I am scared because I'm afraid I will be called to stay here longer. But, then I think if it's His will, He will cast out fear from me. I will have reassurance just as I did in my decision-making process in coming here. I don't have any feeling one way or the other about next year or the future... but I have complete confidence each time I take the stage (because every teacher here uses a platform b/c it's an authority thing) I feel His complete pleasure and joy in my decision to follow Him here. To meet His children who live here and teach them something special to me- my means of communication! May he break all other blocks between communicating and imparting His precious grace and love. But as far as tonight, I'm just rejoicing in this divine romance I have found myself swept away in!!