School is in full swing!

I have 28 students this year: 12 in first grade, 9 in second grade, and 7 in third grade. I know it may not seeeem like many kids, but it really is. Last year I just had 5 & 6 kids in my two classes. And for more comparison, 4th-6th grades only have 14 kids in total: 4 in fourth grade, 3 in fifth grade, and 7 in sixth grade.

I wish you could come and meet them all in person, but for now, here are some pictures of the little guys:

You can’t see them all, but these are my 12 first graders. They LOVE to color!!

Here are my goofy third graders (:

This is one of our newest little guys on the Ranch! I worked with him during one-on-one before school started and he started out with me in first grade, but he’s been moved down to kindergarten to have work that is better suited for him.

These are three of the kids that come up to our school from the community outside the Ranch. They’re so sweet!

And here is little Franklin. He broke his leg playing soccer this summer, and for a while, I had to carry him up and down the stairs at school. (: It was not a burden to me at all!

Sadly, I don’t have a picture of all the second graders yet. I’ll work on that for the next blog or for a Facebook post!

All of these kids are different and they’re all so special. I love that I get to be their teacher. I’ve already been told, and I believe, that this year will grow and stretch me. I have more students this year–some, very difficult ones. I’ve especially struggled with the first graders, but I’ve already seen improvement with them since the beginning of the school year. Still, I would definitely appreciate prayers for how to teach them & love them & discipline them well. They’re a big class with some strong personalities, and they’ve been the most difficult for me to manage.

Also, pray that I would be able to think of fun & entertaining ways to teach them and keep them engaged! And please pray for the hearts and spirits of all of our kids. So many of them have gone through extremely difficult situations that have hurt them and affected them, but we want them to know how precious they are to God and how much he loves them. I so want them to understand their worth and value in the Lord. Pray that despite how their earthly parents have treated them or what they’ve gone through, that they’ll be able to see God as a good father who loves them completely and wants the best for them. Pray that the teachers, counselors, and mentor parents would be led by the Holy Spirit in the way that we love and minister to them. Pray that we would have eyes to see past the physical, obvious realities, and that we would see the real sources of their issues, and have the wisdom to deal with them as we should. I don’t want these kids to grow up knowing a lot about God and the Bible, but never really receiving the healing that they need and knowing God as a good & loving & perfect Father. Please join in the battle for these kids’ eternities by interceding for them.

And pray for me and my roommates, too. It’s been difficult to get used to our new schedule of traveling back and forth to the Ranch everyday, figuring out how to get everything done, spend quality time together, and still have time to sleep! Being a teacher is a lot of work. Not surprisingly, I never realized that as a student. The teacher was the one with the easy job..she just told us what to do and we were the ones who actually had to do all the work. But, I have learned a lesson. Teachers work hard. It takes a lot of time to prepare–and prepare well–for little learners.

My lovely housemates: Michele, Racheal, Tiffany, & Amanda

All of the teachers and our principal (:

Even with the changes and difficulties, I’m definitely still grateful to be here. Living in the city means having to drive back and forth to school everyday, but there are so many benefits to living in the city. We’ve gotten to go to grocery stores, coffee shops, & restaurants that we never knew about last year living at the Ranch. It’s also been wonderful that we can be more involved in our church and have increased opportunities to spend time with people and build relationships. Amanda and I are part of a house group now, and we’re so happy about it! It’s been such a blessing to be able to meet up with people from church to talk about Jesus and build relationships. We’ve gone out to lunch with friends, invited people over to hang out, and had dinner and coffee with friends from church. I’m excited about the new friendships that we’ve started developing! And I still get surprised when I realize I can have good relationships with people in Spanish! It’s so cool!

Grupo CASA (House Group) at our house, celebrating Amanda’s birthday!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support and for reading my blog. I’m so thankful for all of the people who support me financially, pray for me, and just for all of you who “get” what I’m doing here.

Thanks for being awesome (:

Lindsey