Another great week!

Well, another week has passed. I’m going to start with prayer requests so if you don’t have time to read the whole thing, you can still pray for these things.

-There’s a Honduran teacher at our school who has been to the doctor for some tests. Through these tests, they have found that she has a cancerous tumor in her uterus AND that she is 2 months pregnant. The doctors want her to abort the baby so they can treat the tumor, but she, of course, doesn’t want to do that. Pray for the situation and protection for her and the baby.
-The last 2 teachers arrive this week! Shelly has taught here before and will teach 7th and 8th grade. Jason is a new teacher and will be teaching 5th and 6th grade. Pray for safe travels and a smooth transition time for them.
-Pray for patience with one of my students. He requires lots of attention and I feel like I’m always getting on to him for something. The other day he said, “Miss Hannah, you just need to have patience with me!”
-Pray for health for people on the ranch. There has been something going around. One of my students was out on Monday and my roommate has it now.

So, please pray for these things. Thanks for all the prayers and support! I have loved getting emails and messages from people. They are encouraging. Please keep sending them! I apologize if I am slow to respond to them. I don’t have a lot of time to do things on the internet.

I had another great week! I’m enjoying getting to know my students and learning the best way to teach them. One of the things I like the most is praying with them in the mornings before we start our day. Each morning we also say pledges to the American and Honduran flags and the Bible. Julio and Kevin, my Honduran students were teaching me their Honduran pledge the other day, having me repeat several words at a time after them. I apparently said something wrong because they both started laughing and said “Miss Hannah, you aren’t kicking something, you’re supposed to be pledging to our flag!” It was funny. The first week of teaching was kind of challenging trying to figure out how to balance teaching both 3rd and 4th grade at the same time. It was still challenging this week, but I’m starting to get used to it and so are the kids. Another highlight this week was going to Spanish class. Another teacher, Abby, and I decided to sacrifice one of our planning period on Tuesdays and Thursdays to go with the MKs we teach to their SSL (Spanish as a Second Language) class. It was a lot of fun! The kids seem to think it’s funny we are in there and that we have homework too. So, I’m slowly learning things…as much as a 2nd and 4th grader learn anyways. We just started on Thursday, but I’m looking forward to it in the future. The other new teachers and I have also considered making Saturday nights our “Spanish Class” where we get together and go through some learning Spanish CDs or getting someone that knows Spanish to teach us. We haven’t found a teacher yet, though.

This weekend, my roommate, Jae, and I are going to the bridge house in the city to see what it’s like. All of us went on Sunday to have lunch with Robert and Jennifer Butts, the managers of the Bridge House, to hear more about their ministry and sign up for times to come stay there while they are on furlough in October. This weekend we are going to spend the weekend there to see more what it’s like and to get to know some of the kids that are there. The bridge house is a ministry of WGO. It’s the place the kids from the ranch have the opportunity to go to transition from life on the ranch to life on the city after they graduate from high school here at the ranch. It’s a place where they learn responsibility for themselves, their finances, and basic lifestyles. I’m looking forward to spending this weekend there.

It’s amazing to be up here on the ranch in the mountains in the midst of God’s beautiful creation, teaching these great kids. Some of them require more attention than others, but they are all good kids. I’m thankful that they are able to be here at the ranch and that I am able to be here as well. Thanks for allowing me to be here!

The reason I haven't posted many pictures at all is b/c we don't have much bandwidth with the internet connection we have here at the ranch. i'm not exactly sure what that means. They just explained that we have a limited amount each month and if we exceed the amount we are given each month b/c of lots of downloads/uploads or whatever, it costs more money and/or we don't get any internet access. Maybe one of these weekends when I go to the city I can post some.

Bye for now!