Since it has been over a month since I gave an update, I have lots to share, but the first bit of news is that Eden, Amanda, and I did finally name our kitty! Her name is Espie, short for esperanza ("hope"). We are also really excited because God answered our prayers about finding a place to live next year. Since we are currently living in the house of a missionary family who is just on furlough in the States, they will be returning in June so we need to move out. But one of the families from our school is going back to the States this upcoming year, so we will be moving into their house. It is such a blessing because it's a great house and they are a wonderful family to be working with. We will also be temporarily adopting their pets! We've decided to keep their boxer and their fish while they're gone, so I think we can officially consider each other family now that we will have 3 pets in our house :)
Other things that have been going on this past month... I (and the students) survived science fair! It was pretty stressful leading up to the event, but the day was actually pretty fun and went really smoothly. The kids did a great job and all went well, so I would say it was a success! Here are some pictures of the day and a few of their projects, some of which were really impressive... I loved it, being the science nerd that I am.
Jens and I looking all official before Science Fair!
It has been a pretty busy month overall, and we just started our last quarter of the year, which is crazy. The time is flying now and there really is very little time left until I come home for a month break at the end of June. The Lord also blessed me with providing a fairly cheap ticket home for a brief weekend trip to see one of my closest friends, Joy, get married. Joy and I have been really close since my freshman year at Penn State, and her and Andrew have been dating for over 4 years now, so it is such a blessing to be able to go and be apart of her big day! It will be a crazy weekend.. getting in Friday May 15th and leaving Tuesday to come back, with a trip to Virginia for the wedding in between, but it will be worth it. I can't wait!
Several weeks ago at school it was Spiritual Emphasis Week. This was an entire week where we only had classes in the morning and the afternoon was a special time to specifically focus on teaching our students more about the Lord and giving them chances to discuss and interact more with what they were being taught. Our entire staff was incredibly blessed to have a whole team from Tennessee come to minister to us by running that week. They had a ton of stuff planned... chapels with worship and a lesson, activities, discussion groups, and special seminars during the evenings for staff and parents. It was such an amazing week for everyone involved. I must say, it is absolutely true that Southerners are some of the most warm-hearted people you can ever meet. I just pray that some of the bonds that were formed that week between the team members and our students would be used in the hearts of our students, especially those who don't know the Lord or understand what it means to be a Christian. I was also personally blessed by one of the men who came... Oscar, or "Big O" as he liked to be called. He used to be a science teacher for 12 years and so he sat in on a lot of my classes and was able to help me, encourage me, and give me really helpful feedback. He even dissected a frog with me! He was seriously such a blessing to me because one thing I really miss here is not having an experienced science teacher to go to when I have questions. So God was so faithful in bringing "Big O" to Peru for that week. Here he is and then some of the other team members.
I think this picture calls for a bit of an explanation... It was "Twin Day" and although you cannot see my twins here, you just have to trust me that they were also dressed like they didn't make it out of the 80's! And Amanda was twins with another teacher Jessica, and they dressed up in the students' uniforms... clearly our love for our students is shown in how ridiculous we allow ourselves to look.
I also just got back this afternoon from visiting Hannah's Hope, the orphanage down in Pucusana (hour south of Lima), with several other teachers for the day just to help out with painting and other things they needed done. It was a great day and it was really fun to be back there. I am currently planning another service / outreach trip for our 7-12th grade students for May 14th to go back to Hannah's to serve in any way they need us to. We finally got the date on the calendar, and now it is time to start planning, so please pray for me as I seek the Lord with what we should do for this trip.


