Meet ... our No-Name Kitty :)

Our precious new addition to our lovely home in Peru :) Could there be a more perfect time to use my token phrase (that my roommates just love so much)?? 

She is soo stinkin' cute! 

Last Sunday Eden, Amanda, and I got our adorable kitten, who still has yet to have an official name.. for now, kitty, or gatita (little cat). We have come up with quite a few but are struggling to settle on a specific one. Any suggestions are welcomed. We have been trying to give her a spanish name, which we had for a few days until one of our Peruvian students revealed that we didn't actually want to call our adorable kitten by that name based on its meaning here in Peru, haha. Yes, the joys of living overseas and not knowing the meanings of everything we say :) Humbling, as always! But she is soo cute and has brought so much fun to our house. However, I will admit that being woken up at 4am the first few mornings because she was ready to pounce on my bed and play got a little bit old. 

Hopefully Noel back in PA won't see these pictures and get jealous!

Assisting me in my lesson planning...

Other than our new kitty, the past two weeks or so have been pretty busy here, and quite honestly this past week was pretty tough for me, in my motivation and ability to teach and also in my own spiritual and emotional life. I am thankful for the weekends to have a chance to rest, be refreshed, and be filled up by the Lord so that I can be ready for another week. This might sound ridiculous, but I am a little nervous for this next month because, by default, I am in charge of science fair this year, which is in 2 weeks. Now, in order to understand my anxiety and stress over this event you need to understand that over the past several years this has become a huge deal for about 4th through 11th grade. Thankfully, I have 1 other teacher who was willing to help me out this year, but this has been something that everyone stressed out over each year, including students, teachers, and parents. So this lovely job has now been passed on to me, whether I like it or not, and even though I have never myself had to completely my own science fair project :) So I am doing everything I possibly can to tone it down a bit this year so everyone involved doesn't lose sleep over it, but it is still a rather large task I've been given. Needless to say, my blogging this month might be lacking a bit as I try to juggle some additional responsibilities.. so please be patient with me and just pray for my level of peace this month!

Well, I have been wanting to show pictures of what I had the chance to do last weekend. We had a long weekend specifically for the high school retreat, so a bunch of 9th-12th grade students and quite a few teachers traveled about 2 hours south of Lima for the weekend to Kuwai, which is the 1st place I really traveled in my first month here. If you remember my pictures, it was the beach where we hiked up the big cliff. So we went there from Thursday to Saturday afternoon for this retreat. I always remembered loving youth group retreats when I was younger, but it was a little odd to realize I was on the other side of it this time. (Am I really old enough for that??) But regardless, it was great. Any chance I get to be with my students outside of the classroom is such a blessing, because that's when I really get to know them and they really get to know me, and relationships grow. It was nice and hot for those few days and we had both the ocean and a pool right there, so free time usually involved some sort of swimming, getting thrown in the pool, or just having buckets of water dumped on you :) We had several sessions with the kids for worship and a speaker, and some small groups for them to go to learn more about different topics, like prayer, relationships, or how to know God's will for your life. I think this was really good for them honestly. Even though we have Bible class at our school, those deeper conversations tend not to happen as much in the classroom. 

About halfway through the weekend, I began to realize just how the Lord is working through our school to plant seeds in our students who we know don't know Christ. Since the retreat was optional, most of our students who came are believers, but there were a few there who are not. We were able to see them really asking important questions about God and Christianity and it just reminded me how right in our small little school, there is a spiritual battle over the souls of these teenagers. God is absolutely working in their hearts and causing them to think and ask questions, which is awesome. So it really was a reminder to me that I need to be praying every single day for those students who don't know Christ. We never know how long our students will be at our school since they come and go so frequently, so it is so important to be planting those seeds and showing them the love of Christ every day.

Well, here are some pictures of the weekend, mostly of the games we played with the kids. 

Everyone on their tiny little carpet... having to flip the entire sheet over without stepping off.. quite entertaining I must say 

Notice them stacked 2 high...

but don't be fooled... it wasn't without pain

Love the beautiful sunsets on the beach...

On Friday night, we tortured the kids by making them perform their own little "American Idol" or something of the sort. One of the benefits of being a teacher :) They complained the whole time until it came to actually performing their songs, which was hilarious and I think even they would admit was pretty fun. This is definitely when we get to see their true personalities come out!

Probably one of the best parts of this was the teacher "judges", which included Eden. For any of you who read herblog, you are quite familiar with her witty comments. One of her classics, "it was so hip, my grandmother broke it" was a pretty big hit with all of us, especially the kids... oh Eden.

And the night wouldn't be complete without the teachers embarrassing themselves, of course

Our history teacher Kyle and I with 1 of our 10th graders Angela (left) and 1 of our 9th graders Laura... both of these girls never cease to amaze me. I can't wait to see what the Lord will do with their gifts and their hearts for Him.

So overall, it was a weekend full of blessings and growth. I am really thankful for those opportunities we have here at our school. It definitely puts things in perspective and reminds me of why I am here... to minister, love, teach, and encourage these teenagers. God definitely does bless us when we follow His will.

And lastly, I thought you might enjoy seeing my students in action... and embarrassing themselves... so you can get a taste of the fun I have with them!

Retreat Video 1 from Lauren McNally on Vimeo.