It's been a while

Well I just looked, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog.  I’m sorry about that; I’ve been kind of busy.  There has been a lot going on and I haven’t been able to keep up with everything very well.  This last week was the beginning of second quarter, which meant that grades were due, most of my collogues had a hard time with it, I had been keeping up with it pretty well, so I didn’t have much trouble with it.

 

As I’ve been able to look back on the last quarter, I’ve seen myself grow a bit.  The following is a list of the things I’ve learned both from teaching and from just being over here in Majuro. 

 

1. Job descriptions are only good as long as you are doing said job, description can change as soon as you are done with that job. 
2. For every student that says that they don’t understand, there is one that doesn’t say anything that really doesn’t understand.
3. All it takes is one funny comment for the whole class to crack up in a serious moment.
4. When a teacher says that they have to wake up early to grade, they are probably telling the truth. 
5. When you want to, you can come up with one thing worse than you just went through.
6. A package from home can make the worst day seem like it was nothing.
7. Expecting a package from home and not getting it can make the best day turn into a bad day.
8. Anything that you want to come faster will arrive about the time you forget about it coming. 
9. Waves look a lot smaller and tame when you are on the beach than when you are in the water. 
10. With God you can come up with a worship talk in less than 5 minutes.
11. You need to have 3 things to look forward to, one in the near future, one a bit further off, and one a long way off.  The challenge is keeping the 3 in balance.
12. The only thing keeping you from spending more time with God is: YOU.
13. The berries are always sweeter on the other side of the mountain, but it has nothing to do with the taste.
14. When you think you have your students figured out they throw you a curve ball that you either have to adjust and hit or strike out on.  
15. One way to help keep students occupied is to throw them curve balls; you’ll find out fast what they know by doing so. 
16. Going to be early and waking up early, might not make you healthy, wealthy, or wise, but it does have other things going for it.
17. If you can’t learn from other people’s mistakes and you can’t learn from your own mistakes, you’ll probably make the mistake again.
18. In a classroom you will have a huge dichotomy, you will have the loud student that gets everything done correctly and you will have the quite student that does the same.
19. Asking yourself what your students would do might be a bit scary, but asking how Jesus would teach something gives immense amounts of insight.
20. God uses quite times to re-teach you lessons that you were to busy to hear the first time. 
21. Sermons don’t always come from a pastor or a pulpit; they can come from where ever God thinks is the right time and place.
22. Alone time is worth its weight in gold.
23. There is a difference between surviving and thriving even though they are only 2 letters different.
24. You are never to busy to pray.
25. And one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn; “This is the Marshall Islands, it doesn’t matter how I would do it in the States, I’m not in the states.”

 

These are just a short sample of the things I’ve learned while I’ve been over here, as time goes by, I’ll continue adding to the list, and see what I have by the time my time is done here.

 

A week ago I was running and I slipped on a little puddle of water and went down.  When it was all said and done, I had a pretty badly scraped knee and a bruise about 8x5in on my left thigh.  It took about 3 days, but I finally got back the ability to move both more than about 6 inches.  Now they are doing much better.  You know how hard it is for things to scab over when they never dry out?   Here nothing dries out, it took 3.5 days for my knee to scab over, it was kind of frustrating, but hey, its life. 

 

You have to chuckle at your students occasionally.  I have one student that asks to pray every other class period.  His prayer is always; “GOD IS GREAT AND GOD IS GOOD, NOW I THANK YOU FOR THIS DAY……..AMEN.”  He nearly screams it at the top of his lungs, not exactly the way I’d like him to pray sometimes, but God is the one who is receiving the prayer not me, and I’m sure he likes it just as good as the prayers I pray. 

 

I’m sorry this has taken so long to get updated.  I’ll try and do a better job at updating it now.  I have been keeping on updating my pictures too.  Check them out too.  Have a great week and weekend.

 

Stephen Baker

Another Year Older

Well, I'm a little late with this posting, the last week has been anything but easy.  I don't know if it was the full moon, change in tides, or just the students wanting to test our patience, but they did a good job at running all the teachers up the walls.  When Friday afternoon finally came around, all any of us wanted to do was sleep.  Me personally though I couldn't.  I had to prepare for Vespers, I was the speaker.  I was going to do something amazing, but decided to show a movie instead.  It is a talk given by Louie Gigleo, he is an amateur astronomer and he mainly proves the existence of God by showing different stars.  Its pretty cool, I always like seeing it. 

Yesterday was a pretty special day, for two reasons really, first, I got to talk to my parents, that was pretty cool.  The second thing was that it was my birthday yesterday.  It was a very uneventful birthday, which is the way I like it, I'm not particularly a party person, I like to hang out in the background.  I got a movie from my parents, so I watched it before bed, and then went to bed, that was about the extent of my extracurricular activities.  I know, not to exciting, but hey, its all good, I like having nice quite days.  

It was pretty much exciting, I got two packages from my family this last week and two packages from Union College, so this week was the most packages I've gotten at once or anything.  It was really cool to get stuff from home, but equally cool to read about everything that was going on back at good old union.

Well, I need to get busy on grading and all, I hope all of you guys are doing well and keeping out of trouble, I sure try.  I'll update again the week probably.

Oh, so I posted new pictures on my picture blog, if you guys want to go check that out, the web address is:http://picasaweb.google.com/stbaker1986/BloggerPictures?authkey=sjU7ZMfxyYE#

Holidays and tests

This week has been pretty good.  Last week we had friday off because of Manit day.  I don't really know what its about, but its a day off of school, so I wasn't going to argue.  This week has been marked with tests.  Two test in one day, and then the other two were spread out over two days.  Tests are another thing teachers look forward to, it is a time when the whole classroom is silent for fear of getting a zero on a test.  Oh the manipulative powers that teachers have.  The hard part comes with grading tests.  When you have like 32 students in two classes that have the same test, it becomes a chore to actually grade them, but that's what sunday is ment for I've come to realize to catch up on grading and such.  

I was kind of frustrated today, I was in the middle of proctoring a test and the principle comes and asks me if he can have 4 of the students that are taking the test.  I immediately said no, but then he told me that it was because of a funeral here on the island of one of the students grandparents.  Its nice and frustrating at the same time that the families are so close.  The not so nice part about it is the fact that one funeral can shut down the school, and has a few times in the past, especially if it is someone affiliated with the school or a parent/grandparent.  

I got the privalige of having the talk for worship the other night.  I don't know if you have ever heard the song "cosmic cowboy" by Berry McGuire, but I told that story in first person.  It was pretty cool, we have some people in our group that it really reached out to.  For those that don't know the song, these are the lyrics:

I met a cosmic cowboy, ridin’ a starry range

He’s a supernatural cowboy, an’ He’s dressed up kinda’ strange

At first I didn’t see Him, bein’ out there on the run

But that ol’ hat that He was wearin’, shinin’ brighter than the sun

An’ when my eyes adjusted, to the flashin’ of His smile

I saw His invitation, sayin’ come on Barry we’ll go ridin’ for a while

 

We rode along together, for more than half a day

Right out through the changin’ weather, the sky was all turnin’ grey

Chilly winds were blowin’, the cold was cuttin’ deep

Then it started snowin’, an’ the trail was gettin’ steep

I was just about to turn around, head on back down the way we came

When somehow, without a sound, I heard Him call my name

 

Lookin’ up I saw we was high up on this ridge

He took me by my arm, an’ led me right over to the edge

I was so scared I couldn’t find a single word to say

I mean there’s ten thousand feet of empty air an’ it’s just about an inch away

But a million miles was out beyond the wavin’ of His hand

An’ I was lookin’ through His eyes, right into another land

 

He said, “This is my Father’s ranch, just as far as you can see

He made it out of nothin’, every branch an’ every tree

Made the stars an’ all the mountains, the rivers an’ the streams

Made the oceans an’ the fountains, an’ the valley of your dreams

That’s right, I know that place you been lookin’ for, that place you long to be

Truth is I’m the only door, you’re gonna have to pass right through me”

 

Then bendin’ back I tipped my hat to look Him in the eye

He just smiled an’ gave me confidence, sayin’ “Go ahead an’ try”

Well, it was now or never, an’ I knew I had to start

So I took my first step an’ I went fallin’ deep into His heart

First thing that I noticed comin’ out inside

Was all my fears were washed away, He’s teachin’ me I can fly

 

Yeah, there’s a cosmic cowboy, an He’s ridin’ a starry range

He’s a supernatural ploughboy, an’ He is dressed up kinda’ strange

At first I didn’t even see Him bein’ out there on the run

But that ol’ hat that He was wearin, shinin’ brighter than the sun

An’ when my eyes adjusted, to the flashin’ of His smile

I saw His invitation, sayin’,  “come on Barry, we’ll go ridin’ for a while”

 

Cowboy, of the light, shootin’ rainbows through the nigh

He’s my Cowboy, of the light, shooting His rainbows

Golden rainbows, eternal rainbows through the night

Its kind of a powerful song that I really like, It touches different people in different ways, but those that grew up in the mountains or in the country can sure feel it in a really good way.  

Well, Its about time for me to run.  I hope you all that are reading this are doing well.  I'm doing well.  I ask for your prayers and I thank you for them in advance.