Its 8:00, later than I usually stay up, but I was captivated by the stars. I know at home we don’t see them all that clear, but here they are great. I was walking back to the appt, when I noticed them. I just kind of had to stand in awe of them. Some bible verses came to mind about the stars and the heavens, but that’s not what hit me. What hit me was not so much about the stars themselves, but about music. The hymns we sing, the praise songs we sing are being sung straight to God. The writers know that and so should we, but somewhere between the repetitions of singing them I seem to have forgotten to whom I sing. I’ve forgotten that the God I’m singing to created the heavens and all that in them is. Sometimes we sing the songs so flippantly, so arrogantly, so disrespectfully that I don’t think that God would have us sing to him at all. It's not just praise music, I’ve seen it and probably done it in hymns and praise music. As Louis Gigleo would say we need to re-right size God. I think sometime we forget that, God isn’t our size; he has a canvas the size of the sky that he paints on. Well, that’s my ah-ha moment for right now, it came from God to me and I hope it touches you too.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Happy and Sad
This I guess is another week down and one more closer to the time when I go home. This week holds some pretty cool things hopefully. I know at the end of the week I’ll be saying goodbye to the 3rd quarter and saying hello to the 4th quarter. That means that there is only 49 days of school left, a week of vacation, then HOME……well really not home, but I hear that I might actually get to see all my immediate family at the airport. I had thought that I wouldn’t, but that could make anyone’s day. Even though I’ll be severely jetlagged at that point, I’ll be very grateful to see everyone.
This week has certainly started out much better than last week, although, I have a strain of the flu virus. Kind of frustrating, but hey, what can I do? I will say that being this far from home is tough to be sick. When you don’t have mom to take care of you, you have to do a lot to keep well.(I know mom, you are feeling bad about that) It's all good though, you brought me up well enough to know how to take care of myself to get myself well again.
Today is the funeral of the student that died last week. I don’t know exactly what to expect by it, but hey, it gets me out of a few hours of classes, which I have to say I’m not to sad about it.
One of my fellow teachers said to me at the beginning of the year that they weren’t sure whether or going to funerals of people we didn’t know was very good. Now that I’ve been to one that is of someone I knew, I think I’d much rather go to one that I really didn’t know the person. Whereas the funeral is much different than in the states, they are interesting over here. My student didn’t look anything like him, which I’m sure is because they couldn’t get him to look right after him hanging himself. Honestly I hope it is the last funeral that I have to go to in quite some time; they certainly aren’t the most fun use of my time.
The last few weeks have been very tension filled; I hope that for the next few weeks it cools down for a while. Although another one of our teachers is leaving this next Monday, health reasons as well I guess. I guess I should start getting used to it by now, from now on, when the end of April hits we will slowly start loosing them. So long as we don’t loose any more students, that is the important thing.
Well this blog takes me to two very big days of my life. First is Beth and my one year anniversary. Kind of hard to believe, but it is true. The second event is the start of 4th quarter. The beginning of the end, the tail end, the closing, there are many names for it, but the meaning is still the same, me being home and sooner and sooner than it has been.
I’m not exactly sure how many days it is now, but I know it should be somewhere into the 70’s now. I know that it is right around 10 weeks, which would be exactly 70, but I know that I’m not leaving on the last day of classes; I’m waiting a half a week for graduation. I guess I should say I’m hopefully waiting for graduation. I’m waiting assuming that it happens on time. IF it is late, then I’m not going to be there for the end, I’ll only be there for the beginning. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what is going to happen.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
A few more notes of sadness
Well, I just got my blog updated again and what do you know, more things happen. Today is Sunday and usually Sunday’s are met with joyous singing, but this Sunday isn’t really.
Over the next few days and weeks, everyone will be forced to deal with the following situations in their own way. The way in which they deal with them will depict how the year ends for them.
The first thing that makes it not a good day is the fact that one of our teachers learned this morning that she wouldn’t be able to finish out the year here, about 1.5 months ago she got the normal rounds of pink eye. It's not that uncommon to get when you are an elementary teacher, but none the less she got it. Right off the bat it was bad, she was down for nearly 3 weeks with it, but when she went into the doctor the last time he told her that there were abrasions on the eye that Herpes simplex had gotten into. They had thought that the normal regimens of antibiotics would cure her of it, but they haven’t. She was told that she probably should go home to get it taken care of. At this stage in the game going home means not coming back either, it's just too late. Her roommate and appt. mates are taking it really hard, and to be quite honest, I am not keen on the idea either, she is one of my good friends here, but being in the medical field I know what just days and weeks can mean in treatment.
The other thing that happened today is something that very few teachers really have to deal with in the states, but seems to be rampant here. Many teachers attend the funerals of their students, but this next week I will be attending the funeral of a freshman named Ernib committed suicide last night late. I really didn’t know anything bad was going on in his life, but apparently there was. All of you who read this blog, will you pleas keep this students family in your prayers, I can’t imagine what it must be like to loose a son in such a tragic way.
I can only hope that the way I handle these situations will allow me to be able to thrive in them.
I’m sorry my update really hasn’t brought any joy, believe me, I haven’t had any in writing it, but I know that God has a plan in everything that happens.
I guess one very exciting thing is, if nothing happens, I will be returning home in 3 months. I’ll try to keep updating this blog as often as I can.
In His Service,
Stephen Baker, Majuro