Learning is a Choice

   In the past week, God has been using my students once again to teach me about Himself. We've come into the final stretch of the school year. As of tomorrow, we only have three weeks of academic learning left and one week of fun activities. Since we are so close to the end of the year, my students are officially shutting down. They don't want to learn any more; they don't want to follow school and classroom rules that have been in place since the beginning. The only thing they want to do is have fun and please themselves.

   As a teacher, this behavior is frustrating. They have so much more to learn before they are ready for the next grade. I want to get them as ready as possible, but they are refusing to cooperate. They don't see how it matters in the long run. My students can't see why it is so much better to learn now rather than later.

   I'm not even all that mad. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed because I know they have the ability to learn, but they are choosing not to care. I'm disappointed because they are choosing a path that will cause them problems later in life...maybe as soon as in a few months when they start a new grade or perhaps later in life.

   I can't help but think that this is often how God feels about me. He keeps trying to teach me lessons that will help me in the future. But, like a willful child, I refuse to listen and learn because I'm tired of working hard and I just don't care any more.

  Just like I am disappointed with my students,  He is disappointed with my actions and words. God is trying to teach me and help me grow because He loves me. Not that He doesn't want me to have fun, but He wants me to learn certain lessons so that I will be better prepared for the future.

   Perseverance is hard. There are so many days that I just want to relax and do what makes me happy. I can't lie; I've done just that quite a bit lately. I've let my own wants takeover and I haven't been taking care of things at school quite as well as I should be. Instead of grading papers, I come home and watch Netflix or take a nap or read a book. I tell myself, "I just can't think any more. I'm just too tired." And all the while, God has been telling me, "Don't do it. You'll have a mess later and you'll regret it." But I ignored that still, small voice. Now I have piles of grading to do and other things to catch up on. If I had only listened to my teacher! And I know that my choices have disappointed my Father.

   So now I have some-not-so-nice consequences to deal with. Hopefully, I can convince my students that hard work now is better than even harder work later. And from now on, hopefully we can all (teacher and students) make choices to learn and listen in a way that will bring God honor and glory.

Delinquent Update #2

   It seems as the year has progressed, I've been getting worse about keeping everyone updated. I'm not sure where April went, but it's gone!

   As of Friday, we have reached 4th quarter mid-terms. It came quickly. Partially because we had two four-day weeks in a row. The first four-day week had a day off in the middle and it threw everyone off. Behaviors were crazy and it felt like the longest week ever, even though it was shorter!
Thankfully, this past week made for a three-day weekend as Friday was Brazilian Labor Day.

   April was a tough month for me. I experienced a pretty severe wave of homesickness that plagued me the entire month. I still haven't fully gotten over it. I was also mentally exhausted. God has been good through it all and provided much needed encouragement when I needed it most. Several friends Skyped with me, and on the weekends, a colleague has taken to having some of us come play tennis over at the condominium complex he lives in. I'm finally getting a little bit of the tan everyone expected me to have!

   My roommate and I have been also taking a couple of students to an orphanage/state-run foster home once a month. We tag along with another missionary organization, called Pro Vida, who does weekly Bible stories, songs, coloring pages, and play time with the kids there. Because it is also a foster home, some kids are always there, but some are not and new ones take their place. This particular facility is for ages 0-7. There are about five kids who are always there. The kids are so excited when they see all of us coming in. Instantly they start running for us yelling, "Tia" or "Tio" (aunt or uncle). Pro Vida's visits are a highlight of their week. It's amazing to just love on these little children. Each time, a different child picks me to be their chosen buddy for the day. I absolutely love it!

  Although Pro Vida missionaries organize the visits, they are slowly passing off the responsibilities to the local volunteers who partner with them in this ministry. The locals are starting to take over telling the lessons and leading the songs. The goal is to eventually hand it over completely so that Pro Vida can expand to other ministries, get more locals involved and hopefully pass those ministries on as well. It's really been good to see another side of foreign missions at work outside of our own.

  With only six weeks left in the school year, I've started reflecting on the year and my students growth. When I look at where the kids started with me in November and the progress they've made, it makes me so proud. Some of them have really worked hard to improve their English skills. Some have had complete changes in attitude. One particular girl seemed very hard and had a whole lot of attitude when I first came. Now, for the most part, she has really softened, blossomed and seems to have a lot more joy.

   We always pray at the end of our morning Bible lesson and I take requests. Off and on, I have several students volunteer to pray, which is always really exciting. This past week, I broke the prayer requests up and asked for volunteers to take just one part. I was so proud when four students raised their hands and specifically asked for one of the categories. My class still has some major issues with getting along, but I've seen them grow and their hearts soften towards the Lord. It has truly been a pleasure to invest in their lives this past school year!

  Please continue to pray for the students at AVA- that they would make a daily decision to trust in Jesus and to want to grow in their faith. Please pray for our facilities as there is always something breaking down or not functioning....power, internet, the well, the plumbing. If it's not one thing, it's another. Also, please pray for the teachers to have strength and health to make it through the final half of the quarter.

   As always, I would love to hear from you all! If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at breann (dot) lynn@hotmail.com.

The Madness of March (and February)

  Hello, Sweet Family and Friends!

  It has been a long while since I have given everyone an update, and for that, I apologize! It has almost literally been two months and it is past time to let you know what is happening here in Belém.

Valentine's Day flowers from some of my students.

   February was a very tough month emotionally. My maternal grandmother passed away and I had to make the very hard decision of whether to fly back for the funeral or not. After discussing it with my mother, we decided that it would be much harder on both of us if I came back and had to leave three or four days later. My family videoed the service, so I was able to watch it via the internet later on. It was hard to not be there in person. I'm sad that I missed out on seeing cousins that I rarely see and not being able to have the closure that being there would have brought. It is still strange to remember that my grandmother is gone and won't be there when I come home this summer.
 
   February was also third-quarter midterms and Carnaval. Carnaval is basically a several-day Mardi Gras on major steroids. It's actually a bit dangerous to be out-and-about during that time period as lots of people are drunk, plus, from what we heard, a major lack of material covering people's bodies. We didn't have school during that week and I was quite content to hide in my room, deal with my grief, and catch up on some much needed sleep and time with Jesus.

The sunset during the talent show.

  Somewhere in February, we also had the "AVA's Got Talent" show. Many of the students showed off their singing, dancing, acting, and poem-writing talents. One little first grader recited Psalm 23 in three different languages! It was fun to watch the students show off their God-given talents and meet some of their parents and friends.




   March came in and decided that it should actually show us a glimpse of rainy season. It rains pretty much everyday, typically in the afternoon or early evening. Things got interesting earlier this month when the rain displaced a colony of termites who decided our apartment building looked like a good new home. There was much shrieking and running around spraying Brazilian Raid around all possible entry points of the building. Our apartment is the most air tight and we didn't have nearly the pest problems of the girls below and above us. The girls above us had termites coming in through the ceiling, along with the larvae!

Puddles forming on the playground during a rain in early March.

Kamikaze termite killed in action.

 












   The last week has been an absolute whirlwind. Last Saturday was Pi Day/Science Fair. Many students did an amazing job on their projects and an amazing job presenting them. As it also happened to be Pi Day (3/14---3.14), students were able to bring pies for a tasting contest. They could also memorize digits of pi. For every ten digits, they earned a ticket to vote for a teacher to receive a pie in the face. I am now up to 17 students and my little darlings worked hard to memorize those digits. Much to my chagrin, and their delight, I was one of the teachers that got pie'd at the end of the day's festivities. This past week has been incredibly busy with preparing grades for the end of third quarter and parent-teacher conferences this past Saturday.

Taking a break from lesson planning as I waited for the next parent to arrive.

  I've also been gone from school three days out of the past two weeks trying to procure my workbook from the Ministry of Labor so that I can be legally paid and open a bank account. When we arrived the first day, we were told that they had moved! (third time in a year!) We were given the new address, but told that they were having a cocktail celebration, so don't bother going until tomorrow. We waited an extra day and tried again, only to be told that they didn't have all the paperwork moved yet, but come back next week on Monday. We waited a few days extra again, and were finally able to procure my documents! Each time, I had to plan for two different substitutes because no one could cover my class for the whole day. It was quite stressful for me and for my students. They are so relieved that I won't have to be gone again for a while (as I am)!

   One of my favorite parts of being here is that I get to teach a Bible lesson every day. Most of my students are very open to the Gospel and often make wonderful observations and have good questions. This past week we talked about being 'born again.' One of the lessons was on the Roman Road, which spells out who needs salvation, why we need salvation, who provided it, and how to accept salvation (see Romans 3:10, 3:23, 6:23, 10:9-10, 10:13). Towards the end of the lesson, one of my fourth-graders raised his hand and said, "So the Romans Road is the short story of what the whole Bible is about?" Yes! Wisdom from the mouth of babes! This week, we will be talking about what it looks like to respond to the Gospel and trying to identify if our hearts are good soil or another type as discussed in the Parable of the Sower. Please be praying for the seed of the Gospel to land on good soil and produce fruit in the lives of my students!

  March will finish out with the first week of the final quarter of the year and then Spring Break! My roommate and I have planned a vacation to one of the touristy towns with a nice beach. We hope to take in some sunshine and some cultural events not easily accessed here. We are both excited to be able to relax and play tourist rather than worry about school!

A nesting pair of toucans live on campus!

Peace in a New Year

   I meant to write an update over Christmas, but it just never happened. I was too busy processing everything that had happened in the last two months! So, here we are and it is almost February and I am finally getting some coherent thoughts in order.

  I was able to go home for two weeks over Christmas break. It was an amazing blessing to be with my family as we had originally figured that I would stay in Belém for the holidays. I immensely enjoyed being with my family and getting to experience some cold weather for a little while. While I don't miss the prolonged cold, I do miss changes in the weather. The temperature never gets below 72 degrees and probably only has a 10-20 degree range. While home, I experienced weather in the 40s, as well as temperatures in the negatives. I must say that I kind of reveled in the freezing weather. Even though it was all a bit cold, the 60 degree difference was a welcome change.

   Upon returning for second semester, we had to hit the ground running. Our apartment building had several different issues that caused some stress (and in some cases, still are). On top of that, I lost three students and gained four new ones. The four new students know little to no English, so it's interesting and both frustrating trying to communicate with them and them with me. Mostly, they are here for language acquisition as they have already finished grade three or four in a Brazilian school and do not need grades. They do, however, need language skills to be successful in the next grade at the beginning of AVA's new school year in August.

   I now have eight third-graders and eight fourth-graders. We changed the schedule around a bit- thinking that the third-grade teacher would be here soon. Unfortunately, there have been more delays with her consulate, so we can't even put a guess on her arrival time any more. With the schedule change, I am juggling both math curriculums in a fifty-minute time slot. To say there's a bit of a time crunch is an understatement. Between my non-speakers and this new predicament, the first couple weeks of the semester were quite stressful. Although I still don't have it all figured out, I am sort of getting the hang of it and am feeling a little better about the situation.

  I led chapel for the first time on Friday. I love how God always uses these moments to teach and speak to me just as much or more than those I am speaking to. January's chapel topic has been peace. During the lesson portion, I spoke to the elementary students about how Jesus calmed the storm and made the sky and sea be peaceful in Mark 4. Using a candle and a fan, I went on to explain that often there are storms in life that threaten to put our light out, but if we trust in Jesus (represented by plastic wrap in a cardboard frame), He will protect us and give us peace so that our light can continue to shine without even a flicker.

   Life had been threatening to blow out my own light the week before I started preparing the lesson. God used it to remind me that I am never alone and that I only need to trust in Him to keep me safe from the storms of life. He gave me peace and it's my aim to better remember that lesson!

  I can't believe it is already almost February. I imagine if the first two months of my adventure have gone this quickly, if I blink, I'll miss the next five completely! I better go find some toothpicks to hold my eyes open!

  Blessings from Belém, Brazil, my friends!

Trying to Be Independent

   One of the hardest things to adjust to has been the loss of my independence. I can no longer go do all my errands on my own or go explore whenever I get the adventure bug.

   Several issues prevent me from being as independent as I am used to. 1) I don't know the language and can't communicate well enough if I get lost. (Although, I can probably roughly tell a taxi driver roughly the major road that gets me home.) 2) I don't have a working cell phone yet because I don't have all the paperwork necessary from the Federal Police yet. I can't even call anyone to come get me if I get lost. 3) To get anywhere, either somebody has to drive me or call a taxi for me because I don't have a license here and I can't speak the language. 4) If I get where I need to go, chances are, I can't speak to anyone to get what I need done.

  It's somewhat like being a teenager again and being dependent on parents (or in this case, our wonderful administrative assistants, Bel and Marj).

  During Thanksgiving break, Marj took Lauren (my roommate) and I all over town to run errands. She gave her entire afternoon and evening to us, driving and interpreting for us so we could get things done. On the way home, we got stuck in traffic (think Mariocart in real life). Ahead of us, a truck had stalled out and had blocked both lanes. When he tried to restart his truck, he broke the key off in the ignition. We waited thirty to forty-five minutes and finally got up the courage to drive on the sidewalk like everyone else had been doing for ten minutes or so. We had to pull in one of the side mirrors to fit between the truck and the wall that lined the sidewalk. There were also street lights and random poles to dodge while driving on the sidewalk. We cheered and breathed a sigh of relief when we finally got around the truck and back onto the road!

  Lauren and I tried to be adventurous and independent today and tried to go to a student's birthday party by ourselves in the school car. Birthdays are a big deal here- lots of food and merriment that lasts most of the day. The student's dad had offered to send a taxi for us, but we decided we could try to drive ourselves. We had been given Google maps showing the way and it seemed like a pretty straight forward drive.

   The one thing we should have taken into consideration is that street signs are limited here. I would guess roughly 5% of streets are actually marked. We made some wrong turns, but were able to get back where we needed to be each time (which is definitely a sign of God's protection...nothing is straight forward here, especially travel by car). Lauren and I had gotten down to looking for one last street that would take us into the gated community that the student lives in...and we couldn't find it. We drove back and forth several times, but neither of us could figure out where that last street was. I'm sure we were within a block or two. After an hour and a half driving, we called it quits and went home (which we were able to do with only one slight error).

  I am so used to being able to hop in MY car and go wherever it is I want to go and take care of my own errands. It's really quite frustrating to be so dependent on others and to be somewhat scared of leaving campus for fear that I'll get into a situation I can't get myself out of. My fair complexion and lighter hair color immediately mark me as a foreigner. In the same way, it marks me as a candidate for mugging and who knows what else. Going around by myself, especially at this point, is out of the question.

Since we missed the wonderful party food, Lauren and I stopped at a bakery close to our house. This little beggar quite enjoyed all the crumbs previous customers had left behind. I think he was hoping I would share, too.

   On another note, only two weeks until I get to come home for Christmas! My poor body is going to go into shock. The temperature and time change together are going to rough, but it will be so good to see my family and be with them for Christmas!

Butterflies, Birds, and a Beautiful Sunset

   The last two weekends, I've had the opportunity to see a little more of Belém and get out of our little bubble that is AVA. Last weekend, one of our wonderful staff members took my roommate and I to a tourist place with a bird and butterfly exhibit that also had a Brazilian naval history museum. It was nice to play tourist and get off of campus. A day before that I took some pictures of the sunset from the upstairs neighbors' apartment. (All we can see from our windows are the roofs of the buildings next door.)

The following are some pictures from our trip to the exhibit and museum.

From the viewing tower at the exhibit

Bel is amazing! She takes care of us gringas! 

Apparently iguanas are known to be mean...everyone gave this guy a wide berth as they passed him.

   We had a lot of fun, but it was hot and the sweating was rolling down our backs. Getting back to our air conditioned bedrooms for a nap was wonderful, too! 

A Whole New World

   Just over a week ago, I left behind family, friends, knowledge of how things work, language- my comfort zone. After the 30 hours of travel, I feel like I kind of hit the ground running here in Brazil. I'm just finally catching my breath this weekend.
 
   The culture shock has been incredible. I've been in other countries before, but I think I was able to handle the culture differences easier because I knew I was going home in two weeks. This time it's different. I'm actually living in Brazil for a while and that knowledge seems to make it harder to swallow all of the differences.

   The food is different (somewhat more bland and drier than I'm used to); bathrooms are bit different (you don't flush your toilet paper- it goes in the garbage); I'm using a different currency when I go to the stores; the climate is warmer and much more humid than my body is used to (my skin always feels sticky to some degree); the streets are dirty and somewhat cobbled together in places (it's best to watch your step); buildings are so close together, you can literally reach out your bedroom window and touch the house next door; and the list of differences go on.

   At school, I'm teaching two brand-new-to-me grade levels. It's going to take some time to figure out how to balance the two and make sure all students get what they need. All of my students are English Language Learners. None of them are at grade-level in reading or writing. Their lack of vocabulary makes it interesting when I'm trying to teach as I often have to break things down even more than I would in the States because of the language barrier. I just can't use the same vocabulary I would use with native English speakers. On top of that, the kids have had a lot of changes in the last two weeks. I am the third teacher they have had this year, and the second in the span of about two weeks. I'm hoping that we'll be able to find a rhythm in our classroom this week.

  I did get to go to the beach this weekend with several of the other teachers, so that was nice. While it was just a tributary of the Amazon River and not the ocean, it was still nice to enjoy the sun, the sand, and watch the tide come in. We all needed to relax after a crazy week in the classroom.

Such a relaxing view!

  Even as crazy and hard as the week has been, I have had a supernatural peace that has kept me calm throughout all of my flights and through all newness. Typically, I would probably be a mess by now with all the new stressors being thrown my way. In my heart, I know this is where I am supposed to be at this time. God is already opening the doors to share His love with my students and I'm excited to see what happens in their hearts throughout the school year.