Random

Weno Water Supply Well Remidiation Project -- Chuuk is dealing with its water supply system with the help of Japan. Link

US Navy Medical Personnel treats a total of 5,500 Yapese and Pohnpeians. Link

Former Japanese Prime Minister Mori addressed the FSM National Congress. Link

Did you know:
1.Piailug from Polowot, Chuuk made a open sea voyage from Hawaii to Chuuk on a double hull canoe using only the stars and waves as his compass. Maybe you did. But did you know that he is not the first to succeed on such a voyage?
Rapwailug, also from Polowot and roughly between 40 to 50 years before Piailug, sailed from Chuuk to Okinawa, Japan. He made the decision to travel to Japan while drunk on toddy wine.
2.Susumu Aizawa from Chuuk is a legendary baseball pitcher in Japan during the 1950's. He traveled with the Tokyo Giants touring the United States and playing against the MLB players of that era.
3.That Chuuk was misnamed 6 times: Truk, Ruk, Hogoleu, Torres, Ugulat, and Lugulus.
4. That Chuuk High School has a blog and wi-fi internet.

more next time...

For the 2 months...

Life couldn't get any busier, atleast for me. As of right now, I am balancing two jobs. Both of them happen to be teaching positions. So that alone could explain the long "awaited(?)" update.
The first job is teaching 4 high school courses at Berea Christian School. I am teaching 12th grade English composition, 11th grade English writing, 11th grade Environmental Science, and Freshmen English Literature. My second job is teaching in the Bridge program at the PIBC TF also located on the Berea Campus. Over there, I am teaching Study Skills and Introduction to Basic Bible Knowledge. So my day began around 6:30, which is a struggle for me (late night coffee to go with late night assignments at college killed my morning awareness abilities). My first work ends around 11:30. My second starts at 1:45. This atleast gives me a lunch "opportunity." I finish working at 3:00. Recreation time begins at 4 usually ends at 6:30-ish. At 7:00 there is young adult fellowship at Berea Evangelical Church. That ends usually around 9:00. I come home, have my dinner, then do some work, and finally hit the sack. So my usually ends around 12:00.

Last Day 22

So today's the last day of my 22nd year as a human being. Tomorrow will mark the start of my 23rd year. So lately I've been reminiscing. What has God been doing in my life? I can list all the blessings that God has blessed me with and this blog page will go on forever. Like that Chuukese song I heard during the summer: "Sotuni ne aneani umoumochun Kot: ew, ruu, unungat, ruanu, nimu, wonu, fisu, wanu, tiwu, engon...ese nea ngonuk ren sokkun anea oh ren tipachemen aramas mei mesemesekis."

Translation: "Try and count the blessings/graces of God: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten..You cannot count it using all kinds of numerical skills or anyother human abilities in all its forms."

And at the brink of 23, the list is already endless. God is indeed amazing and wonderful. His love is unfathomable, incomprehensible, and simply endless. He is good!
Thank you Jesus!

Teacher

So as a new teacher at a high school, I find myself continually being caught between opposing feelings, creating a tension. The first one is the temptation to please my students so as to come across as a nice teacher. The second one is to follow school policies and regulations in regards to teacher-student behaviors. I also want to be genuine with them, showing them that I care for their education and lives. Yet I hesitate to be a hundred percent genuine so that I retain a certain aspect of an authoritative figure in class. To put it in simple terms: I want to be their friend AND their teacher. Of course, I took educational courses. But none of them prepared me to the emotions that would tag along with the work.
So here's the lesson that I am learning: On my own, I can't do it. But to be a student at the Teacher's feet can propell me to unknown teaching opportunities. Trust God, trust God, and trust God.

God is here.

I was browsing through the PIBC Weno TF library yesterday and I came across a book. I'd say the timing and the circumstance, of finding it, point to a miracle.

The book was Howard Hendrickson's Teaching That Change Lives. It is now only a matter of days before the beginning of the school year and "happening" upon that book is about the BEST thing that could ever happen to get me prepared for the upcoming task. I've heard about Hendrickson (most of it through Dave), but I've never heard about the book. How in the world did that happen? Actually I'm not at all too concern about answering that question. I am more than immensely pleased, surprised, and very much humbled that God, knowing that I need a book like that, guided me to it.

Little things in life, we sometimes take for granted, but they may be the highlights of how God is molding and directing the footsteps that we take to be closer to Him, and to be enabled to do His work. My story is a testimony of how that is true.