Hi friends

   Today has been one of those ridiculously slow Saturdays where I miss my family and friends! But the last few weeks I have been so busy that I was asking God when I would have time to spend with Him again. Now that I do have a day like this I have a hard time deciding what to do!

    God is so good to me! I can never thank Him enough for His love and care for me. The verse in Zeph. 3:17 has become so precious to me. How God says He will delight in me and sing over me with gladness. That is something too amazing to grasp. It's also hard to believe often. 

I have a wonderful group of students. Ten in all. I teach grade 3. These are the same students I had last year, except one. Having the same students made it easier to get into the swing of teaching. Right now we are starting to practice for the Christmas program. Their enthusiasm for it makes it easy on me :D 

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Peter & Florence have accepted me into their family! I spend a lot of time at their house. I feel very at home there. They've both been teachers so that's often our topic for discussion. They've blessed me incredibly.

​                                        Florence n I

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the boys and I

I was privileged to help serve at a few widows' banquets recently

 With these beautiful fun ladies!

A Sunday afternoon is a good time to go with friends!

still alive!

I think it's time for another update! School has been good. I've been very blessed with my students' parents' support, also the principal's. My co-teachers often have good ideas to resolve challenges. I'm getting used to not having very many people around so I enjoy living at my uncle n aunt's house now!
I'm thankful for God's presence and blessings. He's blessed me so incredibly with His wisdom and patience. Also with friends and caring people around me!
This is a long weekend. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day so we have no school. Carlanna came over for the weekend. Yesterday I went to Steinbach to pick her up. Bev went with me and on the way we dropped her off in Winnipeg. It was my first  time driving in the city.... everything worked fine!
Next week will be busy in school. We've got report cards coming out and teacher n parent meeting and starting planning the Christmas program.

me. Jeanette, Linelda, n Melinda

my students playing at my house

my adorable students

it SNOWED! our attempt at a snowman

we went John n Rose for lunch today!

Teaching

I've taught for 6 days now. It's been good, very challenging. I've got students with lots of energy and ideas. Makes it more interesting, but they do not pay attention very well. They love to sing though, also play! I have 11 students with very different abilities, so that is challenging, trying to teach them all the same thing at the same time!

Getting ready for school to begin

my students

I've had lots of family over from Belize. Aunt Bertha was here for a while, I don't know what I would've done the first days of school without her. She left, also Aunt Norma. She was here for about a week. Now this last weekend John & Eva Reimer were here so I got to be with Twyla and Russel.

At Walter & Margaret's in Winkler

changing a tire

1 Week in Canada

So I'm in Canada! I've been here since Monday. Mom and I left Belize on Monday morning and flew to Winnipeg. We stayed at a hotel in Winnipeg for the night since it was late by the time we got there. Then the teachers from Winkler, which include Sheila and John Neufeld (Rhoda's boyfriend), picked us up and took us to Arborg. There was teachers training at IMF school. Mom and I were dropped off at Greta & Hein. I then headed to the school for the teachers training.
I met the school board members and several of my co-teachers. We had a long day of different good topics, but I was very tired when school was over.
For the 1st night I was at Norm & Bev's but the next night mom had gotten my room ready at Greta & Hein's.
We had teacher's training until Friday. We had heard many very good topics on how to be good teachers. I won't be able to remember nearly everything! It was a time of being refreshed and challenged. My desire is that God will be able to use me to do His Will.
In between I've been working on getting some charts ready for school. Mom actually did a lot of it. Even Aunt Rose and Aunt Bertha helped! It's definitely gonna help me get ready.
On Friday John & Rose took mom to Winnipeg, I went along too. Mom had tickets to fly out early Saturday morning so she went to a hotel for the night.
Saturday Greta & Hein, Aunt Bertha, Kendra and I went shopping in Winnipeg. I got some more school supplies and some other stuff like toothpaste!
Today I went to IMF church for the 1st time. I was a lil nervous! but I knew of some of the youth girls since I had met them during the week. Also Walter & Margaret were here for church. For lunch we went to Klass & Marlene. Then later Rhoda came over for vaspa.
I'm excited about this coming year. But also a little scared. I know there's gonna be lots of challenges. I just pray that I won't let fear control me, but rather trust God. Please pray for me that I can be a good example and be open to God's leading. Also that I won't miss my family too much!

Omica's Story

Do you know that God still works? and that He answers prayer?

Omica was a student at CDI until February 2011. Then her parents took her out of school, claiming that Omica was being taught to be disobedient and to not respect her parents. 

Omica had become a Christian some months before this. Her life changed, she knew God's grace. She had peace in her heart. Her one desire was to  live for her Savior. 

Then her parents decided it was time for her to be confirmed in the Catholic Church, but Omica knew that some of the practices of the Catholic Faith did not agree with God's Word. So she asked her to allow her to miss this ceremony, but they insisted. Omica refused to go with them, saying she was a Christian now and wanted to obey God. Omica's teacher, the school principal and several others had gone along to talk to her parents. But eventually her dad led her into the next room and refused to allow Omica's friends to talk to her or see her anymore. The dad informed them Omica would never attend CDI again and we were never allowed to contact her again.

Omica's friends were able to say goodbye to Omica the next day but only for a few short minutes.

In the coming months, when somebody would go South, they stopped at Omica's house to see her but hardly anyone was ever allowed to talk to her. About two or three times somebody was able to talk to her.

About a month ago, two of the ladies who had been with Omica when she wasn't allowed to come back and three others including me, went South to PG to visit some friends. We decided to go see Omica as well. As we were traveling I kept thinking it was pointless to go to her house but prayed that we would finally be able to see Omica.

I and one of the girls walked to her house while the others waited. I met Omica's mother and asked her if we would be able to see Omica. She said "yes" and told her daughter to call Omica. I was so amazed that there was no resistance, but I started praising God. Eventually the others in our group came to see Omica too. It was so blessed to see her reunite with her former teacher and friends.

Omica had lots of questions concerning her friends from CDI, what her dorm mother was doing, how life was at CDI. We talked about stuff we had done the last year, shared about different experiences we'd had and just had a good time catching up! Her mother was in the room talking with us as well. I asked her if she wanted to say something to her friends so I recorded a short video clip on my phone. In the clip she encouraged the girls to be faithful to God, to grow in him and and keep trusting Him.

Fast forward two and half weeks.... Omica and her parents show up at CDI, wanting to register Omica in school again! We don't know what to think except that God is still working! The CDI staff had specifically been praying for Omica the last couple of months. We prayed to be able at least see Omica, but God had a much bigger plan. She'll be coming back to school in January! Praise God!

Elly Marie: 6 months

her daddy wanted some pictures of his beautiful daughter!

my family....

I love my family but it's not easy trying to get 'em to pose for pictures! But we were able to get some done the other day.