One month more!

Wow, it's so hard to believe that March is almost here already. February has been full of busy schedules, a bit of drama, and all sorts of stuff! We are looking ahead to the final month of school, two weeks of which take place AFTER the grades are due. I'm now in the midst of deciding what to do in classes with high school students when I can't grade them on anything...

Michael and I have both been incredibly busy with projects and papers - grading them, that is. It was quite entertaining to see Michael's reaction to the papers he received for his class. It's a little different than receiving middle school/high school level papers in the States, because all of our students speak English as their second (...or third) language. Michael was a little unprepared for the quality of papers he received, but after reading a few over and asking some of the middle school teachers about it, he was able to figure out how to grade them.

The high school was planning on taking a trip this past weekend, but a bit of drama happened there, so the trip got cancelled (much to my disappointment). Some people were interested, then no one was interested, then people were interested in a new location, then the hotel was overbooked and we couldn't go. So, the poor 12th graders do not yet have a senior trip, but it is a possibility for sometime at the end of March. We'll see if it actually happens or not.

To be honest, there isn't really a whole lot to "update" about other than that. We are looking forward to our two month break from school in April and May, when we'll be able to visit some of you back in the States! Until then, though, there just seems to be a lot of work that needs to be done.

The sermon in our church this morning was about worrying - always a good topic for me to listen to, as I tend to worry a lot. I was reminded of how trivial the things that I worry about are. I worry about whether I'll be prepared for class, whether a particular activity will actually work, whether I'll get everything graded in time, etc. etc. But, in reality, do those things really matter? Worrying is not an emotional problem, it's a spiritual one. Do I trust God enough to give these burdens up? Do I trust God enough to say, "I'm going to stop working and start praying"? Well, not at the moment. I'm much more like Martha, who was concerned about dinner being prepared, than Mary, who wanted to just sit at Jesus' feet and listen.

What about you? When was the last time you took time to sit and listen to God? How much time do you spend worrying? Worrying does not add time to our lives - if anything, it takes time away. So what's the point? Why worry?

Think about it for a while. Pray about it for a while. There's your challenge. :)