David's birthday was great fun. I love being at the Carlaws because we often end up coming up with random ways to entertain ourselves when there is spare time. The evening somehow ended with an experiment which involved putting children on top a bed of balloons and trying not to pop them (the balloons, not the children). I'm pretty sure I recall this was Sondi's idea. And of course, it also ended up that we team members also ended up on top of the balloons.
Camp reunion last Saturday was a wonderful success! This was by God's grace because it didn't really feel like we got to prepare much in the end. We had to wing it a little and were a little concerned about how the day would go, and yet it was a fantastic day. We prayed for sunshine because it had been very dreary all week. I faithlessly wore jeans and a sweater anyway, and ended up being roasting hot all day because the weather was gorgeous! Hot and sunny. We had 34 kids show up. It felt a little weird to be back at camp again. It was like we never left! It was so fun to re-live the good times we had this summer. The kids were asking when the next camp reunion was, and if we could have one before we leave the country. Haha, I guess we'll have to see...
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Monday night. Two women who attend our weekly English Bible study joined us, and one other woman from another village who is a friend of Shaun and Sondi's. We had a very nice evening and got an opportunity to Skype our friends David and Virginia Fairbrother who served here last January. They are the ones who really encouraged me to come to Hungary in the first place, and I'm so glad they did!
This last week was packed. Wednesday we were invited to another school to teach an English lesson. This was the first English lesson I have taught in a school. We had a lot of fun with it. Our topic was words of direction or placement, so I had students come up to the board and draw a picture, following my directions, for example "draw a bear on the right side of the tree". The picture I had them draw was an illustration of the scout song "A Bear in Tennis Shoes". Then the three of us sang the song with them on the guitar.
In the second half of the lesson, we played a game which involved Paul and I being blindfolded. Then Matt placed two cups at different locations in the room. The students had to race to direct Paul and I to their team's cup using English words of direction. The three of us all took turns being blindfolded. Paul usually won. The kids seemed to really enjoy this...and it got pretty loud!
We taught this class twice. The first class was in grade six and the second was in grade eight. The sixth graders still knew how to have fun...but it took a little bit to get the eighth graders to lighten up. They are getting to be too cool by that age. But I think they still enjoyed it.
Yesterday we returned to Peter's school and I had prepared a little science talk. But I kept running out of time because it's hard to factor in the translation when preparing, and 15 minutes quickly becomes only 7 1/2 minutes. It was a bit of a crazy day. The classes were very rowdy, (though they listened ok to me) but I can tell that Peter has his work cut out for him, that's all I can say. We did get a chance to chat with some of Magdolna's English classes so they could practice English, and that was fun. But overall I came home a little disheartened and much behind schedule in preparing for the evening's adult English club. However, all things considered, last night's lesson went very well and so the day ended on a good note.
So that catches us up to today!
I remain content very happy to be here. We have a great team and we work well together. There is even joy to found in the smaller blessings of life, like the fact that our washing machine is working fabulously now that we know how to use it. No more hand washing! Another blessing is that I found out I can have unlimited calling to Canadian phones for very cheap through Skype and so I am able to keep in touch with family and friends back home. So there's my little ad for Skype. I should get free calls for advertising for them :)
I'm learning a lot while I am here, not only about living life, but about myself, about relationships, and about God's faithfulness. I always find I have so much less to be worried about then I think I do. But everyday brings new challenges so I have to be continuously reminded!
 |
| Me, Paul and Matt on our hike on grape harvest day |
 |
| David the birthday boy |
 |
| David the timid experimentee |
 |
| Camp reunion day. A great turnout! |
 |
| Playing follow the leader |
 |
 |
| The team preforming the "Bean Soup" skit |
 |
| Craft time! Glowing mobiles for the boys... |
 |
| ...and glowing fairy jars for the girls |
 |
| Paul and I singing the Great Big Moose song. How did it sound? Hmmm...why don't you ask Sondi over there. |
 |
| Thanksgiving Dinner :) |
Thank you so much Lydia. What a great blog you have.
ReplyDelete2 Corinthians 9:13-14
"Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you." (NIV)