A second grader with a British accent drew this portrait of me. This is what I look like as a teacher, although she said the mouth didn't turn out quite right -- she was trying to draw a smile. :-) Notice the lines under the eyes. She drew the whole picture, then sat looking from it to me and back again. "No, that can't be right," she said in her accent. "This picture makes you look wide awake." So she added some bags under my eyes. I didn't think I looked THAT tired! ;-)

I taught kindergarten one day last week. One of the girls asked her neighbor, "So where do you go to church?"
"Oh, I don't go to church," said the other five-year-old.
"DON'T go to CHURCH???" said the first, incredulous. "Then HOW do you learn about GOD??" She thought for a couple of seconds (that's a long time for a kindergartener) and then said, "Do you learn about Him from me?"
That should be my goal, too -- that even if people don't read the Bible or go to church, they can see Jesus in me and be hungry for more of Him.

We are leaving for Mexico in about three weeks! We are meeting tomorrow to plan the crafts and lessons for the kids. Then comes the fun part -- I get to go shopping for craft stuff that I actually need. :-) I have to limit my access to craft stores because otherwise I spend too much money and get masses of junk filling my house. We also are writing introductory letters to the kids and enclosing our photographs so that they will be expecting us. It's hard to think of things to say that will translate easily into Spanish!

I'm joining Real Life Ministries. I balked for a while, because I didn't want to make a commitment to a church I may not be at for long. And because they will require that I be re-baptized. But slowly God worked on me so that I don't mind being baptized again. God and I know that my sprinkling as a baby counted, but making profession of faith again in a public way that people will understand is definitely not a problem. As a member, I can help out a lot more, too. They need lots more people to help with the children's ministry and that's my favorite place to be, so I'm excited.

And North Idaho is starting to feel smaller. I'm recognizing students that I subbed for, and meeting teachers at garage sales, and seeing people I recognize at church, and knowing how to get places in town. It takes a long time to begin to get established in a new place!

I'm still on the job hunt. In fact, that is why I am writing this post -- an application form was taking forever to download so I decided to multitask. I'm focusing on the area here in North Idaho and across the border into Washington and Montana. I have some favorite districts, but God knows best where I need to end up so I'm trying not to hold onto any of them too hard. It's hard to remember, too, that lots of public school teachers don't know where they are going to teach until halfway through the summer. I'd like to know sooner than that!

Hope God is teaching you as much as He's teaching me these days... keep depending on Him one day at a time and crazy wonderful things can happen!