March 2011

The week my family came into town was a week of refreshment. I was able to show off the beauty of the country that has become my second home. I was excited to hang out with my Dad, my brother, my sister, and my brother-in-law and to introduce them to my town, my fellow volunteers, but above all my students. We had a lot of much needed fun visiting Flores, Tikal, and San Pedro.

The following week was the yearly visit by the mission team from Franciscan University. It was great to have a week off from teaching and watch others reach out to my students in different ways. It was interesting to watch the students interact with these “strangers” who had come from the USA visit their classrooms. It’s funny to look at them and think of how I was one of them two years ago. I was amazed to see how my students had warmed up to me and formed a relationship with me and how they were still weary of these newcomers just as they were with me. The Friday Night Youth Night was a beautiful display of faith as the Lord began to work miracles in a lot of the kids’ lives. It’s so cool to have fresh and enthusiastic faces ready to serve and able to reach out to the kids I haven’t been able to reach out to. It is nice to be woken up from complacency which can often take place once you’ve become comfortable with your surroundings. The Lord surely worked through them in great ways. Not only uplifting the students, but also me.

The week after that was the week my good family friend came into town. It was cool to have someone more immersed into my life as a missionary rather than my life as a tourist. That week was a lot of fun showing her the ropes of Benque.

Somehow in the craziness of March I was still able to complete my distance learning master’s class even amidst all the hustle and bustle of three weeks of visitors. God truly performed a miracle in allowing me to complete this course.

After a semester of planning, the 4^th Form Retreat was underway. This retreat was an overnight co-ed retreat which was a risk but it proved to be well worth taking. The students all had so much fun and grew so much. During Adoration the students received letters from their classmates, their teachers, and their parents expressing their good qualities about them. Almost all of them were moved to tears. The Lord was doing awesome things in this 4^th Form Class. He was breaking down walls and uniting them together. It was beautiful to see how they all shared their experience of what happened on the retreat.