For those that have been reading my blogs and do not know, I was a high school math teacher for two years. I was the example of a burnt out teacher when I left my school district last year. I just did not know that is what you called it at the time. Most people that go into teaching at the present moment only last a maximum of 5 years. It is a statistic that is true, but there are exceptions. The exceptions turn out to be the best teachers.
The one thing I love about this year is that I have been able to be in many different schools. I have visited an elementary in Thailand, a preschool in Cambodia, an elementary in the Philippines, a preschool in Africa, and a high school here in Panama. When I signed up for the world race, I did not think I would visit schools at all. The one thing that I was burned out in God provided opportunites in most countries to do. It has helped me to have healing in my heart for the things that were hard during the time I taught.
When my team came into Panama, we had no clue what we were going to do. The one requirement we had was that team LESS was going to stay together. Danny got a contact the last day we were in San Jose that helped us out. All Danny told us was that we were going to be picked up at a bus terminal at 2:00 in the afternoon. We were all fine with this since it meant that we would be together.
We arrived in our town to find out it´s name to be Arriajan and it was 30 minutes outside of Panama, we thought it was 2 hours. We were told we were going to a retreat that weekend and working at a Christian High School. We would work with the English teachers to help the students here the English words. I was excited for the opportunities.
The retreat was great. Kari, Jenn, and Renee from Beloved joined us. We only had one job going into the weekend, which was to help out where needed. We helped blow up balloons, watch children, and clean. I even got to be in a skit where I was the teacher. If you asked me what the skit was about, I have no idea since it was all in Spanish. I just did my part in English. We were quite busy all weekend and had a great time.
We started working at the school on Monday. God has truly healed me and is working on me to have a desire to teach again. I loved the studetns. I am sad to leave them because of their kindness. I worked with a teacher that taught in the 9th and 10th grades. It was strange to me to have teachers move classrooms instead of the students. I really enjoyed getting to know the students. The only requirement for me was to speak English, but God helped show me where my hearts desires are. I know that I will not teach math this fall, but I am hoping that God provides me the opportunity again in the future.
