SMCA Graduation and Inventor's Fair

I can not believe how quickly the school year went by! At first nine months of teaching sounded so long, however by the time the end of May rolled around I could barely believe school was over.
Our last social studies project surrounded the idea of inventors. Together my students and I studied a few famous inventors of the day and took an in depth look at the inventing process. We ended the unit with an invention project where each student came up with a problem to solve and then an invention that would solve that problem. I was amazed at the creativity I saw!
Luke's parents were not happy about him and his brothers always making crumbs in the car when on long car trips. Luke invented the Crumb Cleaner to help with that problem. During a car trip Luke can eat over the Crumb Cleaner and then use the small brush to brush the crumbs into the hole on the tray. They crumbs then go through a funnel and tube, ending up in a box that can then be emptied into the garbage. This was a very creative solution to a real-life problem.

Emma displaying her Extreme Double Dish Drainer. Emma told me that a normal sized dish drainer was way too small for her big family and they ended up putting dishes all over the counter as well. With the Extreme Double Dish Drainer they could would have room for all the dishes to nicely dry. She even included a draining system for the water to get to the sink!

Josh said that he always gets hot in Mexico (me too!). He invented a hat that includes a solar powered fan that will blow and cool him off when he is in the sun... and it looks cool too :)

At our graduation ceremony my class did two song and dance numbers for the parents showing off their knowledge of the 50 states and their capitals.

Here are Miss Ruby's Students at graduation!

Swine Flu

This is my attempt to update ya'll on the last month or so before the summer! Many of you have been wondering about the Swine Flu in Monterrey. We had a little scare during April and after two weeks of quarantine found out from the Mexican CDC that not even one person in Monterrey had the flu! We made the most of the quarantine by keeping active and hanging out as a community on the property! Here are a few shots from those two weeks.

Ruby, Christy, and myself leaving the property on a desperate trip to the store. Everyone had to wear masks!

During our quarantine we had several girl's soccer games. Sports for girls are not as a high priority for many females in Mexico as they for females in the USA. I was proud of so many of our girl jovens playing... even with a field covered in mud!

Ruby did an amazing job organizing a volleyball tournament for us! Different teams played until we had a winning team! While my team lost the first round, we did win the prize for the best attitude!

One night the Garcia's treated us all to a cookout... but not quite what the American staff expected. We had whole grilled rabbit! It really was rather tasty! I even tried to be like the locals and sampled the brain... probably won't do that again!

International Justice Mission Car Wash!

My team of AWESOME car washers!!!

At the close of our unit on slavery, my students and I decided to hold a car wash/bake sale fundraiser to help people who are in slavery today. While teaching the unit, I thought that it was very important to tell my students about slavery that is still going on in many countries. It is easy to hear about slavery during the Civil War and to talk about the underground railroad and think that these are all things of the past. The truth is that there are many countries today where slavery is still legal. I did some research and found some great information about modern day slavery from the International Justice Mission. IJM is a Christian organization that seeks to end slavery and injustices through legal means. Check out their website for more information: http://www.ijm.org/

Hose + kids + teacher = water fight!

Our car wash/ bake sale turned out to be a huge success! We held it on the property one Saturday afternoon and nearly every staff family came. My students were real troopers! After washing 12 rather large cars and selling over 60 baked goods, we were plum tuckered out but excited that we had raised $300.00 for IJM. Praise Jesus!

Emma at the bake sale table.

Chloe attacking the wheels!

Here for Another Year!

Many of you have been praying for me to know the next step that God has for me in this life. Thank you! After much prayer and counsel I have decided to extend my stay with B2B in Mexico and am going to be here another year!!!! I am so excited!

This first year in Monterrey has been amazing... difficult as well, but just where God wanted me. I have learned so much about myself and about the amazing love of Jesus during this year. I have grown in my teaching skills and built many wonderful relationships with Americans and Mexicans alike. I am very excited to say that I will continue to live and minister here next year.

Next year will look quite a bit different for me than this year has looked. I will not be the full time teacher at SMCA next year, but will be teaching part time. After an honest look at my life, my heart, and the desires God has given me I have realized that I need and want to be involved even more in the lives of the Mexicans. I am feeling the call to spend more time in the impoverished neighborhoods of Monterrey, with the teen girls on our campus, and with the children in the casa hogars. So, next year I will be teaching only science and social studies (for 3rd through 7th grades) at SMCA. These are my favorite subjects so I feel so honored to be able to teach these to the same awesome group of students I had this year. The rest of my time will be spent working in various ways with the Mexican children here.

I am SUPER excited to be in Mexico again next year and can't wait to see what else God has up his sleeve!

Please keep praying for me! Here are a few specific ways to pray:

- Pray for clear direction from the Lord as I plan what I am going to be involved with next year.

- Pray for me as I am searching for a language intensive program to complete this summer to help kick my Spanish into gear.

- Pray for the support I need for another year here in Monterrey!

Spring Break

Lyd and I at one of my favorite places.... Saltana (ice cream shop!!!)

Spring break.... what a glorious week! God knows just what we need right when we need it, amen? I needed a rest from school like a fish needs water. This week was amazing for me to rest, relax, spend time with Jesus, and see my sister!

Lydia came to visit for the first part of the week. It was so great to have her here and to show her all the people and places that have come to mean so much to me. We had a packed five days of hiking, shopping, visiting children's homes, trying Mexican food, hanging out with kids, going on picnics, and eating ice cream! Her visit refreshed my heart and gave me the taste of home that I was missing :) We had a ton of fun and I was sad to see her go. Lyd, the mighty mountain climbing woman!!

Picnic with friends

Lyd with kids from Casa Hogar Imperio de Amor

The rest of the week I spent planning for the rest of the school year (only 7 more weeks!!), resting, and hanging out with some fun girls from Casa Hogar Douglass. Tere and Monica are sisters who have been at Douglass since they were very small. While many kids have relatives that might pick them up for the week, Monica and Tere have no one. My roommates and I had the girls over for several days in a row during spring break. We swam, had pizza, watched High School Musical 3, and played for hours. It blessed me so much to see these girls having the time of their lives! All in all , a great week. Monica, Lola, Caroline, Tere having dessert!

He is Risen!!!

Some B2B friends

He is risen indeed!!!!! To celebrate Easter the B2B staff had a potluck! Nearly every family was there with delicious casseroles, salads, tacos, and desserts! It was awesome! I also got to experience a little Mexican Easter tradition... egg smashing! Instead of dying Easter eggs, Mexicans will fill an empty egg shell with confetti and paint the outside. Then they will, in all celebration, smash that egg on someone's head!!! The rumor is that it is symbolic of getting rid of sin in your life, or something like that... I, however, think that they just enjoy smashing eggs and pouring confetti on people's heads!!! I sure had fun doing it.... and am still trying to get all the confetti out of my hair :)

Egg smashing!

The Couch family at the potluck

SMCA class pictures

Here are a few pictures of the students in Sierra Madre Christian Academy. Here we are... SMCA in action! As you can see we have a lot of fun together! There certainly is never a dull moment!

A more serious shot of our entire school... yes we are small, but there is beauty in that. These are the students in grades K-6, Ruby, and myself.
Here are my guys! I love them sooooo much! They are all so kindhearted, loving, smart, and well behaved...pretty much a teacher's dream come true.

Maybe this is a more realistic picture of my class!!! Hahaha! We all enjoy each other so much! I am blessed to be their teacher.

My awesome students one more time!