New Beginnings...

It's the beginning of a new year which can also mean the beginning of a new blog. At least that's what I keep telling myself. Some of you have sent me emails asking "Why haven't you updated your blog?" and "What is it that you are doing with your life now?" So for all of you who have been asking here is an update on what has happened.

The fall of this year was basically hell on earth for me. After only 2 months of work I kept wanting to quit. I was not getting along with my boss and I was not getting along with other co-workers and I just felt like it was beginning to become a drag for me to go to work. Since the end of last year I was already wanting to find somewhere else to work. I kept praying in the fall for guidance and understanding through this all. I did want to quit my job just because it was an easy way out but I didn't want to continue at this school if that's not what God wanted me to do either. I met with a couple of directors of different organizations and different schools to see what my options would be or what possibilities would be out there. I sat down with one of my friends, Tim and Whitney, and got some good advice on how to push through December and to maybe start thinking of ways to make it through the entire year. So October came around and I kept trying to just focus on my students and focus on loving them as much as I could without worrying too much about the administration. November came along and was still holding on but then some things happened that made it clear to me that it was time for me to leave Jarabacoa Christian School because I no longer had the same mission or vision as the school did. The end of November I turned in my letter of resignation without really knowing where I would go from there. I had several options but didn't know if any of them would go through.

December I sat down with the director of Students International, a missions organization here in Jarabacoa, and we talked for a while and he talked to me about the possibilities of working with them. I also met with the YoungLife Area director and also talked to her about job possibilities. After that I then proceeded to also talk to the director of another christian school here in town and we also talked about other possibilities there. Long story short God was opening up some doors and shutting others and giving me a lot of peace of my decision of leaving JCS. Christmas time came along fast which meant it came time to tell my students that I was going to be leaving and that was the hardest part about my decision of leaving the school.

Both Students International and YoungLife had offered me jobs by mid December and I decided that I would not make any final decisions until I talked to my parents. I knew I was going to be seeing them over Christmas Break so I felt the need to wait to talk to them and go from there.

So here comes the fun part. Christmas break came along and after such a long time of being away from my parents the day finally came to spend some time with them.

Our family got together in Costa Rica where my mom's youngest sister lives. Her and her husband have 4 daughters who we have always been close to and felt like this would be a good meeting point for the holidays.

On January 5th I emailed the director of Students International (SI) and told him I wanted the job for sure. I got an email back from him shortly after that and he said "awesome, meet me at my office Jan. 10th at 9:30am". Tuesday was my first day of work and I am currently still trying to get adjusted to this new transitions. Tuesday we had staff meeting and when I got introduced to the new staff a lot of them started cheering which made me feel welcomed and encouraged to work here. Then yesterday I had my first bible study with SI and got some time to get to know more of my co-workers. I am really excited about my job and excited to be where I am now. I am working on my Newsletter which will then be posted on here, it will have more information and pictures of what my role will be at SI. I will also try and put up more pictures of my time with my family. This Christmas was probably the most memorable Christmas I have had with my family. It was awesome and will hopefully be able to post more pictures of that trip later today or tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for your prayers and support thus far. I am excited to see what God has in store for this year.

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great time with your families and loved ones!

DR 2011 in Pictures

Since I am not very good at this game called blogging I have decided that I am just going to upload some pictures of what I have been doing during these past few months here. Most of the pictures are not pictures of me during class time but are some of the things that I do when I don't teach!! I do have a video of my kids singing the song Might To Save! I taught them this song a while back but thought I would share this with you guys. If you would like to watch it click here.

These pictures are not in order!

My friends Ryan and Caroline welcomed baby James into the world at the end of January! I got to spend valentines with my surpervisor's kids, Anthony (left), Danny (right) and James and babysat with my friend Natalie!

Motocross Competition

Natalie, Me, Lorraine, and Rachel at Motocross

Soaking wet after it rained at the motocross!

Carnaval 2011 (The Dominicans do this every year during the month of Febuary)

It's crazy don't even know how to describe it really.

Hanging out after school with one of my favorite third graders, Randy.

Me, Jessica Stanley, and Jessica Ensing hiking

I made it to the top!

Motorcycle ride with Natalie on a Saturday afternoon!

Samana beach!

Natalie and I on the whale watching boat!

Humpback Whale!! :)

(We got to see a mother and her baby)

Emily and I

Emily came to visit the last week of Febuary! It was the highlight of the month and definitely had a lot of fun having her here!! :) Thanks for the surprise Em!

This is basically what has been happening here in the DR. God is still stretching me and maturing me which has been hard at times but I know will be worth it in the end! Still loving the Dominican culture and for the most part loving my time here. The end of the year is coming up soon which is scary and exciting at the same time. Saying goodbye to teachers that I have gotten close to this year will not be easy for me but trying to trust God with whats to come next year.

Prayer Request:

1. My students

2. Patience for me as a teacher. I seem to get easily frustrated lately and need to learn how to be patient with my kids.

3. Strength to make through the rest of the year!

4. Peace and understanding of why people come in and out of our life! I have struggled with this question a lot so this would be a big one that you can pray for!

Thanks again for all your support, love, and prayers during my time here! I could never do this without you guys!!

Jamie Rodriguez

First day of school Jamie's Mom came to school to tell me that Jamie was in the hospital and couldn't come to school but she wanted to pick up the homework so that she wouldn't be behind. As the days went on the more anxious I g0t to meet my student, Jamie. Finally the second week of school Jamie showed up to school ready to learn and completely healthy.From day one Jamie got a piece of my heart and I fell in love with her. I never understood why she was so quite and why she was so soft spoken. I tried to interact with her during recess but I could barely get a sentence out of her. The quieter she was the more I wanted to know what she was thinking and what was going on in her mind. Jamie rarely participated in class and rarely would she complain about anything. As I started to teach Math I quickly realized that Jamie was going to have a hard time with this subject. She had a hard time understanding the material and was always one to finish her assignments last or just simply not turn them in. She was probably one of the students that I easily got frustrated with because in my mind I was thinking "Multiplication by 2 digits is not that hard, why can't she just do it?". She would never come up to my desk to ask me a question and I was the one who always walked by her desk and noticed that after 15 min of individual work time she had yet to complete a single multiplication problem.After long hours and staying in from recess Jamie had finally started to understand Math. She was finally feeling comfortable with coming to my desk to ask me questions and was finally talking to me. Finally she had an assignment turned in and it was a C-. We finally have a grade in and after much hard work Jamie is smiling because she has completed and understood her math worksheet.
Jamie spent numerous hours working on a card. I didn't know who she was making this for until she came up to me and told me "Miss. Gomez I have a gift for you but I havent finished it yet... but don't worry you will get it soon." Days went on and during her free time I would always find her working on this card. Finally one day she had finished this card and she came all excited one day to school and she came up to me and said "Miss. Gomez I finished your gift.... it's in my backpack but I will give it to you at a special time". It was then that my heart melted. Jamie was putting all of her efforts to make me this card. I finally got the card that day and when I read it I remember feeling so loved. This is what the card said:

Dear Miss Gomez,

Thank you for helping me understand Math!
You are my favorite teacher!
I love you so much!

Love,
Jamie

As school kept going Jamie slowly started to skip class. Her mom always had the excuse that they had to go to the capital so it was hard to get Jamie to school on Friday's and Monday's. 5 months had gone by and her mom couldn't not bring her to school everyday of the week. As I talked to the director about Jamie I explained that Jamie was failing every single class. Jamie had yet to turn in an assignment to me and she was so behind that there was no way that I couldn't get her caught up on all the work. The more I learned about Jamie's mom I realized this precious little girl simply didn't have a Mom!! This was when my heart broke for Jamie and I wanted to do everything in my power to love her and care for her.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago Jamie's mom came to school and the Director and I had a meeting with her to tell her that Jamie would need to repeat 4th Grade if she skipped any more days of school. As I sat in the office telling her that her daughter had a 12% in Math she seemed to care less about the issue. I tried explaning to her that it wasn't that her daughter was dumb but it was the fact that she skips too many days of school and is so behind that she doesnt understand the material. During this meeting all I wanted to say to this mother was "Let me adopt your daughter." but I couldn't. Soon a week went by and Jamie missed another day of school and then another. Finally the director informed me that Jamie would no longer attend Jarabacoa Christian School. Her mom had decided that she would be better off at some public school instead of a Christian school. My heart had been torn into pieces. The student that I loved so dearly would no longer be in my class.

There was nothing left for me to do but pray that God would be there for her and protect her in her new school. I didn't understand why God would allow me to fall in love with a little girl who would just eventually not be in my life anymore. I didnt have a way to contact her and I had no idea where she lived. I just thought that I would just not see her again. It's funny how God works though. One of our spanish teachers works part-time at the school that Jamie attends which made me so happy because I was now able to ask her how she is doing every once in a while. Today my class had a pizza party at my house and I sent an invitation for Jamie with the spanish teacher. I crossed my fingers and prayed that she would make it.

Today as we watched a movie and waited for the pizza to arrive Jamie walked through my front door and before I could say anything my entire 4th grade class got up and gave her a group hug. Finally after praying for several weeks I was able to see Jamie. God is faithful and eventhough there were times that I was angry and frustrated with Him he knew the desire's on my heart. As much as God is taking care of me he is doing the same for Jamie! I have learned that I am not here because God needs my help but instead I am here because he simply wants me to be part of his work. I won't be able to fix everything and I wont be able save every kid or take care of every kid I come in contact with but my job is to show them Christ love for the amount of time that God allows me to. The rest is out of my control.

New Beginning!

It's the start of a new year and it's the beginning of 3rd Quarter. It feels good to start fresh and to be able to start strong. I spent christmas in Canada once again and enjoyed my stay. Saying goodbye to my Canadian family is always the hardest thing for me but there hasn't been a time that I haven't left home without being prayed for which makes goodbyes a little easier. It was hard to not see my family in Honduras as I knew that they were all together this Christmas. I cannot wait to see them during the summer. It was easier to come back to Dominican Republic because I knew that there were people who loved and cared about me here already. Needless to say this time around it was much easier to come down here and it was even exciting to come back.

First day of school was a little bitter sweet. During Christmas break one of our 7th grade students passed away and the first day of school was a little hard. I didn't know her super well but remember seeing her during lunch breaks and just random times during the day. The hardest part for me is being able to know that this was God's will. It hurts to know that a girl with so much a head of her had to die of cancer. Why? This is the question that I find myself thinking about often. This question will never be answered for me but I know that Chadianny is now pain free and there was a reason why God decided to take her home. No Degree or masters or any education are able to prepare you for something like this.

The sweet part about being back in school is feeling loved and cared for by my students. As soon as they saw me they came running to give me a big hug. It felt good to be loved by my students and it felt good to know that I am at least doing something right because these kids for some reason love me. Don't know if they have necessarily learned anything but they at least love me. :) It was nice to just sit with my students at the beginning of class and listen to all of their Christmas stories and traditions. Now as the week is coming to an end I can say that this week has been a great start of the semester.

Well besides my teaching life, this past Tuesday my friend Natalie and I were able to throw one of our friend, Caroline, a baby shower. It was fun to be able to celebrate with her and get excited about the coming of her son! Her and her husband Ryan are missionaries down here and Natalie and I have gotten to know them fairly well this past year and it's been fun to watch them get ready for this new stage of life that they will be going into. Caroline is due January 23rd so if you think about it please pray for her and Ryan and their baby James.

Overall the start of the new year has been good. I enjoy life here but still trying to get adjusted to different things here but overall I can't complain. God has been faithful with providing friends, support, and love. Its been a great experience so far and I am excited to see where else God will take me this year.

3 months down

Wow. Its been a while since I last wrote. Things have been a little crazy around here everything from planning, grading, parent teacher conferences, soccer, YoungLife, WyldLife, and what not. So far I am loving life here. There have obviously been some ups and downs and for the most part I can't complain. I have a pretty good life around here.

One of my biggest fears of coming to Dominican Republic was the fear of feeling alone and me not being able to click or connect with anyone here but it has been the complete opposite. God has provided in a very powerful and awesome way! I love the friendships that I have made here! Its been awesome to be able to have friends who encourage, challenge, and stretch me spiritually. Even to the simply fact of being able to find a friend who enjoys the same kind of humor that I do.

Teaching has been quite the interesting adventure. This was not something that I was obviously planning on doing for a living and this was not something I majored in either so there are days when I feel like I am not supposed to be here teaching these kids. Most of my students are having a really hard time with reading and writing skills so it is very easy to see improvement when it happens but it is also very hard to try and teach when they have such low education.

I have enjoyed being able to be loved by the kids. There are days when I have a hard time loving on them but then they send me a love note in the middle of class and I realize that I am not just here to teach but also to love on these kids and show them Christ love. Most of my kids do not know what love even is.

I love my kids so much and I am only 3 months into this whole experience. I love the challenges that teaching brings but I now have a greater respect for teachers. I never realized how emotional teaching could be and how much time I spend thinking of my kids and how I wish I could fix their family issues and situations.

Please pray for my kids individually if you can. Here are the names of all my kids so that you can pray for them by name if you want!!

-Genesis

-Sebastian

-Christopher

-Cristal

-Fabianiz

-Laura

-Katherine

-Lisleydi

-Carolyn

-Jamie

-Anthony

Thanks you for all your love and support!!

We serve an awesome God!!

My Fourth Grade Class :)

Its been a really long time since I last updated my blog!! So much has been happening that it gets really hard at times to just stop and write about my experiences and thoughts. 4th week of school has come so quickly! This has been crazy.

Teaching is going as good as it could be. With the help of God and of my co-workers I think I am getting the hang of teaching a little bit better. My kids are quite the interesting bunch. They come from a variety of homes and their attitudes and personalities are very different from each other. Need less to say they all have their unique personalities which is great. The past couple of weeks have been rough and exciting.

The second week into school I started to get phone calls from parents saying that I was leaving too much homework. Funny part is that the homework consisted of me assigning 5 problems out of our math book. That was it. Then I got a phone call from a parent saying that someone stole her daughters sharpener therefore I needed to go through every kids backpack to find this sharpener which I didn't end up doing that so, then the mother decided to come to school the next day to talk to me. Our director talked to her and then this led to the director coming to my classroom and digging through every ones back pack. In the end one of my girls did steal the sharpener and she got silent detention. Then after school one of my girls that same day decided to drop the F bomb and cues the girl who stole her sharpener out which meant now 2 of my girls were in silent detention. So it was a good 2nd week. Note to self don't buy your kids expensive sharpeners for school! :)

After all the fun stuff that happened the second week and after talking about forgiveness the kids have had a little change of attitude on things. I am not saying that they are angels at this moment but they were able to keep their cards on green for 3 days which means that I will be getting a soccer ball for the entire class. It has been really exciting to see the kids take baby steps to behaving and respecting one another.

One of the greatest things that has happened since I got here is the fact that the ministry that I worked with in Indiana is also down here in Dominican Republic. Its called YoungLife I was introduced to this ministry my Senior year of high school in Grand Rapids, MI and fell in love with it. One of the YoungLife camps is actually only 10 min away from my house and Younglife started just last year at the school that I am teaching at so this past Tuesday I was able to participate and talk with High schoolers from my school and able to just hang out and have fun. This coming tuesday I will be helping with the middle school group called WyldLife and will be doing the music for me. I will be playing guitar and leading them in a time of singing songs a long with their leaders. I am super excited to be able to play the guitar in a setting like this! I taught myself how to play a little over a year ago and have really enjoyed playing for our chapels at school and now will be helping out with Wyldlife as well!! There is a lot more that I would like to write about but I will save some for later this week!!

Thanks so much guys for the prayers and support!! The ministry and work that is happening here in Dominican Republic would not be possible without your prayers and your support!!

Love you guys!!