there has never been a night without a dawn

Were the camel races really two weeks ago? Have I really been in this country for a month and a half since returning from Christmas holidays? 

And when did I actually start LIKING my school again, LOVING Kuwait, ENJOYING my job, and feeling like this place was actually HOME?

It’s kind of blowing my mind.

To me, it’s an answer to a million ceaseless prayers, a thousand tears and moments of increasing obedience and submission.

But tonight I want to talk about the girls that I hang out with on Thursday evenings, after school.  We normally meet in Mrs. Jacque’s office at our church (she’s the Senior Pastor’s wife). 

These girls are 11 and 12 years old.  They all attend the Lighthouse Academy (the school on the church compound). They are from Egyptian, Lebanese, Indian and Filipino families.

Last May, at the end of an Encounter with God weekend, I received an email from a friend who asked if I would be willing to help her start a Bible study with these girls (whom I didn’t know at the time).  I was psyched and answered her email with an energetic and resounding YES!  It was an answer to prayer and I couldn’t wait for it to begin.

We started meeting in October of this year.  Did I mention that my friend’s name is ALSO Katie?  The kids wanted to know what they could call me.  “I guess Ms. Katie is already taken, so…how about Gladys?”  I wish I could say that the name stuck, but it didn’t, so instead we’re called Ms. Katie Tall and Ms. Katie Small.  We usually split into Team Tall and Team Small whenever there are competitive activities.

We studied Youth Alpha last Fall and started another study called Girls in January.  You can imagine that we wanted to get to know the girls before we started talking about any kind of personal issues!

We always do one “fun” event every month.  Of course, we try to stress to the girls that studying the Bible is actually FUN!  But it is nice to just get out of the office and enjoy the time with them. We’ve had a photo scavenger hunt, gone bowling, and made cookies.

Last weekend, we met at one of the girls’ houses for a pyjama party!  We came sporting our best and cleanest pyjamas.  I had to plan ahead and not wear my fleece pants the entire week before!

We ate some amazing Egyptian food.  Okay, make that a LOT of amazing Egyptian food!  In fact, her mother came in when we were mostly finished and made sure we all had an extra helping!  We joked tonight that we were STILL digesting our food from last week.

It was great to play DDR with them, paint each other's fingernails, and sing a little Karaoke!

I LOVE these girls.

And when I feel urged to make a weekly blessings list on Thursday nights, it’s usually because of them.  Sometimes it seems as though I’ve been insanely busy, especially on Saturday nights when it feels like the weekend has flown by (Sunday is a school day) and it would be nice to have a Thursday night to relax and unwind and do other things.  But, then I’m reminded of WHY we do this…and see the results.  Can I hear a big Hallelujah?

 
I have been overwhelmed lately with the realization of God’s faithfulness in so many areas throughout my life, the sense of His love, and an unwinding understanding of His purpose.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
”Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:11-14a

Eventually, I will have to start leading this group alone, Katie and I discussed tonight.  When He first told me this at the beginning of January, I got mad at God and said, “No! Katie can’t leave! I don’t want to teach it alone!!” But tonight, it didn’t seem so scary. It’s getting time to step up.

 
But…not yet. KatieSquared will lead on - for a little while longer, anyways.

How blessed we are!

a day at the camel races

Being a teacher is exhausting for about 9 months of the year (the other 3 months are recovery time!)  And so the idea of a Saturday trip to the Camel Races was a great idea during exam week when we were relaxed and spending 6 hours of the school day sans élèves.

So when the Saturday came to actually go, it was like pulling teeth.  “You want me to spend my planning/marking/cleaning/ grocery/running day doing what?”

But off we went!  I drove Beth to the AWARE Centre, parked her across the street, and climbed onto large coach busses headed for the desert. (I *might* have brought my marking with me.  It made me feel better, even though I only got one assignment marked for one class.) AWARE = Advocates for Western-Arab Relations, created after 9-11.  They have Arabic classes and tons of cultural events all year long.  Often they involve food.  Delicious, delicious Arabic food.

Most of the habitable parts of Kuwait are attached together, into one urban area.  It is a city; it looks like a city, it acts like a city, it smells like a city.  We live in Salmiya, south east of Kuwait City, which is only 25 minutes away.  The desert is also not far away. Maybe a 30 minute drive.  Less if you don’t mind garbage and lots of other people around.  More if you want to disappear into the sand (just watch out for unexploded mines from the Gulf War).  It’s a REALLY small country.

(Last year when we tried to find the camel races, we ended up getting lost,getting stuck in the sand, and skipping them entirely!)

We arrived at the Camel Races and they herded us into a spectator room, much like you’d see at an arena, except closed off from the outside.  They had TV screens so that you could watch the entire race from the comfort of a chair (or Laz-E-boy if you are a camel owner or a Sheik). We were served drinks and given buttons from the club. 

But the room was smoky, dusty and incense-filled and we wanted to see the camels up close, so we went outside beside the track.

We saw some non-racing camels prepped for photo-ops with the tourists.  Some of them were a little shy.  Some of them were angry.  Some were complacent.

The camel racetrack is ridiculously huge, bigger than I would have ever expected.  It must be a kilometre or two long, and it goes far off into the distance on both sides.  Thus the TVs, so you could watch the entire race.  From where we were standing outside, you could only see them for about 5 seconds before they were gone again. 

I am super impressed by the quality of my little underwater Olympus camera.  I forgot to bring my bigger, better zoom Canon, but it turned out alright.  What can’t this little camera do?

We watched a few races before we headed back to the busses.  They brought us to a farm where they had a huge buffet set up with loads of amazing Arabic treats.  If there’s one thing that Arabs do well, it’s eat.  Despite the cold, we had a great time.  we found our way into a diwaniya (meeting) tent where there was a fire going and it was WARM.  After warming up for a while, we braved the “cold” (it must have been 13/14C, tops.  Hardly worth whining about, but…brrr).  Voila, some kites for entertainment. 

Then it was back to the busses, back to the AWARE centre, back to Beth, back to home. 

One more cultural thing to cross off the list!

What’s in YOU?

That's ME she's talking about!

I will admit that it is unnerving to be called a woman, although that is exactly what I am. Being 26 years old and feeling 19 means that it will be a while before I actually consistently FEEL like an adult.

I may feel 19, but man, we have a lot of responsibility. Some days I feel a million years old.

Tonight I ran into one of my students from last semester. She was like a flower among thorns in one of my most challenging classes. A class that I did not handle well. I lost my patience more and more nearing the end of the semester, almost every day it seemed.  This student told the friend standing beside her, who attends a different school, how the kids treated me poorly and how I didn't deserve that...

First of all, rule of being an Christian adult #1:  even when people treat you poorly, especially young people, you aren't allowed to treat them poorly back.  You need to show them grace. Epic fail, Katie.

Secondly? I deserve a whole lot worse than what the kids gave.  Thankfully, God is gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  He had to show me that I don't really know how to love before He could start teaching me how He wants me to love.

We've been learning that when God redeems something, He redeems it to better than it was before.   Thus my last post on redemption which I didn't explain at all.

There are still a lot of students who need to forgive me.  But there are a few students who have blown me away in the past few weeks.

My hardest student.  At one point I thought she was possessed by the devil.  The way she looked at me, the way she acted in class, it was beyond that of an eleventh grade girl.  It came to the point where I couldn't do anything about her in class...so I started praying for her outside of class, whenever the urge came to be angry.  Asking God to bless her.  "Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse." It was really hard at first.  Really hard.  But now?

For the last two weeks of class, she was an angel.  She worked hard.  In fact, some days she was the only one in her group who actually did anything!  Now, she smiles at me in the hallway.  A REAL smile, not an evil smile.  She is polite.  She's not perfect, she still tries to get away with small stuff, but she doesn't argue, and she doesn't act like she did before. 

Hallelujah.

Student #2.  Difficult. Slightly lazy. Sometimes downright rude and obstinate.  Definitely challenging.  She signed up for a more difficult art class this semester after completing Art 1 last semester.  On the second day of class she told me, "Miss, I'm taking this class even though none of my friends are in it, because I like art and I like the teacher."

That...was impressive.  I might have actually had a look of shock on  my face, but she wasn't looking.

Again, not a perfect kid.  Possibly sucking up for the sake of good grades.  But... where did that come from?  What possessed her to say something like that?  Maybe she's smarter than she lets on...

Goal this semester?  Grace. It's a pretty amazing thing.

new favourite words

Redeem:

–verb (used with object)

• to buy or pay off
• to buy back
• to recover by payment or other satisfaction
• to exchange for money or goods.
• to convert into specie
• to discharge or fulfill
• to make up for; make amends for; offset (some fault, shortcoming, etc.)
• to obtain the release or restoration of, as from captivity, by paying a ransom.
• Theology. to deliver from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner.

Redemption:

–noun

• an act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed.
• deliverance; rescue.
• Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.
• atonement for guilt.
• repurchase, as of something sold.
• paying off, as of a mortgage, bond, or note.
• recovery by payment, as of something pledged.
• conversion of paper money into specie.

Redeemer:

noun

• a person who redeems.
• (initial capital letter) Jesus Christ.

 

Redeemed!