May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God the Father
and the fellowship, the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit be with you
forever more and ever more and ever more
Amen!!
That’s the song that we sing to each other every morning just before we leave staff devotions and head down to pick up our students from the courtyard.
Staff devotions.
Instead of arriving at school every morning and moaning and complaining about how tired we are or how much work we have to do or dreading the behaviour of our next class, we gather together and we praise Him: singing, clapping, dancing, laughing, smiling, joking, sharing. We study the Bible and we pray. Then we sing “our song” as they like to call it, while holding hands in a circle. It may sound a little fruity, but it’s the BEST way to start the day.
Because after that, we’re calm and positive when we go to pick up our students from the courtyard. We’re in one accord.
And once we get settled into our classroom, we start devotions with our students.
They say the pledges followed by (my personal favourite):
This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
I can be what it says I can be.
I can go where it says I can go.
This is the Word of God to my life and I will serve God.
I will love Jesus.
I will read His Word.
I will keep it close to my heart all the days of my life.
I make them hold their Bible while they say that one ;)
And we sing and we pray all together. And we study our Scripture Memory (this month it’s Psalm 97:1-6…our God is awesome-ly POWERFUL!).
And then we’ll start our lesson. We haven’t started any lessons yet because during Ramadan hours we only have 30 minutes of Bible class and so far, devotions takes up 15 minutes, and learning our Scripture Memory takes up 10 minutes, and checking their homework books and doing other duties fills in the final 5, and then I’m off to another class.
The days have been so busy, that although they go very, very quickly, it still feels as though we’ve already been in school for 2 weeks instead of only 3 days!
Today I had after school duty, and one little girl didn’t get picked up until much later than the other kids. So we sat in the office and I read her a couple of storybooks from the library. She’s 7, but with the accent and her height, she could easily pass for 5. And I think she recently learned the word “actually”, because it was in every sentence she said!! It made me miss Arden and Carlie, hanging out with a little Arab version of them.
I have been overwhelmed by a flood of blessings these last few weeks (and days, in particular!!), and when I get a few more details, I’ll let you know.
But yes, I will have a legal visa through the church in the next couple of weeks. Isn’t that AWESOME? (I’ve said and thought this a MILLION times in the past 3 days. And I doubt I’m exaggerating by much!!)
God’s been telling me, “I TOLD you so!!” for the past couple of days, and I keep reminding Him how absolutely ridiculous He is. Absolutely ridiculously amazing.
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
