One of the more fun jobs for the visiting team this week: getting to burn the tall, dry grass. This controlled burning prevents the risk of accidental and much more dangerous fires during the dry winter.
On the way to Tonya & Heather's house, we spotted 11 giraffes! There's only six in this shot, but it was incredible!
Greetings
from Bethesda!
I apologize for my delay in posting, although I highly doubt that anyone
was chomping at the bit to read my update. My time here is starting to fly by
and it is hard to fathom that I have been here over a month now. Nonetheless, I
am having a great time here. As I last reported, the Purdue team departed last
Sunday, but already another team has arrived. This team is composed of students
from Faith Baptist Bible College in Iowa and Baptist Bible College in
Pennsylvania and there are 21 people total. These people have been so fun and
welcoming to me. Their impact at Bethesda has been nothing short of amazing
thus far, but I will tell more about that later. My time in the classroom has
been an adventure once again as the title suggests and I am so grateful that I
am getting this experience now before my student teaching otherwise I am afraid
that I might not do so well. Regardless, I am glad to be serving in the school
and in the other various ways that I am employed. I hope and pray that God will
continue to stretch me while I am here and that I will not be comfortable with
a “good enough” mentality when I serve.
As I have mentioned before, I am
on a rotation where I spend time in almost every grade and am teaching lessons
for the older grades. This week, I substitute taught for the Grade 1 teacher on
Thursday. I was initially really excited about this opportunity as these
students have always enjoyed my presence in the classroom. From the start, I
did my best to emphasize that I would be the teacher for the day and that they
were to give me the same respect that they give Mrs. Matjeni. Unfortunately,
they still thought of me as the fun teacher, which was a gift and a curse
simultaneously. Now as a whole and on an individual basis, they are a great
class and I look forward to going back into their classroom. But they were very
hyper and hard to keep on track in the morning. When we were working on
spelling, one of the girls that has always been excited to see me would not
stop interrupting me. In hindsight, I probably should have made her “move a
peg,” the school’s behavior management/discipline system. Instead, I gave a bit
more grace than I should have before I addressed her rather sternly in front of
the class. She then more or less shut down until after the lunch time.
Consoling her seemed to only make things worse, but I am happy to report that
she has warmed up to me once again. Before the first break, we went to line up
and all of a sudden, I had another crier. This girl had been shoved by another
girl. I actually handled this situation correctly: I asked the other girl if
she had shoved her on purpose and indeed, she had. I had her apologize and ask
for forgiveness per the school’s procedure. After all of this, I then told her
that she had to move” down a peg.” And that’s when she starting bawling. I
consoled a little bit, but reminded her that she indeed had deserved to have
her peg moved. I had two other criers before the day was out. One girl who said
her stomach was bothering her (but was miraculously healed after lunch) and
then a boy who forgot his library book at home so he was not going to be able
to check out a new one. Interestingly with him, when I informed him that he
could not check out a new book, he took the bad news like a champ. But when we
returned to class and resumed the math lesson, he had his head down and I saw
some tears whenever he raised his head. He’s such a soft spoken little guy that
I had to ask another student to come over and interpret what he was saying.
When the day was done, five students or half the class had been in tears at
some point during the day. While I am sure that part of my troubles are typical
of any substitute teacher, I know that I could have handled many things
differently and with more wisdom. It was certainly a learning experience for me
and while it was not at all enjoyable at the time, I know that it will help me
in the long run as a teacher.
Part of the reason I was delayed
in getting my blog was the arrival of the team from Faith & BBC on Thursday
night. However, I have really enjoyed spending time with them and serving them
over the weekend. Since Thursday night, they have been a lot of fun and very friendly
to me as I was introduced to them all in a very funny way. John Mixon was
introducing the Bethesda staff that was present on Thursday night and when he introduced
me, he asked what I had done that day, knowing that I had substituted for the 1st
grade. After I recounted my exploits of the day and the “awwwe”s had subsided,
Tonya goes “And tell them how many cried.” I reluctantly answered “5… out of
the 10.” Everyone had a good laugh and so now it’s a bit of a recurring joke “Did
you make the kids cry today?” Starting Saturday morning, they put on a camp for
the teens of Bethesda on leadership and I sat in on a couple of their messages.
I must say that they did an incredible job and there are a lot of incredible
young men and women on this team. I have also joined them for their evening
worship and reflection time. The worship has been particularly great for me as
I am reminded with truths such as “All I Have is Christ” amongst many other fantastic
worship songs. Their reflecting time was also awesome to hear as they shared some
of the things the teens had shared with them. After hearing these, I was
convicted in that I often overlook the faith of these students in the course of
a school day in favor for the pressing academic agendas and have in some cases
failed to recognize it. While I certainly have to accomplish things in class, I
know that if I look for it, it will not take much effort to see the students’
love for God which puts my desire for Him to shame. The teens definitely
appreciated and were actively participating in their camp activities as Moeletsi
and Tumelo both thanked the team at the bonfire on Sunday night. The impact of
this camp will be felt in the coming weeks, months, and years at Bethesda and
the surrounding areas.
In addition to my duties at
school and my time spent with the team, I have also had a lot of fun with the
kids at Bethesda. As usual, I have been tutoring afterschool and that has been
going well. It has turned into a social hour at times, but the students who
need some extra help are certainly getting it. But other kids who have not come
before are now coming to simply hang out, such as Thandiwe (grade 7) and
Lethabo (grade 3). I have not worked with either of these girls in the school
much, but within the past week, they both apparently warmed up to me. I also
started a fun thing with some of the boys that were just under the age limit to
attend the camp. With parental permission, I invited Peter, GMS, Gift, and
Steve over to my flat on Friday evening to watch Batman Begins, one of my favorite movies. Needless to say, they all
loved it and it was a déjà vu feeling for me as I introduced my younger cousins
to this movie and its sequels within the past couple of years. Without any
teams coming for the remainder of my stay, I foresee more Batman nights with
these boys as well as some of the teens who were at the camp, which is fine by
me.
In conclusion, I would like to
ask for prayer on several issues. First, the car repairs which await the Mixons
and Tonya are still in the works, but we know that God will work it all out in
His time. Secondly, there were some changes made at the school during the past
week. I do not want to divulge anything that I shouldn’t before they are
officially announced, so I simply ask that the teaching staff would continue do
their best to teach the students not only the core subjects, but also instruct
them to love and follow the Lord. Lastly, I would ask that I would be more
intentional with the kids on spiritual things. While it is easy to simply
discuss the events of the day or cultural differences or whatever flavor of the
week topic, I know that my faith will be bolstered by them and hopefully it can
be the iron sharpening iron that Proverbs talks about. As always, thanks for
reading and thank you for your prayers! Take care and have a great day!
In Christ,
Dan Lehe
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