Morning Session on Bullying

Greetings from Barranquilla. --- --- This morning on the hour bus ride to teach the children, Brad reminded everyone that there is only 4 days left in Colombia!!! Most of us were completely taken aback as to how time is going so fast. Nicole will be staying for another 2 weeks in Medellin to start the work in the Speaking Centre with Diego and Claudia. --- --- This morning’s session we all noticed that the children arrived quietly and seemed to be more engaged in the lesson than they have been previously this week. It was a complete answer to prayer and an encouragement to us who were feeling a bit overwhelmed during the teaching sessions. --- --- Laura and Jordan did an excellent job with the upfront teaching and it’s been really cool to see Jordan coming alive and being more confident while he’s up front. He’s getting really into it and the kids and adult students really love his enthusiasm… it’s matching Laura’s spunk (she’s amazing up front and is talented at teaching English! We are really thankful for her). --- --- Our translator Sara is doing such a great job at interpreting for us and we are so thankful for her and for all of our other translators…where would we be without them??! --- --- Our talk on bullying went very well, with all of the adjustments (you’d never know we changed it, it went so smoothly). Amanda filled in with a bullying story for Michelle who stayed at the hotel again with Katie. --- --- We are glad to report that Katie seems to be doing a bit better than she has been all week long. However we would still appreciate your prayers for a full recovery. --- --- It is a stark contrast from the morning session to the evening session, as we have written already, but we’d like to emphasize how much we appreciate teaching the night class. The adults are really enjoying what they are learning and for them to be able to practice the English words they already know with us is such a blessing they say. --- --- We have been showing short video clips of each town that we come from (Ottawa, Revelstoke, Vancouver and Vancouver Island) at the start of each class and it’s neat to see the students engaged in where we come from. Our open-ended question time, where they can ask us about ourselves has been really great. (The students get to use the words/phrases we have been teaching them and it’s so great to see the “light” bulb coming on when they figure out words. --- --- Yesterday afternoon we decided to teach our Colombian translators what “Floats” are. We bought ice cream and soda pop and they loved it!!! How sweet to be able to share a wee bit of our culture with them! ☺ --- --- PRAISE REPORTS: --- --- Katie is feeling better --- --- Some of our tables seemed more engaged with us during this morning's session. --- --- The water hasn’t affected us in a bad way (yet… keep praying!!!) --- --- PRAYER REQUESTS: --- --- Full recovery for Katie --- --- Nicole's knee is still bothering her --- --- Continued strength/stamina for our teachers, translators, and people teaching at the tables. --- --- Please pray that Friday as we discuss "DECISION MAKING" that we communicate clearly the truth and are able to share our faith boldly with those we are interacting with at our tables (that is mainly why we are here right?!) --- --- To be able to use our time wisely for the remainder of our trip. --- --- Written by Amanda --- ===