More Little Bites...

Every morning we end our class devotional time with prayer. The students all love to pray and take turns praying each day. A typical prayer is, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for today, my family and my friends. Thank you for food on the table. Please help all the people in hospital and who don't have food. Please help us not to be lazy in school today. Please help me to earn more sticks in school so that I can have a pencil or ruler on Friday. Amen." 

One of the families in the school are expecting a new baby in the coming weeks. The brother of the new baby was talking with some classmates about babies and why they had to stay in their mothers for so long. The result of the discussion was that mothers had to have babies in their stomachs because mothers need to look fat!

My six year old boy was asked what his favorite story is and the answer without hesitation; "Joshua and George Washington!" I think I might have some more work to do on the Bible and American History end of things!

I am very blessed with my class because we aren't very big we are all quite close to each other. The kids love to help one another with their work. I have noticed over the last few weeks we have been talking about thinking about others and serving one another. The other day I looked up and my six year old was helping one of my older students read his work and understand the problem. He was explaining it just like he had heard me explain it to him! Very encouraging and uplifting!

A typical shout in my classroom. "Mrs. Helena! I flushed the toilet!" Apparently this is not easy to remember and must be announced to the world when it is remembered!

The Bible story for our class devotion was the Last Supper. I was asking the kids what a supper was and the immediate answer was "The Last Supper was like Pizza night!" I am not sure where that came from. As far as I know we have never talked about pizza night and I certainly didn't mention it in conjunction with the Last Supper. It is amazing how kids minds work!

After P.E. each week I give the kids a cup of water after all their hard running around. One of my younger students took the cup and filled his mouth and then it “spilled” all over another student. When I asked him what happened he told me that his mouth was too full. I then asked, “Why was your mouth so full?” His answer? “Jesus filled it.” I then explained that Jesus had created his mouth but He did not choose to overfill it! I was just so surprised by his answer.

I am using an American curriculum for my younger students which means that we learn about some key figures in American history, such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. One morning my first grader was working in his language arts book. He looked up at me and said, “I want to meet George Washington.” I looked up rather surprised as it had been a few days since we had read and talked about him. “Well, that might be kind of difficult because he died a long time ago.” I explained. He looked right at me and said, “But Mrs. Helena, he was a man of God, I will see him in heaven.” Oh!!! Silly me!!!

Lil' Bites

"Why are the people in the story wearing dresses?" asked one of my 10 year olds as she looked at the picture for our Bible story. Before I had a chance to answer, another of my 10 year olds answered. "Those aren't dresses. Those are robes. Men only wore dresses in the 80's." And he was dead serious. Needless to say it took a little while for me to be able to explain that one.

"Is this right, Mrs. Helena?" asked one of my first graders. She had been having a great day at school. She was focusing on her work and really trying hard to do her work and it was paying off. Whenever my kids are having a great day and really doing well I tell them that they are "On fire!" So because this student was doing so well I of course told her that she was "On fire!" She went back to her desk and a few minutes later I heard her talking with the other boy who is in the first grade with her. She was trying to help him with his work by explaining how to do one of the activities that they were working on. After a couple of minutes of trying to help him she came to my desk and looked me in the eye and said in a very serious voice, "Mrs. Helena, he is not on fire today." I almost burst out laughing but instead I asked her to call him over because maybe I could try and help him.



"Mrs. Helena, guess what?" asked one of my six year olds. "You saw a purple hippopotamus." I guessed. "No." He answered with a smile. "I stayed up to midnight last night!" he exclaimed as proud as he could be! Needless to say I was not nearly as proud and wondering now what kind of day I was going to have. A couple of hours later, he came back to my desk, "Mrs. Helena, I am tired!"

It is towards the end of the day and several of my younger students were in the library room reading quietly together. They were being so quiet that I had almost forgotten that they were down there. Pretty soon, I heard sweet little voices coming from the library room singing quite loudly "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, my FAIR LADY!!!" They then went on to sing "Baaa Baaa Black Sheep" and "Mary had a Little Lamb". So I went down the hall to see what was going on and two of my three students who were in there had a book between them that had these songs in them and they were "reading" and singing at the same time. Their faces were so happy and they were having such a great time I couldn't make them stop. 

A few weeks ago one of my little boys came up to my desk singing, "I roll up, I roll up." He had stuck a pencil behind his ear as he danced over to me. " I am Mr. Daniel." He explained to me as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I thought that it would be a good idea to have my students write Mr. Daniel a letter. I figured that it would be a good way to practice writing in English, also letter writing is a good skill to have and to practice not to mention that Mr. Daniel would really love to get letters from the kids. I asked one my first graders what he was going to write in his letter. "I am going to ask Mr. Daniel why he dances in school." That was not what I was expecting to hear at all! "You are going to ask him what?" I asked again, thinking IJ must have misunderstood. "I want to ask him why he dances in school, because you say that the classroom is not where you should dance but Mr. Daniel used to dance in the classroom, so I want to ask him why?" Well, I couldn't really argue with that, I guess. I did try to explain to him that I don't want him dancing in the classroom because he bumps into people and or their desks and he might hurt himself. He seemed to understand that but he still asked Mr. Daniel anyway...Daniel just laughed and laughed...

Long, Long Overdue Update

The first thing that I must do is apologize for not updating this blog for so long! I just realized that the last time that I posted anything was May! I am so sorry. There have been some major events going on in my life since then so I will do my best to keep it brief but get you all caught up.

The biggest event of all is that I got married in August to an MAF pilot, Brent Mudde, who lives and works here in Angola. (I don't' know if any of you noticed the name change or not:) .) We have been in and out of each others lives since 2004 when he first arrived in Lubango and moved in across the street from me and my family. Since then he has remained a close friend of the family but last March we began dating and in May got engaged. We were married the beginning of August in Greensboro, North Carolina at my home church. It was such a special day, surrounded by family and many friends! We feel so blessed that the Lord made our day so special for us.

Another major event is that I have changed mission organizations. Brent is with a mission organization called Mission Aviation Fellowship and it seemed to make sense that I join his mission instead of both of usbeing part of different missions when we ultimately have the same goal of furthering the Kingdom. So in July I officially joined MAF. Brent was due for his home assignment in August and it seemed a perfect time for me to go with and meet his friends and supporters as well as for him to meet mine. So we spent from mid-August to mid-November in the United States and Canada traveling around and meeting with as many friends and supporters as we could. Once again the Lord made it a wonderful time of refreshment as well as encouragement as we met and talked with people who are excited about His work all over the world. I think at times we can get so busy with just every day life that we forget that we are part of a bigger picture and that there are people all over the world who are excited and are doing their part with you. So thank you so much if you are one of this people! Whenever I feel overwhelmed by life

and work and I remember that you are there with me, praying and encouraging me along! You mean a lot to me!

My younger brother Daniel, came out to Angola

to fill in at school for me. He had just graduated in May and was looking for something to do. So he very graciously said that he would fill in for me for a few months while we were in North America. He did a fantastic job and the students and their parents all loved him. He went back to the States in January to see what the Lord has for him next. My students and I are all praying that the Lord will call him back here!

Brent and I arrived back home to our "new home" in Lubango in November. Brent before we left in July, worked on renovating our house that was right next door to his old house. He made the living almost double the size but he only had time to move his stuff in before we left. So when we arrived back we finally got to set up the house like we wanted.

In December we had to move from our classroom at the seminary because they needed it back for a previous contract. Fortunately there was an empty house at Mitcha, the missionary gated community that we live on, so I asked if we could rent that for a school. It needed to be cleaned up and a new paint job but nothing that was really that serious. We obtained permission to rent it and spent the we-

ek between Christmas and New Years painting and cleaning and building shelves and moving so that we could be ready to start school January 9th.

There was an old shipping container here on the compound that was full of all kinds of books and magazines. However the container was very rusty and musty and had holes in it so it was leaking. It also was home to several mouse and rat communities! Needless to say many of the books were ruined however we were able to save quite a few! Brent took apart all the shelves that were in the container and moved them to the new school that now has four rooms, three of which are classrooms and one that is a library room. It is such a blessing to have shelves and not have to have books in boxes anymore. The compound manager was able to find all the old furniture from the old school

house and he moved it all to the new school so we did not have to buy desks and tables, which of course was a huge help as it seems that everything here costs a lot of money!

School started on the 9th of January with 15 students and a couple new faces in those 15. The students were all very excited to be in a new location. I am pretty sure that most of them have never seen so many books in one place before! So learning how to take care of books is one of the most important lessons we are learning. It never occurred to me that I would have to teach children who are 2nd and 3rd grade how to put books away on a shelf! They all love to come to school each morning and are excited about learning not just their school work but also during our class devotion time. They are all engaged and asking questions and they all want their own turn to pray each and every day! Absolutely thrilling! The children are also very excited by the fact that now they have swimming lessons once a week with Brent! Brent is also helping my high school boys with their science course.

Our biggest need at the moment is another teacher. I have new parents coming to me each week asking if I couldn't possibly find space for their child in the school. However I am very much at my maximum capacity. I can't take on any more students but at the same time I don't want to miss out on help these children and their parents. So if you could please pray with us about staffing and what our next steps should be to grow that would be very much appreciated.

Once again, I apologize for taking so long to update you all.

Thank you so much for all your prayers! They are most certainly not unappreciated!