Weekly Update - January 18, 2010
Hello Dear Friends!
Well, another Monday has come and gone. As always, it was eventful (and good).
This last week has been full of crisis management issues, many of them requiring the involvement of the Counseling Department at AAI (so I have been pretty busy!). In the last week we have dealt with issues of 1) Inappropriate touching amongst elementary students (events that occurred at one child’s house, while having a sleepover with peer) 2) bullying amongst middle school and high school students (one student had bruises on his arms and legs from where the other student was hitting him on the school bus) and 3) parents having melt downs in the high school office with threats to sue the school (ironically, but today, this parent was very calm and apologetic…). This, in addition to daily set of “So and so was mean to me”, “My parents are getting a divorce”, “My boyfriend broke up with me”, etc. made for a lot of decion making and relationship building. I believe that, with the Lords help, we have navigated each of these situations well, and have been able to maintain a healthy relationship with parents and students (even when disciplinary measures were required).
The Counseling Department (myself included) is in the final stages of planning the Counseling Summit, which will be a half day of seminars and trainings for the middle school and high school students. We have ten different seminars lined up. All of them will have the focus of “How does ________ affect the way that I see myself, my world, and God”. Seminars will have topics like depression, divorce, relationships (friendship and dating), multi-cultural issues, etc. I am pretty excited to see it all falling into place, and pray that the students will find it interesting and useful.
Rick is very, very close to finishing last years yearbook. As many of you have heard, his students last year were not very good at meeting deadlines, and thus left him with the majority of the yearbook to finish even after the school year had ended. He has been working on it during his spare time, weekends, and holidays. He is hoping to be done by the end of this week. His students this year are much more consistent, and he is giving them even stricter deadlines, so this year’s yearbook should be done by the end of the year.
This last weekend we were able to spend time with a group of fellow teachers, whom we have been getting to know better over the last month of so. Dave is the Youth and Family pastor at our church (English Fellowship Church - EFC), Linsey works with the Counseling Department and also with the Skill Center at AAI (and she is dating Dave), and Amanda McKeen is the girls PE teacher. Our friends, Amanda and Craig Black, were also in our weekend group. We all signed out the school van (yes, the dreaded green van which has absolutely no power and is very slow going up mountains… we were once passed by a family of four on a motorcyle, carrying a duck, while struggling up a hill. They laughed at us as they passed!) and headed out to Papallacta. (you can see pictures at http://www.termaspapallacta.
Papallacta is known for its thermal springs, which have been diverted to pour into different pools of different temperatures. The pools that are closest to where to water comes out of the hot springs are very, very hot. As the water flows down to other pools, it cools down, so some of them are quite cool. Other of the pools are filled with fresh, spring water, which is very cold! Rick and Dave got cheers and applause from some of the others when they jumped straight into the springs (and came back oh-so chilly!). The entrance fee is only $7 a person, so it is quite affordable. Overall, it was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday, and a great way to get to know our friends better.
On Sunday our paster at EFC, Len Kinzel, was preaching and ministering at the local Haitian church. They are very much in need of prayer, as many of them have family and friends in Haiti that they are still trying to locate. Our church will take up a love offering for them next week, and our elders have agreed to cover their church expenses for the next six months (so that the church members can have extra money to send to family and friends in need).
Rick and I are still praying about God’s will for us, here in Quito. We have told the school that we will let them know by the end of this month, whether we will be staying or heading back to the US. Please keep us in your prayers, as this is a very difficult decision for us to make. We are trusting that God will show us His will, and that He will take care of our needs, whether in Quito or in the States.
As always, thank you all for your prayers and support. We are often surprised and blessed by your generousity and kindness.
May God bless and keep you always,
Rachel Sams
