Back to School Newsletter
Dear Prayer Partners,
This summer I was able to enjoy some much needed rest. Typically, my school years are packed full with teaching and other ministry commitments and my summers are filled with visiting churches, support raising, visiting friends, taking online classes, and fitting in appointments. This summer I felt the Lord calling me to a season of rest. I spent about a month in the States spending time with friends and family and then came back to the D.R. and had some time to relax here as well before starting back up at school. This summer the Lord worked in my heart to teach me about unhurried time with Him and helped me enjoy resting in His presence again. I'm very grateful to have had this time to grow personally and spiritually and find some refreshment before stepping into a new school year. I am now back in the swing of things with school and ministry and I'm excited to share some updates and prayer requests from the last few months with you.
Updates
Anniversary Service
On August 2nd our church celebrated our 23rd anniversary with a special evening service. Our praise team helped lead the congregation in worship as we remembered together all the ways God has worked to build and work through our church here in San Pedro over the last 23 years. Our pastor recognized and thanked the leaders and pastors that have come before him and shared a message. We are so grateful for all that God has done at IBEM and we pray that He will continue to use our church to reach San Pedro and the D.R. with the Gospel for many years to come.
Send Off
In my last newsletter I shared that our school director, Lynn, had announced that she and her husband, John, would be moving back to the States to serve as the mission director of their mission agency. Lynn has faithfully served in the D.R. as the Las Palmas director for the last 14 years. On August 21st, the night before their flight back to the States, we had a send-off event to honor them. School personnel, current students, graduates, family friends, and missionaries gathered to thank them, give testimony to their impact in their lives, and say goodbye. We are so thankful for the years they spend in the D.R. and the impact they had on so many lives during their time here. Please continue praying for them as they transition back to life in the States and their new roles there. Also please continue praying for the Lord to bring someone to our school to step in as a new director. Currently, our high school coordinator is serving as both a coordinator and interim director and the board is searching for a new director. Please pray specifically that the Lord brings someone that is experienced, servant-hearted, and is able to lead our school with wisdom as it continues to grow and progress.
Back to School
On August 18th the teachers and staff returned to Las Palmas to start our two weeks of in-service. In-service schedules are always full of meetings, time to work in classrooms, and preparations for a new school year. However, at Las Palmas it is always a special time because we also take time to worship together as a staff, hear a message and challenge from our campus pastor as we step into a new year of service, and end with a prayer walk around campus to ask for the Lord's blessing and provision. The heart of Las Palmas is truly to seek the Lord in everything and use our school as an opportunity to show God's love to every student and parent that comes on our campus and I'm so grateful that I get to be a part of it.
During in-service this year I was asked to present another workshop about classroom management and discipline. Some of you may remember that I wrote two years ago about struggling with classroom management and implementing a new, more restorative, discipline approach in my classroom after spending much time researching, meeting with members of leadership, and praying for direction. I have been able to continue using this new classroom discipline system for the last two years and it has brought much more peace to my classroom and joy in teaching. Other teachers began asking about the system I was using, and we ended up implementing it through all of first through third grade last school year. This year, I was asked to share some of the things I have learned and implemented in my classroom to help with classroom management to all the pre-school- third grade teachers. Although I feel largely inadequate to be considered the "expert" on these things, I am thankful for the way God has provided guidance and growth in this area over the last few years so that my ministry can be more joyful and so I can help other teachers that are having the same struggles day-to-day in the classroom.
On August 28th we had "Meet the Teacher" night and got to meet our new students. Then, on September 1st we had our first day of school. We are now two weeks into the school year and so far, things are going very well. This is my 5th year teaching second grade which makes many of the logistics like classroom set-up, parent communication, and lesson planning a lot less demanding. I have really enjoyed getting to know my new students and I am excited to see what this year will hold for each of them.
New Ministry Opportunity
Over the last few months, I have been praying for God to show me if there are any new ministry opportunities He has for me to step into this year. While talking to my roommate a few weeks ago she mentioned that the praise team for the church youth group that she helped start up last year had really strong musicians but was needing some more support for their vocalists. After praying over it, I decided to go to one of their practices to see if this was an area I could serve. For the last two weeks I have attended their practices, and I have been able to work with their team to practice their songs and help them with arranging the songs, finding their pitches, adding harmonies, etc. There is another member of our church praise team who teaches choir at the school and has been helping the singers as well. She was thankful to have another person to help the team and potentially cover when she is not able to attend a practice. I have really enjoyed getting to work with the team and help them develop the skills God has given them to lead their peers in worship. I am excited to continue helping with this ministry this year and see how the Lord continues to grow and use their team and talents for His glory.
Prayer Requests
I am currently in the process of renewing my passport and I will need to complete the process to renew my residency again in November. Please pray that both these renewal processes would be quick and simple.
Please continue praying for my health. I am continuing to struggle with a few chronic conditions and have been working with gastroenterologists both here in the D.R. and in the U.S. to get treatment. I have done many rounds of tests and treatments over the last two years. The last two weeks I took another course of antibiotics that had a lot of side effects and made it difficult to make it through the school days and keep up with ministry commitments. I am still on a very restricted diet which can be difficult to keep up with here since specialty products are not as accessible here as they are in the States. Sometimes I get discouraged with symptoms that don't seem to improve and the difficulty of getting continued treatment while navigating switching between countries and languages and paying for many things out of pocket. I ask that you continue to pray for healing, direction for treatment, and encouragement to keep going on hard days when my body feels weak.
Recently the country has been having a lot of power outages. While this is pretty typical here in the D.R., right now we have been experiencing power outages in much of San Pedro for about eight hours at a time, two days a week. The school generator has had a hard time keeping up with all the outages. In our first two weeks of school we experienced two school days where the power went out for about two hours and the generator was not working. This has meant trying to teach without lights, fans, or projectors in a feels like temperature of over 100 degrees while we wait to see if the power will come back. The school is working to resolve the issue. Please pray that they are able to fix the generator quickly and that we do not experience more power outages while students are at school.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read these updates and lift our ministries up in prayer! I greatly appreciate your support and encouragement.
Blessings,
Natasha
Comments