Thursday, June 10, 2010

Chaco Adventures

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope all of you are doing well! God has been teaching me so much these last few weeks leading up to my mission trip. I have currently raised $1060 toward my $2500 goal. God has truly blessed this trip. Thank you for your prayers and support, I could not go to France without either of these things. If you want to financially support my trip please send checks made out to Denton Bible Church and put 8700-21 in the memo line. Email me to get my address.

My summer is filled with many adventures but a few hardships as well. School has come to a close and I am currently packing to go on a road trip with my roommates. We are heading to the Grand Canyon and California for a little R&R and Chaco Adventures. Chaco Adventures are a must each summer. Chaco’s are sports sandals that I enjoy wearing while hiking and doing ‘hardcore’ adventure type things. Last Sunday my friend Allison and I completed our first Triathlon in Irving. This has been a goal of mine for a while, so to complete it was such a rush. I will be training for my next tri after my mission trip. This past week I helped pack up my Grandma who is moving to Lake Jackson and also unpack my parents who moved into a new house in Belton. During the course of these events I had to say goodbye to a sweet friend of mine, my dog Maxi. Through a crazy event, Maxi passed away on the morning of June 9. She was well loved by many of my friends, family and passed roommates. She was 16 years old and a family pet that I had the privilege of playing with since I was 10 years old. Although we had ups and downs in our relationship, I will miss Maxi and the apartment will not be the same without her presence.

My mission trip is coming together through prayer and flexibility. We are having a garage sell on June 19th. My team will leave on July 8th and will be working with another group from Virginia to put on a Vacation Bible School in St Paul France. This whole experience has taught me a lot about waiting on the Lord in prayer and patience. When we first started meeting we thought that we would have to create a curriculum for the trip and be the only ones there teaching. Now we have a large team (10 people from other states), and will be working with an English curriculum to teach the children. This team has worked in France in the past, so we will have so much to learn from them. Another thing that I have learned is about my place on the team. My past mission trips have been with college students going to urban cities. This trip has been a challenge because I am out of my comfort. I am traveling with two families and one teacher from Denton Calvary (the private school affiliated with Denton Bible). I have so much to learn from these men and women, and need to remember my responsibility in building relationships. Both flexibility and acceptance has been a struggle throughout the past weeks, but I have learned so much.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. It is only through your prayers that I am able to go and serve our Lord in faith and love. Let me know how I can pray for you!

With Love,
Anna B.

Prayer Requests:

· That the two teams may serve selflessly one another and the group of missionaries there in France

· For opportunity to share my faith here in the United States and in France

· For faith and trust that God will provide or finances and needs here and in France

· For the Lord to work in mighty ways this summer in the hearts of my past students and my future students, as well as the children in my apartment complex. Three of them were baptized two weeks ago. Praise the Lord!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Discipling my Body

So I am doing a small Triathlon this Sunday. Swimming 300 meters, biking 12 miles and running/walking 2 miles. I say running/walking because I don't anticipate running the whole thing :) My goal is to finish and have fun.

I started the process of training about a month ago with Mr. C's help (a fellow teacher and friend). I decided to do it because I wanted to show my kids that dedication, perseverance, hard work and completing goals is possible. All the time they say "I can't do it." "This is too hard". I got tired of asking them to do things that I myself wasn't doing in my life. I was asking my students to show self discipline, finish goals and persevere when it got hard, when I was not doing this in my personal life. You see I am a big idea, starter type who does not always finish the goals I set for myself.

The funny thing about this whole experience happened yesterday. So all year I have been telling my students these things, and most of them actually finished out the year doing great on their TAKS tests and finishing all their work to move onto the next grade. We celebrated this on Thursday going to the park and cooking out. Then they went home (sad to say goodbye). I was so proud of them and amazed to see all that God had done in each of their lives throughout the year. They where not the same kids I had in the beginning and many had to overcome a lot of negativity to change attitudes and finish. So Friday was clean up day at school. I decided to go swimming that morning to 'practice' before Sunday. It was so hard to swim. What was to be my easiest sport in the tri, was difficult to complete. Seed of doubt was planted, and I questioned if I could do this. Then I rushed home to get ready to go work up at school. I didn't make time to spend with the Lord (reading and praying), seed planted of chaos and overwhelming anxiety about everything going on in this next week. I then went to school and walked into my classroom, I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF!!! Seed planted of time needed and organization of things so that I can be better prepared for next year. Instead of stopping and praying and realizing what was going on I let these seeds grow throughout the day and I was a walking mess at school. **Side note I have an amazing group of coworkers!!** My coworkers would look at me and ask what was wrong and I would unload everything that I was thinking at the time. By the end of the day I was so full of anxiety, doubt and overwhelmed that I decided to give up and not to do the tri.

I tell this story not to confess or unload my junk on you, but to say I understand where the kids are coming from, when they look at the mount of goals and expectations we set before them and give up before they even start or are about to finish. This is an amazing lesson to learn as a teacher. If I am going to teach my students to be self disciplined and finish goals and persevere I need to do the same. I cannot give up when things get hard or it seems impossible to finish. I serve a bigger God than that who tells me not to worry because I am taken care of. To keep my eyes on his righteousness and kingdom and all things will be taken care of. Let me tell you how God took care of me in my anxiousness and self pity.

1. My coworkers swarmed my room and helped me clean and finish report cards selflessly in the midst of my selfishness. They listened to me and spoke words of wisdom about not overwhelming myself in the future.
2. My friend Allison patiently listened to my whining and attempt to give up and spoke truth to me.
3. Both of my roommates reminded me why I am doing this and how I need to finish my goals, unless I wanted to be known as a hypocrite. And one even volunteered to take care of my crazy dog.
4. Mr. C reminded me that I have no reason to quit.
5. God spoke truth to me about my time being his and that my goal is to serve him.

So I am doing the tri tomorrow. This is the beginning of many adventures I am having this summer. I keep praying for the Lord to beat my body and mind into submission. I am thankful for his patience and perseverance to make me into Christ likeness. I am thankful for his surrounding me with friends and coworkers who are amazing, listen and care when I am a mess. I deserve none of this, yet he gives in abundance.

Thank you Lord for your abundant grace and sufficient provision.