Dear Heavenly Father,
You know what I think and feel. Be with me this week so that the beginning of this new semester will show a renewed vigor for your work through me. Through continues prayer and stillness I have felt you’re presence in a way that I have not felt in a long time. While at home I would not let myself sit still long enough to hear your word as loud as I have here. I pray that your peace by word never be deaf to my mind, that your words of fire never grow cold in my heart, and your fire for peace burn eternally in my soul.
Amen.
Dear Readers,
I want to start out by sharing a verse with you this week.
1 Corinthians 3: 5-7 5 What, after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
This verse has made its way into my path recently and I wanted to share it with you because with my last term of teaching here in Limon I want it to be the best and most productive of the three. After reading the above verse it brings me back to the realization that I am just a seed. The teachers that come after me will be the water and then ultimately it is up to God to make it grow.
It has been an amazing week and I’m sure you all just can’t wait to hear (read) all about it. Well even though we did not get the chance to take Steve and Joe down to Puerto Vijeo or somewhere fun like that we did get to meander about town in continuous rain with a visit to Ninfa’s house. Our choral clinic finale was on Friday night and the choir was awesome and the solos sounded great! Morgan and I got the chance to take Sarah and Cynthia out to lunch on Sunday after church which was the best rice and beans I have had since I got here. Our Monday night fellowship restarted with a group of six last night. Morgan and I fixed some good ol’ American burgers. Also yesterday we somewhat finalized how we would teach this final semester. So I have plenty of things to talk about this week.
It rained…..and rained….and flooded…and rained some more!!!! We were not sure if Steve and Joe would even make it back to the airport it was so wet and flooded in parts. From about Wednesday last week to Sunday afternoon it did nothing but rain. Wednesday was the day that we had planned take Steve and Joe somewhere “fun” and maybe get into the ocean. The precipitation had slightly different plans though. So we figured we would just go about town (with no umbrella…SMART!!) and see what we could do. So we had lunch and tried to wait it out. We ended up running from awning to awning hoping to stay dry. It did not work so well. One of the days last week Ninfa invited us over for a nice home cooked Caribbean meal. I’m not quit sure where she got it but she made us something called turtle rundown. I don’t know if you know but you are not supposed to kill turtles here, I think. Over all it was a good meal. The turtle meat kind of reminded me of corned beef. It was definitely a new experience.
Friday night at 6:00pm (6:34pm) our choral clinic grand finale started. We had a choir of 26 people that scarcely outnumbered the audience. The rain kept people away but Mrs. Rev. Herta was very vocal in the since that the Devil was disguised as the rain. There were many great solos including three of our regular students which were very nice to see that they felt comfortable enough to do a solo. Mrs. Herta sang while Morgan accompanied with an alto line on viola. It was very nice. I wish there was a way that I could post some of the recording here on the blog but I’m not sure if it allows that. Besides Morgan is still working on splicing and saving the tracks and soon we will have a CD of our performance. YAY!!!
In case you don’t know, Sarah is the woman we lived with upon first reaching Limon until we moved out on our own. This past Sunday has been one of the few Sunday’s where Sarah, Morgan, and I have all been at Faith Moravian on the same day. So Morgan and I intentionally decided that we would take her and her daughter out for lunch…on us. JUST A NOTE.***If you invite someone to lunch in a foreign country, just know that you may be obligated to pay if you are the one doing the inviting*** We took them to a place called Caribbean Calise. This place has the best rice and beans out of anywhere in Limon. Over all it was just nice to be able to sit down, chat, and have a meal with Sarah. Not only because she opened her home to us but because she is an awesome lady with a great sense of humor.
Last night was the first meeting of our Monday night fellowship for the New Year. Here in Costa Rica from mid December to about mid February is their “summer vacation.” So a lot of things get put on hold till everyone comes back from their vacations. So we decided that since we cooked first last year that we would cook first this year. I was not a totally American meal. We fixed 1/4pound burgers and had Youka that was cut into small pieces and then deep-fried like fries. Washed it all down with a tall bottle of refreshing Coke-Cola Classic (Mmmmmmmmm.) It is pretty good stuff. Definitely something I will cook when I get back to the states. While we did not talk music like we usually do, we did talk about the school itself and what worked for the students and what could be different. This information proved valuable for Morgan and I to come to agreement on the way we will teach our final semester.
We have decided that the one on one time you spend with your instrument and teacher are one of the most important in all of music classes. Because the “theory” class usually takes precedence over the lesson we are going to only offer one hour private lessons. This hour will include their theory and ear training all while being hands on with the instrument. We have also learned that the primary school (K-6th) schedule here in Limon flip flops from week to week. Like if I was taking a class on Tuesday morning then the following week it will be on Tuesday evening. It will go back and forth each week. Whereas the high school (7th-12th) schedule is different in the fact that it is like college classes. A student may have a break from 12-2 based on what classes they are taking. We will offer an alternating schedule to allow for any student to partake in the music classes. This means that if we have room anyone can enter the program at any time. The assessments will be given based on how many weeks they have been in the program (i.e. 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks.) This also means that we may not need to take breaks in semesters if a student wants to continue through their breaks, unless the teachers are in need of a break. The only thing that I need now is a curriculum checklist to make sure that I am covering everything the student will need to know to be an effective worship leader in their church.
The seed is planted, which we continue to water. And I believe that it will soon grow into a vibrant part of his creation. It is exciting to think that I am the seed of something that could be so glorious. This feeling kind of reminds me of the feeling you get when you buy a lottery ticket. You start daydreaming about the things you could buy and the good you could do. But you soon realize that you do not have the winning numbers. I believe this seed and water are destined for the JACKPOT!!!!
1 comment:
Hey, man. I just got back from the Florida Youth retreat (Vero Beach) so I had not seen your blog entries. Very nice! I'll have to try to get Steve to actually get on a computer so he can read it! I leave for PA early tomorrow morning for the BWM staff retreat / meetings. I'll try to get online tomorrow evening. Later...
Sam
Post a Comment