Currently Listening Silent Steeples By Dispatch Hey Hey see related

  Almost there. The third marking period has come and gone. I am in the home stretch of my first year of teaching in this country. Many challenges have come and gone bringing rise to many new challenges of any first year teacher. I think that I have really settled into a groove here.

Youth group has been going well…we have even had some new youth attend. This has been a blessing, since many of them attend on a regular basis now. Young life has been going well also. Our numbers have gone down a bit but we all know that its not about numbers. Young Life growth camp will be coming up the weekend of the 27^th. The camp will be on the camping on the northern coast in Samana. I will not be attending but please pray for the youth there. This is a great opportunity to personally reach many of those who have been witnessed to all year. It will be an intense weekend the purpose being to have a spiritually intense session.

In other news, one of our married couples will unfortunately be leaving at the end of this year. This presents me a great opportunity to purchase a vehicle. Transportation in and around Santiago is a hassle for someone without a car. Many of the vehicles owned by SCS teachers are passed on to other teachers. Many of the rides that we teachers receive to and from ministry are by people who will be leaving at the end of this school year. This is something that I have been hoping and praying for all year. Now the opportunity has presented itself.

Prayer requests:

Please pray for Growth camp on the 27^th. This will be a great ministry opportunity for our Young Life Leaders to reach our students.

Please pray that God will provide the $1500 for me to purchase this vehicle. It is a quality jeep that is being offered at a good price. I simply need to come up with the money by June, when the couple leaves.

Please pray for the students at SCS. I feel that many of them are on the verge making decisions for Christ. This is hard when the society and family around them push for a traditional Catholic faith.

If you feel so lead to help with the expenses of this vehicle please do so knowing that I will be greatly appreciative. This will be a great opportunity for me to provide transportation for ministry next year. ¡Gracias y Dios te Bendiga!

The Car that I want to Buy

Another week...

One of the harder weeks of me being down here. What am I saying, one of the harder months. Much has occured this month that has been hard for me. For one thing, I slacked off all marking perido with my professionalism (getting work done on time) and really paid for it my first week back. I really had to struggle to get everything done and done correctly. I should have done it sooner.

Next, I left home on a horrible note. Ashamed at how acted to my two best friends. Break was great until that point. I left, never having truely settling the matter. What  afool I can be sometimes. Not seeing how my actions can affect others.

This week was also a hard week between students and some other issues. Students this week were in rare form. It was simply a stressful time. Other issues arose and ended up how I hoped they wouldn't. But not all was bad. The situation ended better than I thought it would. God must have really had a hand in it. Either way, it still was hard and not what I wanted, but oh well that seems to be the story of my life.

Yesterday was the beach. It was great. I really needed a break from everything. It went really well. the people , Sosua, no rain!!! Unfortunately no snorkeling but it was still fun to just chill on the beach with everyone. Missing home and getting advice from everyone when times like this come, but I just feel like this is where I am supposed to be. I just hope that another month like this happens, I don''t think that I can take it. Since the week ended on a good note, I'll end on a picture from yesterday. Enjoy.

I need to write, what I am too confused to ever say out loud.

I have failed...

I have failed, am failing and will fail in the future. What have I failed? I have failed to live the life that I am called to constantly live. I am not infallible. I am not perfect, but I am called to live a life that I struggle to live. This is the burden that I take on by calling myself a Christian. Maybe I have been fooling myself in saying that I have been doing everything that I can be. Either way, there is more that I can do. I can stop being a hypocrite. Does this mean that I call myself a hypocrite, ABSOLUTLY! There are so many things  that I try to encourage others not to do, but then turn around and do myself. It is hard to truly be a Christian. I am constantly learning what it takes. In an ideal world, I would learn what it takes and be able to right away solidify that idea in stone within my life. That doesn't happen all the time. I feel that I must apologize to those that I care about, I feel that I am failing you. I am not being the person that I feel I can be. I feel horrible for failing both those that I care about, and more importantly, God. I have been failing God all my life. Thankfully He is always going to forgive me.

To those that I care greatly about...

I do not think badly of any of you and if that is the belief that I portrayed, then I am sorry, it was never my intention nor my wish. Either way I am Sorry  about what I put you through Friday night. I acted wrongly and should have handled things differently. Siempre....