Teacher Training Week and more

Well, it is finally here! The weekend! I think we all should get “I survived teacher training at Rancho Ebenezer 2007” t-shirts made… haha Just kidding. In all actuality, teacher training was a blast. But before that, let’s back up to last week.

Sadly, I don’t remember too much about the end of last week. I do know that most nights we got invited over to someone else’s house for either supper, games, or both, and it was a blast just hanging around other people on the ranch and getting to know them.
Sunday we attended Union Church in the city for the second time. I have to say, I’m glad we went back because I was much more focused than I was last week, and really enjoyed the service a lot. It made me think a whole lot more about the scripture in John Ch 3 verses 22 and on. One thing John said that is so wonderful is that it was his joy to pave the way for Christ. The other follows that verse and says “He must become greater; I must become less.” I feel that there are actually two meanings to what those verses are teaching; a past-present meaning, as when John spoke it, and the meaning that we have given it in our present day. Our present day thought process on that scripture, when it is isolated, means that we try to do too much on our own free will and might, and that we need to give up more of ourselves to Christ and give Him more control over our lives.

However, I do not feel that to be the exact meaning that John intended at that time. John knew his purpose. His purpose was to pave the way for the One who was to follow Him. John was preparing the way for the Lord. John knew what He was supposed to do, and he knew that when Jesus came on the scene, it was time for him to back out of the spotlight. John’s disciples were still coming to him even when Jesus began baptizing, and they couldn’t understand why others wanted to go to Jesus. They were very confused, and they didn’t have a full understanding of just who Jesus was, while John on the other hand, knew it was time to be in the shadow of Christ. The title of the sermon, I believe, was “Happy to hide in the shadow of Christ.”

I can’t stop thinking about that. I can’t stop thinking about each meaning is somewhat different, but so related and similar also. John knew that Jesus would take it from there. His purpose was complete, and he knew that from then on, he would be in Christ’s shadow. I can’t stop thinking about the fact that all we have to do is hide in the shadow of Christ to be effective. Christ is on the scene. Christ is on the scene, and our job is to walk in His footsteps, to walk in the protection that He promised.

So, I enjoyed the service and the message. Afterwards, we made our weekly run to the mall/grocery store, etc. I got to call home and talk to mom. It is always great to call and hear her voice-- I think she enjoys hearing mine too, or at least she makes me think she does. J
Well, as I mentioned at the beginning, this past week in training was wonderful. Each day started with about 2 hours of singing praise and worship and prayer. Each day we always did something different either with devotion time or prayer. Some days we broke off into small groups and some days we prayed together as one large group. Also, we do praise and worship in Spanish and English, and I can already tell that it is helping me to get a grasp on the language. Most of the time we have the lyrics in both languages, which helps a lot. A lot of the songs we sing are Honduran songs translated into English. I have learned that Hondurans are wonderful at being very descriptive. Their prayers and songs are so poetic, and flow together effortlessly. Needless to say it was very powerful and wonderful. The rest of the morning we spent discussing issues about the school and children and how we can make an impact, and how to handle different situations concerning discipline, etc. We were done most days by noon, and the rest of each day was ours to work on lesson plans, get our classroom in order, and anything else we needed to do to be prepared for Monday.

I’m very excited about my class schedule. I had requested a lot of Math and English classes, along with music of course, and that’s what I got! Throughout the course of the day I’ll actually get to teach 10 students. A couple of them are North American Missionary kids here with their families, and I actually get to help them prepare for tests and such back in the US such as the ACT. Most, though, are Honduran children that live here on the ranch, and that is awesome. I get to teach Math 2 classes, Grammar, Spelling, Literature, History, and of course Music! Most of the kids will be in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade, while some of my Math and lots of my Music students are much younger.

Another thing I am really enjoying is the Honduran teachers. There are about 5 Honduran teachers that are bussed in from the city each day to teach subjects that they are much more qualified to teach than us North Americans. The main subjects are of course Spanish and Honduran History, Government, etc. These guys are so much fun to be around. One of the male teachers is William. He is also a pastor at a local church in the city. It was actually his church that I mentioned going to in my last update for a concert. He speaks as much English as I do Spanish, which makes for very interesting conversations.

Well, I can never say thank you enough to those who have made this possible, so again I say, “Thank you!” Monday and the weeks to follow will be an exciting, trying, and very rewarding time for teachers and students here at the ranch. Please continue to pray for all of the ministries of WGO. Pray that the teachers here will be able to make in impact on these children’s lives. Also, the house parents that raise these children here have a huge role and responsibility of modeling “family” for these children that do not have a family, so please pray for them also.

I love getting e-mail from “home” and reading up, so please feel free to write me at jthonduras@hotmail.com. I have also found out that some of the address information I have given is not very accurate. Letters can be mailed to the same address as financial contributions in Humble, TX. However, please let me know if you plan on sending a package of ANY size other than an envelope. The only two real options for packages are the Conroe, TX address, or contacting a team that is coming down for mission work, mailing it to them in the states, and letting them bring it down when they come. Packages that go to the Conroe, TX address are delayed there until a crate is sent down, which is about once a year. The crate for this year is supposed to be coming down within the next two months, and the next one may be up to a year. A couple of you had asked about sending a care package, so I wanted to clear all of that up.
Please know that I think of all of you as often as possible, and that you are in my prayers. It’s hard to do a lot for you from here, but I can always pray, so please let me know if there is something I can help you pray for.

God Bless you all!
- Jesse Tiner