Packing My Bags!

Soon!

I'm never one to be too ahead of the game when it comes to packing bags - mainly because I don't have enough stuff to pack into bags and still use while waiting to take off on a trip with little packed bags:).

For the past three months, I've been helping organize a trip for the teens of my church and Christian school and it has been a lot of fun! I did jokingly tell a friend recently that I spent more time planning for this trip than I did for my wedding, but that was (mostly!) tongue in cheek:).

My husband and I, along with several other chaperons, are taking 24 teens to a competition in the middle of nowhere 18 hours away from PA:

The teens are competing in everything from music to photography to one-act plays, and I think they have done a FANTASTIC job letting their talents shine for the Lord!

I'm waiting on one more student to turn in a sketch (nothing like waiting 'til the last minute!), but for the most part the projects are packed, the paperwork filled in, and the candy ready to go! Nat and I are thrilled to be going along on the trip and are looking forward to a great week of preaching, competition, and spending time with the teens.... as long as my bags get packed:).

So.... About That Trip.

While playing 40 rounds of Dutch Blitz on the trip was fun, it was not necessarily educational :). Last Thursday Pookie and I got to go with Deborah and her husband David to a Burmese school where they teach English twice a week. I had to laugh when David had all the kids stand up and start jumping around:

Kids, whether in the USA or in Thailand, sometimes get a little, shall we call it - tired - during school hours. Since I worked with students for three years, I can definitely attest to this fact! There is something about school that just seems to "trap" some students in for 7 hours each day. These students know, down to the second, just how long it will be until lunch or the end of the day:).

So being in this schoolroom brought back some memories of my days as a teacher... and now that I am looking back, I can remember them and smile!

Because you know at the time I wasn't always smiling at the antics of junior high boys:).

Sooo... About That Whole Amusement Park Thing.

We took the high school students to Knoebels on an end-of-the-school-year trip today, which has always been a favorite place of mine since I was a young girl. So many memories are built into this park and they are all good!

But I found out today that I just can't handle amusement parks like I used to. We took the students on a trip here three years ago, and I had a little bit of a rough day then, but just thought I was having an off day. Well today proved to me that amusement parks and I must remain friends at a distance. I went on the tame rides today and felt sick to my stomach. After getting off the first ride, I felt awful. I managed to get through the day, but that meant no roller coasters! The Tilt-a-whirl was the last ride of the day, which was a mistake. Even now, hours later, my stomach is still a little shaky.

But I'm glad I went along. My group was the 10-12 grade girls (pictured below) and it was a sweet time... one final time. Three of these girls are graduating next Saturday.

We finished out our school year yesterday, which means that a chapter of my life just closed. I have greatly enjoyed teaching and working with these girls and other students over the past three years. You know the saying, "time flies when you're having fun"? That has been true of my time at EBA. I loved having the privilege of being in these teenagers' lives and finding out the good and the bad. Each day held it's own joys and trials, and I thank the Lord for every school day. When I came home from my trip out West, two of the senior boys were sitting at a table working on Accounting when the one said to me, "Miss Hammond, I'm really glad you're back."

Now if it weren't for the Lord doing a work in my life, I would say I am being pretty stupid walking away from a job I greatly love; away from great students. How silly that would be to throw away the relationship I've built with my students, BUT the Lord is moving me on to Thailand.

So this is a bitter-sweet day of my life. Another school year is over, and the desks are all cleaned out. The lockers have slammed shut for a final time and the hallways will be silent for three months. The shouts of laughter and excitement will soon be but a distant memory and the classrooms will be silent witnesses to all that took place in a span of 180 school days. A senior class will be moving on, never to return as students. And one particular teacher will be in another country at the start of the next school year. I'm glad I had this final day to spend with "my" students, queasy stomach or not!

Home Again, Home Again...

Park Meadows Baptist Church in Lincoln, Illinois hosts an Independent Baptist Student Convention every year so 19 students and 9 chaperones loaded up the bus on Monday night and started the l-o-n-g drive out. One thing we did differently on this trip was to put a time limit on the caffeine consumption and that really cut down on the night time bathroom breaks:o). It also cut down on the noise level in the bus. :p

The week was a lot of fun ~ as in nights of only getting 5 hours of sleep and hitting the ground running at 6 AM and going non-stop all day long! The teens competed in four areas: music, academics, platform, and arts & crafts. In the picture below, you'll see the two girls in the front holding the academics and arts & crafts plaques. I personally thought the teens did an excellent job in music, but the points were given for the number of entries made, not the quality:o).

During one of the rest stops last night, we stopped at a Sheetz gas station to use the bathroom. As we all traipsed in (looking our finest, I assure you!) someone inside said, "It's a busload of Amish people!" Now do we look Amish to you?

Don't answer that:o). See ya in church tomorrow!

I Should Have Been...

I Should Have Been Crucified

I was guilty with nothing to say

And they were coming to take me away

Then a voice from heaven was heard that said

Let him go take Me instead

And I should have been crucified

I should have suffered and died

I should have hung on the cross in disgrace

But Jesus, God's Son took my place

That crown of thorns, a spear in His side

And all the pain it should have been mine

Those rusty nails were meant for me

Oh but Christ took them and let me go free

And I should have been crucified

I should have suffered and died

I should have hung on the cross in disgrace

But Jesus God's Son took my place.

Yes Jesus God's Son

Oh Jesus God's Son

For Jesus God's Son took my place.

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This song sums up the true reason we even have Easter. I'm the one who should have been crucified, but instead Jesus took my place. And for all of eternity I will get to praise His Name!

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This is just a little fyi - I will be away for several days taking a break and having the song "The wheels on the bus go round and round!" go round and round through my head:o). A busload of EBA teens, homeschoolers, and chaperones are loading up the bus on Monday and heading out to the Midwest to compete in an Independent Baptist Student Convention all this week.

Good-bye sleep.

Hello caffeine:o).

Praising The Lord.

I'll say this up front: if you get confused, I'm sorry:o).

Confused yet?!?

Now let's properly start the post!

Last June, I graduated from Lehigh Valley Baptist Bible Institute with a certificate saying I completed all the required courses for the Religious Education Program. I was very excited about becoming the second girl in the history of the school to graduate (the first girl graduated with me on that day:o)) and to just be done with it all.

Soon after, it was brought to my attention that I would need _ _ credits to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Education from Great Plains Baptist College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So I began to work on the credits, which included putting together a portfolio of all my experiences working in a Christian school, on staff at church, missions trips, etc. The month of February was taken up with working on this portfolio, and I finally mailed it off to Great Plains with much prayer behind it. Great Plains only graduates once a year in May, so I knew if I didn't earn all the credits this year, that it would be May 2010 before I would have another opportunity (Lord-willing I'll be in Thailand in May 2009).

As I was chatting with my sister today on the phone, I walked to the mailbox and pulled out the mail. Imagine my great surprise and delight when I opened a letter from Great Plains that said "Dear Graduate..."!!!!! My sister got an earful of joyful shouting for quite a bit of time, and my heart overflowed with thankfulness to the Lord for His Goodness to me!

I read this verse this morning, which I think was rather fitting:

"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands."

Psalm 138:8

The next step is now figuring out travel plans. Sioux Falls isn't exactly near a big city, so flying and driving are both going to be expensive options. But the Lord has brought me this far, and will "perfect that which concerneth me"! In the meantime, I thought I would praise the Lord for His mercy towards me and share it with ya'll!

A L-O-N-G Trip.

We headed out on Thursday morning to go the the Creation Museum, but I knew we were in for it when I saw all the Mountain Dew soda and candy being loaded on to the bus! So I was (pleasantly!) surprised when the teens kept the noise level to a minimum for the first 10 hours of the trip:o).

Doesn't our bus look so small next to the big rigs?!?! It's funny how it looks huge until it's next to something even bigger:o).

The trip out was so pretty! I love driving through Pennsylvania, and this was one of the beautiful scenes I saw.

Of course the whole reason why we did this field trip was to give our teenagers a Christian perspective on science. The first thing we did was go to the planetarium, and to see all the stars, planets, and galaxies made me think of the verse, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" It's enough to make you realize how insignificant you really are in the grand scheme of things.

I'm sure most of you know this, but this is not unusual to see one of my student's taller than me:o).

The front of the museum...

We had plenty of chaperones go along, but I think (at this moment anyway!) these two were the tiredest!

After we were done in Kentucky, we headed to Dayton, Ohio to go to the (free!) Air Force Museum. It was interesting to walk through (my group made it through 4 of the 5 hangers before they called it quits... I give them credit for that since most girls aren't interested in airplanes!) If the history of the airplane is your thing, I would recommend you pay this museum a visit (and as I said, it is free!)

There was a memorial park right outside the museum...

Of course no trip is complete without a mishap, and in our case, it was a blown fuse for the headlights. We parked outside a Seven-Eleven for about an hour and the manager was gracious enough to give us free coffee! But judging by the look on their faces, these girls didn't need any (that was true enough!) and it took them several hours to calm down from all that caffeine! But all in all it was a really good trip, and I would like to go back again sometime.... just not with 30 teenagers;o).

From The Court...

Today my volleyball team played their first game, and as the sets were even (we won two and the other team won two), I called a time out with the score 14-9. I was trying to break the other team's serve so that the game could be over and we all go home. I knew my girls were ready to be done and the score was oh so close. As the team huddled around, I encouraged them to do three hits and to nail the third hit into a hole on the other team's side and just end the game! As we talked and I gave pointers to the girls, one senior piped up: "You know, it would be funny if she served the ball in the net!" I laughed and replied, "Well, God has a sense of humor!"



Would you believe it, that's exactly what happened!!! After all of the planning, scheming, and plotting, in the end it had nothing to do with our team strength for that last point... the other team just had a bad serve. We ended up winning the game, but the Lord taught me a lesson, even in the midst of coaching a game. It doesn't matter how much planning I do to make things "just right"; God's plan is so much bigger and all the scheming in the world won't make up for His perfect plan. It's funny, but I don't often consider the volleyball court as a place to learn a lesson. Today I did though!

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For all of you former EBAers, I think you would be impressed that the EBA volleyball team is having a winning season!!!!

*Ahem*

Never mind the fact we've only played one game. We play Valley Forge on Monday, so we shall see if it continues on... yay Knights!

It's Been Good.

I was happy, yet sad, to see this week finish up. Unofficially, today was the last day of school for EBA. (Officially, we have two students coming in next week to finish up their schoolwork.) The excitement mounted with each passing day, kinda like an orchestra building up to a dramatic part of the music... and then, the ending. Monday the kids were in "school" mode... but by Wednesday the "last" classes were done and the students knew party time was coming! Thursday morning all the students took at least one test and everyone passed ~ with a 85% or higher; mostly higher! A little motivation goes a looooong way;o).

Today we took the whole school on a picnic to a park up the road and they had such a good time... I did too: watching the boys play baseball; hearing the girls cheer them on; seeing the little ones excitedly race to the playground; spending time with some girls playing volleyball while we suffered in the humidity and on a sand court too!

Then, at the end of the day, some of the girls and I took down the Learning Center one last time and set it up for Sunday School. That's the way it's going to stay most of the summer... with the exception of graduation, fellowships, and VBS:o).

I don't know where my brain went, but I was just happily traipsing along, going about my schedule, when I realized that the school year was almost over! Three senior boys will no longer walk down the hallways of the school as students; will no longer run out back to play basketball during break; will no longer be a "Knight" playing on the soccer and basketball teams. Three younger girls will not be back next year as their parents have decided to do something else for their education. There will be no more sitting and chatting with them at break; no more lunchroom laughter and pranks; no more giggles and whispers.

This year has been a good year... one I'm sorry to see end. At the beginning of the year uniforms were issued and it was one of the best choices the school could have made. Suddenly there were no questionable articles of clothing. The choice of "what to wear?" in the morning was made easy with four shirts to chose from and tan and black for a bottom. The first day of school I did a double-take as I said to two boys, "Wow! You guys match!" But I got used to it in a hurry as did everyone else. And the students did look sharp when they went to the nursing home to minister... when they went on a field trip... when they went to Competition in Illinois....everyone wearing the same shirt and bottom. Seeing a sea of maroon and tan every Tuesday was very impressive! Yes, it's been a good year!

I mentioned to a student the other day that by the time I come back from Thailand, it will soon be time to start school again. The student replied, "No don't say that! I want to enjoy my summer!" I think she will, but it won't be too long before the doors are open, the students are back, and the hallways are filled with laughter and talking. But that's 3 months away... a lifetime for a student:o).

Three Simple Words.

I heard three simple words today and they thrilled my heart! I was working with a student who has a very difficult time in grasping information (particularly when it comes to school work... I haven't quite figured that one out yet:D), so I patiently explained to her the subject that most students love: History. I had already heard about her great dislike for English ("why do they think we need to know how to write a paragraph?") and also about the not-so-fond-feeling she had for Science ("There are too many constellations to remember."), so I was expecting some sort of comment about her history. As I got out the globe to explain why the Korean Peninsula is called that very thing, she exclaimed, "This is interesting!"

I was so shocked that you could have pushed me right over, and yet I felt gratified that my efforts were not in vain and this is the reason why I love working with the students and especially teaching them History. Today I felt like I went in and did my job right. Today I felt like I connected with a student. Today was a good day.

Now that doesn't mean that all the other students were terrific. That doesn't mean that there were no problems. That doesn't mean that at the front of the room there isn't a whiteboard with the words "18 days left!" written across the top. That doesn't mean that the kids haven't already started shutting down mentally for summer vacation.

But today I knew I made the right choice in working at EBA... in pouring countless hours into the students... in getting involved in their lives... in praying for them... instructing them... laughing with them... remembering them with special treats... these are the teens with whom I am privileged to work.

One question I have yet to figure out an answer to is the one at the bottom of the yearbook survey I had to fill out: "What was your favorite memory from the school year?" How do you sum up 183 days in a sentence or two? I've been able to interact with these students and "it's been a great year" just doesn't cut it.

But today the student who said, "this is interesting!" showed me what my favorite memory from the school year was: getting an opportunity to work with these students each and every day.

Eww... This Is Just Plain Gross.

Everyday at 12 sharp (ok, so maybe it's 11:59 or 12:01!), all the students stand by their desks and we have a word of prayer for lunch.

Very necessary!

After that, there's a mad dash to the lunch room and the fighting begins.

Over the microwaves.

You see, our students are blessed to have a fridge and microwaves to use for their lunches and they certainly uphold their end of the deal. So it's usually about 12:09 when I sit down to lunch, because I'm normally the last one to get to the lunchroom which also means I'm last in line. After warming up some rice Tuesday, I sat down at the girls table just in time to hear a story about mayonnaise.

Jen (not to be confused with redheaded Jen from a previous post:)) was the storyteller and her audience was unwilling yet captive listeners. So Jen begins...

A particular family loves mayonnaise but one day the jar is finally emptied. Saddened that they don't have any more mayonnaise, the family goes to bed but the next morning they find the jar refilled! So they joyfully eat the mayonnaise and declare it to be the best they have ever tasted. By the end of the day, the jar is empty again. But miracles do exist, and the next morning the family finds it full again. They gobble it all up and are determined to find out where it comes from, so the father says he will stay up that night and watch. The next morning the family breathlessly asks the father about the strange refillings of the mayonnaise. The father replies, "Last night around midnight a man walked in with zits all over his face and leans over the jar..."

Right about then, my fork hesitated in mid-air as the disgusting mental picture crept into my mind. Ewwww! To make matters worse, Rebekah chose that moment to begin talking about where rice comes from... "It's really maggots that have been frozen..." blah, blah, blah.

Um, I thought boys were supposed to be the disgusting ones! So today as I sat down at the table, one of the girls asked, "Miss Hammond, does jello come from crushed-up horse hooves?" Where do they come up with these things??? And why does it have to be at lunch time???

Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with 4 co-workers to celebrate a birthday... hopefully the conversation does not revolve around mayonnaise and horse hooves:o) Don't forget to enjoy some mayonnaise!