20 January 2009
Dear Prayer Partner,
Thanks so much for praying. I could feel your prayers.
Report of the Teacher's Retreat,
The Teacher's retreat was a huge success. Most of our teaching staff were able to attend. 
We did a lot of team building games and activities. Most of them had never experienced anything like this before.
This game "mind sweeper" each person had a partner. One partner was blind folder and the other partner directed them by talking to them from the sidelines. They had to get the partner through the mine field without stepping on or over a mine.
We had an fun activity that Cindy Schmelzenbach used at a missionary workshop. They really got into this.
Basically each team is divided into 3 committees [Design Committee, Building Committee, and Communication Committee].
Each design and building committee is given a pack of identical objects that they can use to design whatever they want.
The Design committee makes the recognizable object and then one of the communication
The catch is the communication committee cannot tell the actual name of the object or its color.
The first picture in each set is the design committee and 
Nancy was busy all week with the teacher orientation and she was really exhausted. So I (George) prepared for the teacher's retreat. We prayed together and worshipped together. I'd like to tell you about a couple of things we did that made a real impression on them. 
One thing we did was the "Servant's meal". This is something that I was introduced to a few years ago by a Love Works team from Point Loma Nazarene University. Basically, each person chooses someone else that they can serve the food to and then prepares the plate and brings the food to that person. Then we had a "Love Feast", following the hearing of a sermon "Developing a Passion for God." Some of you
"Old Timers" know what a "Love Feast" is all about but for those who this is new to, the love feast involves each person braking off part of a loaf of bread and going to their colleagues and either reconciling with, or telling how much they appreciate each other, whichever the case may be and then praying together. It was a powerful time of bonding during that Saturday evening service. We did a lot of other things too. When I get around to putting this on our blog with photos you can see some of the things we did.
It was so good that Geoffrey was here to take care of the house and everything. He is great but he doesn't do diapers well, No that's not right, He doesn't do diapers (period). Felicity is not in diapers, except at night, and she is almost potty trained, if you get my drift. Anyway let's just say he got initiated.
|
|
Last year there was a real lack of respect at the school. Teachers would come anytime they wanted. Some teachers appeared to just come and go as they pleased. There was a lack of teamwork. We addressed all these issues. We have a few new teachers. One is a man, James, who is hired as the deputy principal overseeing the High School. Pray for him and Martha, a teacher who has worked at Zion for a number of years and is deputy principal over the Elementary School. There is an excitement this year as school began.
Pray for Churie, our daughter-in-law. She is teaching grade 5 this year. Yesterday was the first day of class. Solomon Islands is a different culture to the USA and she is learning a lot of things. She is being stretched. Felicity the 2 year old has never been separated from mommy before. We found a lady who will watch her beginning today. Felicity is a sweet but very strong willed child and Geoff and Churie are afraid that she will be allowed to do whatever she wants, because when she wants something she is determined to get it. Churie learned a lot of things at the retreat. An interesting thing that happened was we took everyone to the retreat in our land cruiser in two loads. I arrived in the first load with Churie's and Nancy's bag. I did not want Nancy and Churie to share a room because of what I wanted to accomplish during the weekend. I put Nancy's bag on a bed in one room and Churie's on a bed in another room, to claim their spot. The room's were arranged for three person per room except one room was prepared for two. After I "claimed their beds" the local ladies, bless their heart, rearranged the room's and when Nancy and Churie arrived they had moved their things into the room with two beds so they could be together. We had three more participants than I booked so two ladies and one man didn't have a bed made up. So I took Nancy and Churie's bag out of their room and told the other ladies to claim the two beds made up and then these two "White skin" ladies could go into separate rooms, and make up their beds later. That worked great except Nancy did negotiate with one lady to swap beds because Nancy did not want to climb into the top bunk. Can you imagine that?
Pray for Mary, another new teacher, as the ACE curriculum is different from what they have taught. Mary is teaching grade 3 this year.
I want to mention some of the challenges faced this year:
· The government is introducing "Free Education" this year. So they are giving each school a grant of SB$320 (US $42)/year/elementary student and SB $800/year for High Students. There is no way we can survive on that, just our ACE paces (books) costs SB $1600/student/year. We made the decision to just reduce our students fees by the amount provided for by the government, then yesterday at a meeting James attended and they were told that any school charging fees would not receive the government grant. Anyway there is another meeting on Friday with the education department and Nancy will probably have to have a School Board meeting to make a decision, and a response.
· When Nancy started this year, the school had an empty bank account and a huge debt with SCEE.
· The first day of school, attendance was down which is normal for the Solomon Islands. Many schools are delaying start of class until next week, and there are a couple of schools that aren't starting until the 2nd of February.
· At the end of school last year there was no pre-enrollment, so they have no idea of who plans to return to school and how many student we can expect.
Trip to Malaita:
Pray for me as I will be leaving in a few hours to go to Malaita and plan to return on Saturday. I apologize for any emails that may be in my in-box. I didn't do anything with email over the past weekend and now it will be a few more days before I get to all that. At least Nancy will check my email, if there is an urgent message, I'll be in contact with her. I'm going to go and check on a few churches and bring them the reports from the District Assemblies and try to encourage them. I will be taking Jimmy Olofisau with me. Pray for us as we going traveling on this trip. Pray that I can assign Jimmy to a church that will grow. I have lots of places that need a pastor and I need you prayers for guidance.
Travel by Sea:
Recently we have had more than our share of rain and high winds. The seas were rough. The Sunday before last, the ships did not travel. Some ships departed for the Western Province, but they didn't even leave the shelter of Guadalcanal before returning to the safety of the Honiara wharf. Harmon Schmelzenbach, missionary in Fiji, wrote on his blog a good description of the unpredictable seas and experience in sea travel. His Blog can be accessed through the same southpacificfamily.org as I have listed below. I'm sure you'd enjoy reading it and will have a better idea of how to pray for your missionaries who depend very much on the seas as a means of travel as we spread the love of God from island to island. As soon as I get this prayer letter sent, I'll be going to the weather map and seeing what my travel conditions look like for today. Yesterday the sea looked really calm.
14 January 2009
For ZCA and Nancy as Principal:
Special prayer for Nancy during this time, as she has assumed the duty of Principal of Zion Christian Academy, our K-12 school which is operated in conjunction with the Zion Church of the Nazarene. Nancy just assumed the position. The school has many challenges awaiting her. Pray for the school finances, as Nancy has inherited quite a debt. Pray for the enrollment as some students are transferring out, but others are coming. Last year they did not send out a parent response form and don't know how many students are planning on returning. Pray for the spirituality of the school, as Nancy wants to keep this as a priority this year. This year they are emphasizing "Being Respectful". Last year it appeared there was a loss of respect and Nancy would like to encourage that. Pray for the teachers and staff that they will truly become a team.
This week is teacher orientation and preparation for school which will begin next week. Not all the teachers have arrived yet, which is a problem in the Solomon Islands with shipping schedules. The weather has made shipping difficult as there has been a low pressure area in the South Pacific making our seas rough and some of the voyages were cancelled. Pray that the teacher will all arrive soon. Friday evening we will begin our teacher's retreat at a neighboring mission center called S.W.I.M. (Seasonal Workshops In Mission). At this retreat we will have team building activities as well as worship and prayer together. We would like to have all teachers and staff attend.
Pray for Churie:
Pray for Churie as she works as teacher for this next year. Pray as Geoff and Churie finds someone to watch Felicity.
The girls have made friends. Felicity is shown here with one of her friends Rachel. Isn't that just an adorable photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment