SO thankful for Sunday:)
I wrote about that awesome sermon I read, and had the most wonderful day afterwards! As I was finishing my blog, my roommate came to my room and said lunch was ready: homemade cornbread and chili! I was expecting to help her cook, too, but she had it all done!! Such a good surprise! After that we had our weekly Wyld Life meeting which was fun as usual, and then I went to a friend's house to watch football for the night! I am beginning to love watching football here....such a reminder of America! haha, who would've thought! Anyways, 2 of the girls that watched with us are pregnant and brought all kinds of books to read/share with each other while they sort of watched, so the other girls and I spent time reading through the "pregnancy questions answered" book and another called "What they don't tell you...." They were HILARIOUS! Not to mention a little scary:) haha! Such a fun night, definitely the relaxing/comfort night I needed.

Also, I wanted to share this story that one of my students wrote in his writing journal:
"My teacher is nice she laughs a lot she is super nice she lets us play and she is blond she likes fun and she goes to campaigners and wyld life that is super cool isn't it cool. She does laundry when it rains (HA HA because I always complain about my laundry being ruined when we are in class!!) she plays and give soccer classes, she likes talking and she lets us see videos online. She wears beautiful earings and they are picturesque (that was one of our spelling words!! haha) they are the prettiest earings I have ever seen she lives close to school with Miss B and Miss Brewer, they are cool too. Our class is small but colorful and she likes purple and pink she has the best smile I have ever seen she wears khaki pants and a blue JCS polo and she looks good in them except when she has chalk on them. My wonderful teacher's name is Miss. Stanley."
HA HA! What a good way to start my day:)

I was going to skip my blog this week because I felt like I had nothing to write...but turns out God has been teaching me things this week that I didn't even realize! Honestly, this week went by so fast because I was so busy/stressed/anxious about things that I don't even remember much of what I did. Anyways, this morning I skipped church (because we walk about a half hour to church, and since it has been raining all weekend due to the hurricane, that was not an option!) so I came across this sermon at Mars Hill that looked pretty good. The verses it focused on were Philippians 4:4-7 "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: REJOICE! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

First of all, these verses just so happened to be my class memory verse of this week. Second, I know I didn't rejoice a whole lot this week. I wrote this quote in my journal on Wednesday: "Sometimes we are afraid to reach out and live the life that we believe we have been called to. But fear is no friend. It may seem to protect, but it slowly suffocates."
The message was all about "Reasons to complain vs. Reasons to rejoice" Find ways to rejoice in everything, because rejoicing cultivates a heart of Hope! A rejoicing spirit says: "God you are good, God you are at work, God you are teaching me things, God you are revealing yourself, God I have REASON FOR JOY! God, I'M GONNA REJOICE!" You have to choose to be anxious in nothing! Phil 4:8 says to MEDITATE on all that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent, praiseworthy and admirable! You've got to stay sharp, clear, focused on Jesus, because when your not, that is when things start to go downhill!
I really liked this quote from the sermon" "If you believe God is good, act like it! If you believe God is sovereign, act like it! If you believe God works for the good of those who love Him, act like it! If you believe there is always something to rejoice in, act like it!!"

I really needed to be reminded that faith means leaning my whole weight on Jesus, knowing that "I can do EVERYTHING through Christ who gives me strength!" God proves His goodness, His power, His strength, even when I think I know it is not there!

The link to the sermon in case you want to check it out:)
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/rebels-guide-to-joy/the-rebels-guide-to-joy-in-anxiety

So I went for a run this morning and took my camera--THIS is why I love running in the DR! Crazy crazy story though, when I was running today, this Dominican man on his motorcycle was yelling things at me (not unusual, but I just ignore it) and was turned around WHILE driving his motorcycle, and ran head on into another motorcycle! I totally caused a motorcycle accident! It was so scary--I stood there for a second, but I had to quick turn around and run another way, because if the police came and thought I had anything to do with it, I would be in big trouble and wouldnt really be able to do anything about it because I am American! SO REDICULOUS!!!!

"I love love!"

Each week, I jot down little notes throughout the week of things that I want to include in my blog. This week, each one had something to do with some sort of love, and I had written down in my journal on Monday this quote from Francis Chan “I love love”.

Monday: I love thunderstorms. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we had lots of thunderstorms...and those thunderstorms brought MUCH cooler weather, which was a complete blessing! On Monday night (as I blogged before) I sat in our living room, freezing, while drinking hot chocolate! Who would have guessed that would happen in the DR? I was so tired of being hot ALL THE TIME, that it was honestly one of the most relaxing nights I have had in a while!

Tuesday: I LOVE campaigners. We had our second campaigners group this week, and had a great time! We did nails, made brownies, and just spent time talking! It was a great time of getting to know the girls a little better. Funny story-I overheard one of the girls in my class telling my roommate that she loved me as her teacher because I make her laugh and I hardly ever get mad, but then she added this: "She only got mad at us that one time...but that one time was enough to make me never want her to get mad at us again! It was scary!" I loved that comment...made me a little more confident in my "class discipline" skills:)

Wednesday: I LOVE journal time:) One of the girls in my class wrote a whole 2 page journal entry about how she is in love with this boy in seventh grade. I LOVE kid crushes:) It was so cute, she even wrote his name in code letters in case someone else saw her journal, and noted that she would tell me the real name after school!! She did, and then proceeded to spend a half hour talking to me about him and how she was so nervous to tell her mom about him, but she had do! So cute!
Wednesday was Claudil's mom’s birthday. Claudil made this WONDERFUL "I love you" book during writing time and had me check over it before she took it home to her. It was so cute I teared up reading it:) I LOVE the way little girls love their parents:)
Gill wrote a journal entry about all of the kids in our class. Now you have to understand something about Gill-she is the girl I talked about that came to campaigners, has a tough life, and usually acts like she doesn't care about anyone or anything. In her journal entry, she wrote something nice about EVERYONE in our class--she even said things like "Melanio likes to bother, but I know inside he is good." and "Josue is a friend of everyone, he has a very special heart." I was like oh my goodness, where is this coming from! Then she wrote a really nice one about me too, which made me happy:) So awesome to see kids growing!

Thursday: I LOVE silliness of 6th graders. Christian came to school on Wednesday, and the first thing he says to me is this: "LOOK Miss. Stanley, I have a MAN HAIR!" and you will never guess where this man hair was--a mole on his hand...HILARIOUS! Then, later that day, we were watching a science video and Christian asked to go to the bathroom, and I said in a couple minutes, and then he all of a sudden screams, "No, NOW!!!" and runs out of the classroom. The rest of us were like oh my goodness, what just happened! Then a couple minutes later he runs back in with his tooth in his hand, he had pulled it out during the movie! At the end of the day (Thursday was our last day of school this week, because Friday was a teacher work day) Melanio came up to me and got real close and said "Miss. Stanley, I have something to tell you...." and then proceeds to scream "TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" while jumping up and down with this huge grin on his face.
Also, Thursday was an "I love soccer practice" day:)

Such a funny week, all filled with small hints of love. God knew what I needed this week after my frustrating week last week!

"Nothing in this life will matter unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made."

"True faith means holding nothing back, it bets everything on the hope of eternity."(Francis Chan)

Psalm 63 1-4 "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because YOUR LOVE is better than LIFE, my lips glorify you! I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I lift up my hands."

God is SO GOOD. He is the “knower of my needs and the meeter of my needs” :)

LOVE from the DR!

This picture pretty much sums up the last 2 days....pure thunderstorms! Yesterday I sat in our living room freezing in a sweatshirt, drinking hot chocolate:) It was pretty awesome though!

Saturday, we went to a waterfall (Salto Biaguate) and Jess and I free climbed to the top, and once we got to the top we found climbing rods--which was SO sweet because we realized we were supposed to be climbing with ropes...but we totally did it without! sooo hardcore:) haha!!

Dia de la Raza

Christian won artist of the week! He was not happy about getting is picture taken:) He is one of my favorite students--he always has a hilarious insight on whatever we are doing. I taught the kids to play hangman while we waited for the program to start! The third graders dressed up as native Tainos.... Melanio practicing the drums... Freshman doing a Dominican dance Second graders 8th grade boys doing a "dance of today" :the jerk!! Hanging out waiting for their turn! Josue, Kaylee, Claudil, and Rosemary