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Dreams do Come True

Maybe that dream that I had as a child to be a teacher really has come true. Sure, I am not teaching kindergarten, but I am loving teaching 2nd grade. My class is full of 33 great kids. My guess is that if you met them you would love them too, but maybe not as much as I do. Like any teacher I have kids who are more challenging and kids who you almost forget are there because they are so well behaved and quiet, but I lucked out with another class of really great kids who have so much to offer.

That is why saying goodbye to my class is going to be so very hard. Wait, what?! Yep, we are midway through the school year and I have made the very hard decision to say farewell to Cambridge and hello to a new school. This is not at all what I expected this year to look like. I was not planning on leaving, in fact I was really starting to feel at home, but as is often the case God's plans are not always my plans. That being said, His plans are always for the best.

You see I believe strongly in a living God who actively cares about me, and has invited me to be a part of His story. I also value the power of prayer. This year while it has been good in many ways has been a big struggle in other ways, and those struggles have caused me to pray fervently for God's Will. I believe in no uncertain terms that God called us to move to Bolivia, and yet I still have no clue why God wanted us to move here. Anyway, in my prayers for clarity and for God's Will I never imagined that God would change my role, I honestly assumed that He would change Freddy's, or provide us a house or something. But like I said, God doesn't operate based on my opinions. And so when a godly woman from my Bible study sent me a message about a possible job opening at her school I quickly wrote it off as not a good fit. I loved my job and Kiley was happy in Pre-K why would I uproot us again mid-year to start at a new school that was on an American calendar? But I couldn't shake the feeling that I should turn in my resume. I figured mentioning it to Freddy would lead him to shut down the idea, but in fact he too thought I should apply.

So, I turned in  my resume. And withing a short few days I went in to meet with the Director and the Primary Principle and within a weeks time I had a new job offer at a Christian school teaching 5th grade.  I never in my life thought that I would send my kid to a Christian school, and was even less inclined to teach at a Christian school not because I think a Christian education is a bad thing, but I always felt like if all the Christians were in Christian schools then who would be witnessing in Public schools?  But here is the thing, this is a Christian school, but the majority of the students are not necessarily from Christian homes. It was originally created to be a school for missionary kids and still serves that purpose, but now it also exists to share the Good News with non-believers. I also wrongly believed that the education at the school would for some reason be subpar but that is also untrue. In fact I was blown away by the forward thinking curriculum that I was presented with. All this combined with a much smaller class size, max 20 kids per grade and a much needed increase in pay made accepting the new position easy. It did not make saying goodbye to our current school simple or without heartache. But we felt strongly that this new opportunity was a gift from God for us as a family and part of the reason that He has us here in Bolivia, so we stepped out in faith and starting in August we will transition to Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center.

Since accepting the job God has affirmed our decision again and again and we are so excited for this new adventure.

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