don't cry in trees, the ants will bite your face.

This really hasn't been a good week. I can't figure out why. I'm happy to be back with my students and the other teachers, but I'm a little bit grouchy. I hate being this way and the more I try to figure out why the more frustrated I get. So I guess I'll just attribute it to my body hating me for putting it through plane flights and jet lag and insufficient sleep. =( I definitely felt better this morning I slept from 9-7. It felt really good. I always like Friday because I get to teach my third graders. They really love anything I want to teach them. I always feel more relaxed and at ease with them. They're a bit of a refuge for me, only today was different. I was teaching my second class when I got dragged into the other classroom by principal bai to "take a picture" or that's what he said to get me to come. A camera crew had come to the other class room to interview them about using newspapers in the classroom to teach. I don't know why they needed to interview me, but interview me they did. I had no time to fix my hair or to think about what I wanted to say. The teacher seemed to know that it made me upset, no one else cared. I cried afterwords in a tree by myself. The ants bit my face. Ouch.

This is for you

Repelling



Rock climbing was a lot of fun at the retreat. I wasn't really nervous about climbing up the rock, though I was nervous about coming back down it. I'm the same way about everything. I'm pretty quick to move forward with something new, but I'm terrified of when that thing ends and I have to start back towards ground level. A lot of times it would just be easier for me to keep going with the thing I'm doing rather than go back to where I started. To make things clearer, I should say that I'm leaving Taiwan soon. It was easy enough for me to start up this mountain of foreign experience. Yes, there were moments of unsureness, but I always knew I was climbing up. Now there isn't much time left here and soon I'm going to have to start making the descent down. I'm going to have to say goodbyes and get back to ground level. I don't feel as comfortable with this. It means letting go of something I've known and loved and trusting someone else to help propel me down. Seriously, when you are propelling down you have to let go of the rock that you've been clutching all this time and you have to relax and put yourself entirely at the mercy of the persons or people holding the rope.









So, here I go. I've got a little further to go to reach the top of this experience and then I'm going to have to say those goodbyes and lean back in trust that God will bring me down safely. Then from there I'll still be harnessed up and ready for the next experience God leads me up.