God is Working in Incredible Ways!

It is sometimes hard to put into words experiences that you have, especially when the resounding word to describe the experience is 'surreal'. But I want to keep those of you at home up to date with what is happening in my classroom/life here in Thailand, so I am about to give it my best shot. I have shared these experiences with my teaching colleagues here and we are being blown away by God's presence in my classroom, so it is about time I caught some of you up.

Each morning we have devotion time with my kids, and it is often hard to know what to do in a 30 minute block that is allotted to devotions. Most kids are late and rolling in after the bell, as they operate on Thai time here (makes sense...it is Thailand!), so sometimes it feels unofficial to start anything before most of the kids have arrived. Regardless of this, I think devotions is one of the most important times of the day, so I want it to be something that the kids can relate to and inspires them. Initially, I was completely unsure of how this would happen, and prayed that God would provide direction for me as I conjured up topics and plans for devotions. This may sound crazy and unorganized, but I heard God clearly tell me not to plan ahead and just go day by day (if you know me, you know that I am someone who likes to plan ahead, so this is not me at all). But this is exactly what I did. The first day I thought to myself, what would help me with devotions? I have no idea what my kids know or believe, so that makes it hard to know what to say. Without knowing your audience, you are just throwing ideas out and hoping that someone catches something. God was like, well then ask your students, silly. Ok, so maybe God didn't call me silly, but that is sure how I felt. I decided to have my students do an opinion write on what they believed about God. I emphasized that they didn't have to believe the same thing as me, and that was the beauty of opinion. I was a little scared that they might all say that they believed in God because their teacher did, and they just wanted to appease me. That was not the case. In fact, I saw brutal honesty out of my kids, and applauded their opinion writing. They understood the basis of an opinion write, and I was excited. One of my kids told me this: So with Noah there was a flood. God promised that their would be no more floods, but Thailand is under water, so God does not exist. Logical. Biblical basis. Grade four understanding of this story. She wrote with a certain amount of attitude, but clearly explained to me in her logical reasoning why God does not exist. I was so thankful that she was honest, because now we have something to talk about.

In other writings, students explained to me that they did not believe in God because he does not stop bad things from happening to them. The children from this school grow up in area where they see a lot at a young age. Unfortunately, a lot of children will get chased and attacked by dogs on a  frequent basis, and two of them wrote about this. They said, if God loves me then why would he allow these dogs to chase me all the time? They are asking the age old question of if God loves us, then why does he allow suffering? I was completely blown away. I knew God needed to work in me, because I know how to answer this, but only in an intellectual, academic way. How am I supposed to convey what I know to these children at a grade four level, and when they are all ESL students? Instantly I started praying that God would give me a way to portray what I know in a childlike way. I know I need to be taught so much more to understand this at a simple level. It's crazy to think that to understand something more basically, you have to have a much greater understanding of it. If you know me at all, you will know that the past years of my life have taught me a lot about suffering and it has been a huge learning experience. I have learned a lot about Job and this has been something that I have literally been studying for years.

I knew that my kids needed to hear this, and God made it clear. Tell the kids about Job. When was the last time you heard a children's version of the book of Job? I mean, you hear about Noah's Ark and David and Goliath, but never about Job. Probably because it would seem too depressing, and kids could not relate. Well, maybe a lot of North American kids could not relate to this, because they have not experienced suffering to the extent of some of the kids here. So I knew I needed to share this, because God was making it clear. But how? How on earth was I going to share this with them so that they would not be completely bored out of their minds? I instantly started trying to find something exciting on youtube. A lot of kids bible stories are presented in fun ways, but I was not very hopeful when I typed in "kids bible stories job" in the search bar. To my surprise, there was one video. I started watching it, and it was not the most amazing, but it was much better than I could present. So that morning I prayed that God would open up my eyes to know what to say, and he would open up the kids eyes as well.

I started the morning by talking about Job and did a quick synopsis. I then showed them the video and told them ahead of time that I could really relate to Job. I had to explain what the word relate meant, and then started the video. It ended and we had some time to talk. I explained the reality of Job, and how some parts did not make sense, and some parts were so honest. How could he still praise God through all of this? Wouldn't you get angry? The kids started telling me that if all these things happened, they would be angry or sad, and I told them that I would be too. I thought the conversation was going well, and then one little girl (the same one who told me that she didn't believe in God because of the floods in Thailand) asked me a tough question: "Miss Chrissy. You said you relate to Job. How do you relate to Job?" Instantly, I prayed to God. "HELP!" was the extent of my prayer. How do I answer this in a way that they will understand. I explained to them that I had lost some friends and it was very said. I asked them how they would feel if they came to school tomorrow and their friends weren't there? They all were shocked, and then something unreal started happening in the classroom. One child raised their hand and told me that their puppy died, and that was really sad. I told him that this was very sad, and I was sorry that happened. Once he did this, almost every child in the class raised their hand. I took questions one by one, but none of them were questions. They were comments. "My aunt died because she got run over by a car". "My uncle died too". "My dad die because of this". Each child could tell me about a tragic situation in their own lives, and they were all itching to let me know. It was an unbelievable moment. Seriously unbelievable. In that moment I knew my classroom was a place that these children felt were safe, and they started sharing. It has not even been a week of school, and the kids feel safe. God is already working in unbelievable ways in this classroom, and that moment confirmed this. All of the sudden as I took the comments, it was time for flag. Flag happens after devotions at 9am each morning, and all classes come out and stand on the balcony. It is mandatory that all classes are out there. It could not have come at a worse time. There was huge breakthrough happening in my class, and I needed to take them outside to sing the Thai anthem and hear announcements. Shoot. Ok, but it needed to happen. So we went outside, and when we came back in I assumed their brains would be switched out of devotions mode. Automatically when we got back in the class, the conversation resumed with a students question. We continued devotions and then I told them that we could resume after school or tomorrow morning.

That night I thought about what I could do following that. Once again, I felt like God gave me clear direction. I had not read anything directly from the bible to them yet, because sometimes it is very hard for them to understand English. There are times when I read the bible and wonder what it is meaning, so I definitely feared that the stories would be lost in translation. But I felt like God was saying that I should start teaching them about how to read a bible, and start reading to them from Job. Ok God, I will do that then. Now picture a class full of students (well, 13 of them) as the most captive audience. I never imagined that a bible story would come so alive to them. God gave me the ability to paraphrase what was happening so that they understood, and we had great conversation around how we would be feeling if we were in Job's shoes. When I told them that we were done and would continue tomorrow, they were sad. I had taught them how to find something in the bible, and I told them that it was divided into Chapters by name, instead of by numbers like their math textbooks. When I said this, one of my students raised his hands and asked if he could have a bible! I was SO excited! YES! Yes, I would love to give you a bible. Someone else tuned in and said "me too!". I was beyond excited. I then took a class vote to see how many students would like a bible? 10 out of 13 kids wanted a bible. Wow. This was unreal!!! Also, I was so excited in this moment, because I knew that the three who did not want bibles were comfortable enough in my class to be able to share their real opinion. I was actually so excited that they felt the freedom to say that they did not want one!

Quick Side Note: It is super hard to find kids bibles here. I SO badly want to provide my students with bibles. If you have access to somewhere where you can purchase a kids bible, and could send one here, I would LOVE that! Just send me a message and I will gladly send you the address. I am willing to pay for it, if money is an issue. I just do not have access to Kids Bibles over here, and there is a need for those!

There have been many great, great moments in my class. Students have taken my bible off my desk to ask if they can read it for silent reading. Other students have asked to read my devotion book off my desk as well! I know that they probably do not understand what it is saying, but I am praying that God is working and allowing them to gain something from that. Even if they don't understand, they have a desire to know more about this incredibly real God that I am talking about.

This week has been a week where God has been revealing to me the purpose for me being here. I asked over and over what my purpose was for being here, and he is answering. I know that this year is about way more than just meeting the curriculum goals. It is about far more than teaching, and that is the least I can offer these kids. I have a class that was handmade for me with kids that just need to know they are loved. Students who have had parents die at a young age, students who do not speak in grade four, and students who have a disability and have been retained. Each student in my class has been handpicked for this class for a reason. I know that I have the ability to love these students, and I am confident that God is going to use that this year. Please continue to pray that God will use me as a vessel of His love more and more this year. I know God is working in amazing ways, and I have seen a large glimpse of that this past week. However, when God works in amazing ways, I feel that I am being attacked at times. Please continue to pray for me and the children that I teach, and that I would be protected through this (sometimes) tough journey.

I am sorry for the lengthy post, but there has been so much happening here, so it is hard to elaborate in a blog post. I am sure there is more happening that I have missed, but I would love to share with you if you have any questions. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers!