Christmas Break

One of the benefits to a teaching position is, of course, the gift of a Christmas break.  We're on ours right now, and we've filled it with some of the people we love.  It's an interesting thing, a holiday.  It makes me naturally shift into hedonism mode.  I think, "we're here to have fun together" instead of "we're here to glorify God."  It reminds me of when, in college, some friends and I parodied the slogan of our school's spring break mission trips, "Break for Change" with "Break for Me."  We just wanted a vacation.  As we grow to be more like Christ, we start to wonder how to serve as we relax.

Here's the schedule:

• Montgomery/Dothan, AL
• Waterford, MI
• Atlanta, GA for the Passion Conference
• ???

Return to Suriname January 9.

Ah, rest.

Thanksgiving break = deluxe.

• Tuesday, November 24: The Armstrongs host a "Godfather" themed murder mystery dinner. Whodunnit? We're still not sure.
  
• Wednesday, November 25: Suriname Independence Day. Parade through the center of Paramaribo includes army tanks, a constant foghorn, a couple people carrying their pet sloths around (yes, you read that right: sloths), and a nice walk back to the Rav4 in the rain.
• Thursday, November 26: Thanksgiving feast! Tag-team turkey-cooking worked like a charm (better, actually), monstrous party with the entire staff of the International Academy of Suriname culminated in a pleasant nights' sleep.
• Friday, November 27: Christmas shopping in the morning. Take a break, folks.
• Saturday, November 28: Swimming at the pool downtown, playing some board games. Consistently being beaten by Amy. Visited a fair not far away, sampling many delicious goods.
  
• Sunday, November 29: Went to church, ate most of our left-overs, did some lesson-planning, realized school started back tomorrow.

Bona sera!

Our Mission Field

During parent-teacher conferences, one of the few fathers I met said the following words:
"You're probably only going to be here for a couple of years, right? And you're teaching history? How much high-school level history do you think [the students] are going to remember? But if you're getting involved with their lives, if you're really ministering, that's a lot more important than what you teach." I've been thinking about that lately. Amy and I have been given the official job title of "missionaries," but we focus on teaching first and seeing if we can throw in the Gospel, if we have time. So backward. We do integrate the Bible, but we want to integrate the basic truths. Here's a little about our mission field:

• Maybe one in five of my students are Christians.
• The students have almost all moved internationally more than once.
• Parents are generally non-religious and anti-Christian, sending their kids to the only air-conditioned school in the country.
• Most students speak more than one language.

So much of our time is spent on building education, but the strength of our faith is that it's about extending grace.

New Things

"Funny how the new things are the old things."

-Rudyard Kipling, in With the Night Mail

After a short romp through the Amazon, we have returned to Paramaribo to start out the second quarter of the school year.  Teaching's normal now, for both of us, and we think we're becoming abler with practice.  The rainy season is approaching, and cooler days (maybe even down to the low 80s!) smile at us from down the timeline.  As we become accustomed to life here, it's funny how much we still have to depend on God's grace.  The temptation is to be sure of ourselves; the call is to be sure of Him.  But that's no surprise, though, as Kipling points out, it is funny.

• Our three days in Brownsberg (the jungle mountain)included enjoying beautiful scenery, laughing at exotic animals like agoutis, small monkeys, howler baboons, harpy eagles, and taking lots of breaks.
• Parents have already responded to students' grades, and we've had plenty of opportunities to respond with gentleness, patience, and charity.  I guess we're really all just called to love our brother anyway, so it really is good, though difficult.
• Conner finally created a worksheet that looks like a worksheet, i.e. it's not all in 12 point, Times New Roman font and filled with short answer questions.
• Amy is running out of room on her wall to hang up the pictures and notes her students have made for her.

Why I Got Not To

"I purely hate fighting," Josh said.  "Don't thee, Labe?"

"Not so much," Labe answered.

"I hate it," Josh said.  "That's why I got to."

"And I got not to," Labe said, "because I like it."

-From The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West

Laban and Josh are two Quaker brothers living during the Civil War, and they both choose whether or not to fight based on beliefs that have little to do with the war itself.  Hopefully, our teaching is just as filled with what we're doing as the soldiers' work was while our motives are just as eternal as that of Josh and Labe.

Updates:

• The first quarter of the school year ends next week, which means Amy and I will have been teaching for 10 weeks.  A lot of good opportunities have been realized.
• We're meeting with parents soon for parent-teacher conferences.  We hope that will be an evangelical opportunity as much as an educational opportunity.
• We're heading to Brownsberg, a mountain in the interior, next weekend, to do some hiking, sight-seeing, and other kinds of grown-up playing in the jungle.

Good news. Not "Steve Yzerman's going to coach the Red Wings" good, but good.

"My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." -Cary Grant

Amy and I follow a similar pattern. Here's what we've been occupying ourselves with lately:

• We bought tickets to return home for Christmas. We'll be visiting Alabama and Michigan (and whatever's in between), as well as attending the Passion Conference in Atlanta. If you want to see us (more like "since you want to see us"), just let us know via facebook, email, or even by leaving a comment here on the blog.
• I finished part two of the story I've been working on for a couple of years now. Get excited, literary critics.
• Last week was particularly stressful for both of us. Students have just been a little too...student-y? Anyway, it's caused some serious exhaustion. Fortunately, today is Saturday, and we're loving it.
• Report cards are coming up soon. This'll be a good opportunity for us to knock students into caring about what we're talking about, which should be great, if we're gospel-minded about the whole thing.
• We went to get some Surinamese food for lunch today, not because we had to, but because we've been cooking at home so much that we actually were really wanting some. And it was really good. Come on down and try some.

That's all for now. Go red wings!

Glorious Sabbath

"The increate perpetual thirst, that draws
Toward the realm of God's own form, bore us
Swift almost as the Heaven ye behold." -Dante

What a pleasure to take a break from work and enjoy the weekend. "The Sabbath was made for man," after all. A blessing, for sure. I used Dante's quote on entering Heaven for hyperbole.

• Friday night we spent helping out the youth group, which was pleasant. I even found some kids who had appreciation for the old Nintendo 64 version of Mario Kart, and we discoursed quite awhile. Amy was highlighted in a trivia game for having visited 24 different countries (not including stops at airports), which the students found most impressive.
• Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed the birthday party of one of Amy's students, Aditi. A large, bouncy slip and slide was set up, and they had a big machine that showered suds on us that we could slip (and slide) that much better. We were the only adults joining in the fun.
• Saturday night, we attended the "Surifair 2009" at the Torarica Hotel. The Surifair was a big bazaar filled with booths from different tourism companies, and we got to see some native musicians and dancers as well. The Torarica is the ultimate in posh resorts for Suriname, so we enjoyed our time there.
• Sunday morning, I was playing acoustic guitar in church, and all the power went out, leaving the drummer and me as the only instrumentalists that could be heard. This would have been fine, except that we hadn't had a chance to practice the song beforehand, and it was hard for me to follow anyway, since the words were all in Dutch. Nonetheless, I performed a nice little solo.
• Sunday afternoon was spent, largely, at the PTA luncheon, where we enjoyed the food from some PTA members, the company, mostly, of other teachers, and the odd, vague question (i.e. "So, school is good?" or "So, how do you find Suriname?) from parents. I've still not gotten up the nerve to tell the parents that I find Suriname by looking at map of South America and saying "Aha!"

Believe it or not, the weekend was a refreshing respite. But don't worry, for as I told the many parents, "School is good."

The Mirror of "Error-Said"

In the Harry Potter series, one of the many magical artifacts mentioned is the "Mirror of Erised," which shows the person looking into it the deepest dreams of their hearts (note that "erised" is "desire" spelled backwards). When Harry, the orphan, looks into it, he sees himself standing between his loving parents. I wonder what my students would see when they look into this mirror, especially when they're in my classroom. I imagine that it would not be them sitting in their seats and learning. The title of this post is the "Mirror of 'Error-Said'," though, and you'll see why at the first point below:

• Though many students desire to refute the consistency of biblical claims, they claim logic has value. None has yet told whence this value comes, and few have proven they known what the word even means. Another student, though, is my favorite for inconsistency. She is a Hindu, and her father owns Burger King.
• Amy's class had a pow-wow on Friday. They studied different Amerindian tribes and had the option of bringing in food or dressing like their group. One student, who researched the Anasazi, was fully prepared to wear only a towel in the classroom, and though he was persuaded to put the towel on over his pants, he managed to put up enough of a fight to be able to enjoy the in-class festivities without a shirt. Ah, youth.
• Amy's birthday is coming up soon (October 9)!

That's all for now, folks. Oh, and Zach, per your comment, IAS is a Christian school. The old City of Man's just opposed to City of God. Shame.

Blithe to Help Me

"But I am no beggar; I look for no favors at your hands, and I want none that are not freely given.  For as poor as I appear, I have friends of my own that will be blithe to help me."   

 -Robert Louis Stevenson, in Kidnapped.

Oh, the joy of a little connection with David Balfour, the protagonist of the above-mentioned classic.  What a babe.

Updates:

• A representative of a delegation of parents was sent to the director of the International Academy of Suriname in order to assure that "less Bible would be taught during high school history classes."  It was with a subdued expression and an admittedly pleased-with-himself air that these words were received by the teacher of said classes.  This is the connection with David Balfour:  no matter the trouble with parents, the opportunities presented are freely presented from God or directly asked by the kids, and I've a Friend who is "blithe to help me."
• The wall behind Amy's desk is decorated with gifts from students that contain mis-spelled messages of adoration, affection, and admiration.  She had a long talk with one student today about putting effort into his work, and the outcome was that he wanted more reading homework.
• We're both still trying to figure out how best to help out those students who either don't care or just don't get it.  There are poor English speakers added in, and it's just tough for them.
• There's still not much sign of any young men around my age who speak English, so feel free to throw up a second or two long prayer about that.

We appreciate everyone reading.  We love hearing from you.  "Streams in the desert" and all that.

Tigers and Troubles

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? -Blake. A little update on what's going on in our world: Amy's teaching about endangered and extinct species in social studies, and she had a little surprise.  One of her students loves the species of the tiger.  Adores the tiger.  Admires the tiger hugely.  The tiger, however, is an endangered species.  He did not like this fact.  No, he deplored it.  Indeed, it sent him into despair, and he began to weep, wondering, no doubt, if the tiger would, one day, no longer be able to burn bright. Conner's Bible class today entailed a twenty minute discussion on whether or not it is worth getting saved.  After explaining that Jesus has given us back the freedom we had in Eden, to choose God or death, the students were in an uproar because God didn't appear in the sky and show Himself bodily to them.  Conner tried to respond calmly, but they wouldn't accept history, logic, or the faith of others as a basis for believing.  He thought to himself, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!"  The Resurrection's the proof; they've all admitted it's possible and maybe even likely, but they just won't accept it. We're getting some of our furniture reupholstered. That's all for now.  Enjoy the anecdotes; pray for the protagonists.

Missions, Monkeys, and Mediocrity

John 9:4-5 reads:

"As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

Working full-time is funny after being in college for four years and only having to do full-time work in the summers, when I saw the end clearly.  I always liked that, seeing the end.  It was nice in cross-country, and I think it's pretty nice in life.  Our Sabbath's coming, and it'll last a lot longer than the time when we're doing the work.  So here we are in Suriname, trying to do the work we've got while we're still around, because not only is Jesus the light of the world; he call's us the light of the world, too (Matthew 5).

Some updates that pertain to our work here:

• A monkey was playing on the power lines outside of school last week, and he received a physical and metaphorical shock.  We got to see the little beggar, and he was having a little trouble walking straight.  He also put the power out for the school that night, which happened to be "Meet The Teacher Night."  It had a dimly-lit, intimate atmosphere.
• We've learned all sorts of new recipes, from eggplant parmesan to chicken soup with rice, and it's been a real nice thing to be able to eat food that we find appealing to our taste.  The Indonesian food here is also quite delectable, and we'd love to introduce you when you come to visit.
• Youth Group starts up Friday night, so both of us will be helping out with that.  I guess that the youth group at Calvary Baptist in Dayton wasn't the stopping point.  Too bad Andrew Glines isn't here.

That's all for now.  We'd love some prayer about keeping hard at our job.  I, Conner, have figured out how to scrape by, due to some technical malfunctions, and I'd like not to be using my fall-back plans for everything.  We both have students who are struggling, as well as some who are excelling, so if you could pray that our teaching will be for everyone of them, that'd be great.

Life for Two Americans in a Former Dutch Colony

"They are there, but how they got there is a mystery." -Mark Twain, in The Innocents Abroad.

And indeed, it is a mystery how we got to be here in Suriname. Amy and I graduated in May, married in June, trained in July, and moved in August. We finished our first week of teaching yesterday. Here are a few interesting things to report about teaching, our main "ministry," if you want to call it that:

• Amy received a drawing of her and the student/artist saying "Your [poor grammar is not mine] the best teacher I ever had."
• A non-Christian student who I'd been fencing apologetically with told me that he had no more arguments against Christianity, but he just wasn't ready for the decision.
• A student told me that I was the youngest teacher at this school ever, and I responded that I plan to be the strictest as well.
• One of Amy's students started crying when she shared the Gospel. He got what she was saying very clearly. So clearly, in fact, that his non-Christian mother had to have a little chat with Amy the next day.
  

Those are the major points of interest for now. I hope you enjoy the blog. I'll keep posting regularly. At least once a week, I think.