Another good day...I feel like a broken record. It's just that we continually seem to be met by God in our need.
Today we had a couple of very helpful sessions, one on the need for focused mentoring of our students and one on some of the steps that must be taken in order to protect the children in our care from falling victim to predators (peer or adult). Both very applicable and useful sessions. Again, I feel as though we are on overload now; I think that I am approaching the point of saturation where I just can't handle any more information. I am waiting for the point in this week when the presenters will start a session that I have already sat through in a previous conference or something that doesn't apply to me...but I have a sneaking suspicion that this moment will not happen.
We had another breakout session led by the Dyers, the couple from Australia, focused on balancing a multi-cultural classroom. It is amazing how different this is going to be from even teaching in California. We pride ourselves in California as being prepared to meet the needs of a student body that hails from hundreds of nations...and while this is true, I shudder at the thought that I will ever again feel (cause I felt this way before PFO began) that this experience prepares me to understand the challenges of the classroom that I will be teaching in within the next month and a half. The fact that the kids in my class who are from different nations have no intention to emigrate to the United States permanently, makes the need to continually incorporate and legitimize all these students backgrounds. They have little desire to leave the reality of their "passport" country behind. This is their identity. It WILL drive their learning, so as a result it must drive my instruction.
It seems like the staff of PFO are in tune to our current level of saturation. We have been ending earlier and having more "down time" as the weeks have progressed. The problem (not really a bad thing though) is that we all continue to reflect and talk about what we have been learning. Our sessions ended at about 3:15 today, meaning that we spent some time finishing off our papers, watching the end of the Uruguay-Netherlands World Cup semifinal, and simply relaxing with our new friends.
Here are some pictures...
All of us Austria bound folk were able to Skype with Nels Pitotti (secondary principal) after lunch
I'm pretty sure Dan was attentive and awake during this session even though it looks like he's sleeping...unlucky picture. Sorry Dan.
Watching the World Cup with a bunch of internationally focused missionaries...probably one of the cooler experiences from this week...
Rebecca finalizing and emailing off her paper...
The Overbys doing the same...
After dinner we had a time of worship...it was absolutely amazing. Feeling God's presence as we took some time to simply worship, pray, and share from His Word. It was about as authentic a time of worship as I have ever been a part of...The lesson to take is that God is GOOD! There is no doubt about his goodness...
One thing that was prayed for was that our worship leader Evan Evans, would find healing. He woke up with a lemon sized lump below his ribs. The prayer for healing was amazing...feeling God's presence in that room as we gathered together to intercede...nothing can quite describe it. Please keep him in your prayers.
We are also continuing to receive more and more word of financial support coming in...please continue to keep this in your prayers. Pray that we will trust in God's promise of provision and that we will continue to be obedient to his calling. We love you all who are supporting us. Please don't hesitate to post a comment with prayer requests. We have really been encourage in role that prayer should play in our lives. Please join us in this!
Today we had a couple of very helpful sessions, one on the need for focused mentoring of our students and one on some of the steps that must be taken in order to protect the children in our care from falling victim to predators (peer or adult). Both very applicable and useful sessions. Again, I feel as though we are on overload now; I think that I am approaching the point of saturation where I just can't handle any more information. I am waiting for the point in this week when the presenters will start a session that I have already sat through in a previous conference or something that doesn't apply to me...but I have a sneaking suspicion that this moment will not happen.
We had another breakout session led by the Dyers, the couple from Australia, focused on balancing a multi-cultural classroom. It is amazing how different this is going to be from even teaching in California. We pride ourselves in California as being prepared to meet the needs of a student body that hails from hundreds of nations...and while this is true, I shudder at the thought that I will ever again feel (cause I felt this way before PFO began) that this experience prepares me to understand the challenges of the classroom that I will be teaching in within the next month and a half. The fact that the kids in my class who are from different nations have no intention to emigrate to the United States permanently, makes the need to continually incorporate and legitimize all these students backgrounds. They have little desire to leave the reality of their "passport" country behind. This is their identity. It WILL drive their learning, so as a result it must drive my instruction.
It seems like the staff of PFO are in tune to our current level of saturation. We have been ending earlier and having more "down time" as the weeks have progressed. The problem (not really a bad thing though) is that we all continue to reflect and talk about what we have been learning. Our sessions ended at about 3:15 today, meaning that we spent some time finishing off our papers, watching the end of the Uruguay-Netherlands World Cup semifinal, and simply relaxing with our new friends.
Here are some pictures...
After dinner we had a time of worship...it was absolutely amazing. Feeling God's presence as we took some time to simply worship, pray, and share from His Word. It was about as authentic a time of worship as I have ever been a part of...The lesson to take is that God is GOOD! There is no doubt about his goodness...
One thing that was prayed for was that our worship leader Evan Evans, would find healing. He woke up with a lemon sized lump below his ribs. The prayer for healing was amazing...feeling God's presence in that room as we gathered together to intercede...nothing can quite describe it. Please keep him in your prayers.
We are also continuing to receive more and more word of financial support coming in...please continue to keep this in your prayers. Pray that we will trust in God's promise of provision and that we will continue to be obedient to his calling. We love you all who are supporting us. Please don't hesitate to post a comment with prayer requests. We have really been encourage in role that prayer should play in our lives. Please join us in this!
Comments
Post a Comment