Starting Semester 2

It's 7:19am on Saturday morning and I cannot fall back to sleep. Oh, wait, I hear my puppy whining from her kennel, a sure sign that now, I cannot get up until she stops. Fast forward and it's 7:37, we're sitting on the couch, just lovin' on each other's company and enjoyin' life. But, at the end of the day, it's 7:37...am...on Saturday morning.

Well, at least it provided me with the time to sit down and take a second to write a new update on the blog. Jordan and I are back in Guatemala and off to a running start, but this semester is nothing like the last. School has a routine, church has a routine, Risa has a routine, and we have routine. If you know anything about Jordan and I, if there is a routine, then everything is going well.

As I was laying in bed this morning, thinking about our life and our future, something (or rather, someone) popped right in. It was Mrs. Pelton. Now, if you know who I am talking about, you have already smiled because you, you remember Mrs. Pelton, too. Mrs. Pelton was my K-6 principal at Southfield Christian and probably the best, most qualified, loveliest principal in the entire world. If Mrs. Pelton was 5" tall, I would be surprised, but no one realized that until they were 14 or 15, even 16 and they themselves were over 5" tall. I believe that speaks to her personality and ability to lead. That being said, every Friday morning, Mrs. Pelton would lead worship during Elementary Chapel. I went to a Christian school, affiliated with a Baptist church; most of you can imagine the 80s-90s songs we sang. This early morning, one in particular came to my mind: "They that wait upon the Lo-o-rd, shall renew the-ir stren-en-ength. They shall mount up on wi-ngs like ea-gles, they shall run and not grow wea-ry, they shall walk and not grow faint. Teach me Lord, teach me Lo-ord, to waaait." Now that speaks to Mrs. Pelton's ability to spiritually impact a 6-year old for at least 15 years.

And that, perfectly describes our situation here and now. Jordan and I must learn in these coming weeks to wait on the Lord. We're turning 24 in the next few weeks, I think we're old enough to handle that. :)

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Like I said, school is going well, albeit, still crazy, but even my mom, who has been teaching for years can tell you that never changes.

Every other week, the secondary students have a little "Spirit Day" competition. So, on Thursdays, they choose a theme and each grade competes against each other. Jordan and I are 10th grade advisers, so we are invited to dress up, also. Many of you have probably seen the pictures from "Christmas Day" where Jordan and I were Santa and Mrs. Claus and the kids were our "elves." Well, this past week, we took it a step farther and we think we brought Spirit Days to a whole new level. It was "Retro Day" and we needed to pull something big in order to catch up to the other classes that were getting "creative" points. The instructions: dress up as someone would dress from the 40s-80s. Naturally, we decided that we needed to dress up as zombies. Why? One tenth grader is a big Michael Jackson fan. So, he dressed up as MJ and we filled in as the rest of the cast from Thriller. Like, I said, we brought Spirit Days to a whole new level.

As for the rest of the semester, if you could keep these dates in mind and in prayer. We have a lot going on about every other week until April, if not the last day of school in May. I made a New Year's Resolution to follow-up on the blog with every major event, so stay tuned.

January 20th-22nd: High School Retreat (Jordan is leading worship in 5 chapel services as we spend time getting to know our high schoolers more)
January 21st: The big 2-4 for Jordan
January 30th: The big 2-4 for Rachel
February 10th-15th: Kelli (MOH) is coming to visit!!!
February 14th: Valentine's Day Fundraiser sponsored by the 10th grade
February 17th-19th: Servant Days (a mini-mission trip we are taking with our 10th graders)
February 25th-27th: Intermissions (a conference of rejuvenation for all missionaries in Guate; if you remember, Jordan wrote about it in last spring's newsletter)
March 5th-12th: Wheaton BreakAway (our team from Wheaton is coming down for the mission trip Jordan is leading)
April 2: High School Banquet (we'll go as sponsors)
Unknown dates: CAG Talent Show sponsored by the 10th grade, lots of other friends and family visitors :), hopefully, getting time to breath

Well, that's about all, it's 8:37am now and our day is about to begin. I hear Jordan's coffee brewing already. Thank you for reading and we love you. Shoot us an email or Facebook us, we would love to hear from you!