Onion Soup for the Soul

Since when did 75 degrees feel colder than the -40 degree temperatures we experienced just days before setting out for Belize? The answer: Today. Although it has been quite a chilly day, God has still been moving and using our experiences to shape our lives, minds, and hearts. 

Here's what Tori has to say about the day:

Today I was reminded of how I can be a vessel of God's love to these beatiful children. I am in an Infant II classroom (comparable to 2nd grade in the States), so my day is filled with hugging children, sticky hands, and MANY games of tag. Each day I come back to camp sweaty and exhausted, but my heart could not be fuller. One boy in my class, Henry, is eight years old. I noticed he was far behind his classmates, and my teacher explained to me that he was labeled as a slow learner. The Intervention side of my major kicked in to full gear, and I told her that my degree also qualifies me to work with students that have special needs. I volunteered to pull him out of the classroom to give him one-on-one attention.

Henry can only recognize the numbers one, two, and three. He knows two out of twenty-six letters of the alphabet. He cannot read. He stayed in Infant I for two years, and his teachers just shipped him over to the next grade because maybe being in a different grade willl help him retain knowledge. Henry has short-term memory loss. Whatever he masters one day will probaby be forgotten in the next. There is no special education pograms at the Belizean schools, so Henry rarely gets one-on-one attention. 

What Henry lacks cognitively, he makes up for it with his attitude. We did number flashcards for thirty minutes straight (imagine that with the attention span of an eight-year-old!) and a smile never left his face. The same boy that everyone labels as a failure bought me a choco-bananna with his own money because I said it was my favorite Belizean snack. Henry has an outlook to serve others, and he always cares for his friends. Christ could not be more evident in this little boy's heart.

Henry learned the numbers four, five, and seven today. Even though he probably won't remember what  I taught him tomorrow, Henry has taught me far more than I could ever teach him. Henry exemplifies how Christ erases our sins each day. No matter what we do, if we are sincerely sorry, Jesus will wipe our slate clean. He never keeps a record of wrongs. This concept will be in my heart forever.

I love this country, and I can't wait to see where these next two weeks take me and my brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Love,

Tori

P.S. Shout out to my mom and my soul sisters! You guys are awesome!

Here are the devotions from Felicia:

God laid this devotion on my heart right before I left for this trip. Since that time I have been eagerly awaiting my turn for devotion.

The theme for my devotion was time. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 was the scripture I opened with. These verses address how we go through different seasons in our lives and during these seasons there are different times to do certain things. For example, a time weep and a time to laugh, or a time to gain and a time to lose. I feel we have all been called here for a certain reason and this is our time. 

I passed around pieces of paper and challenged the group to write on their piece of paper what they feel their time is here. Some people shared their thoughts which ranged from #mvnulifechanging to a time to trust. It was interesting to see what some people feel their time is and why they feel that way. After sharing I told the group to keep their piece of paper in their journal or somewhere safe and at the end of the trip when we are on the plane to take the piece of paper out and see if what they wrote was true or if God had changed their hearts and this trip was a time for something different. 

This trip is life changing and it is all our time for one thing or another. We just need to dive in full heartily to discover what time it is for us.

With Love,

Felicia 

In addition to working on lesson plans, sitting through an hour of seminar, and processing our experiences with each other, learning that we are all learning to be teachers, teaching to be learners, and continuing to learn about ourselves, others, and the culture here, it's evident that God is teaching us far, far more than we ever anticipated. For that, we are all very, very blessed. Our dinner of onion soup wasn't the only thing that was good for the soul today.