Changing

from Laura

A just-for-fun sunset picture from our trip to Corregidor

In the first four months after moving here to Manila, I lost a little over 10 pounds. Since then, my weight has stopped changing—my current weight seems to be the new normal. I’ll admit that this was a happy discovery. (In all honesty, I think there are very few American women who wouldn’t be interested in losing a few pounds. Which is sad, but that’s a topic for another day.) However, when I look in the mirror, I remember another side to this coin.

I didn’t do anything to make this weight loss happen, except for moving. The only causes I can come up with are a different diet and a slightly different set of habits with a bit more walking because we don’t have a car. And my body reflects this. I may have lost weight, but the irritating things about my shape have remained exactly the same as they were. The fat is still in some unhealthy places, and I am no stronger than I used to be. If I want to be truly healthier and stronger, physically, then I would need to add regular exercise to my life. My actual habits would need to change. They haven’t, so I know that if or when God brings us back to the US, or gives us a car, those 10 pounds are likely to come right back. Because this is not real change.

Right now, I’m not too concerned about my physical health or about exercising more. It isn’t a high enough priority for me to give it extra time in this extremely busy season of life. But as I thought about the reality of this superficial change in my body, I realized a larger lesson that I had better be learning.

With my Outdoor Ed squad of 7th-graders

My life has changed drastically in the last six months. In fact, very few outer, obvious things are the same as they were one year ago! And the tricky part is that some of those changes look like spiritual weight loss. I’m a missionary now. I pray with my 1^st-period class every day. I’m finding ways to talk about God during class, and I’m mentoring a high school worship team. I pray with my colleagues and talk often with them about what God is doing. Pretty cool, right? Well, maybe.  

It would be all too easy to rest on those laurels and to think that those outward changes mean that I am growing spiritually—becoming healthier and stronger. But if I do that, then I am deceived, because those are superficial changes caused mostly by the new circumstance of teaching in a Christian school. The real question is—what happens if/when God brings us back to the US or changes the nature of my life here? Will there still be evidence that I am stronger and healthier, or will the ‘spiritual weight’ come right back?

If I look at my spiritual life more closely, I do see where God is at work on me. He and I are working on my prayer habits and on my temper, especially when I’m under stress. (You can imagine that we currently have ample opportunity to practice these skills…) He is using many of the superficial changes to teach me more lasting lessons, and I think that the weight will stay off. My prayer is that I will keep on pursuing Him. I never want to be tricked or tempted into thinking that superficial change is a substitute for real growth, even when that’s the easy perspective and the deep changes are hard. Because as much as I can get frustrated about my physical appearance, it is spiritual unhealthiness that’s frightening, and that is the kind of exercise that I cannot do without.

Holidays

We have almost completed our first Christmas/holiday season in the Philippines. After we finished grades for our first semester of teaching at Faith, we collapsed into the break from school. We have read a large number of books, held un-rushed conversations with friends and family, and slept a lot. We explored a few new-to-us areas of the city, successfully found and used a post-office, and replaced our front doorknob. With friends and with each other, and with much gratitude to God, we celebrated the birth of Jesus and the coming of a new year. It has been a high-quality holiday time.

Among other things, we had most of the other TEAM missionaries who are based in Manila over to our house for a pre-Christmas dinner. It was a really fun evening with MUCH food, singing, sharing, and a game of Apples to Apples. Unfortunately, nobody took any pictures. We also do not have any pictures of our Manila explorations or doorknob exertions. However, we do have a few pictures below that will show you some of the last couple of weeks.

Christmas morning we opened gifts- from each other and from friends here. Our holiday will be extended into January because some gifts from family will arrive then. We don't have a Christmas tree this year, so instead of gifts under the tree, our gifts were under the nativity scene and star.

Another consequence of not having a Christmas tree was the need to get creative with our lights and other decorations. So we made Christmas banisters! Our stairway has lights, ribbons, a few ornaments, and a number of cards and notes from students and colleagues.

 Christmas afternoon we had dinner with fellow teachers Katy, Nate, and Valerie at Nate and Val's house. It was a yummy meal with especially yummy turkey. Afterward we played games, so that made Seth and I very happy. We have been thrilled to find many game-playing friends here.

 For New Year's Eve, we went to a fondue party at the home of some friends who live right next to the Faith Academy campus. There were a lot of different families there, so we thoroughly enjoyed talking and eating. Here, we were chatting with Nate and Meg. (Meg is one of the teachers who we met this summer at our training in New York!)

At around 11:00, we walked the rest of the way up the hill to Faith's campus. It's a good place to sit and look out over the whole city of Manila, which is worth your while if you're ever in Manila for the new year! Here we are settling in to enjoy the show.

These are a few of Laura's 7th-grade girls who were hanging out on the tennis courts right behind us. MANY Faith Academy families (student and staff) come up to campus to ring in the new year. It makes for a fun and energetic atmosphere, and if you look below, you'll see why we gather there.

New Year's is a holiday for fireworks in the Philippines. Families buy all kinds of fireworks, from little sparklers through bottle rockets and on up from there. They set them off in streets and neighborhoods and parks all over the city. If you're IN a neighborhood, it's very loud and smoky and probably a bit scary, and you can see only the fireworks nearby. From the vantage point of Faith Academy, it is still remarkably noisy, but you can see firework displays going on all around the city, all at once. It was quite beautiful. We could tell how close it was to midnight by how intense the fireworks were getting, and right at 12:00, you had to yell to be heard above all the explosions!

A Typical Laura Monday

I would have titled this "A Typical Laura Day" but I can't do that with any honesty. It's hard enough to describe a typical Monday. The Faith Academy high school schedule consists (on normal weeks) of three 8-period days and two double-block days-- when you only have half of your classes, for an hour and a half each. Three afternoons a week, I have after-school meetings or activities... sometimes. You begin to see the difficulty. So Mondays will be the representative day-- they are the closest to consistent. :) The idea for this post is absolutely not mine. I stole it from the blog of some overseas-teacher friends of ours. Thank you, Matt and Amanda!  Enjoy this glimpse of sort-of-everyday life. (Click on the pictures to see them larger.)

The dining room, with the lived-in look

4:30- 6:15- The time between the first alarm of the morning and us walking out the door. We run water for showers, heat the water with a water coil, shower, make and eat breakfast, feed the animals, and generally just get ready for the day. Breakfast is oatmeal with fresh fruit (usually mangoes, which are AMAZING here), juice, and coffee. After I am ready, I generally have a few minutes to spend on my Bible study or in prayer.

6:15- Our ride arrives. This couple, also new to Faith and also living in our subdivision, has been very generous as our ride to and from school this year. We gather our things, make sure the outside lights are turned off, pet the dog and the cat, and head out the gate, carefully making sure the dog doesn't get out with us.

6:30-7:10- We arrive on campus, and I prepare for the day. I print out files I have made over the weekend, make copies, find materials, write the agenda and homework on the board, etc. My middle-schoolers start arriving by 7:05 or sometimes before, so I try to be in that room by then and mostly ready so I can be available as they congregate.

The hall outside my middle school class

7:15-8:43- Periods 1 and 2-- 7th-grade English. Right now we are reading a book called Year of Impossible Good-byes, a (fairly autobiographical) novel about a girl living in northern Korea through the last years of Japanese occupation, the arrival of the Russians, the division of the country, and her escape to the newly-formed South Korea. My classes are 23 and 22 students respectively. 19 of the 45 are Korean, which makes this a great novel to read. We have had several excellent discussions. Our previous unit was creating an autobiography (life graph, family tree, memoir stories, cultural background), and this novel will be followed by a film unit before Christmas.

8:43-11:10- Plan time! I generally cross campus soon after my 2nd-period class and work in the French room. I make or request photocopies, organize today's French work, check and respond to email, plan for tomorrow, and grade papers. During the first half of this time, there is a girl doing an independent study of IGCSE French in my classroom. Depending on what she is working on, I might help her for a bit. Sometimes we also just talk. Around 10:15, I go to the "V"-- our school cafeteria-- to buy lunch, avoiding the lines of high-schoolers who arrive soon after. Seth and I often meet up at that time. Sometimes we are able to eat together, but sometimes we both have things to do or students coming in during lunch.

The view from my French room, across campus

11:14-12:00- Period 5-- IGCSE French- These students are in their 3rd year of French. This class follows an international curriculum out of the UK, culminating in a standardized test at the end of the year. I have 10 students in class, plus 2 doing independent studies. It hasn't been an easy class for a lot of them, but it's fun to have students really discussing things in French. We are working with school vocabulary right now, and getting ready for a review of the past tenses and a unit on getting a job.

12:05-12:51- Period 6-- 1st-Year French- There are 11 students in this group-- mostly freshman, a few sophomores. They are enthusiastic and sometimes rowdy. I always enjoy seeing students discover that they can actually communicate in a new language, so 1st-year is fun. They are learning basic school supplies vocabulary, and are working on how to use adjectives correctly in French.

12:56-1:41- Period 7-- 2nd-Year French- This is my big and jumbled class. There are 25 students (ALL the desks in my room), from all four grades in high school, and all levels of ability. As with any large class, it is a challenge to find activities to get everyone involved without leaving some behind in distraction or confusion. Our current unit is on food, stores, and meals. During this period, there is also another senior doing IG French independently, so sometimes I step into the adjacent office where he is at work, to check in with him.

French room- my view as I work

1:41-5:15- Classes are over for the day. I eat a snack from my stash (currently cheese crackers and dried mango). My independent study student might stick around for a few minutes when needed. Other students might come in for make-up work. Mostly, though, this is my largest chunk of time all week where I am at school, with no students. Normally our ride heads home at 4:15, but Mondays I stay late because of Bible study. I grade and plan and organize as much as I can.

5:15-8:15 (or so...)- Bible study- One of the other women picks me up at school, and we head to the condo where the five of us meet. We eat dinner together and talk, and then do our Bible study. Right now we are using Beth Moore's study on the fruit of the Spirit. This has become a really important time to me, and I am so much appreciating these new friends.

8:15 or so...- All four of us who are guests leave together. We go back past the school, dropping one of the women off and picking up Seth (who has been watching an NFL game and working). The woman who drives drops the rest of us at our various homes. As Seth and I get inside (around 9), it's definitely time for bed! Tomorrow, after all, starts early!