As I have written in the last couple of blogs, the winter months at the Finca (November through the end of January) are truly remarkable! There is so much more time without school in session to spend quality time with each house of kids almost every single day, as well as spend amazing time with tías, missionaries, and other Finca employees such as security guards, maintenance workers, and our social worker and psychologist. However, every great party comes to an end eventually…
Daily life at the Finca changes SO, SO, SO much once school starts every year on February 1st, and this year was no exception. With this being my second year at the Finca, I knew just how crazy life can get once school is in session, which allowed me to really enjoy every last second of our free time during the winter! I really love being a teacher at the school and having the opportunities to form relationships with kids from the communities outside the Finca gates, but my daily life has changed SO, SO much within the last few weeks. This change is not better or worse; it is just simply a much different lifestyle as a Finca missionary during the school months.
Since our missionary community this year at the Finca is so much smaller than previous years, we all have had to take on more responsibilities to help the Finca continue functioning smoothly. For my part, I am the English teacher for 6 grades this year, 1st grade through 6th grade! Compared to only teaching English classes for 3 grades last year, I am WAY, WAY busier this year during the school day. I have six classes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Wednesday being a much-needed free day to do laundry, do chores around the house, and to lesson plan for the following week because the principal requires all lesson plans for the entire week to be turned in on Monday morning for review.
I am at the school every weekday from 7:15am until 1:00pm, which makes it extremely important to be very intentional with my time in the afternoons in order to continue loving the kids and our Finca community to the best of my ability. With lunch, homework, PAVI classes, household chores/washing clothes, a spiritual event at 5pm on most weekdays, dinner, and getting to bed by 9:00pm in order to wake up prior to 5am for a 5:45am spiritual event on weekday mornings following a full day at the school, life is really, really busy here at the Finca for everyone, including missionaries, kids, tías, and Sores.
However, I firmly believe that as Christians we are called to love the person in front of us to the best of our ability and to make them feel like they are the only person in the world that matters at that point in time. That being said, I am NEVER, NEVER too busy in the afternoons to take the House 2 and 3 boys to the beach or play soccer in the campo, to have 3pm coffee with a tía, to chase around the House 4 and 6 girls in an endless game of tag, or to spend amazing time joking around with my goddaughter. I am a firm believer in the ministry of presence and serving at the Finca in the form of “being over doing”, but that is something that I constantly need to remind myself of in the busyness of life at the Finca during the school months. I have learned it is simply okay if a job or a chore doesn’t get done today, but what really matters is that I am loving the person in front of me to the best of my ability.
Although only having three missionaries in CST has made life busier for us in so many ways, one of the amazing gifts of having a smaller missionary community in our house this year is the opportunity to have more meals with our kids and tías at the Finca! We invite one of our kids or an entire house to eat with us at CST three or four times a week, and this time is SO, SO, SO special and something that I am so grateful for in my second year at the Finca! We did not have as much of an opportunity to invite our kids over for meals last year for a variety of reasons, but it is truly one of my favorite parts of being at the Finca. My weekly time cooking and eating dinner with my goddaughter, cooking and eating lunch on Sundays with our oldest male at the Finca who is almost 17 years old, and enjoying precious time around the table with entire houses of kids and tías has been INCREDIBLE this year!
Although my day-to-day life at the Finca has changed so much since February 1st, I LOVE BEING A TEACHER SO MUCH! Especially in this area of rural Honduras and the fact that I teach kids from 1st grade through 6th grade who are still learning their own Spanish language, English classes are not (and should not be, in my opinion) as serious as their core classes in math and Spanish. That being said, I play LOTS AND LOTS of games in my classes to make learning a more enjoyable environment during the English elective class. Especially since I did not study education in college, I truly learn something new every day regarding classroom management, lesson planning, and how to love the kids better, but I continue to strive daily to become the best teacher that I can be.
My general theory on teaching, especially as a missionary teacher in rural Honduras teaching elective English classes, is this: My job is to ensure every single child knows they are loved and hopefully they can learn some English along the way! I NEVER EVER pass up an opportunity to play at recess with the school kids, regardless of how prepared I am for my upcoming class or how horrible it is to be in a full sweat while teaching after recess. All in all, I CONTINUE TO LOVE THE FINCA LIFE SO DANG MUCH!
Please pray for Ryan, who has accepted the missionary coordinator position at the Finca and will arrive in early May! Please pray for his peace as he prepares to come to the Finca.
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
God Bless!