All Things New

another week of teacher training behind us. another group of teachers to laugh with and challenge and encourage. another reason to give God the glory.

even though, i'll be honest, these trainings can become routine, and we can forget what's important or begin to wonder if our time with primary school teachers is even making a difference... despite our doubts and fears and anxiety, God is pushing us forward, to show us something new and refreshing, and give us hope.

isaiah 61 is a great passage. so much of it reminds me of south sudan...

"the Lord has anointed me (Jesus) to proclaim good news to the poor... 

to comfort all who mourn... to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."

and gives me hope for the work God is doing in Mundri and through our teachers.

"they will be called oaks of righteousness, 

a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor...

they will renew the ruined cities

    that have been devastated for generations"

"for as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations."

these verses were the foundation of our recent training. we wanted to encourage our teachers that God is indeed making all things new, planting them as trees for His glory.

and like any good teacher would do, we took the theme of trees as an excuse to have lots of fun :) we created parts-of-the-tree visual aids, sang songs about trees, made a graph of our favorite trees, read a story about Wangari planting trees in Kenya, and even made a human tree!

we taught about learning styles and challenged teachers to think beyond the rote way of teaching and engage students with songs, dramas, visuals, and games. 

at the end of the week, teachers created lesson plans in groups and presented them. we were so pleased to see a group of teachers use many of the teaching methods we had modeled (a first in all of our trainings!). 

they were a great group of teachers, alert and engaged and eager to try to new things. we really enjoyed our time with them, and this may have been the best teacher training yet! i'm pretty sure i say that each time, but maybe that's just the Lord's kindness in showing us He is in control and making all things new, even teacher trainings :)

a big THANK YOU to all who helped us give each teacher a book to take and use in their classrooms. they were thrilled by your generosity.