And I think to myself... what a wonderful world!

Surprise!  After 97 days of teaching first grade it is still quite the challenge!  Ha! J The awesome thing is that I love what I do, and I have constant support from God in all of it.  I feel spoiled that my first job is teaching at a Christian school.  We have staff devotions on a weekly basis, unplanned worship time together and chapel each week with the whole of elementary.  Despite the environment, I of course have students that teach me patience daily.  Sometimes I want to scream and but instead I have to somehow keep my composure and say, “And how did the fact that there was gum under the lunch table make you think it was okay to start yelling about it as loudly as possible?”  I love the fact that after kids miss part of their recess (as part of the discipline procedure) we can pray together and they can ask God’s forgiveness.  I so appreciate that when we talk about being nice I can refer them to this week’s memory verse: Hebrews 13:16.  I am filled with joy when we talk about how to treat one another and someone says, “Miss Dembowski, it’s like one of our memory verses: ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other as Christ forgave you.’”  They are six years old and God is working through them in awesome ways!!!  This is not to pretend that my class is full of children who are only quoting the Bible and doing nothing but pouring God’s love out, but it is awesome that I don’t have to hide any Truths, or say them in a neutral kind of way.  I am so blessed to be at Kigali International Community School in Rwanda teaching first grade! 

I’ll leave you with a conversation from two of my kidlets:

“Miss Dembowski… why in the Bible do they always say men instead of men and women?  Do you think it’s because Jesus was a man, not a woman?
“I think it’s because men are more popular… I mean… men are presidents and stuff…”

The first and second grade girls conducting their own ballet lessons at recess.

In line for the bake sale that the fifth and sixth graders set up to raise money for local orphanages

My precious students hanging out during snack time.