Return for a Special Toast

Happy Birthday dearest Margaret Ann Hazelton.

 This seems like yesterday. Ya know, mimosas and toasting to your

many more happy years to come. Mm just us and our cozy Cabell 104. 

I miss baking with you...the endless giggly get-flour-all-over-our-hands kind.

The one where we get globs of sugary goob on our fingers and I catch you enjoy dabs of cookie dough. 

As teaching get harder, plan B is sounding more appealing by the minute. 

Get that spatula ready! I'm so serious about this.

 hehe. In our favorite Dollar section at Target.

Those endless runs (and embarassing drive thrus at Bank of America. HA) grocery shopping,

TJ Max shopping, birthday present shopping, chic-fil-A stopping, etc. 

Oh, and let's not forget our outlet runs! 

sigh. I miss you.

 Even when we were abroad, you came and found me at Paris.

Let's travel the world again. This long distance thing is harsh!

 How can I forget this day?

The day you kidnapped Quackers and duct-taped the poor little bird.

I found him helplessly strapped to the back of our passenger seat. Sigh. 

[Status: still recovering]

Don't worry. He's keeping Mahopiny company, thank you very much. 

 long leisurely walks through campus, scoping out events, walking through CW,

sitting on the bench with our short legs just barely fitting...toes touching.

"LOOK! It's our size!!" :)

Simplement, je t'adore, ma chérie.

Thank you for being there when I needed you most--even several states and countries away.

Thank you for being so silly and making me giggle, even when I don't want to.

Thank you for lovingly rebuking me, even when I don't want to hear it.

I treasure you and all that you are, you beautiful woman.

I praise God for you today and every day.

joyeux anniversaire.

que tes rêves se réalisent. 

Food for Thought

The most profound essence of my nature is that I am capable of receiving God. 

- St. Augustine 

Blessed sisters

Washington DC, Kentucky, Missouri,

Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

It's so crazy to see the directions that He has taken the five of us, 

and yet, it's so amazing to see that nothing has really changed. 

"Oh how Great the Father's love for us"

I am so thankful for you. 

Thank you for constantly speaking Truth into my heart.

 "I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking." -George MacDonald

Here's a quote that my dear sister Lydia shared with me a few weeks ago after a lovely conversation. Yay for technology and the ways it has blessed me with such precious opportunities.

It's amazing to think that two girls who fell in love with a community through short mission trips--would eventually settle down for a little while to serve, and more often than not, learn.

Indeed, we are learning.
...learning to trust in a Lord that is bigger than the difficulties that we face every day.
...learning to remember that He loves our kids more than our human hearts possibly ever could.
...learning to praise God for every little thing that comes our way...be it good or "bad"
(quotation marks around bad because even those, I'm learning to see, carry much good)

I am so thankful for you. 

Welcome to Room 209

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just that little 'extra'"

The poster from my high school English class that inspired the title of this blog is now hanging up in my own classroom to speak to my own students. I pray that these words will not only encourage my kids to push a little further and go that extra mile, but that it will also be a daily reminder to me that it is

an extraordinary Father singing to an ordinary being like me. For that, I am grateful.

And yes, that is a fan. My classroom happens to be the only one in the building with a broken air conditioner,

but now that the temperature's dropping my kids have been complaining less
(although some have now begun to say that it's getting too cold in the room...sigh)

At least my windows bring in a lot of s u n s h i n e. I could use lots of it this year.

Teacher privileges not only mean that I could use
my favorite movie character for posters like these,
but I could also shamelessly promote my birthday :P 

6 Periods. 97 Students. 5 Days a week.

Father, may your hand be upon everything that goes on in this classroom.

First year. Let's go.

"It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; 

he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
-Deuteronomy 31:8

First week of teaching: done

After a full week of being Ms. Kang, 10th grade English teacher of room 209, the frazzled looking one at the end of eighth period, my heart sings one thing and one thing only. And that is this hymn. Spirit, sing. 

I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like thine can peace afford.

I need thee, O I need thee;

every hour I need thee;

O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

I need thee every hour; stay thou nearby;

temptations lose their power when thou art nigh. 

I need thee every hour, in joy or pain;

come quickly and abide, or life is vain. 

I need thee every hour; teach me thy will;

and thy rich promises in me fulfill. 

I need thee every hour, most Holy One;

O make me thine indeed, thou blessed Son. 

Spiritual Traveling

After several summers of being blessed with many traveling opportunities, I stayed close to home this year. This summer is instead a chance for me to serve within my local community and stand in awe of the One who lovingly sends out His children to the ends of the earth. And yet I did travel. Although I didn't physically leave the confines of the United States, this summer was in fact a summer of spiritual traveling. Through one of my favorite families, I was blessed to see how women in the middle east welcome their guests into their homes. I was blessed to see a sister of mine find healing through the touch of beautiful little children. I was blessed to hear the beginnings of an extensively planned stay in Bulgaria finally come into fruition. I was blessed to see a sister return and serve the orphanage where she last left her heart. I was blessed to see a team fly out to Japan to comfort those long forgotten after the earthquake. I was blessed to see a mother and daughter serve motherless children in Africa as well as a brother carry the Word to college campuses in Turkey.

-C* in Iraq
-L* in Nicaragua

-E* in Bulgaria

-K* in Congo

-J* in Japan

-C* in Kenya
-A* in Turkey

What a beautiful body of Christ these brothers and sisters have displayed to me this summer. God, you are good. Be lifted High here in this place. All over the world. Let your name be known. Be glorified.  

My Institute Story of Self

It's the day before finals, and I've never felt so nervous.

....and I'm not even the one taking the final tomorrow!!

Nope, these are the finals that my very f i r s t students will be taking.
The first students to entrust me with their learning....with their lives. 

It makes me wonder how my own teachers felt when I took their exams. 

Will they remember to use context clues? Will they have the stamina to write a strong thesis statement? Will they be able to differentiate between mood and tone? Will they be able to identify the various poetic devices? Will they recall that informal does not mean informative?

All these thoughts are frantically swimming through my head as I go into the last two days of institute, of summer school, of being in the classroom with a handful of rising seniors at Delaware Valley. 

I arrived in Philly with the simple notion that this summer was going to be tough. That I was going to be humbled and stretched and that I was going to learn a lot. 

I didn't realize just how little it took to break this confident air of mine...this idea that I was born to teach. No. In fact, if I was certain of one thing, it was that I was born to learn. Learn learn learn. 

From running into a wall with classroom management, witnessing all kinds of behaviors in class, dealing with all kinds of prejudice in the school system, hearing all kinds of disappointing words labeling my students as "not smart" and "way behind," I saw more than I had expected or even wanted during these past five weeks. 

Every walk back to the bus meant a few minutes of heaving sighs under my breath and muttering thanks to all the teachers that had to deal with this during my own schooling. 

At first I had my qualms of going into the classroom to teach English as a small Korean American, not to mention a VERY recent college graduate. Will they trust me? I never had any Asian teachers teach me English when I was growing up. Nope, not even in college. What makes me think that they or their parents will trust me to teach English?! These thoughts quickly disappeared the minute I entered the classroom. It was an entirely different world that I was walking into.

All my life, I was in charge of my own learning. Life was simple. I put in x amount of hours studying and the results would (more often than not) match up to that. Getting results from an exam or a class was never a surprise because I knew that what I sow, I would eventually reap.

When it comes to teaching, I may put in x amount of hours into my work, but it will not always produce those same, once predictable results. (at least not immediately or so obviously on paper) I never know what my kids are up against the minute they walk out of my classroom. Will they come across family troubles? Will they be evicted from their home tonight? Will their electricity get shut off? Will they get any sleep tonight or will their parents be fighting again?
Ms. Kang, I'll get my materials in by Friday. That's when I get my paycheck.
Ms. Kang, I have a court hearing tomorrow. Can I take my final a day early?
Ms. Kang, that's easy to say but not for someone who lives with her aunt and has to pay the rent. 

My heart aches. My power is finite.

Lord, teach me to be faithful in my role. Everything else is in your hands. Give me peace and the faith to trust that you are greater than my biggest failures. Help me be f a i t h f u l in the task that You've given me. Help me to l o v e them the way you do.