The Finish of Week 3

Just finished my third week of teaching.  I figured out how to post grades this week and I am finally learning the schedule.  (There is one schedule for M,W,F and a different one for T,Th and then my classes rotate every other day according to Blue/Yellow days.)  I love teaching the Book of John; however, when you have 8 classes of the same thing, you have to be very dilligent to make sure that you are telling each class the exact same things and that you cover the same amount of material each day. 

I went shopping on Thursday night with one of the staff to Holland Village.  She showed me where our uniform shop was and where there were some shops that I may want to go back to at another time. 

The high school had a swing dance Friday night and the boys had to wear pants, a nice shirt, a belt and nice shoes.  Micah decided to go and it was the first time he has worn pants since we have been here.  He has been doing activitites with other students and finding his way home ok! 

The dress code at our school is simple and it is funny how that is really a non-issue.  If you saw all of the other options that students wear all over the city, I think you would see how ours are great!!  My goal next week is to just take pictures of uniforms all over the city and post the pictures for you all to see. 

Today, our Saturday was a most interesting day.  I found a local wildlife reserve by our house (3 blocks away) called Bukit Batok Nature Park  that had a WWII memorial for the Japanese.  After roaming  through that we decided to go find the monkeys so we walked to Bukit Timah Nature Park and did the summit walk.  It was so cool to be going through the rainforest.  We definitely got our exercise for the day.  We will be posting the pictures, so be looking for them.  We headed out after our hike, and caught a bus just to see where we would go.  We ended up at Little India, had some great Indian food and went to see Mustafas, a famous shopping place around here.  Imagine a huge department store with stuff from floor to ceiling and every space used!  We then caught the train to a bus stop and headed home.  Now mind you, I was thinking about an hour hike and we left at 9:30 and came home around 3:15.  Yes, I am officially worn out!!  Easy evening tonight!

We will visit another church in the morning and have lunch at Chilis with one of the teachers from our
school. 

Please continue to pray for us when you think of us!  If you want to come visit we will wear you out too!!

Marta

Second Week in Singapore

Well, I have just finished my second week in Singapore and it feels like I have been here a month!!  I think with getting used to my classes and the heat and the bus and train rides, I was just exhausted by the time Friday night rolled around.  We have had a lot of basketball games this well also, so I tried to attend as many as possible so that I could learn my students' names and support them at the same time. (I have 140 high school students and some of them have very hard names to pronounce!)  Basketball just ended for both teams, so I hope for a little break. We leave at 6:25 in the morning and get home around 7 or 8.  Hopefully this week, it will be a little sooner. 

Some highlights of this week were:  
 All of us can now get to and from school by ourselves.

Spiritual Emphasis Week was really a neat time with many making decisions.  Many who are just learning about who Jesus is are very interested in knowing more.  I have many in my classes who did not grow up in a Christian home and are not believers. 

Our girls won their championship basketball game to make them league champions for the 2nd year in a row.  The boys played for 3rd but lost.  The pace of the game here is very fast and very rough.  The guys did an amazing job, but just couldn't pull it off. 

Micah has made a lot of new friends.  (I know you are all shocked!)  He has gotten around a little by himself and if he gets desperate there is always a taxi!!

Went to Lau Pa Sat with Don Cole.  It was very fun.  I will try to post some pictures of our time there.

Prayer requests:
1)Pray that we will be a light to our students who do not know Christ.
2)Pray that God will give us opportunity to meet and get to know our neighbors.  They are devout Chinese Muslims and even though we cannot witness to them, pray that they can see Christ in us.
3)All of us have various trips we are going on, so please pray for God's work to be done in the organizing and work that we will do.

Micah- going to India to do some sports camps and ministry work
Marta- Cambodia to an orphanage to build a wall to keep chickens in and kidnappers out.  (They have a problem with kidnappers taking the girls and selling them into prostitution.)
Chris- going to Indonesia with the middle school students
Hayden- going to Mexico at Spring Break with a group from Corban 

We love you and covet your prayers for our family!!

I'll try to post some new pictures soon!
Marta