Voice of Truth

Ryan and I were working away last night, getting our school work done and listening to Casting Crowns. The song "Voice of Truth" came on and I was stopped dead in my tracks by the truth of the words at this moment in time. I'd like to share a snippit, if I could.

To begin, the first verse talks about having faith to step out and do something way out of your comfort zone. I likened that to Ryan and I coming here.
"Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat and then on to the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand
But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you never win!"
"You never win!"

Those lyrics spoke to me, because the chorus goes on the talk about the "Voice of Truth" which is God, and He is saying that it doesn't matter what others might say or do, that He is the ultimate truth.

But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story
The Voice of Truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the Voice of Truth says, "This is for My glory
"Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth

How many times has God told me not to be afraid? And how many times have I let my fear get in the way of His will? When we left for England I knew that it was God's will, that He wanted us to be here, and He worked it all out in advance so that we could come. He is still telling us that us being here is for HIS GLORY and not for our benefit. I have to keep remembering that when things get tough.

The next verse is the kicker though.

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

Does that sound like anyone I know????!!!!???? If that isn't our life right now to a tee, I don't know what is. But just like when we chose to take a leap of faith and come here, that same voice of truth that was there then is there now. And that same voice is still telling me a different story, and not to be afraid (even when I want my fear to win) and that this entire situation is for HIS GLORY. How do I argue with that?? Even now, the words of that song are bringing tears to my eyes, because even when things are so obscure and unsure, God is the complete opposite of that. He is the opposite of everything that I am as a human, and He is so much more powerful than any fear or insecurity that I could have. It doesn't matter if I've failed before, or if I fail again, I know that God is in control, and that He is the one who is telling the truth. And I love Him for it.

"But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story
The Voice of Truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the Voice of Truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me (calling out to me)
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth."

I do choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth, and trust that He has my life in His hands.

My Achy Breaky Heart!!

I joined the "line dancing club" today. One of the year 5 teachers is really into it, and she started up a club for the kids in the upper school. Today was the first day, and I mentioned to her that I had line danced a time or two, and would she like any help. She was so pleased! We didn't do much, we started with the CC Shuffle (I don't know about that spelling) then did the Electric Slide. Although I might not be a fantastic dancer, I was at least better than the kids, and for that I was grateful!! I was able to keep up with them, and even keep them on track, for the most part. Some were really funny. Anyway, I think I might make it a regular thing. I miss all that honky tonk music!!

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...and round and round and round

My respect for the Transport for London has waned.

Let's start with yesterday. Megan and I went out for dinner at the Outback with a bunch of teachers to celebrate our school getting out of special measures. By 9:30 I was ready to go home, so we left the restaurant and walked to the mall to catch the bus. We got there by 9:35 and waited. And waited and waited and waited. Maybe it's the "Amazing Race" in me, but I really hate just sitting there when I know that there is a faster way. Last night the faster way happened to be walking. The Outback is at the mall by our house. That means that we could have walked home from the restaurant in 8-10 minutes (depending on how fast we walked). I was thinking this as we continued waiting, and by about 9:50 I finally said to Megan, "I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!". Please understand that Megan doesn't walk. At least not if she can avoid it, so she wasn't coming with me. I apologized to her, but took off down the road. I texted Ryan and asked him to come meet me half way. In the 8 minutes it took me to get home, there was still not a bus to be seen. I got inside, got my jammies on, and snuggled into bed. A good 20 minutes later, Megan FINALLY showed up, but not by bus. No, she had finally given up as well, and called a cab. Poor her, she had to pay 6 quid for a cab ride, and still waited nearly an hour for a bus that never came!!!

Then today came. This morning was fine. After school Megan and I walked out of the school, walked down the road just in time to see the bus pulling away from the stop. Ok, whatev, we weren't walking fast (not my choice, believe me!) So we crossed the road and were standing under the bus stop (read - it was pouring rain). We had been standing there about 10 minutes when the next bus came along, except this bus forgot that it was a bus. Even though we were standing at a BUS STOP (as opposed to a Request Stop, at which you need to hail the bus or they may or may not stop) with Megan standing ON THE CURB in bright white pants, with her HAND OUT to stop the bus and two of us standing there, the bus proceeded to fly by without a hint of remorse. He didn't slow down, or even move over into the bus lane and out of the regular flow of traffic. No, he just flew by, with the two of us left in his dust. Needless to say, we were none to happy, not only at being ignored, but also at the fact that we needed to continue waiting in the rain and cold for an additional 10 minutes for the next bus.

Class pictures

We had a nice relaxing day today. Since we found out our school is COMPLETELY out of special measures, all the teachers are quite laid back. We had history this afternoon, which luckily was a fun activity anyway. The kids made ancient Egyptian burial chambers. They turned out nicely, although most kids aren't done yet.
This is Ancient Egyptian Perry. You can't really tell, but at one point he did have all of his internal organs. We took them out when he died so that we could embalm him and bury him properly. He is wearing his Death Mask. Cute eh?


I also took the time to take some pictures of the classroom, which I would like to share with you, if blogger will let me.

These are a couple of my favourite displays. The Living Things display was mostly Ryan. We even added bull rushes, because one of my kids loves them. The first day he saw that he came right over and said "look Miss, BULLRUSSES!" (no, I didn't mis-spell, that's how he says it!) Every book he reads has to have bull rushes to make him REALLY happy. The other display is an RE display that shows how far England is from India. Hinduism was the focus, and the kids designed plane tickets. Kinda boring, but the display looks nice.

This is my new favourite display. It's another RE lesson. They learned about Noah's ark, and the consequences of not following the rules. You can't see this, but each "plank" is a seperate piece of paper with a rule written on it. The rules were supposed to be things like, 'be nice', 'don't fight'. We had a lot of 'don't throw bricks' and 'don't play with knives'. What sad lives these children must lead!!

Ok, I tried to post more, but bloggers not cooperating. If anyone knows what I am doing wrong, please let me know.

So, this is my classroom in a nutshell. Messy right now, but back to normal!!

Wonderful Weekend!

We have a new washing machine!! YEAH!!! Ok, so that might not seem like the most exciting thing in the world, but after two weeks without one, it does seem pretty fantastic to me! Our washing machine broke down two weeks ago, and our landlord (yes, the pleasant, helpful, friendly landlord) agreed to "fix" it. She "fixed" it, only for Megan to put a load of washing in and have the same problem we had before. Needless to say, we were all quite upset (Megan most upset of all - it was her laundry that she had to hand wash and drip dry) and so we went back to TimePlan to try to rectify the situation. After a week of the landlady avoiding calls and being stupid, she finally came out and said, no, she wasn't planning on fixing it. Unfortunetly for her, part of our rental agreement states that our house comes with a WORKING washing machine. Bob from TimePlan was very helpful, and about the same time that he told us we were moving out, he also told us he was buying us a new washing machine. It took about a week to get it delivered and installed, but now we are up and running and washing again! Needless to say, after two weeks of no washer, and seven people with laundry to do, it's been crazy. Another hardship (my life seems full of those lately) is that we can only hang one load up to dry at a time. We don't have a dryer, so we hang everything. We can fit one, maybe two if we're lucky, so it'll take awhile to get through the 6 loads we have to do. Not to mention the laundry that is piling up in the meantime. But I won't complain, at least we don't have to go to the laundry mat. Last time I went (two weeks ago, when it first broke) the lady was so rude, and sh explained how to use it, but she explained it wrong!! Then she got mad when I asked her to run the laundry through again - with SOAP this time! Imagine, wanting to wash laundry with soap!! I specifically asked her to show me too, because I didn't want to make a mistake!

We've had a pretty lazy day. I spent all morning cleaning up our room, which has been neglected with work being so hectic and long hours and being away. It feels pretty good to have things put away where they belong, and the floor vacuumed and stuff. And I managed to finish another Jodi Picoult book. She comes highly recommended. I even have Ryan hooked! For a boy who doesn't do much reading, he polished off a 450 page novel in a matter of days!

A few more pictures

Ryan and I at the edge of the world (at least, that's how it felt!!) Don't worry, we didn't get too close to the edge!
A million and one sailboats!! The English Channel was littered with them! We thought of you Uncle John!

The view from the beach outside our hotel. Absolutely stunning. These pictures don't do it justice. I thought about lying and saying that the two people on the beach were Ryan and I, but zoomed in they don't look anything like us!! (for a good laugh, try zooming in!!)


The Needles! Kind of a landmark, and if you are really interested in seeing them in perspective, check out Google Earth.

We're outta here!

Looks like we're moving. We had a nice meeting with the head of the Essex office of TimePlan, and he informed us (not that we didn't already know) that they were having trouble dealing with the owner of the house we are in. Although they signed a lease through a letting agency, the landlord is not upholding her end of the agreement in a lot of ways, and she also recently told TimePlan that she is terminating the contract 6 months from the signing date. That would put it at Feb. 14. So Bob came over last night and broke the news to us (I told everyone he was coming to tell us we had to move, but no one believed me!!) TimePlan is being super helpful though, and they insisted that they would make this as easy as possible on us all. They are finding us a new place, and they will pay for us to get our stuff over to wherever it is we end up. They even said we could have a say on what place we do end up with. Bob gave us two choices, either move out over Christmas, or wait til our February break. Either way Ryan and I were planning to be on vacation (home for Christmas, Egypt in Feb) so it doesn't really affect us - except for the whole packing up our lives AGAIN and making sure we're ready to move. It's too bad really, I was starting to like our house!

Just one more thing to load up the stress factor. I'm trying my best to be chilled about the whole thing. God is good, and He will provide for His children. I'll just keep telling myself that! Just look at what He has provided so far!

Beautiful beautiful Isle of Wight!!

We had such an awesome weekend! The weather was phenomenal, and the scenery was fantastic. None of our pictures do it justice. We left bright and early Saturday morning (well, not bright, the sun wasn't up yet) and made our way by train to London to our pick up point for the coach to the Isle of Wight. We actually almost had interviews for a school there, but it turned out they didn't want us, it was for a highschool job. Once we were on the island though, we knew we couldn't live there. It's much too touristy.

The ferry ride was nice. It was freakin' cold (15 degrees), but the sun was shining. There were a million and one sailboats on the water, and the biggest container ship you have ever seen. The pic is the back end of the boat. Each little tiny square is a container like you would see on a train. Use your imagination!!

Once we arrived in Ryde (where we stopped for lunch) we basked in the sunshine. It was really warm - please ignore the mittens and winter coat - and we even found some palm trees. We're not missing that winter weather one bit!! We ate our lunch at a fish and chips place. The fish and chips are really good here. The cod is fresh, and the chips are thick and hot. We have learned two things about english fish and chips - number one, add lots of salt, and number two, chips should be eaten with mayonnaise. I never thought I would say either one of those things, but chips and mayonnaise are my new fav. I will put up a pic of the place we ate at. The picture really does say it all.

We saw some more of the landscape, went on a panoramic sightseeing tour of the island, and finally made it to our hotel. The hotel wasn't fantastic, but the view was amazing. I'm only putting up one pic, there are plenty more where that came from!! Our hotel was about 200 m from the beach, and these pics were taken at about 5pm. Oh, one other problem with a tourist town, nothing is open!! Most places were closed for the season, and the restaurants had very limited hours. We found one place and struck up a conversation about being Canadian, and how he'd like to visit some day. Nice people!!

Apparently I'm pushing my luck with the photos. I'll try again later.

One of the scariest parts of the weekend was the driving. Not that our driver was bad, in fact just the opposite - he was amazing!! The roads were so narrow, and the hills were so steep, I thought for sure that at some points we were going to go tumbling down the road and off the cliff and straight into the English channel!! At one point, we were driving on a back road because the main road had actually fallen into the channel, and the driver came on and said, "hold on folks, they like to call this zig-zag road" at which point we zigged one way, immediately followed by a 90 degree zag the opposite way, and nearly slammed head first into an oncoming car!! He also warned us that we should begin to pray that we do not come into contact with a city bus coming in the opposite direction, because there just isn't enough room on the road for two buses!! Luckily we didn't come into contact with one. There were some places on the road that seemed barely wide enough for two small cars, but our driver expertly navigated us through it.

Our final destination was the 'needles' which is a famous Isle of Wight landscape. It didn't seem to impressive, until we climbed 45 minutes to the top of the mountain and looked down. Quite a sight. And also quite a historical landmark. Most of the monument is protected, and there were signs everywhere explaining what was what and when stuff happened. I won't bore you with the details!! It was a long hike up, but it was worth it! The view made me feel like I was at the top of the world! And it was cool to look out and be able to see mainland England. It made me feel so small!!

All in all we had a fantastic weekend. It was nice to get away and relax a little bit. Now it's back to the grind and school work and stress. I think I would like to quit my day job and become a permanent tourist.

Some Pictures of our mid term

I figured as long as I was procrastinating, I may as well make it fun for you!!

This is Ryan and I at Stonehenge. The stones don't look huge, but remember, we were really far away!! We had this taken by some tourist. The thing around my neck is an audio tour. Very cool!

Another shot of the stones. They were quite impressive, though not as big as I thought they would be. The day started out rainy and cold, but it improved!!

These are the Roman Baths. They used to be covered by a roof, in the olden days, but the sunshine makes the algae grow. No one is allowed to swim in there, and I don't think anyone would want to. They don't treat it. The water is hot too, and you can see how clean it is when it comes out of the spring.

This is the hot spring. There was a sign that said don't touch the water (it was really hot) but I ignored it. I'm such a rebel.

This is Windsor Castle. It was massive, and quite impressive, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. I don't know why not. Maybe the Queen doesn't want anyone copying her decorating style. Anyway, the big mound was original to the castle, it was a man made mountain that was intended to keep the enemies out. Neat stuff.

Ok, that's it for now. I feel like I am pressing my luck with all these pictures. If this works, I might get some more up later!!

Life is stressful right now. One of the largest sources of stress comes in the fact that OFSTED is coming to my school. Now you might think, "gee, you're kind of overreacting, don't you think?" NO! OFSTED is the inspection agency that decides whether or not our school stays open. Last time they came, our school failed (granted, we were one of the first schools they saw, and all of the electronic equipment had been stolen the month previous). They look for things like technology integration, meaningful displays, good differenciation among ability groups. The problem for me is that no one has actually said "this is what they want..." (sentence to be completed by, well, ANYONE!!!!) Teachers are running around hog wild, trying to set up displays and plan meaningful lessons, and keep everyone organized!! It's mad chaos, is what it is. Needless to say, it's a little bit stressful at school.

And, since my timing is always spot on, I decided that this weekend would be a good one to go on an overnight tour of the Isle of Wight. It was a good idea at the time. Not so much a good idea anymore. In fact, I am having stress attacks thinking of all the work that I could be doing while I will be sitting on a bus for hours. Maybe this is exactly what I need to relax and calm down. Ryan seems really excited about it though, so we'll see. I was excited, back when I made the reservations. I need to find that excitement again, and soon!!!

On a happier note, we have discovered a new and improved route to school. (For those of you who are wondering, I pronounce it r-oo-t, not r-ow-t, I had this discussion this week with one of the south african supply teachers). Anyway, back to the bus. It was in fact Megan who discovered the r-oo-t, and she was kind enough to share her information. Technically we found a new r-oo-t HOME from school, but using our keen deductive skills we figured if we just reversed our r-oo-t we could get TO school as well. This morning was the first time we tried it. We took the 86 bus the opposite direction than we normally would (don't worry, it seems ludicrice, but it works) and Ryan got off at Whalebone Lane South (I just love the name of that road). He promptly hopped on the 173 and was most of the way to school before we had even made our transfer. Anyway, Megan and I continued on the 86 and got off just before the Chadwell Heath tube station, where we tried to catch the 368 (for those of you wondering, this is the bus that runs right in front of our school - so this was a very good thing). We had a bit of trouble because we ended up on a one way street that was travelling the opposite way that we wanted to be going, but in the end we found it, and we were at school before the 5 (the bus we usually took) would have been half way to school. And we had less walking, because the bus stop is right out front, instead of having to walk from the main road like we would normally. Wow, that was a long winded explaination of my excitement this morning. Kind of sad that finding a new bus r-oo-t would be considered exciting. What has my life come to???

Oh, and just for the record, I can't wait to get back to Canada so I can have a car again. Bussing is not what it is cracked up to be!!!!!