Wednesday, June 27, 2007

In the Waiting Process

I am sorry I haven't written in awhile...things have been busy! Well, it seems that everything is still in question and we are still waiting. We sent in applications to a school in Prague that Cultural Embrace (the organization that we are going with) had contacted about us. We just heard back from them today and our applications have moved the to the next level. Hopefully, we will hear back from them soon. My heart is really set on Prague...so I hope that it works out with them. Even if it doesn't, I know it will be okay because God is in control of this situation. We have started our TEFL (teaching English as a Foreign Lanugage) courses...and let me tell you...the English language is difficult! Matt and I are working together on it and are enjoying it (for the most part). We have just completed Unit 4 and have 16 more to go! The house is still on the market. We haven't had any lookers so that is a little discouraging, but we have faith that God has his hand in every part of this move, so He will take care of it. We are having a garage sale this weekend. Let me tell you...getting rid of "stuff" is so nice. I cleaned out my closet last night and was almost sick at all the things I was getting rid of. To make it worse...my closet is still full! As we are getting rid of things, it makes me not feel so cluttered. It is a great feeling.

This past weekend, we went down to Houston and saw the family. It was great seeing everyone and it was weird to think that it might be a year before I see them again. We had a homemade ice cream and brownie party to let everyone know the details and to say our good byes.

Our China trip is quickly approaching. We are down to less than a month! We are getting very excited at the thought of being there for 2 weeks. Please keep us in your prayers. We are really going to be networking with the people in China. Last night at our meeting, we talked a lot about the question "How do you share your spiritual journey to someone who doesn't speak your language?" This thought has been in my mind all day long. For two weeks (actually for the next year) Matt and I will be surrounded by a language we don't understand. Our actions will absolutely be defining our lives!

Thank you for all the prayers and kind words that everyone has shared with us. We hope that you enjoy hearing about our trips. I have linked a website to the Cultural Embrace website. This is the organization that we are going through when we go to Europe.

Have a great day and I will keep you posted on things as they happen.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Sold to the Seller in the 2nd Row!

Well the selling of the stuff has begun!! Just today, we have sold our Jeep and our living room furniture, as well as our hutch. What a day...hopefully the house is next!! It was a fun day but our schedules keep getting busier and busier. We hung out with the Turnbough family and celebrated by getting Starbucks. We will be starting our TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course on Thursday. It is 100 hour course that we need to have done by the time we leave for Europe. Well...it is late and I am tired...so off to bed I go!

Monday, June 18, 2007

The Realization of It All

If you haven't talked to me in awhile and you are visited this site, you need to know that Matt and I are about to go on an adventure of a lifetime. We will be heading to China for 2 weeks on a mission project, and then return to soon fly off to Eastern Europe to teach English for a year. We are not certain to the exact location but it is looking like Prague, Poland or Serbia. So here is the first blog of our new adventure.

Well tonight has been the first night that moving and new jobs has really impacted us. We started our evening with dinner and wine, followed up with starting to go around our house and putting garage sale stickers on the things that seem to clutter our house and lives. Our house is now on the market and while we are pulling things out to sell, we have to keep our house clean in case we have any lookers. We then got an email from a school in Prague that is really interested in Matt and I! Along with the email was an application. It started off easy, "where did you go to school", "what is your teaching experience?", blah, blah and then the hard questions hit. "Please write a 60 min. detailed lesson plan on how you would teach intermediate students about present continuous verb tense." After reading this, I went on to read the next question which was another 60 min. detailed lesson plan on a reading lesson. My first question, "What is a present continuous verb tense?" and my second thought is "Poor Matt, he's probably never written a lesson plan!" So I call him in to show him and he just nods his head and says, "I'm going to have to think about that." So...the realization of actually teaching English to people has set in. I have researched the internet for the definition, as well as, ideas for lesson plans. Kind of frustrated, because these lesson plans are out of my league (we don't teach this stuff in 1st grade :)), I look at the pictures of Prague and am comforted to know that this is an experience of a lifetime. Above is a picture of Old Town Square in Prague.
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