the day off school!

Greetings, all!

Apologies for the lack of postable material lately. The past couple weeks have been a little crazy. Last week was exam week for all the elementary students, and this week was exam week for all of high school. Thus, I had about 60 tests to grade and 60 grades to configure. If any of my former teachers were here right now, I'd give them a big hug and say thank-you for how much work they put into my education, because let me tell you, teaching is not as easy as it looks!

Right now, I'm sitting down, resting my tired body from a hard day's "play". Today being a national Mexican holiday (The Day of the Dead), we didn't have school, and we teachers decided to make a day out of it. David, Kristen, four lovely Mexicanas, and myself all went to a nearby town called Matamoros to visit a few American friends who work in a home for kids who come from bad family backgrounds. These guys, Adam and Shawn, are going back to the States this week, and we thought that it would be good to visit them and wish them a good journey, as well as hang out with the kids, who definitely need as much love as can be given them.

Thus, after purchasing 8 kilos of meat for a big ol' barbecue, the seven of us boarded a bus and headed across the semi-desert of northern Mexico toward Matamoros. We arrived at the home, and promptly began tossing my frisbee (which never gets left behind on an adventure) with some of the boys. After getting slightly acquainted with the kids and the folks that work at the home, the twenty or so of us piled in a big Ford diesel and took off for the mountains.

There's something beautifully earthy and refreshing about riding in the back of a pickup with 8 chattery Mexican kids and 5 American twenty-somethings, bumping and ka-CHUNKing along on the desert roads. We arrived, dust-laden, at our camping site which was in the middle of a valley, shaded with occasional trees and overshadowed with towering rock mountains. We soon began playing frisbee, badminton, and soccer with the kids and I soon found that although I had more then ten years on them, they could nearly outmatch me in handling a soccerball. Regardless of this and the semi-sunburn that I received from the hot afternoon sun (in November!), I had a blast being with those kids.

Speaking my limited yet growing Spanish with them, pretending to tackle them while playing soccer, and watching them scarf down the meat and potatoes gave a warmth to my heart. It reminded me that kids are kids, whether they come from privileged families (like many of my students at the school), or whether their parents are barely present in their lives, they love attention and have never-ending appetites for new things to learn as well as new ways to get into mischief. I sometimes forget this as I get onto my 4th graders for flitting around the room, occupying themselves with anything and everything except their English teacher who is so desperately pleading that they pay attention to his foreign speech.

That's about all I have from here. Hopefully some more profound thoughts will come to me later and I can share them with you. I pray that you are all well and found in the grace of our Father. As this Mexican holiday of the Day of the Dead comes to a close, I praise God that he has given us the life of Jesus Christ, and that his life is at work in and through us.

Remain in Him today, my friends!