English and Sunshine

From a series of notecards I designed with the theme “Things that make me happy.”

Life has been tough this year. There have been days I was so stressed I thought my head might explode. But today is not one of those days.

Mr. Right called to tell me that he and our Nigerian friend, whom he tutors in English once a week, prayed for me this morning.  I will gladly take anybody’s prayers, but there’s a sweetness to the prayers of people from far away places, whose backgrounds and life stories are vastly different from mine, and yet we share the same God who hears our prayers, regardless of our accents.

Other fun ESL moments lately:

-I taught my class all about the World Series. Which they thought was silly, since it’s not really the “world” that plays in it, just North America. How egocentric we must seem to them! Thankfully I’ve got my class fully educated on baseball, and I got to hear Go Rangers! in the most delicious array of accents.

-We have two sweet West African women who have decided that Will and I should get pregnant. Now. They lovingly told me they are praying that we would have FIVE kids (gulp) and that God would make us pregnant now. I asked them if they could kindly ask God to give us three kids instead of five, and if he could give us a little more time to enjoy the carefree newlywed life before we get pregnant… we have some trips to plan first.  And my husband is in seminary. But if we make a surprise announcement anytime soon… you can blame my students.

-I showed one of those same women a picture of me holding my niece, and she happily exclaimed “Your arms look fat in that picture!” Like it was the greatest thing in the world! I saw the look of amusement horror surprise on Mr. Right’s face as I tried to remind myself that in many cultures around the world, being fat is a sign of beauty.

If you think of it, please add my sweet students to your prayer list. They face some very real challenges as they experience culture shock, children who struggle to adjust to new schools, adults who need jobs, and the ability to communicate well so they can be taken seriously in their new home.

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