Every morning I teach an hour of Bible to my students. Over the past week and a half the Lord put it on my heart to talk to them about the assurance we have in knowing Christ and what that means. This meant veering away from the Bible curriculum for the time being. I was able to share with them about my life growing up and about my recent time spent in Costa Rica with Campus Crusade sharing with college students about the gospel. I took time to go through a booklet called “Knowing God Personally” with my 20 students. As we went through the book (which is a very clear picture of the gospel) their curiosity began to increase…

In the beginning of the school year I asked them on a survey “On a scale of 0-10, how sure are you that if you die today you will go to heaven?” Most of them did not have 10s. My heart and prayer this whole year was that the Lord would give me an opportunity to have a good spirit lead time with my kids to discuss these things. I didn’t want them to leave 4^th grade without been given the opportunity to know 100% that when they die they will be in heaven with Jesus.

Yesterday (May 16^th) we got to the end of the booklet where it talks about “Our Response.” We had amazing conversations and the spirit was really tugging at their hearts. To make a long story short….I gave them the opportunity to choose if they wanted to ask Jesus in their hearts right then. Also we talked about rededicating your life to Christ and what that meant. Almost ALL of my students prayed and committed their lives to Jesus Christ for the first time or rededicated their lives!! What a joyous day!

Today day I met individually with each of my students discussing their decisions, commitments, previous spiritual backgrounds, and their understanding of the message of Jesus. About 4 of my students had made that decision and prayed to ask Jesus in their lives prior and were already 100% sure. About half of my class said they prayed to ask Jesus in their lives when they were really little but didn’t understand with it meant at all and were not sure of their salvation. When they prayed it in class they said they really understood what they were doing and what it means and are now 100% sure of their salvation. About 5 of my students prayed for the very first time to receive Jesus into their lives! PRAISE THE LORD!!!! I can now say with assurance that all of my student are confident in their salvation and know that without a doubt that when they die they will be in heaven! AMEN!

Praise the Lord for the amazing opportunities He has given me!

Please be praying for my students!

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

What? It’s already May?!?!? Time is really flying by here. I am down to about 5 more weeks of teaching. I thank the Lord for the work that He has been doing here, and the opportunity He has given me to serve Him here, for such a time as this. I hope you all are being blessed and encouraged during this season of your life. I would love to hear from you so I can know how to be praying for you too!

April seems like it has come and gone so quickly. I have been busy with teaching my wonderful 4^th graders. Last week was our BIG Science Fair! This is the main project done in grade 4 and they had such a blast doing it. My kids worked so hard on their experiments and it really showed on their final pieces. Students, parents and teachers came to check out all the fun, creative and scientific findings. I am very proud of them!
Since school is starting to wind down a question that I often get from students here is “Miss Johnson are you going to be teaching here again next year?” It breaks my heart, facing the reality of this question, that I will not be returning to teaching at Bingham another year. This is one of the hardest things for the student to understand and it is something that they are faced with yearly. Teachers they get really close to end up leaving. I had a very difficult time sharing with my class about my situation and telling them I will not be back next year. Many tears and heartache as I told them, but I also felt so encouraged by them after as they one by one came up to be giving me big bear hugs and telling me that they are going to miss me so much and that I am the best teacher in the whole wide world. J We were able to talk and pray through many questions and had a good heart to heart.

Please continue to pray for me as I enter into this transition period rapidly. I am sad to leave, but I trust that God’s plans are better. I believe that He has a purpose and plan for everything that happens. My kid’s memory verse last week was: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 This is one verse that I have really had to lean on during this time of not knowing what is next.

Also pray that I can find a job! I want to find a teaching job in California so I can quickly clear my credential. If you know of any, please let me know.

I am still coaching volleyball 3 days a week after school. It has been really fun to do and so cool to see how much improvement the girls have made since the beginning of the season. Tomorrow is our championship game. We automatically made it since there is just one other team that we play!

After volleyball practices end at 5pm I have been staying in the gym and playing with all of the Ethiopian workers at the school. This has been a highlight for me recently. It’s been a great way to better get to know the guys and I’ve been able to play volleyball again!

I am also still teaching English Thursdays after school at the Hosanna House. It is so much fun and I have really enjoyed getting to know the girls and see their progress in English and be apart of their lives. Each week 4 of us from Bingham go, trying to make it fun and interactive for them by watching a movie clip, doing skits, playing games, singing songs, teaching them “slang” words, etc; trying to get them to speak as much as possible. The woman, Tirset, who started the home, works for a Satellite Christian radio station in Los Angeles. Here is the link to the radio station and HBN television station if you are at all interested in seeing her work:
http://www.hosannafoundation.org/ -
http://www.hbntelevision.com/home.html .

Another big event happening soon is a race to raise money for the blind school we visited up in Mekelle a few months ago. There are a few of us here organizing the whole event, and could use your prayer! The efforts are headed up by Kathleen, a friend in Santa Barbara, who started a non-profit organization called BEAUTY FROM ASHES RISING.
Please check out this site:  http://www.beautyfromashesrising.org/
With the money we raise it will be used to provide housing for these blind kids. Once they finish 8^th grade they get put on the streets and the government give the equivalent to 13 dollars a month. We will be providing them with a great Christian based living situation, and teach them “how to fish, not just give them fish.” To donate please go to the website.

Thanks for your love and support!

xoxo

Hey guys! Ok where to start. Well, I got back Sunday from my trip down south. It was so much fun, a crazy fun adventure everyday. I hope you enjoy reading about my time and feel a bit like you were there!

Just Rachel and I went and really didn’t plan anything in too much detail before hand…we just had a general idea of what we were going to do. God was so faithful to us in providing our every need. I will try and give you a brief overview of what we did. (pictures on FB to come soon)

We flew to Arba Minch (1 hr flight) stayed there for 2 nights. One of my students (Blane) dad pretty much lives down there as a crocodile guy…has his own farm. Samuel her dad ended up paying for our hotel while we were there. We ended up going back to Arba Minch towards the end of our trip for 3 more days and he got our hotel again and paid for all our meals! Such a blessing. And so great to be able to love on and hangout with Blane!!! She is such sweet girl who I love dearly. She has a hard family situation so she loved hanging out with 2 of her favorite teachers!

In Arba Minch we met lots of the local people and had a fun time with them. Went to ‘40 Springs’ a hiking place, drank fresh water out of the springs from a leaf, swam in the spring. Went to see all the crocodiles, ate tons of good fish! Some of the best fish I’ve ever had. Went to one of the guys house for coffee and met his sweet family, encouraged them as they are brothers and sisters in Christ. Took a day trip for 4 guys that we met, in their car to one of the guys villages (Dorzi village). It was so cool too see…there all the huts are huge and made to look like elephants (said to be the biggest huts in Ethi), went to the local market, I spun some cotton, dressed up in tribal costumes, walked through the bamboo forest, got followed by tons of little kids, saw the weaving factory where they make scarves, saw the local brewery and bar where they all drink “tetch” homemade local honey wine (which they made us taste…it was gross). Had a great time overall!

We took a bus to Jinka, a small town where we stayed at a guest house, we know a homeschool family there. The bus ride was awful. It was suppose to take 6.5 hours…ended up taking 14 hours!!! It broke down 3 times with many other problems to go along with that. We tried to make the best of our time, teaching all the people on our bus how to play card games. By the end of it I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry. It was pretty dreadful. We had fun in Jinka, traveled there with 2 other guys we met on the airplane (one from NY and one from England) we had fun hanging out with them and going to the Mursi tribes. The Mursi people are very interesting to say the least. The woman have huge lip plates in their lips and usually cruise around topless. The little kids are roaming around naked. They are straight up out of like national geographic. What was funny was they were just as mesmerized by ME as I was of them. I don’t think they have ever seen freckles and red hair. As a tourist you have to pay 2 birr (which is like 14 cents) a picture if you take it of them, to each person in the pic. So this one lady was like inspecting me and looking at me so weird and touching my hair and skin. I was so weirded out. Anyways, I told her “if you touch me you owe me 2 birr, because if I want a picture of you I owe you 2 birr” she looked at me so strangely as her dangly lip is hanging in front of my face and she is topless with all these designed scars on her body. She touched me again, and I said, “that’s 2 birr” and she paid me!!!! Haha it was so funny! I ended up giving the money back to her before I left but the fact that she wanted to touch my skin so badly she would pay me money was funny. Overall the people there were not very nice to us, but I’m glad we got to see them. The next day we went to a market about 1 hour away where 4 different tribal groups go and sell all their things. It was so cool to see all of the people and how they dress. So strange, it would be the funniest thing to see one of those people just cruising down the streets of Santa Barbara or something…they look like they are out of some magazine back in the day.

There were so many more crazy stories from our trip. Each day was so different with its own fun adventures. Also, lots of good spiritual conversations with people along the way. Praise the Lord for his provision and protection as we were traveling. God is good, always.
Thanks for keeping me in your prayers. I started teaching again yesterday, good to be back with the kids, but difficult to get back into the swing of things after a long exhausting break. This coming up week we have people coming from ACSI so our school can be accredited. They are coming and will be observing us teach. We have to have lesson plans for every single lesson that we teach for 3 days straight just so if they by chance come in they have a lesson plan of what we are doing. It is very time consuming to write in full detail about 15 lessons! Ugh! Pray for strength and joy in me doing it.