Home Sweet Home

As Yoej and I are trying to clean the house and pack all our things to go home, I'm starting to wonder about what it'll be like when I land at LAX. How is life going to be the same? How is it going to be different? What am I going to do now? I feel that I should be finding comfort as I go home, but I'm feeling mixed emotions. Not that I'm not excited to see familiar faces and spend time with loved ones, but I think that God is placing these emotions in my heart to teach me that my home is not in America, nor on Earth. 

When I first came to Paraguay, Yoej and I were talking about going home and we looked at her calendar. December 20th was marked "Home America Bound". I realized that she was reminding herself that America is not our home, but our sweet home is HEAVEN. Many times, I forget that there is more to life than the life lived on Earth. I forget that my earthly life is so fleeting and we are called to live to glorify His name and not our own.

So that is my prayer as I return to America: that I would continue to strive to live a gospel-centered and mission-minded life, to live for something greater, to live for SOMEONE greater.

It's Summertime!

Can't believe school ended last week! Waking up late on a school day was just weird. Not to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I definitely did! 
It's just a little sad. 
For the past two days, we attended graduations for the elementary students and realized that it's probably the last time we'll see them. SIGH. Praying and hoping that they would come to know the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and that we will all be able to praise God in heaven one day!

Here are some pictures of students and profes during the last days of school:

Paz, Luana, Amelie, Keren

one of the 1st grade classes
Prof. Judith is one of the best profes!

here she is praying with her students for their merienda (snack)

Joe singing with the 6th graders

these crazy girlsss
Lourdes & Amelie

Paz and Ian

my Mombarete student, Rocio

lovely high school senior girls!
graduating next week!

one of our 2nd grade classes

the other 2nd grade class at their despedida (goodbye party)

Nicolas & Alejo

Cesar

playing soccer

Camila
she is so freaking cute

playing telephone charades

Mario

Toby
omg so cute

Ruth and Violeta

our crazy 5th graders

6th grade boys

1st graders!

Yamila & Ayelen
they gave me the hardest time, but why are they so cute?

these boys are so cute...but the biggest troublemakers!

Prof. Betty
she is seriously soooo funny

Hugo y Enzo

Prof. Alma gives the sweetest hugs

Sophie, Maria Jose, & Camila

Prof. Nancy
I got to teach her two beautiful and sweet daughters

I will miss this. I'll miss my meriendas. I'll miss her.

Silvia
seriously, she is one of the sweetest ladies. EVER.

Aline and Mariam

and these kids are super happy to be done with school!
FELICES VACACIONES!

What time is it?
IT'S SUMMERTIME!

Tengo TANTO Para Agradecer

This past Thanksgiving weekend, I realized that I have SO MUCH to be thankful for here in Paraguay!

I'm thankful for:

Joe and Yoej, who show me much love and grace as well as make sacrifices for me! and they help keep me sane :)

the Chos! It's so nice to just spend time with them and hear their stories. They continue to serve us with their generosity and we love to eat Korean food with them!

the Jovenes. These people are so humble, kind, and fun! I'm so blessed to know these brothers and sisters in Christ and I'm seriously going to miss them so much.

& my students. Although they challenged me every day, I was amazed by their ability to love me even when I didn't deserve it.

Feasts!

To start off our Thanksgiving celebrations, we had dinner with the Chos!

it was raining so hard that day- there was a blackout.

and the lights turned on right as we were about to begin!

BOMB. 

Yoej made the apple crumble! I helped cut apples!

Paraguayans don't celebrate Thanksgiving so we decided to cook a traditional dinner for the jovenes! By the way, jovenes = young adults, not kids! Eric thought it meant "children" this whole time, hope you didn't think so!

salad, stuffing, gravy, rice, chicken, creamed corn, mashed papas

seriously felt like we were at home!

played some games, love this edition of Stacko

the girls

nuestra familia Paraguaya

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with loved ones here in Paraguay! Hope you enjoyed your time with family and friends <3

Remember, we have much to be thankful for! Hopefully we can remember to be thankful every single day, not just for the blessings we have received, but for the One who continues to bless us with His presence and the gift of vida eterna.

The Last Stretch

I can't believe it's already November 20th. Just one more month left!

Lately, we've been...

enjoying our last days at school:

Alison & Augustina

Franco & Florencia

Mariam & Ceci 

my Mombarete student, Roci
such a little rascal

Juan is thankful for Jesus!

Farid and Tobias
all the kids buy those chocolate (on the table)
so they can get Ben 10 stickers

Carlossss so cute

Harry Potter!

Matias and Milka

we played Battleship

we did a Halloween Mad Lib

the first graders had a little traditional party

and danced with each other, so cute

my English club :)
some more boys started to show up and my club grew to 8!
our last meeting is on Friday, i'm pretty sad...

working on our video project

judged the Senior presentations...so crazy (in a good way)!
it's like a Masters Project!

another Olimpiada!

students making team posters

"Let's go!"

had some fun with a student's pom-pom

Olimpiada for upper elementary!

the 3rd grade performance

still hanging out with awesome people:

Here's Tito! He took us to a Chinese restaurant, where he ordered for us in Mandarin! Thoroughly loved the food and drinks there :) The next day, we went to the mall to watch a movie!

tastes like my drink at Half & Half!
found some more at Agros shopping :)

WHATTTT

Gap's coming to Paraguay!

watched Gravity in 3D

Eva took us to San Bernardino, which is a vacation spot for Paraguayans. Felt like we were at the beach and I loved it! Got to hang out with David, Lea, and Toby for a bit and then went to see 420 Paraguayan harpists break the Guinness World Record!

had some delicious frutilla popsicles!

isn't he just the

CUTEST?

WOOHOO PARAGUAY! 

Ate Mexican food with Rudolfo! The food was seriously delicious, can't wait to go home and eat some al pastor tacos! and the restaurant was sooo cute. He even sneakily paid for our dinner...Rudolfo is seriously one of the nicest guys you could ever meet! 

at Quattro D- we ordered too much dessert.

Got to hang out with the oldest Cler, Samantha! We loved her crochet work so she offered to teach us! We're in the process of making headbands :)

Isa- her daughter is sooo cute

Rita is a fellow English teacher at CPC. She's the sweetest person and has great fashion sense! We invited her over for some kimbap after school!

We celebrated a couple birthdays recently!

Silvia- she has such a joyful spirit and I love her group of girlfriends!

Our dear brother- Amilcar Cler. We spend a lot of time with Amilcar, especially because of Ytororo. He is one of the most dedicated and caring people and he serves so faithfully! He even cooked hamburguesas for us on HIS birthday!

Amilcar- we are so blessed to know you and your family!

Looking through all these pictures just made me realize that I have so many memories here that I don't want to forget and knowing that I only have one month left makes me want to take advantage of every moment! Although we will be in Paraguay for 1 more month, the school year ends next Thursday! and that means we only have about a week left with our students! Although there are moments when I want to throw some of them out the window, I'm hoping to be able to show them love, kindness, and compassion. If I'm having a rough day, I want to respond to them in a manner that is reflective of the gospel. Please pray that I would be a witness of Christ in all that I do!