Being home…

Hello all!!

I have been back in Kansas for a little over a month now, though it seems like it has been much longer because my days have been full. I am supposed to be going through re-entry stress. I don’t know if I am or not – I can’t decide. When I arrived home, I hit the ground running, one of my first priorities was finding a full-time teaching job for this fall. I think I was slightly late in all my applications, or perhaps it was just God-ordained. = D I saw the few positions close within the first 2 weeks of being home. Looking for a job was a full time job those first 2 weeks.

Then, as there was nothing else I could do, I turned it over to God and decided to wait. Wait. (That is a theme in my life.) Only 1 more week went by and I heard from Olathe Christian school that they did have an opening after all and they wanted to interview with me. I interviewed last week and it went very well and the principal said she thought I was a great fit for the school. I have even received an email (yesterday) saying that she would like to offer me the job next
week, but she is waiting to hear back on salary schedules. I am pretty sure I will love teaching at that school, though it pays significantly less than a public school (and I will have to commute).

Prayer Requests:

1) I would ask that you all would pray on my behalf that God would continue to reveal His will to me. I am pretty sure that I will accept the offer to teach there (as I have no other options right NOW, but I know Lawrence MAY have late openings this year – they are waiting on enrollment numbers because the budget is tight).

2) I am really excited with the direction my church is going and am anxious to get involved in ministry at my church in some way. I am hoping to be meeting with the pastor sometime next week. Please pray that our discussion goes well and that I can find a great fit. Probably you should pray that I don’t over-commit as I am excited to do lots this fall!!

3) Praise – God has provided me with a good car within the budget my parents gave me!

I will be with First Love through July, so this is the last month I will be receiving support through them. Thanks again.

I will be sending a final newsletter in mail (after my fall plans are finalized) with a gift. Thank you SOO much for all your prayers and support. I don’t want to give up this group of supporters and brothers and sisters that has been with me for 2 years (and maybe I don’t have to)!!

God bless,

Betsy

Quietness

I’ve been thinking about being quiet before God.

God desires to talk with us in the quietness of our own heart through His Spirit, who is in us. Though often it’s hard to quiet our own hearts in order to hear him.

“When I first listen to my heart, what I often hear is the language and clatter of my old ‘lovers’ and not much else. There seems to be no stillness or rest. If I try to hold still, my hearts reacts like a

feather in the afternoon breeze,
flitting from place to

place without purpose or direction…

Theologians refer to this condition as ‘ontonological lightness,’ the reality that when I stop ‘doing’ and simply listen to my heart, I am not anchored to anything substantive. I become aware that my very identity is synonymous with activity” (Sacred Romance, p.163).

John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

If I am not abiding in Jesus, then where is it that I abide?
Where do I go in my head when I am tired or anxious?

John 15, The Message

If you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.

Jesus is saying, “I have made my home in you, Betsy. But you still have other comforters you go to. You must learn to make your home in me.”

Hmmmm…..I think that is key.

I’m still musing – please share your thoughts!!

Up and down

I want to start with – God is good – all the time!!! He’s been with me and sustaining me…

My emotions have been very up and down since starting the last quarter here at Faith Academy. I’ve heard that’s what comes with transition. But usually my emotions don’t affect me this much. I feel very weary – emotionally, physically, mentally. Lots of little things since January have been adding up. And sometimes just teaching a bunch of Kindergartners alone will make you weary. I haven’t been sleeping well and that makes it worse. I don’t want to sound too down for this post (though I am a little down), so I’ll let you know about the fun day we had today!

Today as a Elementary we celebrated International Children’s Book day (in honor of Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday – he was the father head figure of children’s books). Everyone in Elementary dressed up as a storybook character. I chose to dress up as Fancy Nancy. We all gathered in the library to read continuously for 2009 seconds to celebrate the day. We also were celebrating the fact that as an Elementary, we had read over 500 thousand minutes thus earning 2 library sets to give away to 2 different smaller Christian Filipino schools. Yay Faith Academy students!!!

Below I have prayer requests and pictures, but I don’t want to miss the opportunity to share one of my favorite verses I read recently as I was studying the 3-person God and His character:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Chorinthians 13:14).

It’s great that since we have a 3-person God, we can experience His love in our life in so many ways!!! The LORD God chose us, chose me to do His work, and He is my help and shield. My heart rejoices in HIM and I trust in His Holy name (Ps. 33)!!!!

God bless,

Betsy

Prayer Requests:

- that God will give me the strength to finish this quarter strong (because I certainly can’t do it on my own strength)

- that I will be trusting the Lord and leaning on Him in the midst of the transition time coming up

- that God will continue to provide the financial means (through supporters) that I need

Pictures of Literacy Day (click to see it enlarged):

Retreat, resume and a frustrating computer…

God has shown me lately how He has really worked in my life and how He can work in all of our lives. I went to a women’s conference 2 weekends ago. The whole weekend and all the sessions were very good, but two sessions stood out to me.

1) The Way of Farewell

Mark 1:16-20. Jesus says to “Follow Me.” When Jesus says that, He BELIEVES you can follow. The disciples left everything behind and followed Him. Sometimes we have things we have to leave behind in order to follow Jesus.

What do I have to say farewell to?

- having “control” of my life

2) Listening Prayer

So many times I go to the Lord in prayer, but not with a listening heart. I end up talking the whole time, but I am not silent and give God the chance to speak. I WANT to know His will; I want to know what He will have me do, but I don’t listen. After hearing the workshop on Listening Prayer, we went our separate ways and practiced the art of Listening Prayer.

The Lord DID speak to me. Even though it was really hard to hear, He told me:

I will use you.

Trust Me with your future and go home next year.

I know you are broken-hearted now. I love you and this is why I planned this path for you.

God is Sovereign and God is Good!!!! Amen

“Sometimes to re-adjust your vision, God has to re-arrange your circumstance and surroundings.” ~quote from the conference

Anyway, lately I’ve been working on my resume, gathering references, and looking for a teaching position next year in or around Lawrence.

Prayer Request:

- that I can continue to accomplish what I need to do, despite my computer being frustrating and slow.

- that I will excel in the last few months I have here at Faith Academy.

- that I will be trusting the Lord and leaning on Him in the midst of the transition time coming up.

Thanks and God bless!!!!

Betsy

Here is a picture of 3 us of teachers dressing up for International Week.

Prayer…

It’s 77 degrees out!!! (Granted the sun has set already.) It’s been so cool lately. This is the coolest part of the year. I’m happily savouring hot tea as I write this note.

It’s coming up to the busiest time of the year for me. Pre-K. Starts in 2 weeks. I thought I was going to have about 8-9 pre-K students. Today I found out that I will have an additional 7 ELL (English Language Learners) students. It could be very challenging (depending on how well they know English).

On a fun note: the Elementary staff are performing at the Talent show at Faith this coming weekend!! We are doing a fun skit/performing Chopsticks with Boomwhackers. It will be great.

Prayer Requests

1. What is weighing on my mind the most is finding a cheap plane ticket home. Through misunderstanding (and yes, it’s mostly my fault) I bought a round-trip ticket I can’t use the other half to. So, now I have to buy a one-way ticket home (it’s an EXPENSIVE lesson to learn. Next time – use a travel agent!!!!!). It will probably be about $1000. Please pray I can find a good deal, or that God would gracious provide some money for it (despite it being my fault).
2. Pray for this busy and perhaps challenging time (4 weeks) with the 15-17 Pre-K kids. I will be teaching them on Wednesdays and evaluating whether or not they will be ready for Kinder this coming fall.
3. Pray for me emotionally as I will be returning to the States in June after living here for 2 years. It will be a harder transition. I will have to say bye to some close friendships. I don’t want to lose out on the time I have now either, in preparation to saying goodbye.

Thanks and God bless!!!

Betsy Barfield

P.S. The below pictures are from Christmas break. My parents visited me and we went to the beach in Boracay and then the rice terraces in Banaue. (click on these thumbnails to see them bigger.) If you want to see more, go to my album at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015440&l=ed28b&id=162800020

Filipiniana Week

This week was very busy with studying the culture, arts, and transportation in the Philippines. It was tiring to get through the week, but I know the students had a great time and learned a lot.

Monday: We had our openning ceremony, which included a dance performance from a visiting Filipino school, singing the national anthemn, and the new teachers knocking down clay pots filled with candy.

Tuesday: All day field trip. We visited a doll museum, which displayed the history of Marikina and how the people started working the land until now, filled with shops. Next, we had lunch at a park/zoo. After taking a tour of the zoo, we walked across the street to Assumption School – a Catholic school which our school had been pen-pals with. The students got to meet there pen-pals and talk with them. Assumption school shared a dance with us. We shared a song (This is the Day – in English and Tagalog) and gave each child a gospel bracelot, telling them what the colors represented. Finally, our last stop was at the Capiz factory. Capiz is a shiny, really thin shell that the factory has made into photo frames, ornaments, etc. The students really enjoyed seeing how the workers molded the metal around the shell and creating these unique works of art.

You can look at pictures if you follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014944&l=c0076&id=162800020

Thursday: I organized a mini-field trip/service project for just the Kindergateners. Since Kinder was focusing on learning about transportation in the Philippines, I thought it would be fun for the students to actually take one form of transportation. We all walked down to the Valley Golf gate, then we took trikes (which are motorcycles with a side car attached to it – 3 wheels) to a mini-stop by the main street. At the mini-stop we ordered ice cream, then took the trikes back. As we walked up the hill to school again, we took the time to pick up trash as we went along. The Kinders were busy picking up trash for almost 45 minutes – they worked hard!!!

Friday: Fiesta Day. This day, the Elementary students had the chance to play Filipino games, taste a Filipino merienda (snack of sticky rice, peanuts, and nuts), and learn tinikling. Tinikling is a dance which involves two people hitting bamboo poles (one on either side). They beat the poles on the ground and slide them together as a dancers steps over and in between the poles.

All 4 Jesus

First week of A4J was today!! For those who don’t know, A4J is a weekly (every Sunday for 11 weeks) outreach program to the local squatter children. It includes a story and song time (in Tagalog), activity time, and then a game time.

In the first week we hand out t-shirts that say A4J, which is their ticket for admittance in the following weeks. This helps us cap the number of kids that come to 450. There are usually more kids that come than the 450, but that’s the most we can take. In fact, sometimes brothers will share one t-shirt, taking turns coming to A4J.

By 6:30am, when we drove by, a couple hundred kids were pressed against the gate, waiting to come in. We started letting them in at 7am, 5 at a time (in age groups). We would mark their hand with a marker based on age, then usher them to a table to get a t-shirt.

I was helping the Kinder age kids put on t-shirts. It was a little frustrating for me to keep the kids corralled, since I couldn’t speak Tagalog. I needed the phrase, “Stay here” or “Come back!” As I was helping them into shirts, I was also trying to keep them near me until 5 would be ready to walk up the steps. But the kids instinctively would race up the hill as soon as they got their shirts on. A couple of times a kid would bolt before I would notice or could catch him.

At the end it was very chaotic. Once we got into our groups, we had 10 min. left. We spend that time learning their names, then learning a song in Tagalog.

To see more pictures, follow this link: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014226&l=c05a8&id=162800020

God Bless,

Betsy

I’ve survived the first 4 weeks of school pretty well. I wanted to let you all know that I will be sending out a newsletter sometime in October – so you may look forward to that.

I have begun Tagalog lessons and now know how to greet someone – based on the time of day. There is Magandang umaga (Good morning), Magandang tanghali (Good lunch), Magandang hapon (Good afternoon) and Magandang gabi (Good evening). I’ve been working on pronunciation and glottal stops. Since the Filipinos are not used to hearing their language spoken by a non-Filipino, we have to learn pronunciation carefully, otherwise they won’t understand us.

This last weekend Faith Academy had a Community

picnic. I sat with a couple of families of my students.

All 4 Jesus, the squatter kids ministry has not started yet, but it will be starting this coming Sunday. I will put more photos and information up about that when I have the chance.

Well, there is a huge storm coming up – I better get off the computer now! God bless,

Betsy

First 2 Weeks

The first 2 weeks in Kinder have been very busy. I have 11 (with 8 of them being boys) energetic, talkative, curious Kindergartners. We have been going over the rules of school and routines in the classroom over and over and over again! It takes time to get them into the school mode.

It hasn’t been too hard to come back and get into the swing of things once again. I’ve seen: the dirty streets, poor and hungry children, dogs with mange, goats and cows walking into the road, and pollution. I spent a year here and became used to: being stared at by Filipino men, having ANYWHERE you go take at least 40 minutes, heat and humidity, noise of motorbikes, washing everything before eating and not drinking tap water, taking low-pressure showers.

I’ve also been blessed by so much: lots and lots of awesome friends, being surrounded by beautiful countryside, GORGEOUS sunsets, good books to read, availability of healthy food that I like, a chance to start running and someone to run with, prayer group to meet with weekly and opportunities to attend weekly bible studies. I’m learning: how to play the guitar, to get along with others from different backgrounds, how to teach starting VERY basic and make learning the alphabet interesting.

Prayer Requests:
1) One of my students, Ethan. He is repeating Kinder this year, so right now he is a little bored with what we are learning and it’s just really hard for him to see all his friends move up, and then he doesn’t know anyone in the new group. He also started the year with a defiant attitude – he didn’t want to do anything we were doing. I’m trying to decide how to respond to Ethan – with love and a firm hand; with love and a gentle, guiding hard; or something in between. I don’t know when to show grace to him or when he should really feel the consequences of his actions.

2) My knee. I started running regularly while I was at home this summer. I really want to keep it up and I found someone who is willing to run with me. Yet, last week while I was running my knee started to hurt and bothered me for a couple of days. I’m letting it rest and hoping it heals completely so I can run again.

3) Wisdom. I need wisdom and discernment, because I am making so many judgments and decisions each day in my teaching and in working with Ethan.

Almost done with a year!

It’s amazing that almost a year ago I graduated from MNU, not exactly sure where I would be in a year – and here I am!!

We have only 4 more full weeks of school left, and then it’s back to the states on June 1st. We are in the thick of hot season, and as it is such, it makes it harder on the kids. With the heat of hot season comes extra crankiness, lack of sleep, etc. Plus we have the extra bonus of it being almost the end of the year. Some kids are already checking out mentally and some are anticipating transition time of going home on furlough next year or leaving the Philippines for good. Some teachers are thinking and anticipating the transition of going home for the summer, or on furlough. It’s a hard time of the year in many respects. I would so much appreciate your prayers for the remaining weeks.

Secondly, I would like you to pray for one of my colleagues, Linda Berg, the Elementary music teacher this month. Here is part of her newsletter that she sent out:

Dear Ones, May 2008

May begins my adventure as a traveling music teacher. The last four weeks of school I will teach music in many different classrooms. My present classroom is in shambles as I write this because the construction crew is breaking down walls and ceilings to revamp the present basement of Lambert Hall to become a full new High School science wing. I have had some sadness of seeing my first music classroom as a teacher (and student, long ago) disappear. Yet I am looking forward to the new location I will have in August. I have been working with others on designs for the classroom which will replace the old AV center.

I had promised to be out of my classroom by

4pm yesterday and can happily say I reached my goal an hour early, thanks to the incredible helping hands of fellow teachers and students who offered to get involved. It was a joy to see 30 + fourth grade students happily pick up instruments, boxes, music stands, etc. and carry them across campus for temporary storage. The graciousness others have shown in the process as I’ve skittered around campus trying to find the answers to “where” and “how” has been wonderful. I owe great thanks to all who helped.

The last couple of weeks have been hectic as I have taught my current classes while working on the move. My health has been a struggle. There are still no answers to some new issues that I have had further tests for. My spirit has had moments of discouragement too as my heart has to let go of desires. I trust that God will continue to sustain me and give me peace in the unknowns.

Here is a link to all the Elementary staff, if you would like to put faces with names:
http://www.faith.edu.ph/index.php?page=esdstaff

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!!

God bless,

Betsy