Holiday Blessings

The holidays are always a great time of year! This is even more true when you spend the majority of your days with 7 and 8 year old's. Their joy and excitement for this time of year is contagious! It has helped kept me going even through the busyness and crazy time of this year, and has also kept me reminded of what this time is truly about. While discussing our memory verse of the past few weeks, (included at the end of my post) I asked my students what this verse meant. Their answers included "Knowing that Jesus is going to be the real king, forever and ever" and "Jesus has all the power and we should praise Him". I couldn't have answered better myself.

My students bless me in so many ways, whether is through a discussion on what faith in Christ means and how a person goes to heaven, or all of us laughing at a funny moment in class. One particularly funny moment happened in class just a few days ago. As it is becoming colder out, static electricity becomes a factor, and with this random shocks can occur when touching metal objects. Well, I was grabbing for a piece of chalk and as I did, the metal tray gave me a shock. I yelped out in a bit of pain, and my students quickly became concerned over what happened. I told them I had gotten shocked. Well apparently in my Wisconsin accent it sounded like "shacked". They all looked so confused, so I repeated my self and told them I had gotten shocked. One student started laughing and said "Oh Miss Ongna, you mean shocked? We couldn't hear it through your accent!"

As you see, the funny moments never cease! School has really just been getting more enjoyable as I have become so comfortable in my role as teacher and much more confident in my decisions, lessons, and talking with parents and teachers. It has been a joy to learn as much as I have, and to be surrounded with people who have been incredibly patient with me as I do so. I have learned SO much in the past 4 months. Julia and I just talked the other week about how strange it is to look back at the beginning days of school and how much we didn't know and how much we have improved since then! Not that we were that terrible, but there was definitely room for improvement!

Life outside of school has been grand as well! Two of my dearest friends got engaged to each other over Thanksgiving break, which I could not be more excited for! I am also looking forward to heading home for Christmas, which will be a welcome break! It will also be wonderful to get to spend a bit more time with people, since Thanksgiving was such a quick break. I cannot wait!

I also hope and pray that God blesses you with a great Christmas holiday and wonderful times with friends and family! We have so much to be thankful for, most of all, the wonderful gift of God's son, Jesus Christ, being sent into this world to die for our sins. What a most wonderful gift!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." Isaiah 9:6-7

Playing some phonegram twister! They ask to do this one often!

Learning about soil and dirt in science class, even creating our own! Messy = fun!

Christian Education

I have been blessed in my life to be able to receive a Christian education my whole life, starting in kindergarten all the way through college. I don't like to have the arguments with people about Christian school versus public school education, but I believe whole heartedly in Christian education. I am also teaching at a Christian school, and today I had another moment of strong reaffirmation of why I love teaching at a Christian school and why I believe in Christian education.

This morning we started our day with devotions, as we always do. The devotion was about asking God for forgiveness. I read the devotions and talked about some ideas and thoughts I had. Usually I ask a few questions or we discuss for a bit, then move on to prayer requests. One of my students had their hands up, so I called on her. She then asked me this question, "How does God decide who doesn't go to heaven?" I was slightly taken aback. It was a great question, but being a teacher or anyone in a position where you are asked a question such as this, you realize how careful you need to be with your answer.

I explained that God chooses the people He loves and loves him back, who accept Jesus as their Savior and who confess that they are sinners and do wrong. Once I answered, a couple more hands went up. We ended up having a 15 minute conversation about how a person goes to heaven, who God saves, and how we can be sure we are saved. I also feel as though I may not be adequate in answering their quesitons, but I sent up a quick prayer to be able to answer to the best of my abilties!

This is one of the many reasons why I love teaching at a Christian school. It was amazing to see these young kids faith just shining, and their genuine and deep questions about God and Christianity. I am so appreciative that I can take the time to discuss these things with my students, and thankful that God has blessed these students with the ability to think about these things and express them to me. God is in every aspect of life, and to be able to emulate my Christian faith in every aspect of my teaching is a huge blessing, and is why I absolutely, positively love this job. 

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15

That good old feeling

You know that feeling you get when you are recovering from laughing super hard? That totally satisfying feeling of complete happiness and contentment? I love that feeling. And that is exactly how I would describe my Thanksgiving weekend.

Now I know Thanksgiving was already a week ago, but I was crazy busy/recovering from the crazy weekend, traveling back, and jumping back into teaching. So just pretend this post was written and posted right after Thanksgiving.

Going back to Wisconsin always gets me feeling warm and fuzzy, because it will always be home for me. Not to mention, I finally get to eat some good quality cheese! Yum. Most of my family and extended family live there, so I got to soak up some great quality time with them. What I especially love and enjoy is craft time on Thanksgiving with the Ongna's. Every year, my incredibly creative aunts come up with a craft to make for the holidays. I try to soak up as much of their creative juices and expertise as I can, and try to make mine turn out. Either way, it is a blast.

I also got to spend some time with my Jensema fam-jam, at a baby shower for my cousin Kelley and dinner on Sunday. My Jensema family is very...loud. We all end up yelling over each other, poking fun, and laughing till we cry. I think we tend to scare off people who visit. My dad especially has a voice that tends to carry. Sure glad I didn't inherit that ;) Meh, its just who we are, and I wouldn't change it ever.

Friends took up the other parts of the weekend, including shopping and a day with one of my dear friends, Kim Ingelse, bunco with the Gesch family, and meeting up with lots of other friends as well. Overall, it was a phenomenal weekend, full of quality time with people I love. It was also a great time to relax and reflect on my time here in Pittsburgh and to revamp for school. Going to my home church was also a great boost as well, to know people have been praying and supporting from afar. I have so very much to be thankful for.

Some of my awesome Jensema cousins: Zach, Jeremy, and Eric, plus girlfriends Sarah and Amy.