End of school!

The past couple of weeks were incredibly busy.  First we had finals week at school, and then we had a last day of school party by class.  I went from room to room and found kids playing games and eating pizza and fruit and whatever else they had brought.  They had fun, but I heard that some kids (and teachers) cried as they said their goodbyes. 

Last pictures with the teacher

After the party I thought in the back of my mind that things would quiet down a little.  But how wrong I was!  There were three graduations to set up and attend, not to mention a staff dinner and four student missionaries leaving on airplanes in the middle of the night. 

The first SM left on Friday night, with students and everyone else there to see her off.  The next one left Saturday night…again, students and missionaries all sent her on her way with hugs, prayers, etc.  Unfortunately, planes heading to Guam usually leave around 1 or 2am, so sleep was pretty scanty over that weekend…

Then we had the Palau Mission Academy graduation.  It was the first class that Principal Sanchez had seen all through their four years of academy (since this is his fourth year), so it was kind of special.  I didn’t really know most of the students, but it was special for me too because I could tell they were really happy, proud of themselves, and sad at the same time to be saying goodbye.  They got showered with leis and balloons afterward.  There were real leis with plumeria flowers, fake plastic leis, leis made from candy, and leis that had blinking lights in them...I'm going to be so disappointed when I don't get a stack of leis at my graduation.  

Leis and balloons

Not the graduates, but the clean up crew

Some of the students will go to college in the U.S., the Philippines, Guam, and Palau.  They seem like great people who enjoyed their time at PMA, and I’m praying that they’ll do great things.  They said that not only did they learn a lot academically, they learned a lot about God too, and it makes you realize how big an impact the school and teachers have on the kids.

After the academy graduation was kindergarten promotion…I’d never seen one before, but it was cute.  Ridiculously cute.  Little bitty kids in graduation caps with tassels.  It’s for the parents, really. 

A lot of stress went into creating this...

And then 8^th grade graduation was the next day.  It’s amazing to think that these kids will be moving on to high school next year.  I didn’t get to know them that well, but I taught them social studies for a while, and they are a cool bunch.  Over 25 teenagers with a huge variety of backgrounds, interests, and goals.  I think they had a good year and a good teacher in spite of all the ups and downs.

Watching their slideshow...awww

 

Anyway, it was really a busy, crazy, stressful week with a lot to do, a lot of emotions, and not a lot of sleep.  I'm glad I'm writing about it now, not reliving it.  But there are a lot of memories for everyone.  The sad part is that more missionaries are going to be leaving by twos and threes, so our numbers are going down.  It feels strange to say goodbye and watch them disappear on a plane, and knowing we’ll probably never be together again—not like we were this year in Palau.  But at least we’re all a family, and there’s a chance we’ll see each other again.  The internet makes it easy, too.  We chatted with Erin (who left first) on a video just last night.  

Blurry, but it's what it feels like at 1am in the Palau airport saying goodbye

Probably the hardest part is saying goodbye to the people on Palau.  It’s not easy to get here, and when they ask if we’re going to come back, you can’t always promise anything.  The kids and parents are always asking if we’ll come back to teach, to visit, to live.  But no one knows if it will happen…it makes you realize how nice it will be in Heaven, when everyone who loves each other and God will be together.  No more goodbyes…

I’ll end now by telling a little story about the kids.

When a joke is going around third grade, all the students want to tell it to you.  So by the end of the day you might have heard it three or four times.  

One of the jokes started out with a kid saying, “Tell me your name.”

“Ms. Hillary.”

“What is this?” asks the kid, pointing.

“Your nose.”

“What am I holding in my hand?”

“Nothing.”

“Aha!  Ms. Hillary…nose…nothing!”

Hahaha, very funny.

The latest one I heard was in Ms. Krissy’s class.  One of the kids comes up and asks, “Will you remember me tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

“Will you remember me next week?”

“Yes.”

“Will you remember me next year?”

“Yeah…”

“Will you remember me when you leave?”

“Of course.”

“Will you remember me when I’m gone?  When I die?”

“Always.”

“Knock-knock!”

“Who’s there?”

“Ahh!  You’ve already forgotten me, Ms. Hillary!”

Of course, by the third time, I would jump in and say, “I know who you are!  You’re [insert name]!” 

To them the joke was incredibly funny if they could pull one over on a teacher, so I probably spoiled it for them.  But all I could think of is that I don’t know when I’ll see them again...  They’ll be half a world away by June.  Technology and fast travel makes it more likely that we’ll see each other, but the joke made me think about when we really will be far apart.  So it was kind of bittersweet.

“Ms. Hillary, will you remember me when you leave?”

Absolutely.

May Days

The past few weeks have been fairly busy.  Here’s a little update about things that have been going on…

 I’ve officially subbed every grade in the school now, Kindergarten to 8^th grade, and the only classes I haven’t subbed for are Computer and Palauan (it wouldn’t do much good if I tried that last one, since I only know about 5 words…). 

I’ve been trying to figure out my flight home—from changing seats to sit next to my roommate, to wondering what Jen and I should do with our extended layover in Hawaii.  (I have about 26 hours there, and she has about 12, so we’re looking at activities like the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Dole Plantation tour…we’ll see.)  

I was sick for a while, and was afraid the cough might get nasty like it did before, but thankfully I was able to rest and get better and not go on antibiotics and IVs like a lot of people do here.  Some of the students were saying, “The first time I had an IV was when…”  And these are just 6-year-olds.  I guess that’s the go-to remedy around here.

Some 3^rd-grade girls hooked up the TV in the library, so they can now watch videos like Veggie Tales and Bible stories that are on the shelf.  I’m letting them do it most days after school since it keeps them quiet and they didn’t get to use the TV all year.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out how to use coconut flour.  It’s cheap here, so why not?  I’ve already made peanut-butter banana cookies with it…interesting texture.

The SAU U-Quest mission trip team arrived—about 25 students from Southern or academies, some of which were teachers here in Palau last year.  We greeted them at the airport with leis and coconuts and signs.  The kids were delighted to see their old teachers, and the teachers were thrilled to be back on the island.  They’re going to be doing some random construction jobs and they’re hoping to do VBS and/or summer camp too.  We’ll see what they end up doing.  They almost weren’t able to come, but in the end…here they are.  I’m praying God will lead them to do some great things here in the two or three weeks they have.

Several girls from the elementary school were baptized on Sabbath.  They’re from Adventist families, and they’ve now made the decision to give their lives to God.  It was a really beautiful ceremony, even though it was raining (rain can’t hurt you when you’re being baptized…).  There were tears and leis and a drone hovering to capture footage.  I’ve seen more drones in Palau than anywhere else…

In 3^rd grade a lightbulb fell and shattered on a girl’s desk, spreading glass everywhere.  But—get this—the girl who normally sat at the desk was out sick.  If she had been there, she could have been hurt by the flying glass.  It’s neat how God works in little ways…

At the resort

We had a staff dinner at a fancy resort on Saturday night.  The principals thanked the staff—from the poultry farm workers to the teachers and office staff—for their hard work.  There were lots of good things to eat, from Cuban bread to jicama, from salad to watermelon, from baked potatoes to chicken.  It was impressive…I’m not used to fancy places like that.  There was even a singer who played an electric piano.  Half-way through the dinner he said, “We have a special guest here tonight…a student from SDA school here who wants to dedicate this next song to her teachers…” and he proceeded to sing, “Pass it on,” from the “He is Our Song” hymnal.  The girl was sitting nearby, a student from 5^th grade, and we all clapped at the end.  It was really sweet.  Then we walked on the beach in the dark, and saw some fish through a glass floor in a gazebo, and some sort of heron (I'm assuming a night heron).

It’s finals week here, so everyone is doing tests, and teachers are trying to get all the grading and folders and paperwork done.  I don’t have nearly so much to do, but I help out.  We’ll be having our final goodbye parties on Friday, and then it will be the end of the school year…I won’t say it has flown by, because I feel like we’ve had school for a long time.  But probably it will seem shorter once I’m packing up and leaving.  

One of the students came into the library before I left this week.  She’s one of the older girls, and we talked for a bit.  She’s going to visit her family in the U.S. over the summer.  “Are you coming back next year?” she asked, and I said no…I need to finish school…and it’s so far, and lots of money…  “But,” I said, “you never know.  Other teachers have come back for a visit.”  “Yeah,” she said, maybe a bit hopefully.  She told me that it’s really hard to say goodbye to the teachers.  “It hits us hard when they leave,” she said matter-of-factly.  “It hits the students every year when we have to say goodbye again.”  I thought about it.  We only have to say goodbye once, but they have to say goodbye almost every year.  That can’t be easy.  I felt kind of bad, but at least nowadays it’s easier to keep in touch with the internet, and travel is easier too.  Who knows…

Anyway, that’s the news around here.  Not much time left for us here, but we’re trying to make the most of it.  Pray that we can make a good impact on the kids and their families in the last few days and weeks.

A night heron fishing in the dark

Real Service, Real Joy

 So I wrote most of this a while ago, but I just thought I would post it now, as the school year is coming to a close.

The week before Spring Break, we had a Palauan "camp meeting," which took place at the Ngarachamayong Cultural Center (no camping involved).  Being there with all the members of Palau's churches was pretty neat, but the speaker was the most amazing part.

His name is Andrew Michell, and right now he lives in the Philippines.  But his story certainly didn't start there.  He used to be a burglar who did drugs and alcohol, and who was the getaway car for a group of robbers.  He talked about a Halloween crime spree that involved robbing everyone from drug dealers to a grandmother who was beaten in the face with a gun and taken into the basement as her house was ransacked.  Andrew went to prison at the age of 16 for a variety of charges including kidnapping and theft.  He was supposed to be in jail for 13 years, but while he was in solitary confinement someone gave him a Bible.  He began reading it, and over the next few years his life changed.  He became a Christian, took high school classes from jail, gave money to charity, and was set free early (after 10 years) because of his remarkable turnaround.

From there, he didn't know what to do, but he prayed for opportunities to help people, and they came.  He took mission trips, taught children in Costa Rica, cared for lepers and mentally ill people in China, and spent five years in an orphanage in Thailand.  He later met the grandmother he had robbed, and found out that she had been praying for him all these years.  She broke into tears when he told her all the experiences he was having as he helped people around the world.  She had already forgiven him, and she ended up petitioning for him to receive a full pardon which allowed him to enter countries that had barred him because of his criminal record before.

I have to say that there's no trace of his past that I could see.  Pastor Michell described how happy he was to clean lepers' sores, and how it even gave him joy to change their diapers.  He told a story about clipping a mental ward patient's overgrown toenails and cleaning the filthy ears of people with no hands...and he was smiling.

It made me wonder if I would be that happy to do those things.  Would I find joy in changing diapers and scraping dead skin from a leper's decomposing feet?  Would I show that much love to a mentally ill man who needed a pedicure?  Sitting there in the audience, looking at the graphic pictures, I realized that I didn't have that kind of attitude.

There was a quote attributed to Mother Theresa that said something like (I'm paraphrasing here),

"The wonder of these acts of service isn't that we do them; it's that we enjoy doing them."

I realized that I don't want to just serve and perform good deeds...I want to have that kind of joy that an ex-convict had as he was set free to do the most unglamorous work for people who were rejected by society.  That's real service.  Anyone can perform an act that looks like a good deed, but not everyone can serve others as a way of life...and love doing it. 

Maybe some people think it's so wonderful what we're doing over here, but we're not really that special.  We aren't any more patient or loving or self-sacrificing than anyone else.  We get tired and frustrated and worn out, and sometimes struggle to remember why we're here.  Especially in these last couple of weeks, we're burnt out.  It makes me think of Joseph saying, "It is not in me" (Genesis 41:16).  We don't have it in us to keep going.  But thankfully, "the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works" (John 14:10).

I'm glad that we have a God who can give us happiness in doing things that don't seem so attractive on the surface.  And I'm glad He can even change the hardest hearts (and I'm not just talking about Andrew Michell's).  I hope we can all find that kind of joy.