School Life

Also in March our school had "student-led conferences," where the parents come to school, not to conference with teachers, but their child. The students meet with their parents and lead them in a conference about how they are doing and what they have been learning. The students prepare a portfolio of work to show and also tour their parents around the school. It is a fun time to step back and see how far our students have come since the beginning of the year. Here are a few pictures someone snapped that I thought I would share so you could get a taste of what goes on in school life here:

It's Been Too Long

Hi there friends,

Sorry it has been so long since I have really updated this blog. I have been thinking of you all, whoever it is out there in this big world who reads this. Life has been busy, which means there has been lots I have wanted to share but no time to do it. I am going to go all the way back to March now and give a little recap. We celebrated quite a few birthdays involving:
A women's brunch and tea party (well... actually more like latte party). :)
A group adventure hike to a local waterfall.
A very wild and crazy watermelon party.

Silly!

uh oh... one shoe lost in the mud

Yes, I did fall in the mud, that's why I look so covered in mud.

opps backwards... she's turning 25

SO excited!

Laura could not wait to dig into her watermelon cake-
she started eating before we could put candles in and sing. Luckily we had this really
cool fireworks candle to keep the excitement going.

Molly and I pose in watermelon pink and green.

Birthday coloring... fun for all

Glorious

This past week after school I was outside with some students working on a project. The sun was beginning it's decent and went behind a huge, white cloud. This is the display we saw:

I only have one word for that: GLORIOUS!

The Heavenly Man

I have not yet read this book, but it is sitting on my shelf.
I bought it over Christmas break and intend to read it one of these days...

After today I am more inspired and motivated than ever. Brother Yun came to our school and spoke. He is traveling around Indonesia right now and took a morning to stop by and speak to our students. All of our middle school and high school students, along with our teachers and some interested parents, gathered during 3rd period to hear him speak. He told the beautiful and awe-inspiring story of how he became a believer. He told of how he got the call to be a messenger of the Good News. He told of a miraculous escape from prision. He also brought a message of hope that the church in China is alive. He said the church in China is growing by a million believers every month! Staggering.

Beyond just the stories he told, I was struck by his visit because nearly 1/3 of our school population is made up of Indonesians. But they do not consider themselves native Indonesians or local to this area. They all are from the upper class here and consider themselves "Chinese Indonesians." When he asked if anyone in the audience had ever been to China, a large percentage of these kids raised their hands. And some of the parents of these kids who came for the event speak Chinese as their native language. I think some of them were listening more to Brother Yun speak in Chinese than they were the English translation. I was reminded again of what an international place BAIS is and of the family of believers we have around the world.