Teacher Conference Ending

July 7, 2011—Teacher Conference Ending

Today ended our three-day teacher conference. What a joy and blessing to have been a part of this effort to both facilitate the learning of teachers and to share the joy of the full cup of blessings provided to us by God. Our whole theme, A Cup of Cold Water, was to bring inspiration to the teachers. We tried to bring them a blessing of joy in teaching, power in their gifts to teach, and the realization that we all must come as babes to faith in Jesus Christ. Kathie Hartzog, Mary and I breathed a sigh of relief at the end but also hate that there was just not enough hours and minutes to cover more material. The teachers were so hungry for the ideas and material we shared.

Events of the day included a trial run of the derby cars that all the boys and men have worked on all week. It appears that the track was a little uneven and one lane favored winners while the other had an extra hump that slowed down the car on it. I cried foul and declared that the track was substandard. I was informed tonight that thee track had been re-engineered. We shall see tomorrow when the real race trials are run. I do not believe who was more into this, the boys or the men helping. We also came to know that if you do not show up at a van, you might have to ride into town with the headmaster who takes every pothole on the road.

Gay continues to create culinary feats of magic. Today it was peanut butter cookies and she baked 8 pans of cookies for 3 hours. Her word to us is that they rolled and rolled, and rolled cookies and cooked, and cooked, and cooked. Gay has decided that we need to have a kitchen shower for the home especially if she is going to continue to cook there. She is so brave that tomorrow she is going to make s’mores and Valerie will assist her. Stay tuned tomorrow for a report of this sticky little effort!

Valerie had a breakthrough with her girls group (P5 and 6). She let them take her and Bonita on a tour around the home grounds. They talked and talked eagerly while they showed her the pigs, the chickens, the cows and the goats. They were a little worried that the girls were going to open the gates and really visit in the pens. Kind of messy.

Brodie continues to be our “child prodigy” as he is being featured in video footage taken by Jerrod who works with the children at the home and makes super videos featuring the Lulwanda Home and the visitors who come here. He has been so good to help the kids and play for the daily devotional time. What a neat experience for a young man. Applause, applause!

Bonita is our laugh for the day winner. This morning I remarked that I had a little crick in my neck. She asked if I slept with a jerk. Marc was duly offended and those of us at breakfast had a great laugh. She and Valerie are quite a team and no one puts anything over on them. Val has taken JW’s salt consumption issue to heart and continually watches him at every meal.

Kathy Inman keeps reading those big books!!!

Home devotional time each day has been a great experience for both the home and the staff including our team who get attend.