Interaction with Students
Adjusting to new normals always has its pros and cons. Most of the pros came for the first couple of months after I got out of quarantine. Adjusting to new living conditions and getting my bearings in a new place is always fun, and I was enjoying exploring and meeting my new students. But after the new year, things kind of calmed down, and I got used to life here at the school. I’ve had to figure out new ways to keep active and find new things. I’ve tried to find ways to hang out with my students (cooking, worshipping together, etc). It’s been a real blessing to reach out and touch lives that are dealing with countless difficulties. I’ve had the opportunity to encourage them that Someone has their back, no matter what they go through.
Plans for a Music School
I’ve also been working on developing plans for a music school. In December, I purchased a keyboard, but I’ve only been able to use it for myself at this point. My goal is to create a music ministry that will be able to increase our influence here. It’s encouraging to see the team on board with the idea, and my goal is to start teaching by the beginning of June, but several things need to happen before then. First, I need to get books, preferably from the US, that I can have the students use. Please pray that I would be able to get books over here at an affordable cost. Second, I need to be able to find a place I can teach at. Eventually, I would love to be able to rent a building that would provide the resources we need, but right now, I don’t have the capacity to do that, so I need to find a safe space to be able to teach. I also need to find students that want to teach music, because I don’t think that getting volunteers from foreign countries will work well, especially with the language barrier, so please pray that I will be able to find students who are genuinely interested in teaching music as a ministry.
Language Learning
Related to that, I would really appreciate prayers that I would be able to learn the language well. Right now, I’m spending 3 hours a week learning, but with my other responsibilities, it’s hard to do much more than that. I need to learn the language to teach music, and that means spending more time learning the language. Please pray that God would give me a clear mind to be able learn the language!
