Growing Pains...
This year has been a growing one for me in mnay ways! I though I would share a few examples of how I have grown...

Living on the opposite side of the world in a new culture has provided me with many growing opportunities. Not only do I need to learn my way around a city that has 7 million people in it.... compared to a couple thousand in Houlton, I need to learn a new language in order to communicate with the people... this language is a very difficult language to learn! Living here has definitely made me be more dependent on people than I am used to, but has also made me more independent in other areas of my life. My lanugage studies are coming along... taking 4 hours/week now! One hour a week is dedicated only to Han zi (chinese characters!) There is still so much to learn... this is an area where I am growing in independence but often need to depend on other staff members to help me with simple tasks such as going to the music store to buy a violin string or to repair my violin bow. (yes, my violin bow! I brought my violin over with me after Christmas and when I opened my case, the bow was broken... all the hair was completely detached on one end from the bow... not a good thing! )
Probably the biggest two areas that I have grown in are below:
This past Friday it was my turn to lead the elementary chapel...which of course put me into a mini panic attack! We all know how much I dislike speaking in front of large groups of people! It would have been fine if there were no adults in the room, but that would leave me with about 60 kids whose names I do not know, so I kind of needed the adults to be there! I found out about 2 minutes before that their was no one to do the music section of chapel b/c our music teacher was away at a basketball tournament, which only added to the stress I was feeling! Luckily, Kris came up with a few songs! Then I was on! I did a short lesson on sin and forgiveness using Pepsi, buttons, and a pitcher of water. I had the students name sin that is in our life and then place a button in the cup of pepsi to represent our sin. The buttons sink to the bottom, where no one can see them, but as always sin has a way of eventually coming back to the surface, and within a few seconds, the buttons pop up to the top of the cup... We then talked about what we can do when we sin which is to ask our father to forgive us. The pitcher of water represented our father and how when we ask him for forgiveness he can make us clean again. I then poured the water into the cup with the pepsi to displace it and turn it clear... ! Overall I think the chapel went ok, although I am not signing up to do another one this year! But I did survive... with only a little help from my "pink" friend...(Tammi, you are probably one of the few who will be able to appreciate the pink friend!)

This year I have also had to meet once a week with a yarp-ing partner (I got the word yarp from Megan!! and like it much better then Ppartner or thinking...) This means that at least once a week I have to yarp out loud! This is a very BIG, maybe I should say HUGE accomplishment for me! I still don't volunteer to yarp aloud in small groups, but taking steps to work on this! Maybe one day yarp-ing aloud will not cause me a mini panic attack! :)