Classrooms Ready

After worship this morning we spent most of the afternoon today at Cowman, making final adjustments to the rooms and prepping for the arrival of students for the first day of school tomorrow.  I still need to do some planning for tomorrow, so I will make this post mostly pictures and a bit of commentary, so I can finish my work. 

And if you're the type to fuss at us about not taking a Sabbath (and you should be!), we would simply point out that we took our Sabbath a day early.  Yesterday was a wonderfully refreshing day at the pool of Villa Cana, a Catholic retreat center just around the corner from our mission.  The grounds are gorgeous and the pool was perfect - especially after spending the last two weeks sweating 24 hours a day.

Here's the pool:

In a perfect world, this is what people would envision when they hear the word "Haiti"!

A number of missionary families gathered at the pool - the Bundys, the Heckmans, the Ayars and the Aberles.  Lots of kids, lots of sun, and lots of cool, clear water.

We swam, ate lunch poolside, then swam some more.  It was close to 5 hours total.  Then we tagged along with some of the other missionaries to a birthday for a three year old (whose grandmother teaches French and Spanish at Cowman). It was airplane-themed and Aidan's mom went ALL OUT.

Caleb playing "pin the prop on the plane"

A pool AND ice cream on the same day.  We were in heaven.

So today our Sabbath was over and it was time to put the finishing touches on the classrooms.  Can you believe that Melissa's kindergarten room looked like this...

... When we arrived today?  And like this...



When we left?

And this?

And this?

All ready for a gaggle of Kindergartners and First Graders!

Here's how my classroom turned out:

It cleaned up real nice!  None of the student chairs match, but the walls are clean and we are relatively spider-free. 

Ready for tomorrow.

While friends back home will be getting their first day off from school, we'll be getting our first day on.  We'd appreciate your prayers - that we would be mentally sharp, loving towards our students and utterly available to Jesus!