Back to the Classroom

In just a few days Ill be heading back to the classroom. Our third grade teacher has left for her furlough, and the teacher who is to fill in for her is still in the United States gathering her partnership team. Until she arrives, Ill be working with another teacher to cover third grade. Ill be teaching in the mornings and spending my afternoons working as the principal. The next few weeks or possibly months will be busy, but I am looking forward to being back in the classroom. I taught most of these students last year when they were second graders and cant wait to work with them again. The class includes students from all over the world: America, Canada, Finland, and Papua New Guinea, and their parents work as Bible translators, teachers, mechanics, office workers, and aviation employees.

Representatives of the third grade crowd.

PNG Tokples Scripture Conference

While teachers and students are heading back to school this week, many language workers are preparing to host a Tokples (vernacular) Scripture Conference. It is our desire to involve the PNG church in Bible translation work around the country, and during this conference we will be building relationships and creating partnerships with representatives from 30 different church denominations and Christian organizations from around the country. Our guests will be invited to join in the work of Bible translation and will be encouraged to use and support the use of vernacular Scriptures. Please pray that:

Guests will have safe travels to Ukarumpa. Organizers will manage all of the logistics.

The work and vision of Bible translation will be furthered.

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3
Email: rachel_stanton@wycliffe.org Address: PO Box 1 (349) Ukarumpa, EHP 444 Papua New Guinea Contributions: Wycliffe Bible Translators P.O. Box 628200 Orlando, FL 32862-8200 Checks should be made payable to Wycliffe Bible Translators with a separate note saying for the ministry of Rachel Stanton.

A Day in the Life

My days range from routine to bizarre, but heres the scoop on a busy one. 5:30Glare at the alarm clock. Wake the dog up and shove her outside. Take a very quick shower since the previous day was cloudy, and the solar panels didnt really heat up the hot water. Decide which Hawaiian-print meri blouse to wear and choose the moderately-faded lime-green-with-pinkhibiscus option. Hang up my load of laundry in the shed just in case it rains while Im at work. Make a delightful strawberry, banana, and pineapple smoothie for breakfast. Wash dishes. 6:30Stumble out of my house and stop by the open-air market for fruit and vegetables for the weekend. Manage to squish through several mud puddles in the process. 7:00Arrive at work, scrub sandals and feet, and begin answering the latest emails: tuition questions, substitute teacher scheduling, and accreditation review work. 7:45Discover that we once again have a rat infestation in the kindergarten classroom. 8:15Open the student gate. Receive a flower from a friendly kindergartener and give one special 4th grade boy his daily reminder to walk to his classroom. Watch the 4th grade boy break into a sprint as he heads toward his classroom. 8:25Notified that there is a lice outbreak among the kinder students. Start composing notes to parents while trying to ignore my instant paranoid itching scalp. 8:30Realize that our new second grade student has separation anxiety issues when I hear his sobs and screams floating down to my office. Head to second grade to monitor the class while the teacher talks her new student into the classroom and calms him down. 9:00Conduct a teacher observation in Grade 3. Try to scribble legibly as students learn how to take surveys and interpret data. 9:30Prepare a lesson for my struggling readers group. 10:00Learn that my national employees are once again concerned that their milk powder and sugar teatime allotment is not being divided equally. Promise to figure out a better dispersal system. 10:10Discourage 4-square-playing students from climbing a post up to the roof to retrieve their tennis ball. Set off to find a taller person to rescue the tennis ball. 10:30Walk to the finance office to pick up the employees payroll and stop by the store to purchase some rat glue. Belatedly realize that the rat glue has oozed out of the container and attempt to scrub glue off hands. 11:00Meet with my reading group. 12:00Meet with three sets of national parents who have children on academic probation. Attempt to explain our concerns in Tok Pisin. Sadly inform one father that his son will not be able to return to our school in January. 1:00Substitute for the music teacher who is in Australia dealing with a family medical emergency. Flummoxed by the lesson plans and decide to hold an impromptu geography bee with students. Debate with students over the name of the largest desert in the world. Is it the Sahara or Antarctica? 2:00Recess duty. 2:15More music-turned-geography class substituting. 3:15Lead our staff meeting and inform teachers that we need to be praying for more teachers. At the moment, it looks like we're in need of three classroom teachers, gym and computer teachers, and a librarian in order to be fully-staffed for the next school semester. 4:30Ask my other employees if they know where my secretary is since she hasn't come to work for a few days. Call her cell phone but hear a message saying that she's out of minutes. Leave a message on the phone and then with her mother and cousin asking her to return to work or contact me. 5:00Drive all of my employees to the bridge (which hasn't supported vehicles for years) so that they have a shorter walk home in the midst of the afternoon's downpour. 6:00Take the dog for a walk. Thankful that the downpour has lessened to a drizzle, but the dog is still more enthusiastic than I am. Amble back into my yard just as the light fades. 7:00Make and eat dinnerpukpuk (crocodile), kaukau (sweet potatoes), and kumu (greens) stirfry. 8:00Tackle my personal emails. Spend some time being encouraged by the heroes in the book of Hebrews, and pray that Ill remember to focus on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith and not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12: 2-3). 9:00Realize that my socks are not beating the evening highlands chill and snuggle under my comforter for some rest.