On Tuesday, the students at the Obed Day Center spent part of their day celebrating the Easter season by dying Easter Eggs. Each student dyed four eggs. They were very patient as each student carefully retrieved their eggs from the dye. There were no spills :)
During the 7th and 8th grade English clubs this week, the students learned new English words by making crafts. 7th grade painted sun catchers and practiced words such as window, paint, sun, glass etc. 8th grade excitedly made fleece tie pillows. Their patience wore a little thin as they began tying the fleece but they were proud of their end products. And we learned that when you make pillows, you have to make a pillow fight :)
On Friday afternoon, I went to visit Robert who
had been missing quite a bit of school lately. When I first arrived on his street, he hid because he knew that he was going to be in trouble for missing so much school. After a few minutes of soccer, he told me that he didn't like going to school right now because he didn't know the alphabet or how to write like his classmates did. He had missed a lot of school through out the year for various reasons.
While I cannot teach him to read Romanian because that would require that I knew how to read Romania, I figured I could help him with his handwriting. He pulled out his notebook and showed me what he was suppose to be working on.
For a few minutes, we sat on the side of the road and practiced writing the letters "s" and "t". After awhile, the fact that there were UNO cards in my bag became know and the desire to play became a huge distraction. After a few games of UNO, the idea of a Saturday morning study session was born. After much debating as to what he wanted to for breakfast, it was decided. Robert would meet me at the Ruth School at 9:30 and I would have cereal, milk and a banana for him for breakfast. I held up my half of the bargain and so did he. Robert even brought his brother (Alex) and a friend with him. Luckily, I had invited my Romanian friend, Stefan, to help out. Robert and I spent the morning writing the alphabet on a dry erase board while Stefan worked with the older two on writing journals and adding fractions. It was a great morning! We all worked diligently for about 90 minutes before deciding to call it quits for the day. I didn't want to overkill it because they wouldn't come back the next week. All three boys promised to return next Saturday for more cereal, milk, bananas and oh yeah learning!
While I cannot teach him to read Romanian because that would require that I knew how to read Romania, I figured I could help him with his handwriting. He pulled out his notebook and showed me what he was suppose to be working on.
The teaching staff was encouraged by the team through a seminar on how to build self-esteem and self-worth in their students. Our 7th and 8th graders were given the hard truths of what drugs, alcohol and smoking can do to your body. The team urged them simply just to say "NO!" Going into this seminar, Tammy and I were both concerned because this age group rarely sits still and listens for more than five minutes yet they were attentive listeners for the full 35 minutes.
Today, the team has been painting. Around noon, two team members (Pip and Emily) went down the street to buy fresh bread for lunch. As they were walking back, a brother from the church stopped to talk to them because he had heard about the painting ministry being done at the Ruth School. He spoke very broken English but knew a lot about the Ruth School and its ministry. An hour later, the brother (Marian) came knocking on the door to help paint. He was quickly put to work painting mountains. After completing his task, he told us that he must go home for the day but will be returning tomorrow at 4pm after work to sacrifice his time to paint for Jesus Christ. Marian's faith and willingness to serve have already been such a blessing for this team.
