The Half-Way Point!

September 5, 2010
Oi! Tudo Bem? (Hi! How are you?)
Thanks for reading these sporadic blog posts! I have no excuse for not keeping up with these better. I miss you all and think about you, remembering you in my prayers and thanking you for the prayers you’ve been sending my way!

Here’s an update on life! Well, school is in full swing, and my teaching is getting into even fuller swing. I am basically full-time teaching now, designing my own lessons (with help from my amazing co-op Tara Gilpin! “beg, borrow, and tweak!”), and doing most of the teaching for 3 classes. Eventually it will include grading, I’m thinking. So, I am discovering the busy life of a teacher (hooray!) We’ve been having fun in class, doing skits and presentations, taking notes (so fun!), and getting most papers graded and returned to students! ( : Tomorrow my World Geography students have a World Religions project due, and I am very excited to see the results.

Other than school, I have been given all kinds of opportunities to meet new people and try new things. We have the funnest group of young adults here at the school as teachers and student teachers, so we have “supper club” together every Wednesday night. Monday nights I attend a small group Bible Study with my roommates and another teacher which is totally in Portuguese! As far as content goes, I’m not getting a lot, but it has been helpful for me to learn more of the language and exciting to interact with Brazilian believers. I got to play guitar for it last week and try to sing in Portuguese, so fun! Last week we also started a weekly Bible study for the women teachers at the school (which will be in English) so I am very excited about that.

On Sundays the school sponsors a church service in English that many Brazilians come to so they have a chance to hear native English speakers and to practice their English in conversation. My roommate Anna and I lead a discussion group after the message in which we get to practice conversational English with Brazilians. This is all done by discussing the message that was just preached, and God's truth and the gospel come up regularly in conversation, so it is a very unique opportunity.

I am really loving it here at the school. It is hard to believe that I am half-way finished with my teaching! The kids and teachers are all so great. I am still trying to watch and listen, to see why God has place me here for now, but I know that it is according to His purpose.

Thanks so much for all the prayers. If you would, please pray for:
-me, as I learn to be a good teacher through discipline and creative planning ( :
-My students, that they would be blessed and would see Jesus in me
-The English service here at AVA, that lives would continue to be changed
-The rest of the staff and teachers here at AVA, that we would be lights for Christ (unity of mission)
-for plans for my trip to Curitiba to visit Bible School friends

May you all be filled with His peace every day and be used to serve Him.

In Christ alone,

Julia Osthus