It's high time I updated my blog, as it has been over two months since my last post! Each time I've thought about updating, the many things I could add have scared me away, but enough putting it off!

My time in Costa Rica is swiftly coming to a close. With four weeks left before I return to California, there's still so much I want to accomplish, so much I want to enjoy! And yet, looking back on the last four months I've spent here, it's amazing how much I have changed and grown, in more ways than one.

First of all, I'm amazed at how I've grown as a teacher. I began my semester of student teaching apprehensive and anxious as much as I was eager ... I so wanted to serve my students well, a task which seemed overwhelming. How could I presume to teach them when I felt so unprepared, so unqualified?

Thank the Lord that I was more prepared than I felt. As a wise friend assured me mere days before I left the States, He had equipped me with the tools I would need, just as He had guided me in the path that led me to Costa Rica and to Lincoln. And my friend was right in assuring me that He is faithful in providing His servants with what they need to fulfill the work He has given them to do. The Lord alone could have provided me with the strength, patience, and perseverance that I have so needed this semester.

By no means am I satisfied with where I am as a teacher; everyday I'm made aware of ways I could improve a lesson, implement more effective classroom management, handle a situation differently, better inspire my students or tap their interests. Yet there are times I rejoice in the victories I have accomplished: an essay by a student demonstrating careful thought or insight, a particularly creative or piercing poem, even a remark in class that shows a student has been listening. Perhaps even more than these, the relationships I've formed with students, the playful banter during transitions, the conversations before school when my students greet me with "Hi, Teacher," and share with me their lives, the smiles and genuine "thank you"s I collect and treasure as proofs of the Lord's presence in my work, promises that my labor has not been in vain, that it means something, perhaps more than I may know.

Apart from teaching, I know I've grown as a global citizen; my horizons have expanded as I've explored and lived in a different part of the world. I recognize this expansion in myself now, but I'm eager to see the change more plainly when I return home. How will I see things differently, and what will I appreciate about my home that I took for granted before? I'm looking forward to finding out.

I'm thankful for the many other ways I've grown these past four months that perhaps I'm not even aware of; the things I've learned from the people I've met, the places I've visited, the conversations I've had, the ways my Spanish has improved! I'm so thankful for this semester, and I pray that the Lord will give me the grace and strength to use the last few weeks I have here for the best.

Thanks for reading!

~Heather