Tara Talk: Gray clouds and silver linings

This past week there have been several times where things have not gone as I had planned. Last week at girls' club I made the mistake of leaving our Bible time discussion to the end of the morning, and the majority of the girls "conveniently" had to leave to get ready for school before we could have that talk. To be honest, it was quite frustrating for me because I feel like I've had to fight a little bit with them as of late to have some serious time. It's all well and good while we are baking together or doing a fun craft project, but some of them have been giving me some attitude when we pass out the Bibles. And that is not to say that all of them are doing this; I have some VERY sweet girls who have great attitudes and want to read and learn about the Lord. It's just those few that are outspoken and make it difficult for the rest. Kind of like a first grade classroom with those few stinkers that can make any day a bad day with their poor attitudes.
The silver lining came after almost all the girls had abruptly left and I noticed one of my sixth graders had stayed behind. She was helping me clean up, and when I expressed to her that I was a little frustrated about everyone else leaving and not getting to share with them from the Word, she said that she and I could still talk about it together. We ended up having a really great conversation about forgiveness and the value of being a part of a church congregation and the pressure she feels to protect her younger sister who doesn't always make great life choices. It is encouraging to me to see girls like her share with me, and to know that they DO notice that I care about them and am available to talk about life and faith with them.
This afternoon I had my English class with the high school boys, and I was expecting my normal 6 or 7 to show up. Well, in part because of the heavy rain, and in part because of lack of transportation for a few of them, only 2 were able to make it. But these two were able to ask me all kinds of questions about English and sentence structure; it turned out to be more like a 1 on 2 tutoring session. It was encouraging to see their hunger for learning English and also the "light bulb" turn on when they understood a concept. And more importantly than our English discussion was our discussion about faith and some hard life situations that we were able to have afterwards. I felt like the Lord was able to use that situation of only the two of them showing up to and allow me to listen to some of His children who were really grappling with issues of faith. It broke my heart to hear about some of the painful feelings and situations, but also encouraged me to know that these young men know God's love and that they are NOT alone to fight these battles.
Please join me in continuing to pray for the community of Orowe in Los Guido where I work. The Lord is doing some wonderful things in the lives of people there, but there is also so much pain and darkness. It can be overwhelming and enough to want to throw up your hands and give up sometimes. I am thankful for a sweet note that I received today, a reminder of why I do what I do: "Hi, how are you? I want to thank you for all that you have helped me with in my homework. I love you and you are very special to me. These words come from my heart."
On a completely different note, below are a few photos to show how my 30th birthday was celebrated. It was a wonderful week of birthday fun!