School has been in full force since Wednesday of this week. Actually, we started on Tuesday, but we were only there for two hours! This week was spent mostly trying to get the kids into a routine, to follow the rules and procedures for the class (and school) and trying to get accustomed to each other.
I have 22 students in my class this year, 12 are new to the school. So far, they seem like a fantastic bunch of kids, and I really think I am going to enjoy being their teacher this year!
Since being back from summer vacation, I've been attending church every week, and I am finding myself feeling a little more comfortable. I submitted a form to indicate that I am interested in joining a small group/Bible study and yesterday I received an email from the pastor of the church. He said that what I should do, if I know someone there, is to either invite them to join a small group with me or invite myself to the one he/she/they are involved in. If I don't know anyone, then the pastor said he would love to help me connect with someone.
I do know some people there (some of the families who have children at the school where I teach go to this church, as well as one of the other teachers I know from last year), but these people are either married with kids, or belong to the young adult group. I belong to neither of these categories. So, I am going to have to email the pastor and let him know my situation and hopefully he can help me connect.
With regards to my attempt at reading the Bible by the end of 2012, I finished reading Psalms the other day (took me all summer, but I was generally only reading one chapter a day....unless they were quite short), and started into 1 Samuel. I am only on chapter 2 so far, but looking over my list of what I still need to read...I might need to pull up my socks a little if I want to accomplish my goal.
Last night I attended a little "conference" on prayer. They are running more today, but I decided against going as I have a lot of work to do this weekend. I really enjoyed it. We had a half hour or so of worship music which was awesome, followed by a speaker.
The one thing I really got from this was that we all pray differently and that there is no wrong way to do it. If you aren't comfortable praying a certain way, or you don't have the motivation to do it, then try a different way until you find one that works for you. For example, if you try journalling your prayers but you can't keep up with that, then that might not be for you...but if you are the type who needs to keep a list of people and events (not journalling about it, but just something to focus on or help remind you) to pray for, which day you will "dedicate" to praying for specific events/people (i.e. on Mondays you pray for your co-workers, your job, and the government; Tuesdays you pray for your family and the missionaries from your church, etc.) then do that. I found it a quite encouraging session...and I'm kind of regretting not going to some of it again today.
How is your prayer life? Do you have specific ways you pray or a schedule of when to pray for others? Do you journal? Let me know in the comments - would love to hear about it!
