A Day in the Life...

A few things I’ve learned so far…

-There are scorpions in my cabin

Case in point!

-When I walk outside, my glasses instantly fog up because of the humidity

-There’s no bad place to sit at meals because everyone here is so kind and so interesting!!!

A typical day here at Onboarding (that’s what the training here in TX is called) looks something like this:

·      Eat breakfast with the others in my cabin

·      Morning class (This week we are covering the foundations of Christianity so we are all on the same page before we go out and do our best to represent God to those around us in Benin)

·      Lunch together in the cafeteria (which I can successfully find on my own now!)

·      Afternoon class (the classes are really fascinating and I am highly enjoying the leaders who are teaching them! They so clearly want to communicate only what is Biblical and what God wants them to communicate. They choose their words so carefully because of that and I really appreciate that aspect. Today we were taught by a South African man, an American woman, and a Dutch woman! I love hearing the gospel in all those accents!)

·      Dinner

·      Free for the evening – so far I’ve spent one evening watching the NBA finals (in a little café on campus, which has the only TV with cable, along with a our videographer, photographer, Second Officer, and guest services manager), one evening watching Armageddon (because I like being with people so much that I’ll watch whatever they want to watch and I haven’t told everyone yet that the only DVD I deemed worthy to come along in my limited luggage is Tangled), one evening in the pool on campus doing water aerobics (led by a roommate of mine who is the ships rehab team leader), and this evening we took our weekly run to Wal-Mart (which was totally worth it even though I had nothing to get because it’s so nice and cool in there)!

This actually happened! That's me in the front there!

·      Then it’s off to bed to be ready for tomorrow (after checking under the covers for scorpions of course)!

So... having fun, learning a lot, meeting awesome people! So far so good!

P.S. This is a verse from class today that I especially liked!

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
                                     -Hebrews 12:2-3 (MSG)

I'm Here!

I’m here! After flying out the day school ended, going to Kate’s Sweet Adeline Concert, and driving four hours from Houston to Tyler, I am finally here at the Mercy Ships Headquarters for my Onboarding training! 

Last night I moved my stuff in and went over to my small group leader’s room for tea and to meet my small group for the next month. Mom and Kate and I spent my last evening together for a while in the most lovely way…eating at Cracker Barrel and watching the Tonys!

Today was day one of training for me! The people here are from all over the world (Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, England, New Zealand, Germany, and who knows where else!) and there are people of every age and background! The campus where we’re staying is very pretty and I’ve only gotten lost twice (trying to find the training room and trying to find the cafeteria). I got to eat lunch with Mom and Kate today and then they had to leave to go back from Houston. So my goodbyes are officially all done! Whew! I am in Texas, flying solo, but surrounded by lots of soon-to-be-friends!

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. –Colossians 2:6-7 (MSG)

Goodbye to PVCS Kindergarten

I usually write big blog posts about things I love dearly and that bring sparkle and twinkle to my life, but there are truly no words for how much I love PVCS Kindergarten. This is my home. These are my little people. And I'm their little teacher. So I'm going to stop with some of my favorite photos and a quote from Miss Jane Austen that perfectly sums up how I feel about kindergarten: 

"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

Graduation Day!

This week my little sister, Jennifer Caroline, graduated from high school! I sure love that girl!

Dear Jenn-Jenn,
I have this vivid memory from the summer before you were born when I was eleven-years-old. You know how I get excited and amped up about different things and I remember so clearly having this thought process run through my mind. I was in the shower after a soccer practice and I remember thinking,
“Wow, I have so many things to be excited about! This Saturday I get to play in my soccer game, next month I get to perform in the homeschool group play, and then in October the baby is going to be born and then I’ll have something to look forward to and be excited about for the rest of my life!”

That sounds a bit over the top and ridiculous, like me, but in my little eleven-year-old mind, you were going to be something, someone, to be excited about forever and always! And you know what? I was right! I was right.
You have been, and will continue to be, one of the biggest joys of my life. I was so excited to hold you for the first time, excited to show you off to my friends, excited to make you do your “tricks,” excited to plan your birthday parties, excited to hear what precocious thing you would say next, excited to tell “Jenn stories” to the cousins, excited to coach your soccer team, excited to take you to Disneyland for the first time, excited to be your stage mom, excited to do the Jane Austen unit with you, excited to go to your back-to-school nights, excited to go to NYC with you…you have literally provided me with endless things to look forward to and be excited about. I have thought time and time again over the last seventeen years, “What on earth was going on in life before Jenn was born? Were we board out of our minds?” I think you know that our family has never once been board out of our minds, but you sure make our family a whole lot more exciting, funny, and entertaining!

I consider it one of the hugest blessings of my life that I’ve had the privilege of living close to you for most of your growing up years and I feel especially blessed to have gotten to be a part of your highschool experience. I love that you ask me to coach you before each audition. I love that I get to be your personal hair stylist for each show! I love getting to me your Mom on back-to-school nights. I love that I get to chaperone dtasc (sp?). I love that you want me to read your papers. I don’t particularly love studying for chem or chapter title battles with you, but if we can do it at TIFA it’s so much better and I do love that I live close enough to be there when you need to study!

There are so many things about you and me that are complete opposites, but maybe that's why we get along so well! Despite the fact that you don’t like inspirational sports movies and that I’m not all that keen on Benedict Cumberbatch, we are most definitely kindred spirits!
As you graduate today, I’m so proud of you and words could never describe how much I love you, Jenn-Jenn the pumpkin girl!
Love, “Beff”

Nail Polish and Little League

I want to finish strong. I pray every year round about his time that I will be able to finish out the school year in a strong way and not just me, but that my littles and I would finish strong together. We started this crazy year called kindergarten together and we want to finish together. Finishing well can look like quite a lot of different things, but this week it involved nail polish and baseball.


My time is precious in these last few weeks of school because I fly out to Mercy Ships training literally the same day school gets out. Before that I have to move houses, pack everything I own, put most of my stuff in storage, decide what I can bring with me to Africa for the year, pack my classroom, and prepare this week for Open House, Spring Sing, and Grandparents Day at school. I’ve had the weight of so many details on my mind recently and in response to that, God gave me two lovely gifts of time well spent in the last two days. One was going over to a kindergartner’s house for tea and nail painting and the other was attending a little league game for a team that has three of my kindergartners on it. Yes, I probably should be packing and planning, but this week, among all the crazy, I chose to sit down and let a sweet six-year-old meticulously layer many coats of polish (in many different colors) as well as glitter and jewels on each of my fingernails and hear her exclaim at the finished product, “Oh! These are the most beautiful nails I have ever painted!” This week among all the constantly growing lists of things to do I stood behind home plate with the Yankees logo painted on my cheek in liquid eye-liner (shhh…don’t tell my Daddy! I washed the logo off IMMEDIATELY following the game, I promise!), homemade sign in hand with the name of each of my littles names who are on the team, and with my telephoto lens to get pictures of the adorableness that is little league baseball.


This past weekend I heard a sermon on Mary and Martha and in a funny way, that’s what this week reminds me of. While Martha was distracted by the details of things to be done, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and took in His words. When confronted by Martha about Mary not helping her, Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Indeed! In these last few weeks of school and of life here in CA (at least for a while), I tend to get worried and upset about many things…finishing raising support, getting everything packed, setting everything up for Open House…but few things are needed – or indeed only one…Jesus. Making sure my kids know that Jesus loves them and that I love them.


So, finishing strong this week looks like letting a sweet, little girl spread on one more coat of glitter and painting a Yankees logo on my cheek even though my kiddos know that I hate the professional Yankees. I feel like I made a “Mary choice.” I got to “choose what was better.” Yes, there are boxes to pack, Grandparents Day cards to finish, support to be raised, and that’s all important and necessary, but when compared to the nails needing to be painted, tea to be drunk, and precious little ballplayers to watch…I just feel like I made the better choice today. Let’s finish strong together, keeping in mind that the “better choice” might not be what seems the most urgent (and let’s hope that your “better choice” doesn’t involve a Yankees logo on your face)! 😉

Prayers of the Littles

We do a lot of fun things in kindergarten…we hatch ducks, play with an octopus, cut fries at in-n-out, and while those are fun, they’re not the best part of kindergarten. The best part is right here:

This was our class praying after attending our field trip to the Compassion Experience this week. Nothing could bring more joy to my heart than hearing my littles pray. They are so willing and excited to talk to Jesus. I am blessed beyond measure to be there to hear them pray and I wish so badly that you could come hear them too. There is power in prayer, and I know that God loves and listens to all of us, but I have to say that after hearing them pray, I think that there is a special power in children’s prayers! Today we got a chance to pray for kids around the world. We wrote down our prayers, colored pictures of them, and then got in a circle and every single kindergartner prayed their prayer out loud. I have zero doubt that God was sitting right there in that circle with us. Read some of these prayers, imagine them in precious five-year-old voices, and be blessed!

"Help all kids to have a family and a healthy snack."

"For people to have a safe place to live."

"Please help people who want babies to have enough money."

"Help people have clean water."

"Help kids not to have to steal to get food."

"Help someone who is homeless in the desert to have water."