Grinch, cookies, and celebrating Christmas

Today your Savior is born in the city of David. He is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”  Suddenly a vast, heavenly army  appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!”   Luke 2:11-14

Here is how we celebrate Christmas in Colombia at ECA :-)
I hope you enjoy these stories and pictures.  Can't wait to celebrate with you all when I am home!

1. Christmas Play: We had our Elementary and Middle School Christmas Play this past Friday.  My 3rd Graders were dressed as angels and sang a song about proclaiming the Good News of the birth of Christ. 

Good News, Good News of great joy

Glory, Glory to God on High

Jesus, the Savior is born

Bringing peace on earth, forevermore!

What a wonderful time to come together as an ECA community to remember what the real reason we are celebrating this Christmas.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas celebrations:

2. Student Prayer:
"God thank you for this day.  I love you, Lord.  you are worthy and you are the first thing in my heart, but some things don't let me to obay and do the right things.  Amen."

3. Thoughts from a 3rd Grader:
I will respect other people because God respected me..  I will not rob, I will not kill, I will obey, I will be respectful, I will serve others, I will not lie, I will not use guns, I will not be violent,  I will not disobey.

I will not be proud, I will respect the school property, I will not do bad things, I will not say curse words, I will not say bad words, I will not be a bully.

God always keeps his promises and never sins.  He died on the cross to give salvation.  John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, who ever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.

God made us special!

4. Christmas Cookies:
We decorated Christmas cookies in class as we talked in language groups about cabinets vs counters and the words: angels, cookie cutters, and snowmen.  It's really fun to teach about what Christmas is like in our country.

I tried baking a family Christmas cookie recipe :-0  Well, this is always more difficult when living in another country.  I bought something that I thought was cornstarch, but when the cookies ended up FLAT, spread over the whole pan, I knew something was wrong.  I decided to pour the rest of the dough in a pie plate and made Melting Moment pie :-)  Here are pics of the pie and the actual cookies I baked with REAL cornstarch as a gift for my students.

5. ECA Christmas Dinner:  We enjoyed a time as an ECA family before we all separate for the holidays.  The Colombians shared songs from the different areas of their country including one about a donkey going to Bethlehem :-)

Tuki, tuki, tuki, tuki
Tuki, Tuki, Tuki, ta...
Apurate mi burrito, que ya vamos a llegar!

They had awards called the ECA-ers (like the Oscars) and I was nominated for "The Grinch"...
What do you think?  I'm sure my Christmas hat and the twinkling lights show me to be very grinchy!

Prayers and Praises:
Please pray for my decision for next year.  I am hoping to decide over Christmas break.  Pray that God would guide my thoughts and would give me clear direction on ministry for next year :-)

Safe travels as I fly back on Thursday, December 19th!  Hopefully I will you when I am home visiting.  I will be in town until January 6th :-)  Please pray that it would be a blessed time with family and a relaxing break.

Bendiciones,
Carrie

Kingdom Class

"But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God’s mercy, now you have received his mercy."  1 Peter 2:9-10

Kingdom Class 
We have had the amazing opportunity to come together with 12 other countries in Latin America for professional development as International Christian Educators this past week.  The conference was put on by ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) and they brought in amazing speakers and college professors to talk with us.  This is the first time the conference has come to Colombia.  Before, Colombia was thought to be too dangerous and they said they would not bring the conference to our school.  Praise God that the work he is doing in this country has allowed us to welcome in our Latin America friends to El Camino.  Below is a picture of me and my roommates with some of our new friends who are missionary teachers in Bolivia.

Our conference theme was "Empowered" and we were encouraged to keep striving to be the best teachers we can be because we are making an eternal impact on our students.  Our speaker on the last night said why settle for being world class educators when we are called to be "Kingdom Class" educators for our students!!  He used Jesus as our example and reminded us that what Jesus calls us to is higher and his plans for his people are greater that we we could ever imagine.  He doesn't want us to be great - he wants us to be the perfect representation of himself as his chosen people for his kingdom. 

My brain is still processing all that I have learned about being a teacher, how to serve these third culture kids, and the importance of Christian education to positively impact the lives of these young people for Christ.  I have so many new ideas, have learned so much, have been challenged, and have met so many wonderful new friends.  Stories from other schools (especially one in Suriname) have inspired me and given me renewed hope in what God is doing not only here in Colombia, but all over South America.  Please pray for me as I begin to sift through what the Lord wants me to take away from this amazing time of being refreshed and energized to keep serving him through teaching.

Encouragement from Alumni - Nataly Arenas, a 2013 graduate of ECA, came and spoke at the ICEC conference to encourage teachers on their mission and how they are impacting the lives of their students.  I want to share part of what Nataly talked about to encourage you and allow you the opportunity to surround a sister in Christ in prayer.

Nataly is in college here in Bogota studying international relations.  Her desire is to become a diplomat here in Colombia.  Right now, she is getting to know some of her fellow classmates and their views in life.  Stories of her being the only one to hold the belief that abortion is wrong or that creation is true over Darwin's theory of evolution - and her ability to defend her beliefs because of strong biblical arguments that she learned from her time at ECA - are the first time her classmates are encountering anyone in this way.

In one of her classes, her fellow Colombians who also want to become diplomats and work for the government openly discussed their desire to launder money as soon as they are able to.  Corruption is already on their mind.  The faith that Nataly has in Jesus Christ is a light in a dark place right now.  I am amazed at how God is using her and am praying that she would be encouraged and to know that she is not alone in fighting against the corruption in this country.  She misses ECA a lot and the support she received from this community of believers.  Please pray for her and that the Lord would be her strength during this time :-)  I am so excited to hear how He will use Nataly so mightily for the advance of His Kingdom!!

Thankful Hearts: This past week, elementary celebrated Thanksgiving by looking at how how the Pilgrims and Indians lived, trusted, and served God.  Here are a few picture of our celebration :-)  We enjoyed eating cornbread, apple crisp, and playing Pilgrim and Indians games!

Prayers and Praises:

Please pray for Nataly - mentioned above - because the Lord has plans to use her to change Colombia!! 

For a great end to the first semester.  We only have two weeks left and are preparing for our yearly Christmas Program that is coming up this Friday :-)

Processing of the information learned at the ICEC conference this past week.  Such great encouragement from the Lord - Please pray that I would apply and use what the Lord has put on my heart :-)

Safe flight home for the holidays - I fly home December 19th and will be around until January 6th.  I hope to see you while I am in town visiting and would love to catch up and talk with you.  That my time at home would be refreshing and relaxing as I soak up as much time with family and friends as I can.

Un abrazo! (Hugs!)
Carrie

 

Reading Struggles and Serving Friends Even When It's Hard

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?"  And the king will answer them, "I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me."  Matthew 25:37-40

Reading Struggles: With the many needs that are in my class this year, it takes teamwork and sacrifice to provide an excellent education for them.  When one of my students was behind in reading that we felt like they needed extra help, it was hard to figure out when this could happen and who was available to be his teacher.  With the working of the Holy Spirit, my colleagues and I worked out a plan that I would work with this student because I am familiar with students who need special education services for reading while our Literacy Coach (who used to teach a classroom at ECA) would take over teaching science class for me.  During this science time would allow me to work on reading with the other student.

Well, it has been a few weeks and the Lord has been so gracious in increasing this student's confidence in reading already.  Seeing the areas this student was struggling in the most, I was able to target right away his weak areas using techniques from our CAFE reading menu.  One of them includes blending and stretching sounds using ... a rubber band!!  This causes him to look at the whole word when reading because I noticed that he was looking at the first few letters and then guessing on the rest of the word.  This strategy, and a few others, have been really helpful to teach this student in a one-on-one situation.  A few days after he had practiced using the rubber band, he came up to me during our Language Arts centers with a really big smile on his face and said, "Miss, Bergmann, thank you so much for the rubber band!  It has helped so much." 

The following week, I was sending my reading group to read a chapter of Charlotte's Web by themselves when I went to remind my friend that he should use his rubber band.  I turned around to tell him and before I could get a word out, he was smiling at me with the rubber band already in his hand.  :-)

I'm so thankful to the Lord that the needs of this student are being met.  He is the master of putting all the pieces of a puzzle together :-)  Praising God that this extra time will continue to help this student grow in confidence and his love for reading.




When Friendships Are Hard: Relationships are always hard and my 3rd Graders are experiencing and learning all about how challenging they can be.  One of students has ADHD and has been having difficulty with friendships.  Needing socials skills to figure out how to make friends has been a difficulty for this student.  For the rest of the class, it's a challenge to be patient and loving to this friend back when he does different things that they are not used to.  At times, this has caused aggressive behavior on both sides.

Last week, the student with ADHD kicked two students while playing soccer.  I didn't notice what was going on until this student was on the ground saying he was hurt.  None of his classmates went to check on him or tell me that he was hurt (probably due to that he was kicking them earlier).  This made me really sad and I prayed for wisdom from the Lord to help me deal with what was going on in their hearts.

I sent the student with ADHD to talk with Principal about kicking the other students (it turned out that it was an accident when he got hurt, so we needed to deal with why he had kicked the other students) while I talked to the rest of the class.

I started by asking the class why they thought their friend was kicking them.  Many students started in with stories of mean words or aggressive things their friend had done to them.  I encouraged them that being patient and loving is sometimes really hard, but that Jesus would help them do that.  They all know that their friend has ADHD and has trouble controlling himself.  The day before in Chapel, we had watched a video on service about people passing on random acts of kindness to others.  I asked them how they were showing kindness to their friend?

They continued to complain (and I encouraged them to tell me all the other student had done to them) because I then told them - "Wow, that sounds like Jesus on the cross!  You must really understand."  I then reminded them that Jesus went WILLINGLY and GRACIOUSLY to the cross to save us from a life without God.  At a time when he needed friends the most, he had no one.  He was spit on, mocked, and beaten TO DEATH for each and every one of us.  This is our example - not to sit there and be spit on or kicked - but to see Jesus in our friend and be their friend even when it is hard.

I left them with this challenge - "You have a friend who is hurting.  What are you going to do about it?"  Praying that these truths will grow in their heart to be Jesus to each other.

"Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13


Prayers/Praises:
That the seeds the Lord planted would take root - and that genuine friendships would be established with a student who is really lonely and seeking friends.

For the upcoming ICEC conference that ECA is hosting!  We will have teachers from all over South America coming to our school to learn about Christian Education.  The seminars look amazing.  Please pray that the Lord would use this time to refresh us and draw us closer to him.  Also, this conference will be held over Thanksgiving - which means we will not have the day off.  This will be hard to not be celebrating on this day - so please pray for comfort as the holiday will have a different feel this year.

For my decision for next year  - yes, I am already starting to pray where God is leading me and what plans he has for me for next year!  Wisdom and guidance to really seek if it is his will that I stay another year.  That my decision would be based on glorifying God and not based on what is comfortable or easier for me :-0

So grateful for you partnership in ministry!
Blessings,
Carrie

Following Jesus - at what cost?

"To this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe."       1 Timothy 4:10

Spending time with families is always a highlight of my ministry here in Bogota.  Getting to celebrate birthdays, to eat lunch together, and to see my students with their families at their houses is such a blessing.  Here are a few stories and pictures about how God is working through these special times.

1. Alex's going away party:  One of my students, Alex, is moving and the 3rd Grade families threw a surprise party for his family to pray and say good-bye.  Claudia, the mom, spoke and she began to cry as she told of how God had finally worked in her heart after two years to be content and happy here in Bogota.  They are from El Salvador and the Lord has now called them to go and serve in Honduras.  Claudia said that the Lord has called her to love not just her country, but "Todo Mi Tierra" (or, all of God's creation/land/people).  She then went on to say how the teachers at ECA are an inspiration because their love for God comes first as they leave their families and move to a different country.

This made me cry because it was very convicting words for me to hear.  Having an emotional week due to missing people back home, feeling sick, and a busy two weeks at school with parent/teacher conferences and Fall Festival made me start to loose my focus.  The question before me was, "Will you give up everything to follow Jesus?  Even hard things like relationships back home?"  I know that Jesus is worth everything - but my heart and emotions were telling me something different.

I was able to talk with Claudia and tell her how much her words meant to me.  She asked about my story of coming to Colombia - which I told her how many questions and excuses I had thought of when praying about following the Lord in this way.  These concerns were met with a resounding peace that God would provide and take care of everything should I choose to trust him and GO!!

Having our hope set on the Living God is the only place it should be.  Putting our life in his hands is always a safe place to be.  Very thankful for this reminder this week :-)

2. Serving at Barrio Egypto with CDC:  My church here in Bogota spent this past Saturday at a ministry called Buena Semilla (Good Seed) in Barrio Egypto.  This ministry is an after school program and center to help struggling and poor children who have no other support in their lives.  Their parents are not always involved and they need a safe place to come and just be kids.  What a privilege to go and serve for a few hours with my friends to show the love of Christ to these children.

We played games and then fed the kids a nutritious meal of chicken nuggets, apple, chips and of course the favorite... ketchup!!  The precious brothers and sisters picture with me on the right LOVED ketchup so much that my friend, Jenny, had to sit down and stay there with her plate full for them to dip EVERYTHING - including Doritos :-)

This ministry is led by one of my student's families.   It was neat to connect and talk more with the dad of this student who needs extra love and care.  To see him and his ministry gave me a fresh perspective on his relationship with his son.  Praising God that relationships are being built for the good of my precious 3rd Grade students.

It was also amazing to see my friends here pour themselves out to those in need in their own country.  What servant hearts they have and how wonderful to know that the church in Colombia has believers willing to intercede for their own people.  Thank God for the opportunity to encourage them and serve alongside them.

3. Christian Character Day:
Every Fall, we take the time to celebrate Christians that have influenced our lives.  We call it Christian Character Day.  Can you guess who we are dressed as?

We learned from these men and women that it takes sacrifice and humility to follow and love the Lord.  Their examples show us how worthy Jesus is for us to give our lives to him in any way he asks.

Prayers and Praises:
Attitude and Respect of my students - that the Lord would continue to work in their hearts to love, obey, and serve Jesus.

Dealing with the transient lifestyle of a missionary that is always changing and being ok with those changes.

Maria and I are having a difficult time finding a time to do discipleship that really works and gives us quality time together - pray that this works out quickly and that God would provide a time for us to meet together :-)

So blessed by your support and by the precious blood of Jesus,

Nothing is possible without Him,

Carrie

Spreading Gospel Love in Cartagena

Our God is a Great Big God:
I had the opportunity to go and help run an English Camp for a school on the coast of Colombia.  They teach their students English, but do not have native English teachers like we do at El Camino.  Katie and Maddi (two other teachers at ECA) and I traveled during our week off to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ in Cartagena in exchange for getting to see some of their beautiful city.

Billy and Marcy are teachers from the school in Cartagena who were our wonderful helpers.  What a blessing they were to help organize and manage the kids who came to the camp. Also, we stayed with the pastor's family who is one of the sweetest families I have ever met.  Milena, the wife, was such a gracious host and was so excited that we were there to help teach English, especially since her youngest son, Juan David, would be attending the camp.  Juan David was singing the songs we taught while walking around his house which was a highlight of my week!  The ways the kids were singing praise to Jesus in ENGLISH was such a heavenly sound. The song "Our God is a Great Big God" was heard all over the church and school.

While in the car, I felt the desire to ask Milena how she became a Christian.  Her willingness to trust me and share her story was a blessing.  Her love for Jesus and how he called her to believe in him to redeem her life is now helping many other women at her church who are struggling as she once did.

"So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing."   1 Thessalonians 5:11


TIC:  Not knowing about a fundraiser for the Fundacion de Jesus on the first night and attending the dinner in our clothes from the airplane (t-shirt and jeans) while everyone else is wearing fancy dresses.

Having a teacher devotional day that ended with the speaker praying over every person for over 3 hours :-)  It was a beautiful time of worship, but that was a LOT of Spanish.  (I know how the students felt having to hear English all week!)

This is Colombia :-)  TIC!!



Cartagena and new friends:  After the camp, Billy and Marcy took us to eat lunch and then showed us the city.  Cartagena is most associated with pirates of the Caribbean and is known for it's beautiful colonial buildings and fortresses. The fist night we were in Cartagena, we took a carriage ride around the old part of the city.  It was beautiful to see the architecture and be told of stories where slaves were sold or to see where pirates landed and attacked.  Along one of the beaches, there was a long wall that was used for defense against pirates.

                                    

Castillo de San Felipe was amazing to explore.  We were able to walk down and through the passageways of the castle.  There was a HUGE Colombian flag that flew over the castle, with the view of the city in the background.

Islas de Rosario and the Playa Blanca was a day to be amazed at the beauty of God's creation.  As a thank-you for showing us around all week, we offered to pay for Billy and Marcy.  Neither of them had been to see the beautiful islands and swim on the white sand beaches.  Colombia is such a beautiful country with so many resources.  May God continue to bless this country.

Bocagrande Beach has brown sand due to the islands separating the mainland of Cartagena from the coral reef out in the Caribbean.  The Coral is what breaks up and creates the white sand out on the islands.  It was a fun time to play with the family who we were staying with.  It was so fun to throw a frisbee and play in the water with the two boys.

Marcy and Billy with both be in Bogota next weekend, and also for the OBED conference that ECA is hosting in November.  Praise God for these new friends in Christ.

Prayers/Praises:
Pray for continued patience and grace with my students.  Pray for compassion and a love for them that is from the Lord.  That I would seek the Lord for wisdom and rely on him daily for how to shepherd their hearts.

Strength and renewed energy in Jesus - feeling exhausted and drained lately!

Bendiciones,
Carrie