Quaneta, Onyx, Monica and I Saturday night. The other 2 had already gone home so are not included in the pic.

I've had such a busy weekend that took off on Friday night with our TGIF program, then on to Saturday morning with our Signs club meeting, and lastly ending with church. We(the other 2 foreign teachers and I) decided to invite our Junior teaching staff to join us at our apartment for dinner and a movie. We wanted to have some down time together since we're always rushing around to our various classes, that we barely have time to breathe and greet each other!

Sunday, I was delighted when my alarm woke me up promptly at 6:30am - just kidding! I wanted to cry when I heard that terrible noise that forced me out of my warm bed to turn it off! But I had to get up early for my Coordinator meeting at the Main Institute beginning at 8am. The trip from my apartment to the institute is about 50 min. total, so I wanted to be sure to be ON TIME!! The last Coordinator meeting in the previous term, was my first meeting and unfortunately, I miscalculated the travel time, and arrived 20 minutes late! I was SO embarrassed since I was supposed to be officially introduced to the other Coordinators. So I vowed not to ever be tardy again - 6:30am it is. :o)

It's been a difficult transition going from teaching 5 days a week in Kwangju(Monday-Friday), to teaching Sunday night-Friday morning, then having to do weekend activities. So it basically shakes out to be that I work 6 days a week! So my down time Sat. night and Sunday mornings are VERY precious.

My Religion class started for this term, on Sunday night. I'm always a little nervous about what kind of group I'll get - this term was no different. It was all going fine until one student walked in about 15 minutes late. I had asked the other students what they thought or knew about God, so when she(Sara) walked in late, I of course, asked her as well. She then began the long speech about how she's a hard-core Atheist. Sara has many issues with God and the church and was not shy about stating how much she hates God because He restricts us from doing whatever we want. She was raised in the Catholic Church and was taught that God is a perfect, judging, unforgiving God. She was pretty much beaten over the head with this concept and now of course, she hates God and has a lot of resentment toward the church. The other students looked shocked and couldn't understand some of her points she was making against God, but they mostly disagreed with what she was saying.

At the end of the class, after she finally finished her thoughts(she talked for about 25 minutes), my mind was spinning because I didn't know how to begin to answer or defend any of the things she had said without offending her. But God gave me the words just then, and I asked her to try to put all the doubts, questions, hatred aside for this class. I asked her to have an open mind when she comes to class and to listen and learn more about God. Once she has been able to have more understanding of Him and His love for us and for her, to then decide for herself where she stands.

This is going to be an interesting Religion class, so I ask for your prayers especially for this student. I had Religion class tonight, and she was very attentive - reading the bible texts that I assigned to her, and was listening carefully. Please pray for me that I will have the patience and the knowledge to teach this class in a way that God's love will be shown to her and to the others as well.