Lice

I have traveled around the world and lived in places where personal hygiene was really difficult to keep up, mainly in regions of absolute poverty. Apparently this place is no different. As is common in many public schools, there has been an outbreak of lice. Nearly 25% of the third grade has it. Three children in my homeroom have it. My aide has it. And now, I fear that I am next in line.

Those of you who have been around lice know that just the thought of contracting lice makes you itch. Once I heard my children were to be checked for lice, I immediately began to itch. You see, if I contracted lice, it would be a nightmare to remove them. First, for those of you who have not met me, I have very thick, curly/frizzy hair that goes down to the top of my hip bones. I have lost barrettes in my hair for days! I can’t imagine trying to get them. This suggest another problem—my mommy too far away to come and dig out my lice 

Today, I made myself go and get my head checked—a rather humbling experience. She said that I do not have lice, which is nice. But, I did request a bottle of lice treatment so that I can be extra sure. I don’t want lice setting up a hotel before I know they are visiting.

Well, I am going to go run home and put pesticides in my hair.

Boy, I love my job.

B

P.S. If this grossed you out, imagine what I am going through.

And One More Thing...

If you want to read an absolutely incredible testimony, check out this blog http://jesusandtheatheist.blogspot.com/.

I could only shake my head and praise God for His incredible love.

Father, makes us vessels of your perefect love!

The Incredible Power of Prayer

On my way over to South Dakota from Montana, I was listening to some Christian talk-show. Someone said that they believe that they believe that the they believe that the thing that will surprise us most in Heaven is how truly powerful prayer is. I believe that with everything within me.

I have recently been praying for a handful of my lowest performing students. And I can tell you that since I began to pray, they have all shown signs of academic improvement. In particular, two boys have just been wowing me.

One, an incorgable kid named M, has just done so much better this week academically and socially. We did a project where the students wrote a story in the same format of Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."
The project was designed to give the student's a visual representation of the economnic principle of unlimited wants. Well, M's illustration for the story was wonderful. He made a monster truck and worked the entire forty-five minutes--a modern day miracle for him. I had to stop him from working and get him to rotate to the next class. It was so neat. You should have seen him glow with pride as he saw his picture on the wall. He participated and was not a disruption today too. Praise God.

In addition to Michael, K has just improved so much these last two days. In the past, he earned such low grades, I thought about giving him a G instead of an F! He simply never puts forth any effort and doesn't pay attention. He also lived within a tight shell--likely my most reserved student. But these last few days were different. He completed his illustration, though I admit without a lot of enthusiasm. However, he did complete it, for which I was thankful. But today, I was blown away. I got him to laugh in the hallway more than once. Furthermore, in Social Studies, he completed an activitity we did and actually paid attention during lecture. In fact, now that I look back, I realize that in class today, he was trying hard. At the end of the day, I told him that he had received his second 100% on an assignment in two days and that if he got one more, it would equal a test grade. He beemed. Seriously. That smile so touched my heart. But what really almost moved me to tears happend after school. I was waiting outside as my kids bordered their buses, as I usually do. I was talking with a student when I heard a kid shout, "Bye Ms. Brendsel!" I was stunned when I saw that it was K--addressing me without first being spoken to, for the first time ever. He waved, grinned, and dashed away. I saw a glimpse of Heaven and the boy God has called him to be.

Father, I thank you that these are your children, not mine. I thank you that you are a God that answers prayers and can move mountains with your pinky finger. Continue to work wonders in the lives of these babies.

B

Could Use Some Prayer

The Bible says that Jesus learned obedience through suffering. God keeps leading me to passages that deal with suffering and the building of character. Though I wouldn't use the word "suffering" I can confidentally say that I have encountered an above-average number of stressors in the last week. Please pray for me. I want to be faithful to the Lord even when I feel like punching a hole in the wall or crying for hours.

B

P.S. (Don't worry mamma, it's nothing big. Just the little things adding up).

Sooooooooooooooo Tired

Today is the second day back from break and I am absolutely exhausted. I got two new students in my classroom on Monday--twins who happen to be the principal's grandchildren. They are lovely girls and many of my students are familiar with them as they were at our school a few years back. However, their added present has made our room seem filled to the brim. Our room is sweltering hot and there is very little space at present. In addition to trying to settle down 17 post-break students, I am trying to introduce the rules and procedures of our classroom to the new girls. It is really tiring.

In addition to this, my obligation to the after school program is not quite up. I knew that I had some sessions left on my contract, but I certainly did not plan on roughly 15 more! I honestly think that is more than we have thus far. I don't know how I am going to last. It is just so difficult to be at the school for 11 hours straight, knowing you are going to back an hour later. Plus, Crazy M is back in the program...and as crazy as ever. However, I have developed a check-out system for all of my students so I hopefully will not lose anyone else.

Today one of my student's parents was going to be bit late--40 minutes. As I sat there on the floor beside her, tears of exhaustaion streamed down my face. I decided for the millionth time that this was a difficult job.


But I know God is with me and it is just my flesh protesting. I am trying to be more obedient and seek God regardless of what I feel like.

P.S. The afterschool director said that she did not accept my resignation. What does that even mean?

Rise Up!

Right now, my spirit is stirring--something that has not happended in such a long time. Over break, I got to the point where I finally realized that I simply wasn't seeking God at all. Bible reading was reduced to the weekly Sunday mass and my prayer life consisted of me crying out to God, "Lord, please make this day end!" But break has been good for me. I have finally allowed God to open my eyes and see some things. The first is that I want to change. I was telling one of my best friends the other day that I desire so deeply to be a better person. I want to be an incredible woman of God, someone that resembles Jesus in character so much that people immediatley think of the divine. I have aways to go, I know! But the desire remains. And I also realized that I desire to please God. It is a desire that I really haven't been pursuing. Somehow, in my drive to push my children towards academic excellence, I loss sight of my Father. I need Him--and so do my children. Indeed, they need me to remain in Him so that I give the most I can to them.

I feel like this is the year that I need to rise up. No more excuses. I want to go deeper. I want to know God more. I want to please Him in EVERYTHING I do. I want to see my world change before my eyes. I know that this kind of change is birthed in prayer.

I feel like God has called me to pray for certain individuals on a daily basis--seven students and three Teach for America staff members. If you would like to join me in praying for these individuals by name, please email me (bb1225@messiahe.edu). I am eager to watch how God literally transforms their lives.

My New Year

I spent New Year's Eve driving from Bigfork to Kyle, South Dakota, a journey of about sixteen hours. Yes, I know it wasn't very smart to drive on New Year's Eve, the day of the year with more drunk drivers than any other season. But I had my reasons so you are just going to have to trust me.

The journey started off rough. I had not driven two hours before when I reached for my cell phone to call my parents--only to realize that it was missing. Again. Now I know some of you think I am lying when I say "I lost my cell phone" after a long delay in answering your calls. Well, it really is gospel truth. I really do have the inability to keep track of it. Anyway, no cell phone meant I had no one to call in an emergency and no way for my parents to track my journey. Great.

I was scheduled to stop every four hours to fill up for gas and stretch. These stops are not allowed to extend beyond five minutes. I also took this time to contact home. Now, in the day of cell phones, you can't imagine how difficult it is to locate a pay phone. When you do find one--they really do make you pay. I ended up paying over 8 dollars just to call home three times last night. Ridiculous.

Aside from huge wind gusts that thought it helpful to carry my truck to South Dakota, the weather conditions were pretty mild. The roads were dry except for about an hour driving in Wyoming. I couldn't have ordered better conditions in January.

But things got a little dicey when I entered the familiar territory of South Dakota. I made my last phone call home from Rapid City, elated that I was only two hours from home. Unfortuatnely, those last two hours were without a doubt the most difficult of the 16 beacuse of three things: Kamakazee deer, potential drunk drivers and night riders.

Because I was driving through the Badlands, I knew I would see deer. In fact, I have probably never seen a higer concentration of deer and antelope than that one hour stretch though the Badlands leading into Kyle. But seeing deer is very different than encountering Kamikazee deer. I honestly think that the deer were toying with me for sport and many had a serious death wish. Maybe 2008 was a rough year for the deer population because begging me to prevent them for entering 2009 alive. Of the dozens and dozens of deer I saw, nearly all were standing on the side of the rooad. Furthermore, there pack was split in two--a half a dozen on the right side and a half a dozen on the left. Because of this set-up, I had to constantly dart my eyes back and forth to avoid hitting any. I slammed, and I mean slammed, on my breaks five times. I am a good deer spotter, so I wasn't too close to hitting any of them except one who decided to cross the street and then turn back for another flirt with death. Grrr. I can tell you that I was relieved to survive this first test.

The second test came as I entered into town. You see, I live in a place with one of the highest alcoholism rates in the country. And I was arriving shortly after midnight. I saw every car as a potentially plastered driver looking to come between me and my kids. Therefore, whenever I saw a car coming, I would slow down to about 1miles per hour and pull over the very edge of the road--preferring to make chances with the ditch rather than to a drunk driver coming at me at 70 mph. Thanks to God's grace, I didn't encounter and obviously drunk drivers.

The final unexpected twist reminded me of the uniqueness of my situation. I was just about to round the local landmark--Sharp's Corner--when I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. In the distance, it looked like something was running across the street, but I couldn't make anything out as it was pitch-black out. I thought it was just my headlights reflecting on the water in the street. When I flipped my turning signal on and slowed to turn, a figue came out of the darkness. I slammed on my breaks and was shocked to see a brown and white painted pony gallop past me. On his back, a Lakota man rode hard, hair flowing in the wind. I honestly would have thought I was hallucinating had not he let out a war cry that pierced the dark. He was gone in seconds.

Sometimes, I wonder if my life is real or not. I am sure most of you were sipping champagne or sparkling cider to usher in the New Year. Not me. I was driving past one of Crazy Horse's ancestors. Beat that.