A change in routine. That is what the past two months has been for me. It has been wonderful and exhausting all at the same time. To explain this a bit more you need to know I started a new personal relationship last month as well as classes starting again this month.
We hope to share more of our relationship as time goes on, but this is the basics:
We both argued with God about each other.
Neither of us wanted to start a relationship just because other people said we would be good together.
On our first date we were already talking about this being a decision to love because we felt God brought us together for the purpose of marriage.
It's very difficult explaining us in a way that people understand because we aren't following the typical "first come love" pattern.
After just 2 weeks he officially proposed and I said yes.
We are living in faith and cultivating love for each other.
We both understand that God comes first and he is why we are marrying.
He is my new ministry partner because one of our confirmations that God brought us together is that our visions for ministry are so complimentary.
His name is Jun Apatan, he is Filipino, and he is a child of God.
I hope to share more details about Kuya Jun throughout the next few posts, but here I want to share about the start up of new classes. As I shared last time there is a new class on the beach front of the neighboring barangay. It was a suggestion from Kuya Jun and it has been a big success so far. The first week I had 24 students when I was expecting only about 6 or 8! I was gone the second week and was nervous they would all forget and not come back, but I had 22 this past week😆 There are so many I might have to talk to the barangay Captain about using the barangay hall instead of the little cottage on the shore.
I also have a strong showing for my Thursday night intermediate class. My Saturday morning ladies haven't returned, but instead I have a small group of young girls that are doing beautifully with vocabulary expansion. The Saturday evening group returned the first week with some new people as well. They didn't all return the next time, but the new people brought friends so it was still a good size class.
I tried to add a weekday evening basic class, but I only had one person show up and she wasn't really basic so she joined the Thursday crew. The last classes are the new advanced ones. We will meet once a month for reading and once for writing. I was prepared to start with reading, but it overlapped with a trip to Leyte so we postponed the start to August. The first writing class is in two days... I'm excited and nervous at the same time.
Overall I have had more than 50 student each week. I've been glad to have Kuya Jun around to help and lend support. He is my walking Visayan dictionary! He can be a distraction at times, but also beneficial as a test subject for my activities and source for new ideas.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Students continue to return
2. Future expansion of ministry
3. Kuya Jun and I's relationship
4. Future building/projects
5. My furlough planning
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