Life is full of changes. Some of them come easy and naturally while others take a toll and require a lot of work. I am reminded daily that following God has both sides of this continuum. As some of you know I had started a second term teaching with AmeriCorps in the fall, but the changes that happened in the program as well as my life were significant enough that it didn't work out. It was not an easy decision to leave, but it lead to a change. I went back to working in food service which has lead to my stress level being much lower and higher income. I was just feeling distant to ESL work. In the last month I had another change that was a super easy decision to take a volunteer teaching position one night a week. This has been one of the easy and natural changes that has brought energy and life back into my step :)
Now I am sitting waiting the obligatory time in line to renew my license and registration. While it is easy, it is taking a toll on me as I sit here for what will likely be 3 hours and I should have thought ahead to bring things to work on. I am thinking of all the things I could be doing on this day off work. Which brings me to another change... I have gotten the additional hours at work, but it is exhausting to keep up with my schedule now! I don't know how my sister does it with 4 kids!
On a super positive note the Filipino Feast went really well last week and I raised over $500 due to the event :) Thanks to all those who came and or sent in support during this time. We were also able to fill another box so I now have two ready for shipment next month.
The last change I want to share is in regards to food. Last month I did the Whole30 challenge and it was a challenge. I didn't feel different except really craving the foods I wasn't allowed to have. Now I am reintroducing food and realize what a difference it made. I will likely have to go through this process again this summer to verify, but I'm pretty sure both soy and corn are issues as well as liquid dairy. I still haven't added gluten so that cpuld be another issue. You really don't know how something affects you untill you live with out it for a while then reintroduce it!
Anyway, here's to another month done... who know how many to go. (Hopefully only 4, but only God knows!)
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Welcome to 2018!
Wow! December disappeared quickly and January is following that trend :) December brought many things including the end of my regular 7-week classes so I am left with the 14-week practicum! I had the chance to head to Colorado for a week with my family. We packed up and sealed another donation box to be shipped to the Philippines. I definitely determined I will be focusing on the Oxford series for my curriculum. And last, but not least, with your help, I hit the 50% mark for raising start-up funds :)
January is already half over and a few things are going on now. I officially started my practicum and have the first unit complete. I learned how to drive a manual shift car and almost got one, but it needs major repairs so I backed off. I just finished planning a small fundraiser event called: "A Filipino Feast" and will be sending out invitations this week. And I am working on an elimination food plan that will slowly reintroduce potentially problematic foods into my diet so I am prepared when I go overseas to know if there are things I need to avoid.
What will the next few months bring? Only God knows for sure! I really hope to boost my monthly pledges and get some more hours working. I'm just plugging along at life and doing my best to enjoy every day as it comes. Thank you for continued support and I hope to hear from you soon!
Contact me: 616-259-5040; juagdanenglish@gmail.com
Donate to the ministry: call- 1-800-872-5404 (M-F, 8-4 CST), mail- Commission to Every Nation PO Box 291307 Kerrville, TX 708291307; oneline- https://cten.org/christinedavenport/
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| Me and my brother's munchkins over Christmas break:) |
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| The whole Davenport Clan at a holiday light show in the botanical gardens. |
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| The grandparents with the grandkids after Christmas Eve service |
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| The Davenport Clan: Colorado Chapter ;) |
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| This is what I am doing to help learn about my food sensitivities and prepare for the new foods I will be eating in the Philippines. Basically, I'm taking out all processed foods and most of the common allergy foods then I will reintroduce them slowly after 30 days without. |
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Giving Thanks and Other Things
It has been a good month in the life of Christine.
There is so much to be thankful for this year and even this month! As I already shared, I am close to 35% of startup costs raised. We just filled another box of supplies to send to the Lucas Children's Shelter. God has been blessing me all across the board lately. And soon I will be learning how to drive a manual transmission vehicle, which is another bonus in preparation for heading overseas.
I am continuing to do well in my classes and I think I am finally finding the motivation to put some things to pen and paper. Well, maybe more like fingers to keyboard 😉 I have had many ideas floating around and debating between a couple of textbooks, but I am 80% sure what textbooks I am going to use. I just need to get my hands on the samples I signed up for from Pearson and Longman at the Michigan TESOL conference.
Hopefully, you received my newsletter and now know that I have a couple of items I am specifically looking for. These include the Oxford Picture Dictionary (OPD), sight word flash cards, and second language learner friendly English dictionaries. Soon I will start an Amazon wish list under the e-mail address for the program. Once I do this, I will share that list so supporters can know what the needs are for supplies.
I hope all went really well for people this week in preparation for Thanksgiving and spending time with family. It is a chance for us to be sure to focus on all the blessing God has poured out on us and share with others. We here in the United States do a lot to prepare for Thanksgiving Day and even Black Friday. Some even participate in Cyber Monday deals!
I want to leave you with one little challenge... think about participating in Giving Tuesday. Even if you only give $5, it is worth participating as a way to remember this time of year is about giving and not receiving. Giving Tuesday is a relatively new idea compared to Thanksgiving and even Black Friday. The idea is to balance out the commercialism of the holiday season and give to non-profit agencies. Every dollar counts in the non-profit world so even a little can go a long way. Although I would hope to be considered as your organization of choice this year, just consider giving something expecting nothing in return this Tuesday as we enter this season of gift exchanges.
You can donate three ways:
1. Online through my bio page: www.cten.org/christinedavenport
2. mail a check with a note indicating it is for Christine Davenport: Commission To Every Nation P.O. Box 291307 Kerrville, TX 78029-1307
3. call CTEN and tell them you want to make a donation to Christine Davenport: 1-800-872-5404 (Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm CST)
There is so much to be thankful for this year and even this month! As I already shared, I am close to 35% of startup costs raised. We just filled another box of supplies to send to the Lucas Children's Shelter. God has been blessing me all across the board lately. And soon I will be learning how to drive a manual transmission vehicle, which is another bonus in preparation for heading overseas.
I am continuing to do well in my classes and I think I am finally finding the motivation to put some things to pen and paper. Well, maybe more like fingers to keyboard 😉 I have had many ideas floating around and debating between a couple of textbooks, but I am 80% sure what textbooks I am going to use. I just need to get my hands on the samples I signed up for from Pearson and Longman at the Michigan TESOL conference.
Hopefully, you received my newsletter and now know that I have a couple of items I am specifically looking for. These include the Oxford Picture Dictionary (OPD), sight word flash cards, and second language learner friendly English dictionaries. Soon I will start an Amazon wish list under the e-mail address for the program. Once I do this, I will share that list so supporters can know what the needs are for supplies.
I hope all went really well for people this week in preparation for Thanksgiving and spending time with family. It is a chance for us to be sure to focus on all the blessing God has poured out on us and share with others. We here in the United States do a lot to prepare for Thanksgiving Day and even Black Friday. Some even participate in Cyber Monday deals!
I want to leave you with one little challenge... think about participating in Giving Tuesday. Even if you only give $5, it is worth participating as a way to remember this time of year is about giving and not receiving. Giving Tuesday is a relatively new idea compared to Thanksgiving and even Black Friday. The idea is to balance out the commercialism of the holiday season and give to non-profit agencies. Every dollar counts in the non-profit world so even a little can go a long way. Although I would hope to be considered as your organization of choice this year, just consider giving something expecting nothing in return this Tuesday as we enter this season of gift exchanges.
You can donate three ways:
1. Online through my bio page: www.cten.org/christinedavenport
2. mail a check with a note indicating it is for Christine Davenport: Commission To Every Nation P.O. Box 291307 Kerrville, TX 78029-1307
3. call CTEN and tell them you want to make a donation to Christine Davenport: 1-800-872-5404 (Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm CST)
Monday, October 9, 2017
Milestones
The last month has been filled with wonderful things. We were able to host a garage sale that earned about $200 towards the ministry. We hosted a Premier Designs jewelry party that also earned some money towards the ministry. We have started to collect some items to do a silent auction (watch for details on this to come soon). The second box of supplies was sent off and should be well on its way to arriving and Juagdan. I also started up with fall graduate classes which means I'm 6 months and 11 credits away from graduation!
With donations so far I'm at 30% of my startup costs being covered, two boxes of supplies sent, and 12% of my monthly costs covered. We still have a long way to go but I'm excited and grateful for everything God has done for the ministry through you my supporters.
And in the next month I have three major goals that are also prayer requests:
1. Keeping up with graduate classes while serving 40 hours a week or more with teaching parents of elementary school kids.
2. Getting the first two units of the language program in writing.
3. Collecting the last bits of supplies to send the Christmas Box to Juagdan.
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| My Friend Amanda helping set up the garage sale in her driveway. |
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| The garage sale in full swing as people were browsing through the many donations. |
With donations so far I'm at 30% of my startup costs being covered, two boxes of supplies sent, and 12% of my monthly costs covered. We still have a long way to go but I'm excited and grateful for everything God has done for the ministry through you my supporters.
And in the next month I have three major goals that are also prayer requests:
1. Keeping up with graduate classes while serving 40 hours a week or more with teaching parents of elementary school kids.
2. Getting the first two units of the language program in writing.
3. Collecting the last bits of supplies to send the Christmas Box to Juagdan.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
New Teaching Position
It has been a great week and it's only Tuesday! During my week on campus for my graduate classes I reconnected with a former AmeriCorps friends and she was talking about how things went this past year in their program. Between talking with her and being around all the language practice I had to investigate my options. So a little over a week I made the trip down to my old office and had a chat with my old supervisor. It turns out they still needed a few more ELL instructors.
I made the decision to leave my food service job and go back in to a teaching position! Although the term is from August to August they are willing to work with me. As long as I have my hours completed I only need to stay through the end of the school year. That means over the next 10 months I will be actually teaching English while planning the curriculum for the Philippines :)
This also means that I can say the goal is to depart for the Philippines in July! That goal can only be reached with your help :) In the last month I have received a fair number of donations, but what is important is to have the monthly budget at least 75% covered with pledges and as of right now I'm only at 12%. Ten months is a gracious amount of time and the Lord can work wonderful thing so I am hopeful.
On another note, there have been so many things donated for the box to ship to the Philippines that it is overflowing!
I just finished sorting things out so the more pressing items get shipped first. I will be connecting with the local guy who sends the packages out via Chicago in the next couple of days. When I do that I will get another box and start filling it up! That box will be their Christmas presents! I know thinking about Christmas in August, but I'm doing it :) Some of the things that we didn't get for this collection include: volleyballs, basketballs, footballs, and children/adult over the counter medications (Tylenol, cough/cold, pain relief, allergy). As it is also their Christmas gift it would be nice to collect a few games and toys for the kids.
Thanks for everything!
I made the decision to leave my food service job and go back in to a teaching position! Although the term is from August to August they are willing to work with me. As long as I have my hours completed I only need to stay through the end of the school year. That means over the next 10 months I will be actually teaching English while planning the curriculum for the Philippines :)
This also means that I can say the goal is to depart for the Philippines in July! That goal can only be reached with your help :) In the last month I have received a fair number of donations, but what is important is to have the monthly budget at least 75% covered with pledges and as of right now I'm only at 12%. Ten months is a gracious amount of time and the Lord can work wonderful thing so I am hopeful.
On another note, there have been so many things donated for the box to ship to the Philippines that it is overflowing!
I just finished sorting things out so the more pressing items get shipped first. I will be connecting with the local guy who sends the packages out via Chicago in the next couple of days. When I do that I will get another box and start filling it up! That box will be their Christmas presents! I know thinking about Christmas in August, but I'm doing it :) Some of the things that we didn't get for this collection include: volleyballs, basketballs, footballs, and children/adult over the counter medications (Tylenol, cough/cold, pain relief, allergy). As it is also their Christmas gift it would be nice to collect a few games and toys for the kids.
Thanks for everything!
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