I'm not a Poet and DID know it.

Happy New Year 

Well it is now 2014,

I am still working with LOTS of teens

And probably will need much caffeine

because I don't want to turn into one of those teachers that are mean

Instead, I hope to be serene

And yes, I am a rhyming machine

And this is the worst poem of 2014

:)

Being a teacher, my "year" does not begin in January.  I find myself saying "New Year" more in August when the school year begins and celebrating its end in June.  July is just a freebie.  Even though the rest of the world is beginning a new chapter in their lives, I feel like I am only 1/2 way there.    This next 1/2 year has a lot of events to look forward to and many things to be praying for.   

Here are a few highlights of what's been happening in our school and in the classroom.

France

I am really excited to share that my roommate, Becca, and I will be partnering up with Wheaton Bible Church and going to France this Spring Break (April 11th - April 16th).  The past two years I have led mission trips to an organization called River of Life in Romania.  The trips to Romania mainly focused on service and were wonderful.  In France, we want to take students that are growing Christians and teach them about evangelism.  We will be training these students to share their testimony, talk to complete strangers about the gospel, and share the love of Jesus Christ.  So many students that attend Christian schools learn how to be Christians inside that school and never truly make their relationship with Christ their own.  Our vision is to train and disciple these students to be Ambassadors for Christ.  We want them to be equipped for the world when they leave ICSV.  

Some of the France team and I

The Responders

Every Monday morning I have been meeting with a group of High School girls.  We are currently studying the book Growing in Christ published by The Navigators.  This book goes through the assurance of faith and teaches students how to have a relationship with Christ.  We started these groups last October.  Not everyone in my group claims to be a Christian and I just ask for your continued prayer for these girls.  

ELL Class Moments and Quotes

1. I had my students right down some NY's resolutions and 5 out of 10 said they wanted to read the bible more!

2. "Ms. Johnson, the bible is really interesting and I like reading it." - Muslim student

3. "Ms. Johnson, do we turn into Angels in heaven?"

4. A 6th grade Korean student approached me asking if she could YouTube the cartoon Prince of Egypt so she could experience the power of God over and over again.  

5.  "Ms. Johnson, your hair looks different.  Did you not wash it again?" :)

6.  "Ms. Johnson, does God allow us to experience bad things so we can love Him more?"  

12 Moments of 2013

"I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus" 

1 Corinthians 1:4

Every time I return to America, mainly Chicago, this verse always pops into my head.  I feel so blessed to be able to enter a community of believers that provides such encouragement, prayer, and laughs every time I come home.  I am so thankful for this community.  

Over the Christmas holiday I spent a lot of time with my family, extended family and friends.  It was very refreshing and relaxing and difficult to say goodbye.  

I sent out a Christmas letter and in case you didn't receive one, here it is below.  

To sum up my year, I’d like to briefly share 12 moments from 2013 to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  

12

 months that I had been out of the United States. 

This past year I decided to stay in Vienna for a full year.  My family came out and visited me last Christmas in Vienna which was a wonderful experience. 

11

 times I have eaten the Wiener Schnitzel.

The Wiener Schnitzel is the traditional Austrian dish.  A breaded pork dish, it is a staple at almost every restaurant in Vienna.  Whenever I have had visitors, I have always introduced        

   them to this meal. 

10

 girls on my volleyball team. 

I had the privilege of coaching two teams of 10 girls on the Varsity and Junior Varsity Teams.  The Varsity team took 3^rd place in our end of season tournament in Budapest.

9

 different nationalities that make up my classes.   

This year I have students that come from 9 different countries: America, Austria, Germany, Jordan, Korea, Nigeria, The Philippines, South Africa, and Thailand.  I love learning about their 

cultures and assigning projects in which they must bring in their national food for the class, aka

      me, to eat :). 

8

 students that have decided to go to France for a mission trip.

Becca, my roommate, and I will be partnering with Wheaton Bible Church and leading a missions trip to Lille, France this April.  Our focus will be training our students in evangelism and how to   

share their faith as we are among the French and immigrants from North Africa. 

7

 different classes that I taught this past school year at ICSV. 

Similar to my first two years at ICSV, I am teaching Spanish to High School Students and ELL (English as a Learning Language) to Middle School students. 

6

 High School students that are a part of my bible study group. 

This past fall I started mentoring six girls.  They come from all different faiths and backgrounds.  With a fellow teacher, we are teaching them about the assurance of their salvation and how to live      

a godly life.   

5

  different groups of friends that came and visited my roommate, Becca, and me. 

Living in Europe encourages many family members and dear friends to visit and explore.  We created a lot of memories with close friends who came to see our lives in Vienna. 

4

 students that have made a profession of faith to Jesus Christ.

Our students hear the message being preached everyday.  Our prayer is that their ears would be open to this message and accept it.  Thankfully, this prayer is being answered at ICSV.  Our hope     

 is for them to take this message to their home cultures and spread the Good News.

3

 German classes that I took in order to better communicate with Austrians.

Still need a lot of practice :). 

2

 fundraiser events that I hosted in order to raise money for different charities. 

One way to teach our students about “giving back” is to host events at our school in which the students raise money and then donate to a local charity or ministry.  In the Spring of 2013, I led a 

 mission trip to Romania and we hosted an event titled “ICSV’s got Talent”.  The students raised    

      over 1,400 euro and donated it all to a care home that we serve.  This past month our school also 

      hosted an event to support those affected in the Philippines.    

1

 more year that I have committed to teaching at ICSV. 

After much prayer, I have decided to commit to one more year at ICSV.  

A Bit of an Update

Happy Fall everyone!  I realize that the last time I updated my blog was in September! Yikes! I'm sorry for the delay and hope you forgive my lagging bum.  I'll break this post up into sections so you are not overwhelmed with too many words :).

Teaching:  My classes continue to go very well this year.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I am teaching all of the same lessons which makes prepping this year much easier.  My students are very well behaved and truly enjoy learning.  One of my personal goals this year was to biblical integrate more into the classroom than I was previously doing in hopes that more discussion would arise about Jesus.  Thankfully, the Lord has reminded me to biblically integrate more and the results have been wonderful.  Instead of just choosing verses to connect to my lessons, I've decided to focus on biblical stories and apply them to stories that we are reading in English class etc.  The students have really absorbed these stories and many of them are bran new to my kids.  Seeing God constantly work in the lives of people who lived thousands of years ago and still being faithful today has encouraged a lot of my students.  Please pray that they will continue to soak up Jesus and enjoy learning about him through the bible.

Students with the Ambassador of Korea

Junior Class pizza party at my apartment

Volleyball:  I only have one week left in my volleyball season which is bittersweet.  This year I really encouraged the girls to bring The Fire to the court when they played.  I followed it up with a verse from Romans 12:11 which states, "Never let the fire in your heart go out.  Keep it alive.  Serve the Lord."  The team really took this to heart and greatly encouraged each other to bring the fire when they played. Soon it overflowed into bringing the fire into their personal lives.  I really encouraged them to be zealous in all that they do, especially when it comes to serving Jesus.  When a fire comes into our lives it is sure to leave a mark somewhere.

Varsity Team

Junior Varsity Team

 

Discipleship:  A few weeks ago I began mentoring a group of six High School girls.  These girls age Freshman through Senior and are looking to deepen their relationship with Christ.  When students become Christians in a Christian school, they tend to have a more difficult time of making their faith their own.  They know how to be a Christian in school, but are never trained for "the world".  My goal is to disciple these girls to have a solid and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ.  I pray that these girls learn how to pray, read their bible, memorize scripture and fall deeper in love with Jesus.  The girls in my group fall into every category of "Christian".  Please pray that they make their faith their own and not that of the school.

Worship night with the High School students

Events: Our school recently hosted an event titled "Fall Festival".  We invited all the students, their parents and much of the community to come to ICSV and enjoy a fun fall evening.  There were games, international food, songs and dances by our choir students and even a pie in the face which I unfortunately took part of.  All the money used to purchase food, play games and pie teachers in the face went to a charity.  Therefore I can't complain too much.  It was a lot of fun and I am thankful that I was able to be apart of it.

Pie in the Face crew "before" picture

"After" picture

One of my sweet ELL students

Fall Break:  This past week my roommate, Becca (check out her blog here) and two of our other friends went on a short little trip to the UK.  I have some friends that just recently moved to Edinburgh and it was wonderful to see their new home and spend time with them.  It was such a great, relaxing and fun trip.

                                                                                   Cliche? Yes.  I had to.

Lake District, England

Drinking our tea like proper British girls

A sweet visit with Andy and Allie Blaski in Edinburgh

Spiritual Emphasis Week:  This upcoming week our school will be having our annual Spiritual Emphasis Week.  This week consists of Chapel every single day.  In the past it has proved to be a very powerful week for both students and teachers.  Many students come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ!  However, when Jesus is greatly preached, satan is greatly active.  Please pray that our armor will be strong against the devil's attacks and that the message of truth will be preached!

Well that was a bit more wordy than I had anticipated.  Please continue to pray for my students, my discipleship group and this upcoming week!

The Minds of Middle Schoolers

ELL Bible Beginner

One of my most challenging and yet most rewarding classes has been teaching the Bible to a group of middle school students.  This class is made up of six students representing all types of nationalities and religions.  There is a Muslim from the Middle East, a Buddhist from South East Asia, two Christians from Nigeria and South East Asia, and a Catholic from Austria.  I am still unsure about the last student but he doesn’t speak English very well... yet.  

Since our school is a Christian school, we have the freedom to teach the bible from a Christian perspective.  It is quite fascinating to be able to teach these students the truth of the Gospel when they have grown up so differently.  The majority of my students have never even opened a bible before! 

Since it is an ELL class, their English is extremely limited.  The first half of the month was spent defining key vocabulary words about God. We are now diving into creation, the Trinity and the Spirits.  Some of these concepts are challenging for me to wrap my mind around let alone a group of non-Christian, English limited middle school students.  Nevertheless, those obstacles can’t stand in the way of our God.  I have been quite amazed at how the Lord has been working in the hearts of all these students and allowing them to understand the mystery of Christ.  Their questions are well thought out and are a challenge to me.  I’d thought I’d share a few of them with you below.  

1.     Ms. Johnson, does God love Buddhists?

2.     When we get sick, does that mean an Angel lost a battle against a demon and is no longer protecting us?

3.     Is Hell in the center of the world?

4.     Why did God let Lucifer rebel against Him?

5.     Why didn’t God just destroy Lucifer when he rebelled?

6.     Why does God give us choices when we could just be in heaven with Him?

7.     If I google the face of God and see it, will I die?  (after explaining how if we saw the face of God in all his glory, we would die)

8.     Ms. Johnson, is it OK if I write the word hell for the home of Satan?  (in a very whispered voice)

If you have some answers to any of these questions, feel free to comment below.  I'd love your input!

ICSV Eagles on FIRE

The month of September is always the busiest for teachers.  I had intentions of blogging every week this month, but unfortunately September went by too fast for me.  So here I find myself at the end of the month FINALLY blogging.  This post will be about my volleyball team and my heart for them.

Varsity team after winning their first game

 I am coaching the girls High School JV and Varsity teams again this year.  We have 10 girls on each team and they are a great group of girls.  They LOVE playing volleyball and have worked real hard.  The Varsity team just won their first game against the American International School of Vienna.  They were the only team we lost to last year during our regular season so I was very pleased with them winning.  The JV team is composed of many girls who have never played volleyball before.   They are excited to get better and have been working really hard.

JV team after their first game

Our theme for this year is FIRE.  I am still in the process of finding a verse for this theme.  I chose fire because there are many life lessons that can be used when putting this into our minds.  On the court, and in life, we will be tested and put through fire.  There are two ways that we can respond: be burned or be refined.  My prayer for this team is that they will become refined on and off the court as they begin high school and play volleyball.  Also, when a fire comes through, it leaves its mark and impression.  As we play other teams or encounter different people, we need to be able to leave our marks on their lives. Ultimately, my hope is they would leave the mark of Christ and ignite a fire in the lives of others. 

Not everyone on my team is a Christian.  Please pray that the Lord ignites His fire in their lives.  

Back in Vienna

Disclaimer:  This post should have gone out in August.

Last year at this time I was feeling pretty anxious and low about being back in Vienna.  I had just had a great summer at home with my family and friends and was feeling nervous about being in Vienna.  Some dear friends had left the city, I still couldn't speak German very well and I didn't want to leave my family.  However, as per usual, the Lord continues to take care of us, fight for us and bless us.

While it was hard to come back to Vienna for my third year, I was definitely more excited to come back to my new home.  I knew what to expect, how to prepare and had such a sense that the Lord has me here for His purpose.  Plus, living in a European country can be a lot of fun.  Becca and I tried to take advantage of this city before the school year started!

Becca and I jumping on some trampolines over the Danube River

Learned how to properly cut ribs at our annual staff BBQ

Got to visit with some graduated students

Celebrate a dear friend's birthday
Check our her blog here.

Biked from Vienna, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia  (a total of 42 miles... ouch)

Reunited with the ICSV staff and met some new teachers

 

Check back in tomorrow for a post about my new students and how to pray for them!

Old Beginnings

Hello everyone!  I have started my third year of teaching at ICSV and it still feels like a dream job.  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such a great staff and be able to teach such wonderful students.

ICSV Teaching Staff

This year I will be teaching High School Spanish and Middle School ELL.  These are the same classes that I taught last year which is quite nice since I now know the curriculum.  The majority of my students are new to the school as well.  These students come from all parts of the world and only a handful of them have chosen Jesus Christ as their Savior.  I ask that you continue to pray for my students and that their little middle school hearts would be susceptible to the Holy Spirit's calling.  Here are some pictures of my ELL students so you can visualize who you are praying for and get to know my kids.  I will do a post about my Spanish students soon!

ELL Intermediate Class

ELL Advanced Class

ELL Bible Beginner

I am also the Junior Class homeroom teacher and will be leading, mentoring and spending time with these students.  I know I shouldn't have favorites, but they are a pretty great group of High School kids.