Then Sings My Soul!

Eight of the high school students have shared stories about their developing relationships with Jesus this week for our student-led week of prayer. Other students have shared their musical talents in song services each day. I have been blessed by the stories, by the willingness of the students to share, and by the leadership of Pastors Rob and Abe. However, my soul has been truly blessed by the music.
Today we ended our songs by singing "How Great Thou Art". This particular hymn has been particularly meaningful to me for years - decades even.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim, "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!


Lyrics taken from this page


I'm not positive that my memory is accurate, but I believe that I remember singing this with a group of children in a Vacation Bible School when I was four and living in Seoul, Korea in 1962. I think my mom was playing the piano, and that most of the children were much older than me. I remember the room being cold, but my heart almost lifting out of my chest as I sang "Then sings my soul, my Saviour, God to Thee, How Great Thou Art, how great Thou art."

I don't think I've ever heard that song without singing along, without remembering the first time I praised God in a personally meaningful way, and without feeling once again that I know God is great, powerful, loving and good. Life might be hard, I might not be able to articulate my beliefs about God in a coherent way, but my soul can sing.


Last Sabbath afternoon I headed out to the mountains - to breathe, to recharge after a very stressful week, to celebrate the order I had made from the chaos of my little world - and my soul sang. The mountains, the trees, the quiet, and the time to reflect all combined so that I could remember that God is great, that He made lofty mountains, carried my burdens on the cross, and is coming back for me. I did indeed bow, in humble adoration.

This week I have been blessed, but more importantly, this week I have been reminded that I have been blessed many times in the past, and will continue to be blessed in the future.

Tree Buds

Spring is everywhere I look. The grass is green, the daffodils and dandelions are yellow, and most deciduous trees are beginning to sport soft fuzzy green foliage. The tree my students and I planted by the softball backstop last June has been a holdout so far. The experts told me that the best tree for my purposes - drought resistant, heat and cold tolerant, shade producing, and unlikely to form lumpy roots close to the surface of our sports field, was a honey locust. However, it appeared that we killed our tree - no spring growth was apparent. I've been checking every week (sometimes several times a week) since early March but haven't seen any signs of life.
Today, however, this is what I see on our little tree:

So I went online and purchased another honey locust tree to plant. Perhaps one day soon I'll be able to look out my classroom window and see students relaxing against the trunks of trees while eating their lunches or reading their books (or tablets or phones). 

That will more than make up for the bars on my window.

Valentine's from the Big Kids' Class

Last Saturday morning I had four students in my Sabbath School class. This isn't the biggest class I've taught in recent years, but after several weeks with no students it was a nice change. Our lesson was on Jesus healing a man born blind, and I wasn't convinced that I had an interesting craft to go with the lesson.
Luckily, Valentine's Day provides plenty of craft ideas. I chose something I would enjoy whether there were students or not. I made cookies - two batches of them. Then Caitlin made cookies - 2 batches of them. Next I gathered icing, sprinkles, and coloured sugar. I emailed all the church families who ever bring children so that everyone knew what we would be doing. Two girls from the church came, and each brought a friend.
We made a glorious mess! The girls (all the students were girls) enjoyed themselves, and the Kids' Corner recipients appreciated getting them. (I had lots of leftover cookies, which is never a problem!)
I think I've found a way to help our little Sabbath School class grow. I just need to plan ahead and share my plans with others. Next week we'll be planting flower seeds to go along with the lesson. I hope Jesus' parable about the sower will come to life. (I'll also remember to ask permission to take and share pictures of the class instead of just taking pictures of our activity!)

I am so proud of my students and the hard work they did cleaning up an illegal dump on Postill Road. Then yesterday one of my grade 11 students told me that he had been up in the area over the weekend and discovered that the mess was bigger and worse than before we cleaned. I emailed the regional district this morning to see if we can go again this Fall to re-clean. The response was quick - they don't have the resources to get a dumpster, but will provide garbage bags, safety vests, gloves, and will pay to have the material taken to the dump.

I think I'll do the organizing, even if it is a hopeless cause. I just don't think I'll advertise our work through the local media for fear of encouraging others to use the area as dump. I hope my students are willing to give up a Friday afternoon in classes to go spend time in the woods. I know I am!

Those people who camp at Postill Lake Lodge would proably appreciate the cleaner drive.
Postill Lake

High school camping trip

Each September it is my privilege - and job - to plan a camping trip for the entire high school student population. In past years we went to a provincial campground - Fintry, Kettle River, and Kootenay Lake were great destinations. This year I hoped to go back to the Kettle River campground which is close to Rock Creek, however portions of the campground were severely damaged in August by a wildfire. I ventured out of my comfort zone and took the students to a Forestry Recreation site instead. The advantages included cost - there is no charge at a forestry site, but a $56/night charge for a youth group at a provincial campground. The disadvantages include lack of flush toilets, running water, and a dearth of picnic tables.

I didn't expect that the lack of cell service would factor into the advantages/disadvantages, but I did find that students noticed right away that they had no cell service. The people most disadvantaged by this were the teachers. One staff member was hoping to organize her upcoming wedding during her down time, and another staff member wanted to let the rest of us know that he couldn't come out for Sabbath after all.

Students spent 2.5 hours cleaning up an area of Postill Lake road before we headed off to the Christian Valley. We filled an entire dumpster with garbage. I haven't tried a service activity so early in the school year, and found this one to be just perfect. The day was warm, the students enthusiastic, and the service so clearly needed.

Perhaps jumping off cliffs into the water, building cardboard boats, playing hide-and-seek, talking around the campfire, helping with dishes, and planning student association activities aren't in our formal curriculum, however they are certainly a wonderful way to build a cohesive team for our new school year.

Foods 12 Recipe evaluation

Last week my students made chocolate chip cookies for annual high school camping trip. I asked them all to evaluate the recipe as fresh cookies and as less fresh cookies eaten while camping on the Kettle River.
I won't share all the recipes they make, or every evaluation, but it will be fun to see their progress over the semester.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ½ cups flour

½ cup oatmeal

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup butter

½ cup shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Stir together flour, oatmeal, and soda.  In a mixer bowl beat butter and shortening on medium speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugars and beat till fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.  Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture, beating till well blended.  Stir in chocolate pieces.  Use a food scoop to make evenly sized cookies, and drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375^o oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till done.  Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.  Makes about 48.

M

I thought the recipe for the cookies was pretty good. I liked adding oats to it because they give it a firmer, healthy taste. We baked them for too long, so they were a little burned, but overall the recipe was good.

B1

The cookie dough was really tasty and delightful. I only had one on the trip but its the kind I like to eat, lightly soft and not too hard. There were too many chocolate chips in the dough, so they were over powering for me.

B2

This past Thursday we made chocolate chip cookies for the high school camp out. It was an interesting adventure! M and I had fun with it. We didn't exactly do the recipe right. We forgot to add the brown sugar before we added the eggs, so we didn't follow the instructions to the tee. Although, that didn't seem to hurt the cookies too badly! Plus, M ended up adding about an extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, not that that was bad, just made it a little more chocolate oh! We also ended up burning a batch which was sad, but I scrapped the burnt stuff off! They were still good though. Even on the weekend! It was fun and yummy! 

T

I really enjoyed these chocolate chip cookies. I will say I've have different recipes I've liked better but these were quite good right out of the oven. The ones I had during the camp out I didn't like nearly as much but that's usually how it is for me when I eat cookies. I would have liked the cookies to spread out just a bit more. It usually just makes the bites a bit more evenly spread out for me. So they were good but not the best I've had.

A

This recipe was a delicious success. I not only enjoyed the cookie dough before we baked them, but also fresh out of the oven. Then on our campout we ate the cookies, and they were equally as delicious. Some of them were a little more "browned" than others but again, they were still yummy!
Overall, and as always, I love making chocolate chip cookies!

New Paint for a New Year

I repainted my classroom, and the transformation reflects the hope and optimism I feel going into this school year. I still love my yellow walls, but the new trim colors help me feel even more at home. I based my color choices on a beautiful bulletin board border which I found last summer in New Mexico. New paint led to so much more - - -

 Next I needed to cover the windows so that students could really see what I was projecting on the Smart board. I also wanted to be able to work at my desk in the early morning without fighting sun glare. Curtains let me block light right at my desk without keeping out the view.

Then I discovered that two of the book shelves were missing a little support plug, so I bouth a package of those.

 Next I put black paper on each of the bulletin boards, and centered a little quilt made by some Math 11 students a couple of years ago. Math really is everywhere!

 I bought a few containers, painted those a denim blue, and then added pencils, hole punches, pencil sharpeners, erasures, and highlighters. Each set of 4 desks has a container, which should, in theory, keep my grade 6 students from spending 5-10 minutes each class block looking for basic supplies.

 

I hung my diplomas and  certificates behind my desk, added a poster I love, and have a cozy little corner to work in.

 

 I have a large bulletin board just waiting to showcase student work,

 a microwave for students to heat lunches, and a space for two or three plants by a window.

 Then, I decided that black chalk boards would look so much nicer than green chalkboards, so painted those also!

 Today I finished prepping the chalk boards, finalized my lesson plans for the week, made grad folders,and re-tidied everything. Tuesday I'll take the plants to their winter home and be all set for students. 

I think the year will be a happy one. I know my classroom is cheerful!