Setting Goals and Making Transitions

Summer has come to a screeching halt and the doors of Dolphin School (Pictured on the left - Yes, folks it's a church!) have reopened. Thankfully none of our adorable pupils are back yet, but being back in the classroom has reminded me that a new season has arrived. No more staying up late and hanging out doing nothing during the day. I have 16 little reminders coming my way that it's time to slip back into the scheme of things. I really feel like I'm starting a whole new phase of life in London. Things are up in the air. I'm excited to be back at school, but I find myself now teaching Year 5 instead of Year 3. (The classroom in the picture is my old Year 3 room. I don't yet have a picture of my new classroom.) There is so much more to learn! Also, I am attending a new church, full of some absolutely lovely South African people, while still maintaining my work with the youth at Christ Church. (I just love them too much to say good-bye just yet!) Finally, I'm in the search of the new, perfect home. In the hopes of developing more of a social life, I am looking to move out of my room with a family and into a house with other women. Tonight I have felt prompted by the Lord to set some goals. This year must be different. Even if I don't have much to say, I would like to write in my blog at least once a month. Secondly, I would like to make sure that I go out to at least one fun evening event a month in the city, whether that's a play, to see an orchestra or simply a social event of sorts it doesn't matter. It's time to stop being quite so committed to work. I would like to leave the school by 6:00pm most nights of the week, instead of staying until 7:00-7:30pm. I would love to complete my marking in a more timely manner and be on top of what I'm teaching. Finally, I need to make time to go to home group at least twice a month, and attend the monthly church prayer meeting. There are so many options, and I refuse to waste them. You may all keep me accountable to these goals! I feel this last year, I got to experience wonderful pupils, but missed out on what it really means to live in London. I am thankful for what I learned during that season, but I'm also so excited to start this new phase of life. So, once again, I lay my life at the feet of the Lord and I cannot wait to see what living in London will be like during this next year!

First Days of School

One Week done!! (Well okay, it was only three days with children) I have been hearing for the last week and half about how wonderful the year three students are. I have heard such things as "They're the best year in the school!" Well, day one they definitely tried to see how much they could get away with. By Friday, they all seemed to be their normal, lovely selves. I can see why everyone thinks they are so wonderful. One little boy told his mum that Wednesday was the best first day of school he had ever had. My gut reaction to this was that I wasn't mean enough, "Oh, no! I'm a push over!!". Well, his mum told another parent that the reason why her son liked my class was because he could tell that I was "nice but stern and consistent and I wasn't going to let the other kids get away with things!" The other parent passed this information on to me. Now, that's what I like to hear! So, needless to say, I think we are off to a good start. We are already laughing and learning from each other. I have promised to teach them everything they need to know for year three as long as they teach me everything I need to know to live in England. So, for the first bit of school they are teaching me to tell time the British way! Needless to say, we are getting in our lesson on telling time in a unique way. They don't even know they are solidifying their own knowledge by teaching me! We have had a few horrific moments when I asked the children to put their work in "The Bin". I meant the red bin at the back of the room, they all thought I meant the rubbish bin! One little boy walked up to the rubbish bin (garbage can) and said, "Are you sure, Miss Robinson?". The look of concern on his face was so frightful! He really thought I had him do all that work just to throw it away! So, needless to say, we now call it the red basket at the back of the room!

There are only twelve of them, but they are going to be very hard work. One of them is probably technically at about two years above the rest of her class. Challenging her will be difficult. While another girl is about two years behind the rest of the class. So, I definitely have my work cut out. Maths in particular will be challenging. That's where their gaps become very noticeable. I am also teaching four students year four maths and the rest year three. That means I have to be in two places at once. Thankfully, the more advanced students work well together and are excited to be challenged. They also know that if they aren't actually doing the work there will be a consequence. So, it's hard to keep moving on when after only two days of year three maths, I know that I've already lost about three children. So, I am not sure exactly what to do about that. Thankfully I have lots of help. I have a TA three days a week and a learning support specialist on the fourth. So, there are lots of extra bodies. With only twelve pupils I hope that I can get every child the help he/she needs. So, that's school. It's definitely a steep learning curve. I'm thankful for lots of resources and lots of helpful people. No one seems to tire of all my questions. The staff is wonderful. It was amazing on day one to be talking about unity and creating a safe, loving environment for our students. It's also great to be able to talk about God. Assembly, which happens every Friday, was wonderful. We got to sing worship songs and talk about the memory verse for the the week. The school is peaceful and full of love.

On the flip side of all that, my social life so far has been zero. I have literally been going to school, coming home, planning, going to bed and getting up and doing it all over again. I had no idea just how tired I was until this weekend hit. All I did Saturday was watch a movie and catnap! I know I was tired because I still slept through the night. Church this morning was nice. I went away with the youth children, for my one morning of the term. It was nice to be a part of this group. I've decided for the time being to stay with the main church in the morning from now on. So, no youth for me for at least the first half of term. I will re-evaluate come November! The young people are so lovely that I'm really going to miss being a part of this group, but know it's important for me to get to know people my own age in the church. So, that's me! I will keep you updated on life as I begin to become more comfortable with teaching. I'm sure you will hear many more silly stories about my lovely children!

Back to School

Well, I have officially visited my new school twice now. To my udder amazement, there were actually textbooks, curriculum and loads of supplies for students. Praise Jesus for not having to buy all that stuff. It's great. Unfortunately, the school has been a building site all summer long so everything was in the middle of my classroom. There is lots of organization that needs to be done and lots of curriculum to be written. I must admit it's all a bit overwhelming! I spent the whole day today simply moving furniture around. I will have to take pictures so that you can see the strange shape of my new classroom. I don't quite known what to do with all the stuff. I have no idea how the previous teacher got everything put away. It just seems as though it all can't possible fit. I have so much curriculum to work on, but I can't seem to wrap my head around what I'm going to teach until my classroom has some semblance of order. I think the whole thing really excites me and stresses me out. I can't help but ask the question: What on earth am I doing? I can't believe that I'm going to be teaching Math, handwriting, English, religion, art, science (for my students, plus year six students), geography, history and my favorite PSHE(Whatever that is)! It's all so crazy. On top of all that, I have a whopping 12 students in my classroom. I just don't know if I can handle all those students? Plus, I also have a teacher's aid! CRAZY! I don't quite know what to do with myself. I can think of so many "fun" things that I want to do during my first week in London, but I have to keep reminding myself that those things can wait and school must come first. It's so strange, and wonderful, to be working again. The other staff officially arrive on Wednesday. I'm very excited to meet them, and the students come on the 9th! It's so exciting to be teaching again. I look at everything, and even though I'm overwhelmed, I know that everything will come together in the end and the year will be amazing! I'll keep you posted on my school adventures as they unfold.

I Made It!!

Well, I wasn't quite sure that I was going to actually make it to London this time around, but, hurray, I did it. It's amazing how challenging it is to pack up your whole life into two suitcases! Talk about minimizing your life! So, after weighing both suitcases multiple times at the airport, I finally got them all organized so that I wouldn't have to pay the ridiculous $150.00 penalty. Yes, my mom and I, literally shuffled my belongings back and forth while the whole airport was watching. Oh well!! Most of it fit!

Then there's always that tearful goodbye. It's so hard to say goodbye to people! I really do wish that I could pack them in my suitcase and bring them along with me. London is wonderful, but it would be even better if all my family and friends were here, too! I don't know how many times I questioned this decision between standing in the ticket line, going through security, and sitting on an airplane for all those hours!! Getting from the airport to my new home by Tube, made me even further question my own sanity. Man, was I tired by the time I reached my new home. Nothing like lugging two large suitcases, a very full backpack, and my laptop across London! Thankfully, I just barely missed morning rush hour. I don't think I could have made it if the Tube would have been full.

Now that I'm on Day 2, and slightly more rested, the excitement of actually being back in London is starting to kick in! I do love this city. I'm so ready for a nice walk along the Thames and catching up with friends. Now, it's time to start preparing for my new job!!! Still don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I know that everything will work out. The wait has been worth it, and I'm excited to begin this new adventure.

WAY TOO LONG

Oh, my, it's been way to long since I have posted anything....so here is a very quick overview of the last two months!! I will hopefully add pictures later - I do have some pretty cool ones. My internet usage has been so sporadic that it's been hard to post stuff. I never seem to have the word document and the camera at the same time to get it up on the internet. So, here's a blog response without pictures...

One month and counting….I cannot believe that I have only about a month left to my stay in London. Everything feels so bittersweet. I am loving every minute of being here. I am ready to see family and friends, but I am so not ready to return to the states. It’s been an exciting couple of months. So much has gone on, yet in the midst of it all there have been so many questions yet to be answered.

Well, December was a busy month. I did lots of youth ministry in the midst of also traveling. Christy Chase and I went to Ireland to visit our very good friend Ericka. We had a lovely time in Belfast, exploring the city and just simply getting to “be” with Ericka. There is so much peace in just getting to be with your friends. Looking back, I really loved the three months that I got to spend with Christy. It’s been fun to go deeper and to develop more of a love for each other. She is an amazing lady and I challenge everyone to get to know her better. She will bless your socks off! After Ireland, I had to say a very emotional good-bye to Christy who headed home after successfully completing her studies in London. Christy’s poor host dad had to deal with his emotional four year old daughter, plus Christy’s emotional friend. I think I realized in that moment just how thankful I had been to have Christy in London with me. It’s so nice to have someone there even if you don’t see them every day. What a blessing that the Lord sent us both at the same time. It’s amazing how he does that.

I then spent a wonderful British Christmas in Tideswell, I very cute little town in the Peak District of England. It’s quite close to Sherwood Forest – the house was even on Sherwood lane. It was beautiful. Although I missed my own family dearly, it was nice to be loved and accepted into my host family. The whole thing was quite special and I can now say that I have had my very first British Christmas. After Christmas, I actually got to go back to Ireland and spend the New Year with Ericka. We had such a blast going to little places like Donegal, Ireland and visiting Ian, a member of her year out team. It was absolutely gorgeous! We also went to a quaint little town called Drogheda. It was lovely, but definitely a place that you wouldn’t want to stay for more than two days. And Miracles of Miracles - It didn't rain the whole time I was in Ireland! I really enjoyed getting to spend time just hanging out with Ericka. It was so lovely to be in the same town again. I love my friend, Ericka, a lot and will be very thankful to be living in the same country again quite shortly!

Since the holidays have been over, I have spent my time diving back into youth ministry. I have had the opportunity to help lead some intercession. I have been really enjoying my work. I am really getting to the point of getting to know the kids. As each day goes by I begin to think about having to say good-bye. I really love them and am going to miss them very much. My current line is..."Don't think about it, Tiffany! Just enjoy every moment!" I have also been in a time of reflection. I have discovered that I will not be returning to my job at Totem in March. That part has been a bit challenging, but I know that God has perfect plans laid out for me. I have loved my time in London and if given the chance to do it again, I know that I would most certainly jump right back on the airplane and head back over. Still, it lays out many unanswered questions about the future. It’s great to know that I might not have it all sorted out, but God does and therefore I am trying to remain at peace and trusting the Lord to reveal each next step to me. The future feels like a blank canvas that the Lord and I are going to get to paint some new glorious picture on. I know he’s a master painter, so whatever it looks like, it’s going to be beautiful!

So, that's really a very quick summary of the past few months! I will write more later and hopefully include some pictures. I miss everyone like crazy and I hope that you are all well.

Busy Two Weeks

The last two weeks have been really busy, but really fun. November 4th - November 8th was a Jesus Ministry 2 Conference at Christ Church. It brought back so many fun memories of all of our conferences in Tacoma. There were many late nights praying for amazing pastors from all over England, plus some pastors from Germany as well as a group of wonderful pastors from Kenya! I think it would be so fun to visit the Kenyan pastors!! It's just such joy to pray for people and watch them change as they encounter the presence of the Holy Spirit! Jesus is so good. I love how he speaks so clearly to people's hearts. Encountering the love of the Lord for another person is so powerful. I feel like I got to have some amazing power encounters with the Lord during the conference. It's amazing how you really love people just after praying for them. Also, the leaders from the Exeter portion of the youth mission were also at the conference. It was fun to see them again, but also sad to have to say good-bye knowing I will for sure probably not see them again. I think one of the cool things about this week was seeing how Jesus Ministry is being birthed across the nation of England! Christ Church carries a very special banner of Christ and I know that the Lord is going to use this church to spark revival across the nation of England! Praise the Lord!


The other really amazing thing that happened during the last two weeks is Christy and I got to go to Paris. What fun that was. Paris is such a beautiful city. Unfortunately, Christy was sick while we were there. Still we got to see the Mona Lisa - something I had missed while on my first trip to Paris. We saw it in the evening so that meant there were very few people there. It was perfect. I must admit, everyone is right, she is very small!
The next day we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and it was definitely one of my favorite things to take pictures of. It's just so pretty. Even though it was my second time going to the top, the view was still quite spectacular. I'm glad that Christy did it even though she was not feeling very well.


We also walked along the Seine River to Notre Dame Cathedral.
The view along the river was beautiful. We passed many pretty old buildings...many of which, I must admit, I had no idea what they were. Still, they were very gorgeous. The different types of architecture is very pretty. Christy pointed out a lot of cool details to me. It's was very fun to get to travel with an interior designer who is study the history of interior design. Our long walk was very worth it. The Cathedral is so breathtaking. The best part was there were a few "renegade worshipers" in Notre Dame. These people just started singing. It was beautiful because of the acoustics of the Cathedral. It was also a little funny because you could tell that the people maintaining the cathedral were not too happy about this spontaneous worship occurring. They were searching the cathedral to find the people. The cathedral was very pretty. Still it felt so empty. We prayed for the spirit of the Lord to fall deeper upon that place. We did a lot of walking and almost missed our train. We were not informed that our ticket had been changed. So, we arrived early, but were actually almost late. Praise the Lord we decided to make sure we were "early". We literally had to run onto the train. I also almost didn't get back into England...Ooops, I didn't have all my paperwork. I thought I had this lovely stamp in my passport meaning I could come back in. Unfortunately, that's not what actually happened. A blessing was that the customs officer was very gracious and technically I could now stay in England for an extra two months...not that I will. I guess it's how people extend their visits to England. Again, praise the Lord for this very gracious man...I think it would have been much worse if we hadn't been about to miss our train. Still, the Lord is good and I sit in my home in London. Praise Jesus. Being back in London, I know that I prefer London to Paris. I think it's prettier and it also feel so much safer! I am currently staying with another family in London because of building work happening at my normal place of residence. I am quite enjoying the couple that I am staying with. They are lovely and their home is very peaceful. It's a blessing to get to stay here for a short visit. Well, that's it for now. I will post more as new adventures come up.

Youth Mission Trip

I am just returning from six days of mission work with the Christ Church Youth. It was such an incredible time. I do not know who came back more changed - the kids or myself. I feel like these six days were exactly what I have been longing for. Part of coming here, I hoped to be challenged and to be stretched. This mission trip did both of these things...

Andrew and I took three kids on an amazing journey. We started our journey by heading southwest to Exeter to a place called Dartmoor.
It was absolutely beautiful. We were in the middle of no where.
Dartmoor is gorgeous, but you have to be careful and make sure that you do not get blown away! We went on a hike while we were there, I literally felt like I was going to be blown off the hill! Well, being blown off Dartmoor was not our purpose in going. We met up with another youth group who is forming a youth church. Their vision was quite close to my heart because it all seemed so much like the stories of Newsong in it's beginning stages. There were five kids and five leaders that came, plus an amazing kitchen crew who ended up blessing us far more than just with food! Our youth came down to bless and serve them. We were also there for the purpose of teaching deeper freedom principles. Over the course of the weekend we taught on Teachability, Defensiveness, Entitlements, and Unity and Agreement. It was definitely not a light weekend. The really fun part was getting to teach. I got to teach the teachability section and then Andrew and I team taught on Defensiveness and Entitlements. It was really stretching. I loved it! It definitely made me manifest, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to do this. First of all, I haven't really taught anything since June - how refreshing teaching is! Also, I have never taught anyone over the age of 14. So, here I am teaching people from 16 to adulthood. It was a little scary, but I loved it. I think teaching freedom (Jesus Stuff) is so much more fun than teaching normal material. I also really enjoyed blessing the leaders. It's so fun to encourage people. We also did some prophetic worship with the group! I loved it! I cannot believe we are doing this stuff with the youth! The best part of our time together was when our group of kids prayed over the group we were serving. We got each young person's DNA as a member of establishing the new youth church. Their leaders prayed the DNA over each person. It was so powerful. We then got to pray over the whole group and commission them out into ministry. How powerful to unleash a group of young people on a city. I know that one day we will hear of a youth revival starting in the heart of Exeter. Another great thing about this time was watching the Christ Church kids serve and bless other youth. I was very impressed by everything that they did.

After leaving Dartmoor, we traveled for seven hours (we made a few stops along the way) to Ellesmere Port near Liverpool for the second half of our mission. The first half was really a time to bless and serve a group of hungry young people who were passionate about Jesus. The second half of the trip was about getting the Christ Church Youth out into the world of evangelism. We ended up serving a bus ministry that is part of the Church Army. The bus ministers to disenfranchised youth in the area. The kids from the area come on the bus and get free hot drinks, get to play games and hopefully meet Jesus! After seven hours in the car, the kids went directly into ministry mode. Monday evening we had the opportunity to join the bus team serving a group of young people. Our goal was to serve and bless. We ended up praying for kids and leaders. Many people got to hear what the Lord had to say over them. I was on a prayer team with one of our young people and we had the opportunity to lead one young boy to the Lord. It was really special. It was also cool to watch the Lord bless our faithfulness in stepping out. After praying for one boy, another stepped immediately up for pray. It was great. All the Lord wants is for us to take one small step of obedience and He always meets us. The Lord is good. Our youth kids were totally united that evening and they shinned with the heart of Christ. We all left energized and excited about the evening. It was really exciting. Two evenings later, we joined the bus in a different part of the city. Our second group was a little rougher around the edges, (They reminded me so much of my students at home)still our youth kids rose to the occasion. The kids on the bus did mock a couple of our young people. It was an interesting learning experience for me. I left Andrew on the bus praying for the bus kids, and took our kids outside for some prayer. They were a little shaken up. I got to practice my pastoral skills. Although they were upset, the Lord met us and in the end we could see that the Lord had really used us. It was so amazing. It really challenges me. I want to be doing this kinds of stuff all the time. It's so powerful.

Besides missions stuff, we also got to do some very fun things. We did a lot of driving, which was actually really fun because we all got to know each other better. The youth that we took were totally amazing.
One young boy is a real evangelist. He was born in Argentina and was part of two major revivals in South America. The stories he could tell you would absolutely blow your mind. He has also been totally transformed over the last year. God met him when he was in a dark place and pulled him out! The Lord speaks so clearly through the Word to him. He is also just really cool and I enjoyed getting to know him. Another young man we took is pretty cool, too! I passionately believe that he will be a pastor one day. He is totally passionate about Jesus. He also has been radically changed by the Lord and has an amazing heart to serve and bless people. He also has this really obnoxious munchkin voice, which he blessed us with so many times while on the trip. He's an actor and really talented drummer. He's also just a really nice kid. He introduced me to the game that took up most of our car time. It was the mini cooper/yellow car game. Every time you see a mini-cooper or a yellow car you get to hit someone. It's great. I added the rule that as an American I get to hit you twice. This young man really enjoys making fun of my accent, so it was actually great retribution. He was sitting in the middle of the car and was the most easily accessible person in the car. Poor thing, he did get a little abused. As for the third youth member, she is a super star. She is so sweet, gentle and compassionate (accept when she's playing the Mini-cooper game!) She is beautiful on the inside and outside. She is amazing at making friends and really has a heart of service. She is also extremely prophetic. She hears the Lord very clearly and accurately as both Andrew and I found out when we asked the kids to pray for us! I really enjoyed having her on the trip. It was nice to not be the only girl. We also got to bug the boys with singing musicals like Greece and High School Musical! It was great fun! We were a great team.

Besides ministry, I was totally blessed by the fact that I got to see some pretty cool parts of England. Dartmoor, like I said before, was beautiful. I really liked it. Now I know what a moor looks like! We also traveled into North Wales on our day off. We ate Lunch at a restaurant called "Tiffany's". We saw some really cool Welsh signs - man they look funny!
We walked around the outside of a castle and took a train to the base of Mt. Snowdon. We even got to see the summit - I guess that's a really rare thing.
I teased everyone because although Mt. Snowdon is the tallest mountain in Wales, it is only like a fourth the size of Mt. Rainer. (Shhhh....It's really just a foothill - but don't tell them that) The Welsh coast was beautiful. We also got to go into Liverpool - there was lots of Beatles's stuff everywhere. We say the Mersey River and Liverpool Cathedral. Everything we did was so fun.

This is a trip that I won't soon forgot. It was a really special time. I think it did a lot in my heart. I learned so much about who I am and what I love to do. I know that I am a teacher, but I really do love to teach about Jesus. I know that I have the skills to lead a time and also to help guide young people. I feel like the Lord continues to show me the power of my words and how much I love to bless and encourage people. I feel like every day I begin to hear the Lord's voice more and more clearly. I am so excited by all that he is teaching me! He blows my mind every day.