Issue #62
June 19, 2000

Dear Friends and Family,
We are rapidly nearing the end of school. We only have 8 school days left. The kids and staff are getting anxious and ready for the break. Overall the kids are doing well keeping up with work and staying focused on school. The main thing that makes it evident that it is the end of school is the way they annoy each other all the time. I don't think I can count the number of times I hear, "_____ is bothering me," in a day. My student who speaks French says, "_______ is buggering me." I think it is a mixture of bothering and bugging.
My big adventure for last week was killing my first snake. I was going for a walk with Lizzy one morning. I was out a little bit before here so I walked up the road to see if she was ready. I saw something slithering across the road. It was about 5:45 a.m. so it wasn't quite light. I couldn't decide if it was an earthworm or a snake. That may seem funny to some of you, but you haven't seen our earthworms either. They are quite large. Sometimes 6-7 inches long. I finally decided snake or earthworm it was going to die. Then, I couldn't find anything to kill it with. I finally found a pipe. When it got light, Lizzy and I looked at it again, and it really was a snake.
The weekend was busy, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Friday night was Closure Night. Everyone met in the dining hall. Then names of those who would not be returning were announced, and the yearbooks were passed out so friends could sign them. There was also ice cream, cokes, and coffee to enjoy.
Afterward, I had my third graders over for a slumber party. We had just finished reading "Summer of Monkeys" in class, so we watched the movie, ate, played games, and stayed up late talking. The boys stayed out in a tent, and the girls stayed in my house. I made them fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday afternoon was the all school sale. It is one huge garage sale inside the gym. I bought a bunch of kid's books to add to my classroom library.
Saturday evening we went out on Outreach. We went to the Round Point in town that the kids had cleaned up a couple of weeks ago. We weren't sure we were going to get to have it because it kept raining off and on. It didn't rain at all during Outreach, but it started again after it was over. I was able to join the puppet team for that night. I haven't been able to do puppets in a long time, so I really enjoyed it. I think about 14 people came forward to accept Christ, and there were others that the Evangelism Explosion groups talked to.
Sunday we have morning and evening church, and in the afternoon, there was a music recital. It was fun to hear all the kids play the piano and a few other instruments. One senior boy and his music teacher played a duet of "Rhapsody in Blue." It was amazing.
Continue to pray for those who are leaving, especially the seniors, and all those who are traveling.
In Christ,
Traci