Pushing On

Hey Guys!

I hope yall are doing good! I've been very very busy up here, and even though I feel like I'm just getting by in the classroom, time has flown by already, and I can't believe we're already 3 weeks into the school year.

Even though Newtok is isolated, we have visitors every week or so who stay for a few days. Mostly they are reporters who are covering the erosion story. They interview elders and take lots of pictures. The other day a couple just left who actually live in Switzerland and are doing a project - they travel the world in a year to places that are being affected by global warming. They stayed 4 days and it was nice to see new "guspuk" faces (The natives call white people guspuks). They showed us some pretty amazing pictures they took in Africa, China, and other places. Actually they are talking at the moment with Time Magazine and Newtok may appear in the November publication. We should find out pretty soon.
Another visitor we had was U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski. She came and discussed with the elders the plan for moving the village and the students also. Many of the elders don't speak English, so we had Grant (the principal) translating. It's really interesting how the elders are so respected. When an elder speaks the students stop what they're doing and actually listen Why won't they listen in class?!?

The view from out house is really beautiful. We can see the river and across to the island. In the mornings we see some of our students doing their chores, which include taking the family's honeybucket to the dump. I feel sorry for them, especially since we've had problems with our burner in the incinolet!

The weather is getting colder and I'm anxious for the snow to fall! My snowboots came in the mail about a week ago and I can't wait to try them out. :-) Everyone else can't wait for winter to come either, because they say it's much easier to get around the village. Now we have to walk on boardwalks, but when the snow comes they can go anywhere on snowmachines. But they also say until the snow on the ground becomes packed you have to memorize where the boardwalks are so you don't sink. I don't know how long it'll take for that to happen but I'm stoked about all the stuff I've only see in movies! ...snowball fights, skiing, sledding... !

About the bible study I mentioned, that's not going to work out like I hoped, at least not at the house. I typically don't leave the school until around 8:00 at night, so weekends will work out best. I've casually talked with some of the students about God and they asked questions about Christianity. From what I gather they aren't too familiar with the basics of Christian apologetics. I have a couple of Bibles I leave in my classroom, and during reading time they seem to enjoy flipping through them and reading them. Some kids are obviously set in their secular ways, but I know God is at work here and He has some amazing plans ahead, I'm certain!

I guess that's it for now, I hope everyone is doing great and thanks again for your prayers.

In His Grip,
Kim