And thats all she wrote.

Hello all,

            This is my last blog post. A year has come and gone and it is time for me to be on my way. There have been points throughout this year where I never thought this year would end, but now that I’m 4 days away from leaving, I am wondering where my year has gone.

            I want to start off by thanking everyone who has kept up with my blog. I know it isn’t the best reading in the world. There are always typos, grammatical errors and it is hardly ever riveting. But thank you for taking time out of your busy day to see how life on my side of the world is going. To remember and pray for me. For those who have read every single post, you should get a prize!! Just tell me and I will think up something J

            As you would expect, with only four days left, I am becoming very emotional. One minute I’m laughing with my kiddos then the next, I’m about to cry. My daily struggle is to hide. But by the Lord’s grace, I’m not hiding, well too much anyway.

            When I think and reflect back on this year, all the events, holidays and festivities come to mind first. All the fun, excitement, sometimes mayhem of life with the Rosmarinos. Then all the people back in California and here who have walked this journey with me. Shared in my laughs, funny stories, tears, and difficult times. Then finally, all the lessons learned and the work that my Lord has done in me.

            The fun times remembered!

~My 22^nd Birthday – I lost it when 170+ people sang me happy birthday. Astonished at how excited all the kids were to celebrate my birthday. One girl told me she wanted me to have a great birthday so I could tell everyone at home I had the best birthday ever!

~Thanksgiving - All 170+ of us said 1 thing we were thankful for which took less time than the Vinck circle of death (circle of thanksgiving).

~Christmas - exploring Bacolod while manita (secret santa) shopping. Wrapping the kids gifts till 3am. Passing the gifts out to each kid (2 hours). Then listening to the most gleeful, excited, overjoyed sounds as they opened their gifts altogether. I asked one of the girls later, if she had a great Christmas and liked her gift. She told me it was great! She had never celebrated Christmas before. She was 16.

~Gramma’s 90^th/New Year’s Eve - Had fun making a big deal of both. Firewords and decorations.

~ My family (CCBF team)- My family was able to come for 2 weeks in January. That was amazing and much needed. They were able to experience a bit of my life here and fall in love with the kiddos J Favorite part was them helping in my class.

~Graduation! - Yay! Oh my word what fun! Everyone got dressed up all fancy. I loved all the smiles of the kiddos when they were given their award.

~Little house transformation – Spending weeks painting, scraping and cleaning the little house. Sharing snacks with the manangs, taking naps on the countertops and screaming at the giant house spiders who scared us.

~Easter – the sunrise service was amazing.

~and finally vacation – I had the blessing of taking care of 15 toddlers and 1 baby. What I learned, scrub the armpits and late meals = disaster.

            And of course, the purpose of my being here, teaching the 2^nd and 3^rd graders! It will be very hard for me to leave my class. They have become such a huge part of my life. Some days were exhausting, but I loved being their teacher. Trying to explain basic body parts and functions; the parts of a plant; how to count using money; teaching them all to do a fish face. I am going to miss hearing ‘good morning manang Kelsey’ and seeing their bright faces when they finally understand their work. It will be weird not spending Saturdays and some evenings grading their work. Smilling over their spelling mistakes or off the wall answers. I pray their little smiles stay with me forever.

            And on to the people who I am indebted to. Over this past year, the Lord has taught me much about the importance of the people He has put in my life. To honestly and genuinely appreciate and be thankful for them. Before I came, I took the presence and relationships of my family and friends for granted. I now see them as blessings. Every pat on the back, hug, word of encouragement, skype date, and laugh are to be appreciated and returned.

~My family have been such troopers! They are seriously amazing! They have been faithful to sacrifice every Sunday afternoon to talk to their daughter on the other side of the world. They would let me rant, laugh or cry when needed. Always a source of encouragement, love and a reminder I wasn’t forgotten. I am so thankful that even though we are over 7000 miles apart, I was still able to see their faces every week. I needed their love each week. Sometimes we would just make silly faces at each other or making to-do lists, but it were those things that made me feel like I was right there with them in my kitchen.

~My Aunt who took the time to listen and encourage me. Share her insights and thoughts. Always ready to help me when life was a bit difficult. Always loving!

~My dear friends, Kristen and Drew, who helped keep life normal. Much like my family, being able to see and talk to them, made me feel not so far away. They even took me along on their own adventures abroad! Thankful that they kept me close.

~Manang Laura (sorry if I’m making you cry!) Having someone who completely understands all the ups and downs and what it takes to live here, has been such a blessing! Spending hours talking about foods we miss or movies we love. Someone who understands my sarcastic sense of humor. She has certainly been a priceless blessing to me. I enjoy and appreciate her friendship an impact in my life.

~All the manangs here who make life just wonderful! Sharing their stories and memories. Sharing their favorite foods or books. Helping me in my crafty endeavors. They are always a willing smile or a helping hand! I will definitely miss them all!

And on to the intangibles. I fully expected to learn more about my Lord and inwardly change, but I didn’t expect so many changes and lessons learned.

            The Lord had to strip me bare. Take away almost everything I held near and dear. My family and friends were on the other side of the world. We don’t have many modern conveniences. I was dependant on someone else for almost everything. Looking ‘fashionable’ went out the window. I had to drink instant coffee. Having privacy is taking a shower. The things I thought important were gone. Those first few months were a struggle. I fought against it. But you know, by taking away all those things, I can hear the Lord clearly. There wasn’t anything to get in the way of my relationship with my Lord. I started this year with a grinch-like heart. Slowly, He broke down all my defense walls, my jaded attitude. He taught me what true agape love is. Love isn’t romantic. Its tough, its hard, its self-sacrificing. I understand the verse “Love suffers long an is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 More often times than not, love means sacrificing a personal want for someone else’s need. Love is taking the focus off of yourself and putting it on someone else; attending to their needs. I am nowhere near perfect in putting this verse into actions, but by God’s grace I am a bit closer. And just like the Grinch, He has expanded my heart with more love than I ever thought possible.

            Repeatedly I have been humbled by Christ’s faithfulness and consistency. In the hard days when I struggled to put one foot in front of the other, He always gave me the scriptures I needed to get through the day and his peace and strength. It’s a miracle I’m not falling apart right now. He has never failed me. Never forgotten to make His love apparent. “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers. The moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him and the son of man that You visit him?” Psalms 8:3 Then Psalms 139, He is acquainted with all of my ways, there is not a place I can go where He cannot and He thinks countless things about me. This just humbles me. Who am I that He would want to take the time to make sure I am okay. To give me Himself, so that I can live. Always in awe of Christ’s immense love and faithfulness toward me.

            I don’t know what my future holds, but as cliché as this is, I know who holds it. And I completely trust Him. As I have been praying about what and where to go next, the following verses were given to me over and over again. While I’m unsure what exactly they mean for me, I am confident He  will let me know when needed.

            “She extends her hand to the poor, yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20

            “Strength and honor are her clothing; she shall rejoice in the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.” Proverbs 31: 25-26

            “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:25-26

            “Incline my heart, to your testimonies, and not covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in your way” Psalm 119:36-37

            “Distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.” Romans 12:13

            It goes without saying that it will be hard to leave. I have loved my time spent here. There are many things to miss. Bunches upon bunches of little kiddos to love on and play with, the manangs, my class, and the day to day activities. It will be strange to have a quiet lunch, no baby to hold or feed, no little one to play with or attend too and no manangs to goof off with at night. I’m sure I will feel a bit lost at home for the first few days. If you could, please pray that I keep it together these next 4 days. I’ve already had to choke back a few tears. Then, that my transition back home would be smooth. My mom told me this morning, that my heart will probably hurt for a while, but God will work it all out. My aunt pretty much summed up my emotions. “You have loved well which means that it will be painful to be separated even though its time.” And ultimately that I keep my focus on the Lord through it all.

            Well folks, this is it. It has been an amazing adventure. Thanks for walking it with me.

For the last time, God Bless and much love,

            Kelsey 

See you all on the flip side : )

"For You, Lord, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands." Psalm 92:4 

Nearing the end of a chapter

Hello everyone!

            This past week, we said goodbye to manang Teri. She went on her furlough. Seeing her packing and getting ready to leave, made it very real and tangible that I too am leaving. It has been weird not having her here. I share a room with her and sit next to her at meals, so the absence has been a bit strange.

            On Friday, I let my class do a fun whatever they wanted to do craft. I gave them construction paper, pipe cleaners, glitter, glue, buttons, crepe paper, pom poms and just let them do whatever they wanted. For the first few minutes, they were all staring at each other and me as if trying to figure out what to do. Then they finally starting crafting their project. Some of the girls made construction paper bags with pipe cleaner handles; others glued the things at random. The glitter was a  hit! Everyone, even my more boyish boys, loved the glitter. They outlined in glitter, wrote words in glitter and made designs with it. I tried to keep the glitter as clean as possible, but that didn’t happen. It is stuck to the table clothes, in the cracks of the floor and on all their notebooks. I doubt we will ever be able to rid the classroom of glitter

It was funny. Today while going over science with my 3^rd graders, I realized they pronounce microscope wrong. They don’t make the ‘c’ a hard ‘c’ but a soft ‘c’. When said like that, it comes out mice-ro-scope. We all laughed a bit over that.

            I finally had a halo-halo thing last week. It literally means mix mix, a bunch of stuff thrown together. The manangs have told me how much they like them and I have wanted to taste one for a while now, but never had the opportunity. Let me tell you, it is a strange dessert. The base is shaved ice and condensed milk, from there, they all differ. Mine had coconut pieces, flan, coconut jelly, ube ice-cream, sugar, cereal, some green thing, fake cherries and finally beans. I liked it on a whole, but the beans were definitely not my favorite. I didn’t know it had beans in it till I bit one. Filipinos are all about making un-sweet things sweet; this was just a bit too abnormal for me.

It is hard to believe, but this is my second to last blog. About two more weeks of Philippino living and then back to California for me. Time is funny, some of the days limped by and other weeks were in high-speed. When I think back over everything I have done and experienced here, I am blessed and thankful for it all. I would be lying if I said it was an easy year. I am all of 22, but it has been my hardest year yet. It has been filled with personal and spiritual growing pains, tears and laughs, loneliness and love.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27 I have been praying for a while for peace when this time came. Peace in my decisions, peace to go home, peace in my heart and mind. I’m not sure why I am always amazed that God answers my prayers, but I truly have peace with everything. It is still hard to leave not knowing when I will make it back, if I will see all these kids again, leave all of the wonderful, funny and lovely manangs, but God has called me home for the time being.

Well that’s it for now. God Bless and much love,

                        Kelsey

Eagles and Henry the hen

Hello All,

Well as you all can imagine, this past week has been a rollercoaster of emotions for the Rosmarino family, especially Nanay, Tatay and the manangs. What was such a joy to see was despite the sadness and difficulty of losing grandma, everyone smiled, laughed, joked and loved. As a Christian, we could and can rejoice in that grandma is in heaven now. Saturday afternoon, we had a memorial service for Grandma. Tears were intermixed with laughter as some of the Rosmarino’s told their favorite grandma memories. It was a blessing to learn more about this amazing woman.

            Last week, I had the second graders write a story about an animal adventure. Some were confused by it, some didn’t like the assignment at all and these three loved it. The following are stories by three of my 2^nd grade boys. They just make me smile J Please enjoy! (I have corrected spelling and some grammar)

Boy # 1 – “My story is about an Eagle. Once upon a time, an Eagle was a hero. He saves little birds. He was the king of the birds. One day a hunter went to the forest, to find a bird. When the Eagle heard it, he was not scared. He was going to find the hunter. He asked all the animals where was the hunter? They said he was there. He heard a shot! The hunter had captured a bird! All the animals were scared of the hunter. The Eagle asked all the wild animals to attack the hunter….” I’m pretty sure he would have written more, but I had them stop so we could do math.

Boy # 2 – “A fox was taking care of some hens. He liked one of these hens. He named him Henry the hen. Henry liked to fly. He wanted to be a hero of the American Army. One day the fox died and nobody wanted to take care of Henry because they didn’t like hens. So Henry was alone. One day a pig fell down the waterfalls and almost died. But Henry saved the pig’s life. Then Henry joined the Army, went to war and fought against the dogs. The dogs killed the cats. Henry was mad at the dogs. He wanted to kill the dogs. Henry and the dogs fought and he killed the dogs. Henry had won the war!”

Boy # 3 – “Once upon a time there lived an Eagle who had no family. He was sad. A bird was flying by and saw the Eagle had no family. The bird said to the Eagle, “Do you have a family?” The Eagle told him no. The Bird said he would be his family. The Bird laid five eggs and they all hatched in the morning. Then the Eagle had a lot of family. The Bird was teaching him and the babies how to fly. When the Eagle was sitting in the nest, he saw something in the sky. It was his family! They flew to the nest. They had a party and the Eagle was glad. He has a lot of family. From now on, the Eagle was not sad. He was happy because his family was back. The Eagle was not lost anymore. The Eagle stuck with his family so that he would not be lost.”

            I would like to ask for prayer. I will be on an airplane bound for home in less than three weeks. At times, I am completely comfortable with it, other times I am excited to go home and see everyone, and sometimes, it fills me with anxiety. In these kinds of circumstances, my natural reaction is to shut down emotional, go through the motions detachment. If you would pray that I would not turn to that; that I would be fully, physically and emotional, present over the next 17 days, I would greatly appreciate it.

God bless and much love,

Kelsey

A Time of Rejoicing and Prayer

Hello all,

            I realize that many of you who are reading this email, have never met Grandma Mary, but this morning she passed away and is now in heaven praising and worshiping her Lord and Savior. Grandma Mary is Nanay’s mother and the woman who brought Tatay to Christ. She has lived here in the Philippines for over 20 years now. This last December we celebrated her 90^th birthday! While I did not meet her in her heyday, from the many stories I have been told, she was an incredible and godly woman.

            As Christians, death has no sting. We are not left with the what if’s. We have full assurance, she is in the presence of God. In that, we rejoice! Selfishly, our hearts mourn the loss of Grandma. I ask that in this hard time, you would keep Nanay and Tatay in your prayers as Grandma played a major role in both of their lives. Please pray for the all the leadership and manangs, many of them have grown up with Grandma as their grandmother. And lastly for all the little Rosmarinos, that they would just understand and not be confused by what is going on.

“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” 

                        2 Corinthians 5:6-9

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

                        Philippians 3:20-21

God Bless and much love, Kelsey 

32 days..

Hello all : )  

How are you all doing? I hear it is getting nice and toasty back home. Enjoying the weather?

            After raining on and off for over a week, the sun has finally come out and drying us out. The laundry is drying, the ground is losing its marshy/sloppy feel and most importantly, the kids can play outside! As it is our wet season, I’m sure we are in for some more rain soon.

            I did the survivor squat with my class again. It was fun. This time, I let them go for as long as they could go for. I didn’t think they would go too long. But it got to the point where none of them would sit down. They were all determined to be the last one squatting. Four of the girls and one boy made it over 9 minutes. I then decided we needed to do Filipino social studies. Joy kill, I know. They got two stickers each and that almost made up for calling it.

            The kids finished their tests early on Friday. So we were able to do an fun art project for the last bit of class. I gave them each a piece of construction paper and chalk. They had to close their eyes and draw whatever. They could attempt to actually draw an image or just be crazy with it. It was split. Some just went crazy with the chalk, others did a pretty great job of making an image with their eyes closed. After that, they had to then make a picture out of the chalk image. This was the fun part for me. Getting to see what they made out of the chalk creation. One of the crazy images was turned into a snow storm with a snow man in the middle. Another white blob was turned into a duck. One of the boys, made a typhoon. It looked like a satellite image. Underneath the typhoon were the Philippines, with our island right under. He said we had flooded. It was kinda funny. I’ll post some of the pictures later in the week.

            Sadly and excitedly, I have started the process to come back home. I had my picture taken to get my exit visa/ clearance this past week. They check I’ve paid for all my visas and I’m not on anyone’s black list. Pretty sure I’ll clear it :)

            Tomorrow marks the start of my last month. It is a strange feeling to start to prepare to go home. I am going to drink up every last moment over the next month. God is so wonderful and faithful. A few weeks ago, I was very overwhelmed with the thought of going home and all that it entails. Since then, my daily prayer is for His peace and a quiet mind. While I have had a few butterflies and small pangs of nervousness, it stops at that. They dissipate as quickly as they come. Thank the Lord!

“ Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God I will praise His word. In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” Psalm 56:3-4

God bless and much love,

Kelsey

Not a Noah Rain

Hello all,

            This past week it poured so much, I couldn’t believe the sky could hold that much water! If its pouring while we are in the classroom, the kids and I have to yell to each other so that we can hear one another. The other night I was laying in bed listening to the night life animals. Their noises were replaced by a “whosh” sound, like a far-off waterfall. The sound grew louder and louder till I thought it had to be right on top of us. Finally, the first few raindrops pinged on our roof, then suddenly a “WHOSH” of water descended on us. There is so much rain in our downpours, you can hear it before it comes. It is literally a wall of water coming towards you. It is insane. With all the rain, you can imagine how wet our land is, but I can’t help but think of Noah in the Old Testament. We have had a lot of water, but not nearly enough to cover our land, let alone the world. How loud must that downpour been? How much water came down to flood everywhere? I think our rain is the heavens opening up. I’m sure if Noah were here, he would tell me, “Girl this ain’t nothing!”  (using modern day slang). I am very thankful for the promise the rainbow represents.

             A bit of school fun. The other day to end our school day, I did exercises with my class (and yes I did them with the class). Oh my goodness did we have fun! We did cherry pickers, jumping jacks, streamline jumps and the class favorite, survivor position. It is basically what all of us girls do when there is no more toilet seat covers at a public restroom and squat over the toilet. The first time we did it, the kids laughed so hard some of them were laying on the floor cracking up. The second time we did it, I told them I would give them two stickers if they held it for one minute. About 30 seconds into it, they are all stifling their laughter, when one of the boys laughingly says, “Its like we’re going poo!”. Which for obvious reasons, sends everyone into hysterical fits of laughter. But they all got stickerst : ) The next morning, half the class asked to do it again while the other half complained their legs hurt.

            Today the third graders had to look up struggled in the dictionary then choose the sentence that best fit the word. One of the girls, looks up at me with a puzzled look, “Nang, the dictionary is wrong. It spells struggled with an a-n not a u-g.” She mistook strangled for struggled. When I explained what they both meant, she said, “So they are different?” Me, “Yes they are different.” After that she went on with her work. The things they think up sometimes, puzzle and amuse me to no end.

            I have been thinking of certain comforts that I will have again once I’m back in California. It hasn’t made me discontent, but it has made me blind to what I do have here. During the time for prayer requests/praise reports at church, one of the ladies explained that she was very thankful that God provided food for them to have dinner the night before. That caused a stab of realization. I may not have all the comforts of the world, but I certainly do live a comfortable life. God has always provided in abundance for me and my family. That is true for here as well. We don’t have to worry about leaky roofs in the wet season or where our next meal will come from to name a few. Just when I think, I’ve learned to have a thankful heart, God shows me I have a long way yet to go. I am exceedingly thankful that God is patient with me when I don’t learn His lessons after the 10^th time.

            “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in your way.” Psalm 119:36-37

God bless and much love,

            Kelsey

And the answer is........

Hello all!

            Well to answer the bear logic question.  Thanks to Mrs. Voss and Jenna for answering my bear question. The answer is the bear has white hair. He is a polar bear. The only way he could go south no matter what direction he was going, would be if he was in the north pole. We all answered brown. Being my normal augmentative self, I fought for my answer. We have no idea of knowing the hygiene of this polar bear, he could be very dirty, thus brown. Haha Manang Laura still said I was wrong : )

            My third graders were given their own bibles yesterday. They are absolutely in LOVE with them. They are supposed to bring them to school since the curriculum frequently asks them to look up verses. All 9 of them are thrilled to have their own. When we had reading time, they all read and highlighted their bibles. It was to the point where I had to tell them to put them away since they weren’t doing their schoolwork.

            We have a new-ish 2 month old baby. She is absolutely adorable!!! She has thick curly hair, so wonderful! Lately I have gotten the pleasure of watching her. She is such a joy! She is beginning to smile and talk. Her favorite thing is to lie on her back, kick her arms and legs and watch everyone.

            Well, I will be home in less than 50 days. It is exciting, frightening and overwhelming all at the same time. I remember when I had been here 50 days, feeling as if my time would be endless. Now, I’m on the flipside and I’m unsure where the 300+ days have gone with the end rapidly approaching.

            I had a hard bit this past week. Very overwhelmed and anxious. After the first wave had dissipated, I started thinking about the verses I put at the end of my blog last week; parts of Psalm 143. How perfect is His word. Reading it over, all the butterflies, the waves of emotions, subsided. I needed to meditate on his works and lovingkindness. Ask for direction and shelter. My favorite part is the end of verse 8 “For I lift my soul to You.” Knowing its God who I rely on and not myself. Then after all of that, being overwhelmed by His love and concern for me. Wondering why He takes the time to personally calm me down and show me His love. I am so incredibly thankful I am His.

Much love and God bless, Kelsey