Emilie

Sorry for the blurry picture. This is Emilie, she is in my sixth grade remedial class although I don't think she really needs to be. She has improved exponentially in the past seven months and does well on all her work. Emilie is kind of my special girl. She hangs out with me a lot at school when I don't have a class, we have really connected. Emilie lives near my school which is in a very poor part of town but she is so happy! She is one of the sweetest girls I have ever met.

I wanted to share with you a little bit of insight on the lives of some of the kids I work with at the school, what the reality of their lives really is. I have been working on some english with my sixth grade remedial math class. One of their assignments is 15 spelling words each week. With those words, they have to write two sentances using the words. Below is some of the examples of Emilie's work, exactly how it appears in her book. I hope this gives you an idea of the life and reality Emilie and many others at my school live with . Please pray for all of them.

The Word: better

The Sentence: my mother is better than my father

The Word: mother

The Sentence: my mother likes to beat my sister

The Word: heart

The Sentence: my heart is painig (paining which means hurting)

The Word: hard

The Sentence: don (don't) beat me hard

Not all of the sentences are like this, some of them are funny and some of them are quite positive. At the same time, when I read this it reminds me that however often these kids don't listen or fight or frusterate me, their reality is so different from what I have known and it encourages me to have more patience and more love for them and it also reminds me that God loves these children so much more than I do.