Candle: The Light That Overrides

Paradise Found

One of my birthday gifts from our kids was a candle.  At that time, I had no idea how functional that gift would become.  The living space of our apartment here in Vanuatu is approximately 1,000 square feet, and when we light that little candle, it's Paradise Found fragrance fills the scope of our place with a welcomed relief.  We no longer focus on the burned popcorn, but instead our apartment's quiet facelift: the scent.  It suspends and overrides everything else.

Graduation party

Our graduating class with the Potters

On Friday, March 2, we ended our 1-week community English Conversation outreach classes.  The week before that, our pastor students completed 45 hours of an academic English class: three hours a night for 3 weeks straight.  They surprised us with a little celebration that included fresh Mahi Mahi and cookies.  These students were outstanding!






During these four weeks, we have had some interesting contributors to our class.  The area cat sashays into our learning environment in a very casual manner, and during one class, dropped her

 Show off!

A curious dog

dinner at my feet...and ate it all!    This brought the intensity of essay writing to a hilarious halt.

Occasionally, a neighborhood dog pokes his nose in to see how things are developing in class.








We have two adorable children who attend class each night with their parents.  Angela comes to the table each night with a tablet and pencil and almost every night falls asleep across from her mother's books.  Her brother, Jaro, fights consciousness, but by 8pm, gives up and gives in...wherever!

While we in the Western culture see all of this as "burned popcorn," other cultures see these differences as social norms and traditional customs.  True, there is much going on in our classroom each night, but all of us, the teacher and the pastor students, have already lit our candles of focus:  learning.  Studying suspends everything and overrides all comings and goings.

We are learning, too.  We are discovering that learning can happen anywhere - under the most extraordinary occurrences and in the most modest of environments.

We are preparing to launch our next 3-week session of academic English.  The texts are ready, 15 lesson plans prepared, the handouts are neatly stacked, the exercise books and pens are in place, and more students have registered.  There is much that we can arrange and plan, but in the field of English as a Second Language, flexibility overrides everything.

Thank you for reading our blog!  We pray that you have a Light that suspends and overrides.

Keep Looking Up!
  J:m and L:nda