Semana Santa(Holy Week)

One of the processions on Good Friday night in downtown of the capital city. The floats are carried through the city for between 4 and 7 hours!!! Some floats only need 4-6 but all the ones we saw this night had at least 140 men!!!

Women's Conference

This is from a women's conference at Union Church last month. Sherry and I led worship for the evening session. The speaker shared about pottery and how we need to allow God to mold us into who he wants us to be.
It made me think about one of the wisest things I heard at Camp Gideon..."you can't pour anything out of an empty pitcher". Strikingly obvious, right? Way back in 1999, when Rusty first said that it just put my faith into perspective...if I don't "fill-up" on God, how prey tell am I going to pour Him out on those around me?

Servant Day

Servant Day is a big part of CAG life. Every year the elementary classes do a service project on school property, the middle school classes go somewhere local for a school day, and the high school classes go outside the city for 3 days. The sixth graders went to the church of one of the students to paint. I was very impressed with the actual work they did and their attitude the whole day. They worked hard and I don't remember hearing one person complain all day long!

the computer will fix it

Sometimes I am frustrated at my students inability to use a computer...and then there's today. Apparently there is no need to learn anything about writing a sentence correctly because no one would read anything that was handwritten anyway. Huh, you say? So did I. Then the tune changed a little bit. Who knew that the computer would be able to fix every single mistake I make when I am writing? In fact, I believe what they tried to tell me today is that writers don't actually write anything. They type a few words into the computer and then the computer writes the book. Man, I wish I would have known that my computer would write a book for me! I could be famous by now!!
Oh the joys.

epiphany of a sixth grader

Every week my sixth graders have spelling words that they have to do various things with-two of those things are to make an alphabetical list and then look them up in the dictionary. This afternoon in study hall one of the boys says "Ms. Leonard, I know why you make us put our words in order. They are easier to find in the dictionary that way." [pause...pause] "maybe teachers do care" [at this point i throw my arms up in the air, though I am glad it's only taken him 11 years to figure this out!!!]

The Birthday Song

At the beginning of each month we sing this song at Impacto Biblico. It is a Spanish hymn for birthdays. My friend Sara thinks it is better than sliced bread. I have to admit I enjoy it too...but no one loves it as much as her!!!

Handel's "The Messiah"

I sang in Handel's "The Messiah"...the Christmas portion. There were probably 100 people in the chorus, 40 musicians, and the 4 soloists. We rehearsed for 3 months every Sunday afternoon and performed twice-once in the national theatre and once in the Santo Domingo(pictured below). Though the music wasn't exactly my cup of tea it was really good for me vocally. I am so used to singing praise and worship music that it took me a while to adjust.
I had a hard time when I started thinking about all the people who were singing in the chorus(and the soloists) who probably had no clue what we were singing about. I know what it is like to just sing words...I do it a lot on Sunday mornings en espanol. But this was such a big deal! I was so encouraged by some of the CAG community who came and said they really felt the words. If you've never heard it I recommend reading the words. They are sooooo rich!