Middle Point of the Journey

Hello Dear Friends and Supporters

First of all I want to apologize for not updating my blog in a while. Now that time allows it I want to share with you several stuff that are happening in my life.

Teaching a Whole New Perspective

 As you know I am not a teacher with a degree, but I have several years of experience working in education as a para-educator in the public schools of Lancaster. Here in Bogota, El Camino Academy has giving me the opportunity to teach. This has been one of the most amazing experiences I ever had in education. I have had the change to learn how to create lesson plans, quizzes, test, and midterms. Teaching is definitely a hard job but the end result of seeing the students succeed doesn't compare with the times that as a teacher I feel tired ,overwhelmed, or frustrated with different details of education. I am glad to say that as a teacher God has giving an incredible chance to learn new things about life, about education, but most important about myself in my walk with Him. God it is definitely the key to everything we do in our lives.

Having the opportunity to work in a Christian School is so different from a regular school. The atmosphere feels different because we can encourage our students in so many ways through God. He is basically the main reason for all we do as students, and teachers at El Camino. I am glad to be here serving God in a way I can be helpful. I am happy to say that I love what I do at El Camino, and I love all my dear students. This opportunity is changing me as person, and as a professional an I am thankful for this every day.

Family and Friends

During the last five months I had have the opportunity to spend time with my family. I left Colombia when I was 14 years old, and from that time I wasn't able to spend Christmas with my family. I am happy to tell you that after 10 years, I had a great Christmas with my family and friends. It was great to have the opportunity to share the Christmas traditions of my family with some of my good friends and co-workers. The Lord has been great to me and I can not complain about anything.
The Lord has help me to build a better relationship with my mother, and hopefully she is learning to get to know me better as an individual. I am really happy to have the chance to be close to my family and enjoy special moments with them.

Praying to Expand this Opportunity

I want to share with you that I am going to start praying for the possibility to keep serving one more year here at El Camino. Please help me pray for this option and share with me what the Lord is sharing with you.

Thank you for all your prayers, support, and love

God Bless You All,

Olga .

God is full of surprises!!

Hello all my dear friends!!

As the title of this blog says, God is full of surprises!! This month God has showed me so many parts of my self that I never knew. When I first started the process to come to El Camino everthing was based into just being a support for the Special Ed. team, because that has been my only experience in education. To my surprise God has giving me the opportunity to experience more about education into the box of special ed.
How? Well, I am teaching Math to two students that struggle in the regular Math of their regular grade, so  I am having a special class for them. Even though is two students, I have to prepare for class, create lesson plans, quizzes and test, and pretty much learn to be a teacher. It has been a great experience, I like the feeling of teaching and won't deny it is a lot of work and I am only teaching one class. I feel pretty bad for those teachers that have classes the whole day. Like Sophie, a whole day teching second grade, that it is crazy!! But other thing that it is crazy is that I am really really bad in Math and God has surprise me to basically undertand everything I am teaching in a really quick and easy way. It is so crazy that God is motivating me to not fear Math by also motiviting my own students.

Other big surprise that God has giving me, is the opportunity to lead the yearbook elective for High School. I am the head teacher for this elective and I help the students involve to make the correct decisions for the yearbook. I am loving this opportunity to be part of a big project for the school and for the students. Believe it or not, I was once in the yearbook elective of my HS, and guess what? I hate it and I moved to a different elective. Now God surprise me again in something I believed I wans't good at it.

Other big surprise is that God has taken away some of the fear that I had for the little kids. For some reason I used to fear them and I didn't what to work with them. Now God has surprise me by making me fall in love with Kindergrandens of my school. I just love them. It is such great feeling when I walk through the hall ways and I see them, and they recognized me and remember my name and say in their little voices "Hi, Miss Baron". I just love that, is great!!

Now, my work schedule is full. I divided my self through out the whole day to help students in their classes or to assist teacher in their classrooms.  Our Special Ed. team has divided the work and each of us is assign to specific students or grades. In my case I am the point person for Kinder and Second grade and out coincidence turns out the teachers of these grades are my roommates. Great isn't it?
My work with these grades is to help the teacher out at least once a day in their classroom and support the students that struggle in class. Also, I am the point person for the High School kids that have IEPs(Individualized Educaton Plan) and help them during study halls, and to speak with their teachers about any acomodations that are need it for each student. Overall I have around 8 students that I am looking after. Sometimes it gets crazy, but I love the resposability and trust that the school in putting in my hands.

I don't know with how many more gifts is God going to surprise me, but the only thing I know is that He is indeed an AMAZING GOD!!

Thank you again for all your love and support!!

ECA September

A great place, a great opportunity!!

Hello My Dear Friends!

On July 27, I started working at El Camino Academy. As soon as I step in the school I had the best feeling about the place. We have been in orientation meetings all these days, and I have enjoy every single minute of them. We have learn so much about the vision, the value cores, school motto, doctrinal statement, philosophy of education, and mission of the school. The school bases are very Christian strong, and that makes a huge difference in the environment that we are working. All teachers, administrators, and staff are very approachable and that as well make the work environment very pleasing.

I am very excited to work with the Special Ed. team, which at El Camino they called Learning Center. The school has several kids that need a lot of academic and social support, so that is what I am praying to God to use me in the way He wants to help the kids to achieve their academic and social struggles. There is a lot of work to do in this area at El Camino, unfortunately the Special Education in Colombia it is not as strong as in the States, and we need to work hard to accomplish our goal to help the kids to be successful. Our team is based on four different people.  One, the Director of the school who is working very close with all of us. Two, our soon to arrive graduate teacher in Special Ed. Three, a mom that has passion for kids with special needs, has tons of experience, and loves the kids like her own. Four, me who also has passion to help this kids to be successful and has experience working in the classroom and one-on-one.  It is a little team, but the love and passion that we all have to help the kids, and with the help and blessings of God we will accomplish our goals.

Soon I will post pictures of the school, but you are also welcome to see the website and learn about El Camino and its mission. Please feel free to visit http://www.eca.edu.co/

Also, let me tell you something very exciting about this opportunity, not only I am going to be working with the kids at the school but also we are having the opportunity to be part of different ministries. The school really encourage us to be part of different activities after school or the weekends. We are having bible studies, Spanish classes, English classes for parents, Bible classes, and many others projects in the school.

I hope you enjoyed reading this new post, please feel free to comment!!

Love Olga.

Puerto Rico la Isla del Encanto (Puerto Rico the Island of Charm)

Hello Friends!!

I am writing to you from the Island of Puerto Rico. I am here on vacations enjoying time with my family. Let me start telling you about my trip. My trip began at 4:00 am the 28th of June. My friend Kate and I wake up that morning ready to go the International Airport of Philadelphia. During our travel time to Philly, Kate and I had a great time. We had great conversations, we laugh, we cried, we prayed, and we enjoyed the beauty of the sunset that morning. I was glad I had that quality time with my friend Kate, it was a great motivation and support having her there while I was entering the new chapter of my life. Also I must say that God was there as well giving me strength, and blessing me. Let me tell you that God's hands were present all the time. I am going to bullet of the blessing of that day.

• The disposition of my friend Kate to drive my to airport
• The inner peace of leaving my home of 5 years begin
• A beautiful morning
• Great timing
• For the exact weight need it for the luggage
• For being blessed by a lady that wanted my seat. I was switched from seat 27D to 6D right next to the entrance of the airplane, AWESOME!!
• For a great flight
• For a good welcome from family

Conclusion: GOD IS GREAT!

                        These were the perfect weight of my luggage
                                             GREAT!! ah?

Now let me tell you about my time in Puerto Rico so far. To begin, the weather is killing me, it is so hot and humid that is driving me nuts, I can't hardly wait to arrive to the Bogota's cool weather. But apart from that spending time with the family is being great. I had the opportunity to joined my dad couple days during his work routine, driving around the metropolitan area visiting clients or installing signs with him. I love doing that, it brings so many memories from when I was his personal assistant when I was little. I love these times because it is a great opportunity to have quality time with my daddy. Also, I have enjoyed spending time with my puertorrican mom, she is really funny and I love bugging her. We had pretty cool conversations as well. In general it is been good to be here and have time with the family.

Yesterday we went to the Old San Juan, to eat some of the traditional food of the island. We drove around and I saw the sea, it was great! Now I am preparing to welcome my friend Sophie who is coming this Monday to visit and spend time with my family before we depart to Colombia. I am so excited to have her here to show her part of who I am.

I am so blessed by God. He is been so faithful, He has giving me so much strength in the moments I have need it the most. To confess it has not been easy to move on. I miss Lancaster so much. I miss my American life. But I am sure God will bring the Holy Spirit and pour out peace and wisdom during this hard time. I am just going to enjoy what it is left of my vacation time and I put myself in the Lord hands, I will not worry for tomorrows worries, I will just live day by day and enjoy the gifts of God.


Thank you all!!

Olgs

The adventures in God's Hands

To start I must say that this month has been full of happy, sad, and exciting moments. This month has also been slow and busy at the same time, but in the mist of everything God has been present all the time. That is why I am naming this post "The adventures in God's Hands". Let me start telling you that I finished working at the School District of Lancaster on Wednesday, June 15th. There were at lot of mixing emotions. First, I was happy to be the end the school year, which by the way was great. Second, I was excited to close a chapter on my life and finally moving on to a different one, and Third, it was really hard and sad to say good bye to the kids. You get so attached to them, and when is time to say good bye is so painful. Off course more for me than for them. lol!

Also during this month I had a Colombian fundraising meal to help me raise support for my trip. The meal was a success!!! Thanks to many of you this activity was possible. Allow me to let you how God's hands were present during this meal. Let me star telling you that there was a point were I was very worried, people were not responding to my invitation, the numbers were very low and I was literally freaking out. I guess in my mind, I was thinking that out the 150 people I invited, everyone will say "yes". Oh boy let me tell you, I was super scared when  only 12 people were attending, but then God surprised me with a bunch of emails from other people telling they were attending as well. At that point I was calmer, and I felt much better about the whole thing. However, this was not the only thing I was worried about, I was worry about the quality, and the cost of the food but God's hands were presented once again. The day we went to buy the food was a whole new adventure. When we were at the butcher shop we had to wait a whole hour to be attended, then it took me like half hour to explain the kind of meat I needed, and in top of that the guys at the butcher shop made fun of me a little but in the end I got what I needed after other whole hour. Then we went to the Latino store and found all the fresh veggies I needed for an amazing price.Then we went to the grocery store and found the most juice and sweet fruits ever for great prices as well; and the most amazing of all, we found avocados ready to eat, which does not happen often, or at least finding 15 avocados ready to eat!! During the buying process we couldn't find plantains, the Latino store had only two, and I was sad because the price was really good, at least that's what I thought. The plantains were 5 for $2.00, so we had to go back to butcher shop because that was the only place that had plantains, and to my surprise they were at an amazing price!! 8 for $1.00!!! Amazing ah?! Then went I got home and checked how much I had spend and to my surprise I had the exact amount of money needed to begging with the next day at the donation table. God really showed Himself in a way I had never seen before. It was great, He gave me such an amazing peace!!
But the blessing did not stop right there, that Saturday morning God provided me with a bunch of helpful hearts, minds, and hands. I never expected to have so much help. It was great to work all together. The morning went really smooth and we all had a great time. In the end I had raised around $1,000, people came with very generous hearts, and I am sure they left with full happy bellies and content hearts,because I know that is the side effect of Colombian food!! 

Now the sad part comes. I am in the packing process of moving out of my home of 5 years. I never thought this was going to be so hard to let go. You get to know so many people in MIH, but the most great part is that you built strong long lasting friendships, and it is really hard to say see you later. However, I am really excited to see what God has in store for this new school year. I am looking forward to meet new people, build new friendships, but most important of all to grow stronger in Jesus. I am so excited to get to know the kids, teachers, administrators, and parents.

I am also preparing to enjoy my vacations with my daddy, and family in Puerto Rico. I will have the opportunity to celebrate my dad's birthday with him. I am looking forward to have some family time and enjoy them the most I can. Then Sophie will arrive to Puerto Rico and we'll have a blast exploring the island together.

Any ways, those are the updates of this month. I will be writing more from Puerto Rico and letting you know how I am doing.

Love
Olgui!!
P.S. Sorry for the mistakes, still learning!!

Trusting and Living for God


In that last year God has teach me several things such as, love your neighbor as yourself, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry, to be wise in my decisions, to trust Him fully, to not be afraid of saying I follow Him, and to be proud of been a Christian and to say I been save by the blood of His only son Jesus Christ.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that God is capable of loving me. I have fail Him so many times in my life and still He reaches out to me, and He does not denies me as His daughter and treasure. He has truly changed my heart, mind, and soul. He has help me to become a better person, and human being. And because all the wonderful things God has done for me, I will faithfully stand at His side to be a tool for His love, and I am willing to receive any job, circumstance, or cause in His name. That is why this coming mission trip to Colombia is a new challenge for me and in my growth as a Christian.
I know many of you think it will be easy for me since Colombia is my home country. However, I left Colombia when I was 14 years old and visited for couple times but I don't see Bogotá as my home anymore, it is more of a great vivid memory in my head. Bogotá is the city I grew up, and yes I remember several things of the city.Still, now that I will be going to live for a year in Bogotá I am nervous about all the transportation system, the crazy buses, the super full Transmilenio, and the little taxis, going grocery shopping and finding all the things that I love as a kid and been careful of choosing what is necessary or not. Although it is all easy when family members are with you, but when you need to do it by yourself and been 100% confident of where you are going or doing it is definitely a challenge. However I am trusting God in this matter, and I know He will protecting me and guiding me in all the Bogotá's life style details.

A Wonderful Blessing

It is definitely that God knows our hearts so well, and that He provides and bless us is the more wonderful ways. One of the last blessing that God has put in my life is the unexpected partnership of my best friend Sophie to El Camino Academy as a 2nd grade teacher. I am so happy to have the opportunity to share this new experience with my best friend in this new journey that God has provide for us. I am looking forward to work with Sophie at the school, to show her my city, and to share my family in Colombia with her. It is my time to share with Sophie all the things she has share with me like in that few yeasr such her culture, faith, and family. Been together in Colombia is going to be a great support for each other. It is great to have someone that knows you so well and that can help you to overcome the hard moments. Sophie and I are complete opposites, however we balance each other in so many ways. That is probably why we are such a good friends. This friendship is blessing that keeps growing without stopping.

Preparation

My preparation to Colombia is going pretty well. I am almost done with my Development Milestones program for BICWM. I must say that this has teach so many things that before I did not understand or that I thought were not important. It is really neat to have this mental, and spiritual preparation for my mission trip.
My room is almost pack, I only have the necessary stuff out, and I am looking forward to see how much I can fit in my luggage :).
There is only one thing that worries me a little. It is my financial support. Sometimes I feel I won't be able to raise all the money I need for this trip to happen. But I am trusting God that He will make it possible, because anything is impossible for God.

I am also preparing myself to say good bye to my student at Lincoln Middle school. It is hard to say good bye to the kids that I being working with for a whole year. They all are little treasures of God, and I will miss them a lot. It is very difficult to say good bye to the student you being helping to get better in his studies and social life. He has progress so much this year, and I must say I am afraid to let go and pass my position to someone new. I hope that this transition will be good for my student and that he will adjust positively with the new person that will be helping him in 8th grade.

So, I ask to all of you my friends, family, and supporters to pray for my continuous preparation to my trip, for Sophie and I, and for my student at Lincoln, that he will continue growing and that whoever comes will be well receive.

Thank you all for your love and support!! You all are a blessing in my life!!
Olga.

Sophie and me.

Preparation and Excitement

Hello All!!

My trip to Colombia is getting closer and the excitement and the anxiety is getting higher. God has been so graceful and faithful to me that in the moments of weakness where my heart and mind are doubtful of this whole new experience He reminds me that with Him everything is possible.

During this preparation time I am have been doing a lot of different things. When God first put the desire of doing a mission trip in my heart, I never imagined all the things that needed to be done in order to accomplish His comission. However this preparation is full of new things to learn. During this time I am learning about the history of The Brethern in Christ (BIC), the first missionaries form BIC, and all the work people have done to accomplished the commandment of God to go and share the Gospel to the Nations. This is a time of learning and motivation.

I have 11 weeks to finsh all the things that I have to do when I leave Lancaster on June 28. I will share with some of these right now.
# 1  Finish my Development Milestones: Short-Term Missionary for BIC
#2 Get my immunizations (ahhhhhhhhh)
# 3 Pack all the things that I have in my room of 4 and 1/2 years. Crazy!!!
These are some of the major ones, I am sure there are more to come that I can not remembe right now!!

I will be leaving Lancaster on June 28 to Puerto Rico. I would be visiting my family in Puerto Rico before I depart to my mission trip to Colombia. I will be staying in Puerto Rico for three weeks, and then on July 19, I will be leaving to Bogota, Colombia. The exciting part of this is that my best friend Sophie will be visting Puerto Rico for one week, and then flying and staying with me for a week in Colombia. How cool is this??
This is definitely a blessing from God!!

Thank you all for you love and support!!