Today we had the first day of school which was awesome! :) I really love love love the kids. They are super sweet and were very well behaved. Today Cindy taught while I watched and took notes and helped around the classroom with the kids. Cindy is such an amazing teacher and I'm really glad I have the chance to watch her and learn from her. At the beginning of the day I got really nervous about teaching (I'll start teaching them on Monday) because I'm so shy and quiet, and teachers have to be able to talk all day long, so I just hope I'll be able to adjust and also I hope I'll be able to think creatively to make the day fun for the kids. During recess I got to play with the kids, push them on the swings, go on the teeter totter with them and all that, it was really fun. Rose loved going on the swing and I would push her a few times and then she got so high she started hitting the tree, so I stopped pushing her and then she'd yell "Miss Sarah! Don't stop pushing, keep pushing me!" Even though she'd hit the branches of the tree haha but they weren't very hard branches or anything so she didn't care if she hit them I guess haha. And after recess I felt less nervous about teaching and all that and I think that's because I was able to start to get to know the kids and see how sweet and funny they are. And even though it will be a little scary for me to start teaching, it will be easier now that I've gotten to start building relationships with them. They are just so cute. I can't get over it.

Also one of the kids, Junior, was trying to write the word "Boo!" like when you scare someone, but he spelled it "Poo!" instead haha. That gave me a good laugh.

It was just awesome to meet all my students and I can't wait to get to know them better and tell you more cute stories about them haha :)

These are my adorable kids who I already love so much!

This is my room full of Atticus! Hahaha and I'm not even done with all the pictures yet. :)

Today I got to see most all of my students! And they are SO CUTE! Today we had a registration thing for school where all the students come and check in with you and they buy their French books and stuff like that. And I only got to see each kid briefly, but man are they absolutely adorable! I'm so blessed that I get to be their teacher, I can't wait to spend more time with them and build relationships with them all. :) Also if the Beckman's are reading this, I have Bendjino in my class, he is Wilben's little brother and he looks so much like Wilben and is soo cute. :)

Also at Sonlight we have assistants in our classrooms who help the teacher out throughout the year. And my assistants are Madam Johnny (In Haiti, a married woman is called Madam followed by her husband's first name), Miss Illianise, and Miss. Macdala. You can be praying for them too! :) They're awesome! I got to see Mme Johnny and Miss Illianise today. And when Miss Illianise saw me, she recognized me from when I visited and gave me a hug and told me she loved me. And then when I told her I was Miss Sarah, the second grade teacher, she was so happy. It was really sweet. I love her so much.

I'm still pretty nervous about teaching and everything, but when I get nervous I think about Romans 8:15 "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!".  There is this song we sing in Flipt about that verse that says "I'm no longer a slave to fear, but I am a child of God. I'm no longer a slave to fear, But I am a child God" over and over it says that and I realize how a lot of my life I lived in fear. I was so shy it made me afraid to step out of my comfort zone, or I was always afraid of what people thought of me, this fear made it difficult to do what God asked of me, so often I would just ignore the things He put on my heart because I didn't have the boldness to pursue them. I remember when we first started singing that song at Flipt and how as I sang I knew in the back of my mind that there were things I still lived in fear about, one of them being my future. Because at that time I was planning to go to college, and even though I had picked a major, I really didn't know what I wanted to do with it and God hadn't made it clear to me of what I should do after high school yet. So I was just scared about all that. But then I remember singing that same song during Flipt camp (which was after I knew I would be going to Haiti) and I was so overjoyed as I sang because I believed in the words I was singing. I knew that I was no longer a slave to fear. I knew that even though going to Haiti was going to be really hard, I wasn't going to let fear hold me back in taking the next step God had for me. And now that I'm here, I'm still nervous, but I have peace about my decision and being here because I know it's what God wanted for me. Now I just gotta keep trusting Him as the days get tougher when I actually begin teaching next week.

Love you guys! :)

Bella, Isadorah, Evelyn, and I in the new classroom. :)

This is a picture of my classroom! It was empty when we started.

Today I went to Church and every time I go to church in Haiti I always love the worship the best. Even though they're singing in Kreyol and I can't understand a majority of the words they're saying I just think it's so beautiful how their voices just fill up the whole building with praises to God. And just looking around the room and seeing people with arms outstretched, singing out to God was inspiring. All of the message is also in Kreyol so I couldn't understand much of it, so I just spent  most of that time praying, but I hope by the end if this year I'll be able to understand a lot more. :)

Then my Dad and I worked on my classroom more. It's almost ready!

And then I made quesadillas for dinner and they were so yummy! If you don't know I absolutely love quesadillas and i always use a specific brand of tortillas called Micaela's tortillas from the woodland Costco. And we brought those with me to Haiti, so I'm one happy camper.

Tomorrow we have registration and I will get to meet my 28 kids for the first time. I can't wait! 😊

Thank you everyone for all your support! I Love you guys!

Donations: If you are interesting in donating towards my trip and helping pay what it costs for me to be a teacher in Haiti here is the link for that. Don't feel obligated to donate though! Your love and support and prayers are more than enough!

http://www.sonlightministries.org/give/give-online.html

If you end up donating, you will select "Missionary Staff" under the "Donate to" tab and then type my name in the box below. Thank you so much! Your support is very much appreciated. 😊

Prayer Requests!

Here are the names of my students so you can pray for them if you have time! 😊

1 Saborah
2 Wawens
3 Bill
4 James
5 Dan
6 Love-Santia
7 Rose
8 Ruth
9 Bendjino
10 Jordansky
11 Junior
12 Sephora
13 Abigaëlle
14 Kethlaine
15 Kishi
16 Ketsia
17 Lennley
18 Vielnique
19 Christopher
20 Marc
21 Owen
22 Carl
23 Marie Stephane
24 Stephanie
25 Leisa
26 Dayanne
27 Laurentz
28 Garvens

Some of you asked for my address so here is my mailing address if you want to send letters. There is a different address for packages but I decided not to include it because I have to pay $5 per pound for whatever you send haha, but letters are great if you want to write! I'll write you back too! But just know it will take awhile because they take a long time to get here since they come in on a boat! :)

Letter  Address:

Sarah Allen

3170 Airmans Drive - #2126 SM

Fort Pierce, FL 34946

Today I had an awesome day! I am now in Port-de-Paix, Haiti. :) This morning I got to spend a lot of time with the amazing first grade teacher here, Cindy. She will be teaching the first three days of second grade for me so I can watch and learn from her. The school year starts August 31st, but I will start teaching September 5th. While Cindy was here, we went through every workbook and subject that I had to teach the kids and she told me what I would do every day. She even made a schedule for me to follow and just talking with her made me feel a lot better about the whole teaching thing because even though I know it will be hard, I now know more of what to expect and am grateful for that. And as she talked and told me how excited the kids are about learning and I got so excited to be teaching them so soon.

I also got to play around with some kids from the school and I had so much fun with them. And I got to watch Conrad, who is a year and a half old I think. He is so cute and makes me miss my nephew! He loves to throw everything and gets so happy when he throws stuff, its so funny. We threw leaves and seeds and sticks for probably a good hour haha. And after every throw he'd yell "wow!" Or "yay!" It was very cute. I love him already.

And my Dad just helped me a lot with setting up my classroom. And hot gluing posters onto the walls.

All the teachers are amazing.

I miss you all at home. And love you all so much. But know I am in very good hands here. :)