Watch the video of Morning Glory Learning Center
At our last stop, Mae Sot, we had the opportunity to work and partner with Pastor Michael, founder of Morning Glory Learning Center. We had the opportunity to teach and lay the floor of a new kitchen at the school. I also saw a huge breakthrough in my life during this time.
It took me four days to finish a journal entry we were so busy.
January 31- I began the story of Ruth. In chapter one something hit me hard.
Naomi and Ruth arrive back in Bethlehem after Ruth's whole thing of "Where you go I will go." (Which is awesome.) and in Bethlehem, the women begin to notice Naomi. I can just imagine them whispering to each other as Naomi passes them. Asking themselves and one another, "Is this not Naomi?" I feel like Naomi's response to them was more out of irritation that anything else, but I do not know for sure.
February 3- Naomi speaks and says "No longer call me Naomi, instead call me Mara." (Paraphrased) Futhermore, she says "I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
I found this extremely significant. I believe in the power of the name. Naomi means pleasant, but Mara means bitter. Not only is she changing her name, but she is embracing the bitterness she feels toward life. She tells the Israeli people in verse 20 that "the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me".
Through life's circumstances, through the things that did not go her way, she allowed herself to become bitter and, eventually, took a new name.
Reading this, I felt like God was saying "Your story is going to be the same, but opposite". At first, I did not understand what He could mean by this. How is a story the same, but opposite? Then I realized. I understood days later.
My name, Maya, means bitter. The Maya people were some of the most bitter people and my name comes from my heritage in those people. Unfortunately, I have lived up very well to my name, but that is not who I am anymore. Not just through DTS, but through spending time with Jesus and letting Him tell me who I am and who He made me to be. I have a new name. It is tattooed on my heart.
Realizing this brought much joy and confusion to my life and my time in Mae Sot. Confusion simply because if I am not the meaning of my name then who am I? (I hope that made sense.) I found so much joy in the Grade 4 classroom and I find I miss them daily. I miss playing word games and reading stories and trying not to laugh at their failed attempts of pronouncing "tortoise". I miss laughing with them and harassing them when I really should not have been in the classroom. That classroom brought so much truth into my life and watching those kids succeed made me wish that I could have stayed.
I want to share one of my favorite memories at the school. One I hold dear to my heart and one that, as I think on it, I want to cry from missing the children and teachers there.
We had been working hard on The Hare and the Tortoise. We had gone over each word that was hard, each word they did not know yet. We played games and reread the story focusing on those words. When one would get them I was so proud. When everyone seemed to have it, I decided to split the story up and assign each student a part. At first, they were so scared then, as they saw their peers doing what they thought they could not, they became excited. So the story was split into thirteen sections and we took about ten minutes with so many of them coming up to me saying "Sister, sister. This word what is?" Then I finally said it was time to read. Thai stood up first and began, then Singo, then each student and we made it through the story. We went back over the harder words and they asked to do it again. I was so proud of them and it was over the fable of The Hare and the Tortoise that those kids claimed a piece of my heart.
Don't forget to check out the video if you have not already!
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