beauty and the beast. swine flu. and life.

hello people who love and know me,
i'll try to actually do a decent update on my life. i'm not feeling super chatty, though, so i'm not sure how this will work. right now, we're hanging out at the hawks house. some of us are watching "beauty and the beast." timmy and taylor are playing video games. the new work team of four girls just came in today and went on a walk. erica is talking to her mom. and i don't know where kaitlin is. yesterday we went to usulutan for some groceries and we went to pizza hut. it was a really nice pizza hut, and it was nice to just hang out. basically it was the hawk family, the rodriguez family, and the VIAs. it was a lot of fun. it's hard to share all of the random stories i have from here.
honestly, the thing i love most is just hanging out with the missionary kids here: sammy & timmy (we live with them) and taylor and kaitlin. i just love joking around with them and getting to know them. this weekend we went to see a school performance at sammy's and timmy's school. their part of the performance was "old macdonald." timmy was old macdonald and sammy was the wise man. it was so much fun to see them perform.
what else is going on? well, most of the schools are closing down here because of swine flu. but hang on, mom, please don't freak out. i know she's going to as soon as she reads this. :) mostly it is just precautionary measures. but the minister of health met with someone else today and closed all the schools in this area. so basically, i don't think we'll be teaching in the schools for the next two weeks. part of me is sad, because i do love the kids, but part of me is also happy. it will be nice to focus on other things.
the school is going okay, but i've been feeling very discouraged. in general, it is hard to feel like i'm making a difference at all in any way. i've just been struggling a lot with feeling like i don't have anything to give or offer. and the times that i enjoy the most are not my "ministry." it's just hanging out with people and getting to know them. i know that i don't have to change the world or anything, but i do want to feel like i'm doing something. especially with the kids at school. i want to love them in a way that is remarkable. and i want to have fun teaching them. but i honestly feel incapable and like i don't know what to do. just please pray that i will have the right attitude. i want to have a servant's heart, but i'm just feeling a little discouraged and insufficient.
also please be praying for this whole rosetta stone language class thing. we've been having tons of trouble with this program, and everyone is at the end of their rope. it's just been a rough process. and we really wanted to start the program up this week. furthermore, if the schools do close, we're going to be throwing together a vbs for the kids, so we need a lot of prayer for that.
just one other prayer request....please keep my heart in mind. i realized this last week how easy it is for satan to exploit our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. that sounds really extreme, but that truly is how i feel. i've been struggling with focus and just some weaknesses inside of me that i knew were there. i feel a lot better than i was feeling, but i am still a little tentative. i want to be wise, but i also want to be able to relax and have fun. anyways. those are my prayer requests for now.
and on a quick other note, i climbed a volcano on friday! i haven't figured out how to put the pictures up here, but they are on facebook. and if you must see them, just email me and let me know. it was an incredible experience to be that high up. it seriously was one of the coolest things i've ever done. it was mount alegria (happiness), and we went to a restaurant afterwards. it was so cool....and we had a lot of fun. the guys work team left on saturday. i was sad to see them go. they're a great group of guys.
anyways, everyone is waiting on me to leave. i love all of you! thank you for praying for me. ohyeah...and the communication thing...still pray for that.
.love. beth