Don't worry. I'm not hurt, I don't need a direct flight home, & I don't need help raising funds to stay on the mission field. But this isn't an April Fool's joke.
As most know, my team & I are staying on a YWAM base here in Panama for the duration of our trip. Down the street is a small private christian school that is partially funded by Youth With a Mission (YWAM). Jamie, Mike, Kaitlyn, Moriah and I have volunteered to be assistants and teachers at this school for six weeks. Thankfully I've been placed as an assistant to 1st grade with my beautiful teacher Ms. Jess. I've worked in multiple school settings all around the world and I've fallen in love with a lot of different kids. But I must say, the laughs and smiles that surround my first grade classroom are some that I will never forget. And the best part is–I've only been here for a week 
Here is a quick clip of a day in my class:
So it's Monday. Monday means gym class! It's a double positive–positive for my students because they get to run around for 2 hours, positive for me because I get to hand them over to Mr. Mike for two hours after a long day. But I wasn't done loving on them for the day so I jumped in and played fútbol with them. The sky wasn't looking too promising and the distant rolling thunder arose questions (in Spanish) like "Ms. Liz, is God coming down today?" and "Teacher, God is telling us He's gonna make the sky cry soon. Can we color?" If hearing these questions from 5 year olds wasn't enough to make my eyes start to water, God's heart started to and it fell from the sky. Being able to dodge, the small drops felt refreshing after a 96 F (33C) degree day. Within about 15 seconds gym class was moved into the classroom where we sat and watched out the window as Mr. Mike and another teacher danced like wild men around the field in the torrential down pour. The room was a mess full of 17 soaking wet little bodies, 34 muddy shoes, a tackle game of tag and one disoriented teacher. I had no idea what to do-Jess was teaching music class to the 4th graders and I, knowing little to no spanish, had no idea how to control these crazy 5 year olds. It was pure chaos. All of a sudden the running stopped, the screams were silenced and Megan was standing in the front of the classroom in charge. I still don't know to this day how she got her peers to be quiet but once they were she said "Maiestra (teacher), we should pray for the rain to stop so that we can go play in gym." Woah woah woah. A 1st grader just suggested that her class pray for the rain to cease when seconds ago they were uncontrollable. Too precious. Before I could even answer, the whole class was kneeling down on the muddy tile floors looking at me waiting for me to say the prayer in english out loud to repeat.
"Dear God" "Jear God"
"thank you for this day" "tank ju for dis day"
"please stop the rain" "pwease stop da rain"
"so that we can run and play" "so dat we can run y play"
"thank you for your love" "tank ju for jour love"
"and thank you for making us too cute to handle sometimes"
"an tank ju for us making handle cute sometimes"
"in Jesus' name" "in Jesus' name"
"Amen" "amen"
"thank you for this day" "tank ju for dis day"
"please stop the rain" "pwease stop da rain"
"so that we can run and play" "so dat we can run y play"
"thank you for your love" "tank ju for jour love"
"and thank you for making us too cute to handle sometimes"
"an tank ju for us making handle cute sometimes"
"in Jesus' name" "in Jesus' name"
"Amen" "amen"
Unfortunately God decided to wait to cut off the rain until the bell rang to go home, but that was alright by me. I enjoyed playing around and hugging my soaking kids. I wouldn't trade them for the world. Tomorrow is the schools anniversary where all parents are invited to the school to participate in an annual field day! We have a ton of games planned and an all school relay race to conclude the day. It should be a blast!
This school is more than I could ever ask to work with. God has blessed me in so many ways and in so many relationships just in the past week here at Doulous Academy. I need your help. Doulous needs your help. When our team leaves in 5 weeks, this school will be left with 4 teachers to teach 6 different grades, plus PE, art, & music. That as you know, is impossible. They need teachers and assistants for any amount of time. A month, a semester, a year? It doesn't matter–they NEED it. If you could PLEASE spread the word of Doulous around to potential friends and family who like to teach. Spanish is not necessary as it is an English speaking school, room and board is very comfortable (and cheap!) on the YWAM base right down the street, and if we pray hard enough an assistant will be there to help. This isn't just an 18 year old girl asking for a favor, this is a desperate cry for help. These kids need your help. If you can't send your body, please send your prayers to all the children here in Panama as "families" don't really exist and the extent of mother to child love is shown with a beating.
Thanks for reading. If you have any comments or would like more information about Doulous Academy, feel free to comment on this blog post or email me at lizshull@aol.comThank you everybody. Much love 
