The Tooth Fairy

Well, I can now add one more thing to my resume....tooth fairy. This week, my student came to me grinning ear to ear, proudly displaying the hole in his smile. He'd lost his first tooth. He went on to tell me that I needed to take the tooth. Confused, I asked why I should take his tooth. He gave me the, "Duh!" look and said, "Teacher! Take my tooth with you to America and put it under your pillow!" When I asked why, he said, "The tooth fairy only comes to 'English' people's houses!" Hahaha. So, I supposed I would take the tooth and be the tooth fairy. Oh man, I never thought I'd have to be the tooth fairy before having kids ;)

On Friday, he opened up in hand and showed me a wadded up kleenex. He informed me the tooth was inside. He picked apart all the shredded kleenex parts and......there was no tooth. It had fallen out on the way to school! His eyes got real big and I could see the tears coming, so I thought fast! I told him we'd write a letter to the tooth fairy explaining the situation. So, now I just can't forget to bring back American money. That'd be terrible if the "tooth fairy" forgot!

I'm discovering lately that I've been learning so much in these last couple of months about myself. Not just the self that I portray, but the true motives behind things, my own pride and ultimately my fears. I think rarely do we ever dig deep enough to reveal what's under all those layers (insecurities, culture, defenses, personality, etc.) to see who we really are. How can we see other people the way God wants us to, when we don't even see an acurate picture of ourselves. I suppose this will be a lifelong journey that I'm on.

If I had to pick a theme for my year here, I would pick, "relationships." I am learning so much about friendship. It's fun to be surrounded by other young people in my small group that have similar mindsets. We encourage each other to take the Bible literally and challenge each other on the hard issues. Not that my relationships weren't real before, but I think my attitude and expectations of each relationship I have, have changed. Friendships, even with unbelievers, can be used to glorify God.

Hard to believe it's only 3 weeks till I'll be home for Christmas!