Just a Happy Face or Two

Here I am on the last day of my ESL classes for this year.  These three little girls have studied with me for the past two years.  I just think they are adorable even when they aren't exactly obedient in class.  Teaching English outside of my home was supposed to be a little extra income for our family.  I remember when I first took the job.  I had grand visions of shopping trips to the big city and opening a savings account to store up for furlough purchases.  Our support from the States hasn't been covering our expenses for several years.

Most of "my" money has gone to care for our aging pets, fish food for the tilapia project out on the island and things like paying the bread store bill.  "My" money was never really mine and never really went very far.  Although some of the time was enjoyable, mostly the hours in prep and actual classtime were just time away from my more important duties of homeschooling and real missionary mama work.

So I'm smiling as I say good-bye to my little career.  I won't be going back when classes resume in February.  I do have one private student who comes to the house once a week for one hour.  I hope to continue working with this one and possibly pick up one more private student.  The money won't be much, but the time won't be exhausting either.

I had wonderful goals when I started out - getting to know more people in our community, seeing lots of them come to our church and of course, making lots of money.  Most of my goals went unrealized, but goals change and so do needs.  I plan to focus on other things in 2013 including - econominizing even more and moving ahead with my homeschooled high school boys' educational needs.

Are you on the mission field?  Do you "work" an outside job?  Love to hear your comments.