God at Work

Paul was prepared by God for a lifetime of Ministry. Before Paul was Paul he was Saul and he had a hardened heart and actually was one of the biggest persecutors of Christians. This helped him to communicate with other people who also didn’t believe in Jesus. He also was trained to be a Pharisee as a child. This helped him because he knew a lot of the facts in the bible and already knew a lot of things about God. I don’t know exactly what I want to do for my profession but I do I have an idea. Right now I believe that I want to work with children with Special Needs. I feel as though God placed me in my school to learn how to work with children that have some disabilities and that are a little different from me. I am truly thankful for that.

Christian Persecution Project

In my 8th Grade Bible class, we talked about what Christian Persecution was across the globe. We got split into groups and were assigned a country, my country was Indonesia. I learned so much about what the country of Indonesia is like. I learned a lot about how Christians have to go into hiding because lots of people that live around them are constantly trying to hurt them. Something that really surprised me was that if you convert to Christianity, your family changes your last name and disown you because Christianity is that “horrible” to them. I read a lot of stories about Christian Persecution in Indonesia specifically, one of the stories that stood out to me the most was that a girl converted to Christianity after previously being Islamic, her brother found her and killed her just because she converted to a different religion. Something that surprised me was that only 10% of Indonesia is Christian and 87% is Islamic. In our exhibit, our visual was a small room made out of a canopy which represented a small room where Christians in Indonesia would pray and practice their faith in. Inside our canopy we had prayer request cards hanging around the room, the cards had things telling others was to pray for inside the country of Indonesia. 

Pythagorean Theorem Project

In our math class, we had to make up a story problem where Pythagorean Theorem would take place. We decided to do a word problem about someone didn’t have the right size iPad case, someone got them a bigger iPad case then what they needed so they decided to measure them using Pythagorean theorem to figure it out.

Science chains

  1. Which part will work the best and why

I think that the pipe cleaners will work really good because they’re strong and can withhold strength but the rubber bands can stretch so ours can be long.

2. Which part you think might be a problem and why

The problem for our is the rubber bands because they stretch so much that the pipe cleaners can hold the strength.

3. Why you did or didn’t use some materials.

We didn’t use straws, paper and other things similar because we thought that they wouldn’t be strong enough.

 

Beginning of the Year Reflections

The little time that we have had in school I have enjoyed, learned and I am looking forward to lots of things in the 8th Grade. I have really enjoyed the community that we have made as a grade and I have become way more comfortable and I know way more people than I used to. I have learned lots of things but one thing that has stuck out to me was how I never knew the geography of Israel and I’ve never focused on how Israel is surrounded by these powerful countries and leaders. I am deeply looking forward to new friendships and doing fun things as a whole grade.

Paper Boat

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In Science class we were assigned to make a boat out of certain materials. We were graded on if our boat looked like a boat and had a competitive time. Our boat was a very simple design but it worked pretty well. Our times were around 10 seconds, which was a competitive time for our class. Other designs were too top heavy and fell over so there design was not an effective design.

This Summer

This summer was very busy but yet relaxing. I was on a travel basketball team, we went all of Michigan. I had almost every week was a sports camp of some sort. Out of all of the camps my favorite was either Drew Neitzel basketball camp or the Hope college basketball camp. I also went up north to our friends cottage and went tubing which was a major highlight of my summer. I also went to Gun Lake with Kayla and Ashlyn. At Gun Lake we went tubing and biking throughout the week, which was very fun. When we were biking we had a little scare with a creepy car but were all alright. Also over the summer my dad and I had very competitive games of pig. Which if one of us didn’t when we would always say: “best out of 3?” and so on and so forth. Overall, I will deeply miss summer. I have been looking forward to seeing all of my friends. But I would give anything to stay in summer.

Africa Union Day

I thought that Africa Union day was pretty cool, all in all. The research was cool because we could learn more about our countries, especially because my country is Somalia. Somalia is super divided and messed up that they don’t have much of a voice and identity. The government doesn’t have human rights and/or democracy, so it was hard when we were voting for passing resolutions and amendments and you have to vote against everyone else because you have to work for the government. Overall, Africa Union day was a success and has taught me a lot about third world countries and not to take my first world problems for granted.

 

Invictus

All of the South Africans, that were black, at the beginning of the movie were cheering for the opposite teams that played the Springboks. But then once the Springboks started doing clinics in townships for the black people and that was very public and then the blacks started cheering for the Springboks.

Francois Pienaar. Francois’s whole family didn’t like Nelson Mandela at all and then Francois, when he went to Nelson Mandela’s office and had tea with Francois and his family didn’t really approve of him going there but he went anyway. Also when they went to the island where Nelson Mandela was in prison it clicked for Francois what all Nelson Mandela had to go through for 27 years.

Africa

My thoughts on Africa have almost always been the same, going into this activity I just thought Africa was some poor continent that had safari animals. But boy, was I wrong. Africa is a very diverse continent. For example, South Africa, the country, is one of the arguably most diverse countries. There are loads of different races throughout South Africa including; Dutch, like me. Kids our age don’t act that differently from us. They still like to play sports even though their circumstances are different from ours. When we were guessing about pictures to see if they were born in Africa or not. It was a lot harder than expected because there are so many people that have been adopted or were apart of the slave trades in America. Doing these activities my perspective on Africa has deeply changed.

Social Studies Simulations

1. What were the challenges you faced traveling through Europe on Thursday?

Some of the challenges I faced was waiting in line to get through customs just to get to the country next to it.

2. 2 Challenges you faced as a tourist.

One of the challenges was not getting deported. The workers could be very strict, if you didn’t say your greeting then you had to go to the back of the line or get deported.

Also having to only get to some countries through another country, so from the U.K. you had to travel to France. You couldn’t travel to Spain or Portugal you had to go through France which made France very busy with long lines.

3. 1 challenge as a “worker” in your community.

Some people were disrespectful or didn’t care that you were a worker they just saw you as a friend, which can make you be a little easier as you because you see them as a friend as well.

3. Explain one benefit to each country in Europe maintaining so much control of their own situation. 

Italy: Their money isn’t worth as much as other countries so to buy bumper sticker it didn’t cost as much.

Spain: It easy to understand there greeting.

Portugal: They are accepting and don’t deport you as much.

United Kingdom: Their money is worth more.

Germany: 

Belgium: 

Poland: It was easy to get in and out.

France: They were nice about people having to always get through their country.

 

8 Themes

Names of God

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The Israelites had many names for God, and also for others. In the bible times, your name was something that usually happened to you or was your personality. Moses is a good example of something that happened to him. Moses means: Drawn out. This is very fitting for Moses because he was drawn out from the Nile River. My name, Jenna, isn’t found in the bible so it doesn’t have a biblical meaning to it. My name means: You always seek challenges and learn from situations. Your most powerful asset is your ambition which allows you to live the fullest no matter what.

Conflict and Doubt

The Israelites definitely had their good moments and their bad moments. There were times where they doubted God and didn’t think what he said was the actual truth. Something that nowadays we would doubt about is the wisdom of doctors and God that a family member would be healed. We doubt that what they say is the truth and that they won’t be healed or they will be healed. I struggle with that because we get close to the people we love and it’s hard to let go of them.

Call

I believe that everyone has their call to do something that honors and glorifies God. God calls us and we have to respond. God makes lots of promises towards us. We have to listen to God and respond positively. God called Jesus to die on the cross for our many sins, and Jesus responded positively he would do anything for God. Everyone has a different call of what God wants them to do. I feel the call of being able to praise him on a daily basis. I don’t know what I want to do with my life yet or what I want to be. But I already know that I want to be helping people. I also want a job that I can speak freely about Christ and what he has done for me in my life.

Sent to the Promised Land

 

Israel had to trust God that he would lead them to the promised land. God was their Shepard and they were his sheep, he didn’t let them wander off and he cared and loved towards everyone. God also provided for everyone, he provided food, water, and shelter to all the Israelites. Our church is also a place of protection, we go there and it’s peaceful and we have protection. Church is our place that is peaceful, and we don’t have to worry about what’s going on around us, we can just be free and worship God. I go to the Foundry Church in Zeeland and this is my place of peace and protection of all things around. I, like the Israelites, have to trust God in what he’s doing in my life and trust that it’s good.

Salute to a King

Israel went through lots of sin and a lot of redemption from their sin. They all wanted a king to rule over them but they all had different vision for the King, God wanted a nagid. A nagid is someone who is a leader and follows God, and who doesn’t thrive on power. But the Israelites wanted a melek, someone who is a ruler and wants power, and is motivated by power. We all have those moments in our life when we want something but God doesn’t want that. They could be our temptations and things that we know aren’t good but we do it anyway. Some of those temptations or things we know aren’t good could be a phone, friends, and other things that rule in our life.

Something Rotten

Israel worshipped other gods and didn’t put the one true God first. When things like this happened God would send a prophet to get them out of their sin. For me another “god” or “idol” could be sports. I am always busy no matter what time of the year it is. I don’t always have time for God. I need to make time for God and push some things off my plate before I can get more involved in other things. I’m just happy that it’s just sports that are time consuming and not other things that I shouldn’t be doing.

Slide to destruction

Just like the Israelites we all have our own slide to destruction. When we ignore God and go our own way we start straying away from God. Then realize what we are doing and we read our devotions for a while and go to church. But then we slide down again and get back to where we started. For me I go to church every week, I attend youth group, I read my devotions. But I still don’t feel like I’m really close to God because that is my daily life and I’m not working to have a relationship with God. So I try to read my bible as much as I can but I still can fall back and not read my bible and pray for forgiveness like Jesus wants me to.

A Savior

Christ Is my Lord and Savior. He redeems me and he makes me whole. He was born into the world to save us from all of our many sins. Throughout the entire Old Testament it points to salvation for everyone. We have to believe that Jesus is the ultimate salvation he is the only one that can save us. God saves everyone it doesn’t matter what your race or religion or gender is he loves everyone equally because he made everyone in his image.

Names

Conflict/Doubt

Call

Sent to the Promised Land

Something is Rotten

Slide to Destruction

A Savior

Salute to a King

My New Perspective on Native Americans

From the start I haven’t really known a whole lot about Native Americans. I thought that everyone who was Native American was similar to the movie Pocahontas. I thought that everyone dressed that way they didn’t have modern things that we take for granted. I thought that they would hunt and fish and farm and that was how they got there food. But boy, was I wrong. They have religion practicing everyday which is different from what we do when we go to church once a week on a Sunday. They wear clothes like ours too but they do have many different outfits that fit with their religion. Our grade went to the Saugatuck Performing of the Arts Center. I learned a whole lot about Native Americans and what their culture and daily life is about. I had no idea that they did art. We actually saw some exhibits of what they do. If you see our art that we do at school. It doesn’t tie in to our religon or show that we are christian. It shows that we are merely copying an artist that came before us and their technique. But the art that is made by the Native Americans does show parts of their religion, which I think is really cool. Something that I thought that was super important was, when we went there we saw actual practicing Native Americans that live in our community. I don’t know about you but I have never seen a Native American in my community have you? My guess is that you haven’t, is it because we are so wrapped up in ourselves?

A Dollar a Day

Watching: ‘A Dollar a Day’ has greatly changed my perspective on poverty. I never realized that some people don’t even have one dollar to spend on clean water and food a day. Or that they have unstable pay checks where they don’t know when they will get more money. Some of them starve their families because their job doesn’t pay to get clean water and food. It’s hard to watch that and say: “oh it’s someone else’s life not mine it doesn’t matter”. I can’t believe someone would ever do that, this movie that we watched was something that we could say wow, I can just walk over to the drinking fountain and get water on command. We take so much for granted when they don’t even know where there next meal is coming from.

Republica Dominicana

Es una eschuela en Republica Dominicana el nombre es Santiago Christian School. Unas lugares en Santiago Christian school es una biblioteca, la biblioteca dece mucho libros. Y una lugares es gimnasio y mucho deportes practicar. Y una nueva officina del director.

Santo Domingo esta lejos de puerto plata.

La romana esta cerca higuey.

Punta cana esta izquirda de higuey

Classes de República Dominicana

Todos personas en La República Dominicana estudio lenguaje. Y todos personas estudian cultura de República Dominicana. Y todos aprender aduana de Repüblica Dominicana. Tambien, mucho lenguaje de ingles. y una clase de vocabulario. En la republica dominicana ellgan eschuela en noventa y salen en cincuenta de la tarde. No horas de Repüblica Dominicana es comen de Michigan horas.

 

 

 

 

Republica Dominicana

imgres-1David Ortiz

David Ortiz esto alto y lento.

imgres-2Carlos Gomez

Carlos Gomez esto muy rapidapente y un montón de bases robadas.

imgres-3Adrian Beltre

Adrian Beltre esto muy bien de beisboly tiene un buen brazo.

Todos hombres esto jugo de beisbol.