My first class is graduating!

Pippi Longstocking Day!

 July, 2003 I drove into the parking lot of Mountain Lake Christian School for my interview.  I was enchanted by the small town and excited about the possibility of teaching in a Christian school.  The interview went well and I found myself with a decision to make:  to take the job or not.  I stayed up all night the night I was told I could have the job.  I prayed.  I read the Bible and a Daily Texts book from my friend Pauline. Three particular verses stuck out to me:
 Deuteronomy 10:12:  "So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?  Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, 
                                                                                    to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all

Picasso's Three Musicians

 your soul."
Jeremiah 29:7:  "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf."
1 Timothy 2:3-4:  "This is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 
  These verses and my desire to work with the wonderful people I had met and the promise of having my own classroom of students prompted me to call the school the next morning before 8:00 a.m.  I remember the principal saying, "Yes?  You should be able to hear cheering all

The last day of school

  the way up in Alexandria!"  I was off to a great start!
   I remember on Worknight before school began, I met my first student, Danielle.  She came quietly into the room to meet me.  She stood beside me and after a short conversation she gave me a little hug.  What a sweet little girl.  I met Jaclyn not long after that.  She told me, "I saw your picture in the paper.  My mom said you were pretty and she was right!"  Aw!  I'm gonna love it here!
    I had twelve students that first year.  I worked so hard!  My whole life was teaching. The other 

"Finish" time on the ancient computers!

 teachers were so helpful too!  I enjoyed many wonderful friendships.  I loved my students.  Each one was so unique.  Eric was imaginative and funny.  He absolutely loved his beanie baby Mooch.  Karina was such a leader.  She was competitive and smart.  She always wanted to know "why" I did thinks or how I came up with decisions.  Jordan was the main one Karina was competitive with.  He was amazing at math and spelling and everything.  I was always challenged to come up with extra things for him to do when his work was finished.  Taylor and Andrew both loved anything BOY related - especially sports!  They worked hard!  My students were spiritual.  We would pray together  each morning.  Allison always wanted us to pray for her cat that missed her while she was gone!  She was sweet.  I remember one day after recess Allision came in the room all teary-eyed and told me something mean that someone had said to her.  My eyes welled up too and I realized that I really do love my students and can feel for them.  Many of my students grew up on farms.  One time I was telling about the Bible story of the Golden Calf.  The question in my teacher's manuel was, "What do baby cows do?"  The answer in the manuel was, "Eat, Sleep, and Moo."  But, Taylor raised his hand and began explaining about all the shots a calf needs and how they go into this room until they are this old and they do this once they are this old, etc.  It was amazing how much he knew!  Sometimes when I read stories, I was amazed at my students' faith perspectives.  One time I was reading about a little girl that was lost in a dark cave and her candle went out.  In the illustration, the girl had her hands on her face.  Andrew said, "Oh, now she's praying to Jesus and He'll get her out of the cave!"  That is not what happened, but I love the faith that he showed in that statement.  My students were amazing at memorizing Bible verses.  Whenever I read Psalm 105 I think of Jaclyn and the way she confidently knew her Bible Memory Verses.  "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.  Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.  Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.  Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.  Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronouned, O descendents of Abraham, his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.  He is the Lord our God; his judgements are in all the earth."  I wrote that verse on a big piece of tagboard and we read it together or made up hand gestures to help us memorize.  I miss those days!  I miss the daily Bible lessons.  I was amazed at how well my students knew their Bible stories.  Ellie loved to read and I am sure she had read her children's Bible through many times.  She and the other students knew their Bible stories inside and out!  Ellie and Jayne had a special friendship that was sweet to see.  They played imaginative games together and looked out for each other.  Nikki was a sweet gal who smiled a lot and loved school and worked hard.  I taught Nikki piano lessons at her house too.  I loved teaching piano lessons after a busy day of teaching a whole classroom of kids.  It was wonderful to get to focus on one student at a time.  I taught Danielle piano lessons as well.  She had a very musical touch.  My twelfth student was Mallory, but she was only with us for a short time.  She liked to make up her own songs and sing them to the class.      
    And, now my first class is graduating!  They are heading off into the world.  I still pray for those twelve kids.  I still have some of their birthdays on my calendar.  I still think of them when I hear certain Bible stories we discussed or when I pull out papers I made in 2000 and still use today.  I still have cards and drawings from them.  Nikki made a poster that said, "Jesus, friend to all!" with a picture of Jesus and flowers that I put up in my classroom behind my teacher desk each year for me to see.  I'm honored to keep in touch with some of my students on facebook and I am so happy to see who they have become.  I know I will continue to hear great things from these remarkable students.  God has begun a great work in them and He will carry it on to completion (Phillipians 1:6). 

Laura Ingalls Wilder Day

Glimpses of God in Germany

Anette, Anna Siri, and I in Berlin

      Each Easter I think about my friend Anette who was one of my dear friends from my year in the Up With People program.  In 1996, during our Spring Break, Anette invited me to visit her family in northeastern Germany.  Easter just happened to fall during that time!  Together, Anette and I searched for our Easter baskets from her parents in their backyard.  Great memories!  AMAZING chocolate!!!!  Another highlight was walking along the Black Sea together.  Then in August of 2005, after a mission trip to Ukraine, my friend Angie and I got to spend a week with Anette and her parents and Anette's sweet little girl Anna Siri.  It was a wonderful week.  We spent the majority of time in Berlin.  We saw Berlin Bears EVERYWHERE!
     While waiting for a train to come one day, I was encouraged to see this sign reminding us of God's love.  It's so exciting to be able to read something in another language!  It makes me think about how my friends Carey and Nate in Southeast Asia must feel when they are able to share the gospel with people in their own language.  What a thrill it must be to sing praises to God and pray and read the Bible all in another language!

"I Love You, I Love You, I Love You" God

While in Germany, both in 1996 and 2005, I have enjoyed talking with people about their experiences from Germany's past.  I learned from Anette's parents that there were certain things they enjoyed when East and West Germany were separated.  They feel that Easterners were more creative because they had less to work with and had to use their imagination and be resourceful.  They felt that Easterners appreciated nature in a special way.  In fact, most homes in East Germany are earth tones, where as Western homes are bright
colors.  Anette's sister liked that  

Can YOU see the cross?

    when she graduated from college, she was assured a job from the government, but once Germany was reunited, she needed to do much more training to catch up with the rest of the world's technology.  Anette herself remembers going to mandatory government classes that were kind of like "Girl Scouts."  The only places she could visit were parts of Russia and Poland.  Once the wall went down, Anette could be a foreign exchange student in America and was grateful for that experience. 
   A tour guide in Berlin told us a great story about the television tower you see on the left.  She told us that the government controlled what the people of the East could watch or listen to.  They didn't even want Easterners to learn about God, so they screened anything religious.  Despite all their efforts, this tower was an encouragement to the Christians of the East because when the sun hit it, a cross was clearly visible!  Our God reigns!
  When I visited Berlin in 2005 I fell in love.... with the little walking dude.... on the stoplights!  When the East and the West had to merge their ways, the Easterners fought hard to keep their traffic lights and not switch to more modern circular lights.  But, despite their efforts, only one intersection exists with the little walking dude still on it!

Little Walking Dudes

You have to look closely at the picture to see the red walking dude and the green walking dude.  I bought a T-shirt with both dudes on it.  It's a great momento from my time in Germany.
   I believe Anette and her family are very grateful that the East and West are now one country.  But, I am glad they were willing to share so much about the transition and how it affected their lives.  I love learning from people.  Everyone has a story.... or two... or three to share!   

Lynne

Doug and Lynne (Todd's parents)

    Todd Douglas Sapp, my husband, was born to two wonderful parents, Doug and Lynne.  He grew up as an only child in the rural, Minnesota area of Todd County.  He and his parents enjoyed spending time together.  Todd likes to tell about how the three of them would snowmobile together with Dad in front, Todd in the middle, and Mom in the back.  He remembers how his Mom would move things around on the supper table and his Dad and he would move things around too, just to make her laugh.  Lynne adored her son.  She sometimes called him Toad instead of Todd.  They had a great relationship.  Then Lynne got cancer and after putting up a good fight, she died.  
    I wish I could have known her.  I recently asked Todd the question, "If you could spend one day with anyone from the past or the present, who would you choose!"  His reply, "Well, that's easy...my mom!"  At first, I thought my answer was, "Eleanor Roosevelt from the past or Sara Groves from the present."  But, truly, I think I would choose Lynne Sapp too.  I wish I could talk to her and tell her how much I love her son and how thankful to God I am that He gave me Todd to love and share my life with.  Todd says his mom would have liked me.  He thinks we are "kindred spirits."  I like that.  Another reason to look forward to Heaven.

Easter

    When I was a little girl, I enjoyed all our annual Easter traditions.  On Saturday night, we got the Easter baskets down from the top shelf of the closet and each of us kids picked one to use.  The one in the photo was always my favorite!  Then on Easter morning we would search and search and search to find our Easter basket which had been hidden by the Easter Bunny somewhere in the house.  Magically, Mom always knew where they were, so she would give us clues if we asked for them.  I always seemed to find someone else's basket before mine, so I had to learn how to pretend like I hadn't found anything, so I didn't give it away for one of my siblings who may have been searching nearby.  Inside my basket was usually a Reese's peanut butter egg, a chocolate bunny, and plastic eggs full of M & Ms and jellybeans.  I always loved Easter morning.
    When I was a girl, we went to the Lutheran Church just down the road from my house.  I remember attending the Good Friday services there and how they always used a big piece of sheet metal for the sound effects of loud lightning and thunder when they read about Jesus dying on the cross.  They flicked the lights on and off too.  It was always so dark and sad and a bit scary for a child.  I remember that we had to leave in silence and I NEVER liked that!   Then came Easter, and the church always smelled so strongly of Easter lilies.  The music was festive and triumphant.  I always loved Easter morning.  I understood, even as a child that God had done something amazing through Jesus - He had conquered death!  Wow - God is amazing!  How MUCH Jesus loved us!  Now Jesus can live in me!?! 

    The message of Easter is powerful.  It's full of hope and celebration and reflection and grace!  We can have hope because Jesus conquered death, so He can help us with any and all of our little problems and worries.  We can celebrate our Jesus and the fact that He WANTS to live in our hearts and have a personal relationship with us.  Taking time to reflect on God's gift of salvation can be both humbling and encouraging.  I can never repay Him for the price He paid at Calvary.  But, I can do my best to live my life the way I think He would want me to live it:  full of love, gratitude, compassion and joy.  I don't always live that way, though.  I make mistakes.  I mess up.  But, God's grace is sufficient.  It's new every morning.  It's new every minute!  His arms of compassion are wide open to me, even when I mess up.  I know my God loves me.  I believe that even if I were the only person on earth that first Easter, He still would have died for me.  What a thought!  What a Savior!
   

Patty and Jennifer, Easter, 1997

For the LOVE of Japan

Patty, Andy, Drew, and Ben Breun

My sister, Patty loves Japan!  She has loved Japan for most of her life.  When I was only 12 my sister went to be a foreign exchange student there.  Before going to Japan, Patty was all about music, gymnastics, France, fashion, and friends.  When she came home from Japan she was ALL about Japan.  She could speak fluent Japanese.  She knew so much about their culture and had adopted some of it into her own life.  Friends of hers from Japan came to our home to visit us and they all loved our Patty.  Patty had people in Japan who loved her like "family."  Patty went back to Japan to be a nanny in Tokyo one summer.  After getting married, she and Andy went to Japan for a few years to live and teach English.  My oldest nephew, Drew, age 13, was born in Japan!  They came back to America when he was about 6 months old.  Then about 12 years later they decided they wanted Drew and Ben, age 10, to experience this Japan that had so shaped their mom.  Patty, Drew, and Ben went to Japan and planned to live there for two years.  Andy flew back and forth for visits, but had to hold down their home in America.  Drew and Ben loved Japan too!  What fun for Patty to see her boys enjoying Japan and discovering so many things that she already loved about this place.  Drew and Ben made good friends in Japan and became quite fluent in Japanese as well. 
      In September of 2010, I decided I wanted to go visit Patty and her boys and experience some of Japan too!  So, we made plans for my spring break coming up in March of 2011.  I was going to be gone 17 days - enough days to get over jet lag and truly have time to enjoy and explore!  It was going to be exactly the same time that Patty, Drew, and Ben had their break too.  I was even going to be there for the first day of the new school year on April 8th!  I was going to get to watch the boys in their school assemblies and ceremonies.  I was going to get to see where Patty taught.  Patty had so many great plans of things we'd do together.  After buying my ticket, my favorite thing to think about, was going to Japan!
     Then, on March 11th, the earthquake and tsunami happened.  Suddenly nothing much mattered anymore except finding out if Patty and the boys were safe.  From 7:45 a.m. until past midnight I had no idea if they were even alive.  We had figured out around noon that the boys and Patty would have been together in the same school, so that was a huge relief, knowing they were most likely together. Also, a friend of mine who lives in Oregon and has family in Japan, sent me an email letting me know that there were lots of emergency shelters set up in the city where Patty and the boys were.  That gave us hope.   A little after midnight, the Japanese Embassy called Andy to tell him that Patty and the boys were safe and in a shelter.  Andy called us and we were all so relieved and thankful!  I felt so joyful.  I wanted to cry!  I slept much more peacefully after that.  I imagined Patty, Drew, and Ben together in a clean, big, crowded room with blankets around them.  I woke up that next morning with such a sense of hope and relief, that it's hard to describe.  Patty, Drew, and Ben were going to be okay.  God had watched over them.  It was so wonderful being able to send out a new message to my Facebook friends, church friends, and school friends, letting them know all three were safe and in a shelter.  The emails and messages just flooded in.  So many people had been praying.  It was touching.   
    Andy flew to Japan to bring his family home.  He didn't know where he would find them.  He didn't know how he was going to get around.  But, even if he had to walk from shelter to shelter, he would find them!  Thankfully, while Andy was still on the airplane, Patty was able to use the phone of an Australian reporter and call Mom and Dad to tell them she and the boys were back in their apartment and were safe.  They and their neighbors were together, taking turns using their kerosene heaters.  Andy called Mom and Dad not long after Patty had called and they could tell him where Patty and the boys were.  I love how that all worked out!  After Andy got to Patty and the boys, they walked and hitchhiked for hours and hours up to Northern Japan where eventually they flew to Seoul, Korea and then to San Francisco, CA and finally to Minneapolis, MN.
    What a joyful reunion that was!  My whole family and some of Andy's family all met at a hotel in Minneapolis on the evening of the 23rd (the night before I was to fly to Japan!).  It was so nice to have time to be silly and goofy with Drew and Ben and give lots of hugs.  It was so nice to see Patty and hear her answer our millions of questions.  It was sooo good to know they were safe.  I am so thankful they are okay!  I'm so thankful my sister can still be part of my life.  I never want to take her for granted.  I'm glad God gave her and her family the opportunity to survive and continue touching people's hearts and lives.    
     I am writing this on April 11th, the day after I would have returned home from my trip to Japan.  I grieve the loss of the opportunity to spend that time with Patty, Drew, and Ben.  I yearn for vacation time just with them.  But, the cancelled trip doesn't matter when everything is put into perspective.  My loved ones are okay.  God is good.  Perhaps someday Patty and I will go visit Japan together.  I know Patty and her family will always have a piece of their hearts in Japan.

Patty, Andy, Drew, and Ben in Japan

 

I Love Second Grade!

Mrs. Sapp and Kelsey

     I love teaching 7 and 8 year olds because they have such great personalities - they are able to think fairly deeply about things and they understand humor.  I absolutely LOVE seeing their sparkle in their eyes when they are learning or singing or just plain happy.
     Second graders are to the point where they are figuring out what is polite to say or not say.  They are figuring out how to be a good friend and what makes someone a good sport.  I enjoy helping them in that process.
     As a second grade teacher I can help my students learn to LOVE reading.  I can help them figure out important math procedures that they will need the rest of their lives.  I can instill in them a love for writing.  I can encourage them in their speak-ups and classroom participation.  I can help mold them as people and members of society.
     As a second grade teacher I can put on plays with my students performing with memorized lines.  I can do art projects with them that help them express who they are.  I can teach them things about the world and they have real empathy for the plights of others.
     When reading together we can have excellent discussions about things beyond the text.  Students have had enough life experiences by second grade to connect their own lives to the lives of the characters in the book.  Seeing students make connections is fun!
     Second graders are creative.  They have awesome ideas!  Leaders really come out strong in second grade.  The students become more independent from their teacher and more willing to listen to their peers.  It takes training, but they learn how to truly listen to one another.
     Second graders are great helpers.  I enjoy teaching them how to help each other.  What a thrill to see them "teaching" others using myself and my style as a model and example to them.
     Second graders want nonfiction information, in addition to stories.  They want to learn.  They soak up what I teach them.  Togeher we can discover and explore great things!
     I taught third grade for one year and I know from experience that third grade is a big adjustment for the former second graders.  As a second grade teacher, I strive to help my kiddos be READY for third grade.  We work on being sure homework is in on time.  We work on knowing our math facts inside and out so everyone is ready for the faster pace of math.  We write, write, write to help us with all the writing expectations for the fall.  I love being the prepare-er!
    I love teaching second grade because of who second graders ARE.  I feel a bond with my students.  I connect with them.  It is a deep bond.  They trust me.  They know I love them.  I have proven to them that I respect them and care about their lives.  They love me.  Each year I know there is a reason I have my particular students in my class - it is so I can reach out to them and have a relationship with each particular child.  Those kids need someone like me for their second grade teacher.  I would like to teach second grade for another 20 years.  Sincerely, Jennifer Sapp

Class of 2013!

Tradition!!!

I'm three!  Thanks, Patty and Kim for your help!

Do you know what birthdays are?  A chance to CELEBRATE LIFE!  Everything is special on your birthday.  You wake up and have your birthday shower.  You enjoy a birthday breakfast (I favor strawberry Pop-tarts and hot cocoa on my big day) and a birthday drive to work.  You walk around with a birthday spring in your step and you know that the sun is shining especially bright because it is YOUR birthday.  On my birthday I take time to do things I particularly enjoy, like playing the piano, just for fun!  I talk to friends or family on the phone.  I play in the snow (gotta love January!).  I eat chocolate cake!!!!  Now, that is a tradition that began before I was even born!  My parents gave each of their four children a special cake on their first birthdays.  It was a homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and cherry pie filling on top.  YUM!  Imagine a sweet one year old digging into that!  We have pictures of all four of us with chocolatey, cherry messes smeared all over our faces.  But, we all had BIG smiles and shining eyes for Photographer Dad who was capturing it all.  I still choose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting every year!  Birthdays are fun!  We get presents on our birthdays.  People sing to us on our birthdays.  Did you know the song, "Happy Birthday to you" is the most popular song in the entire world???!!!  I read that somewhere. 

January 14th, 2011

        On a more serious note, birthdays document another year of life - a year that we are truly blessed to live.  I have a friend who has cancer.  She'll have cancer the rest of her life.  She has children to raise, a husband to love, a life to enjoy.  She just wants to hang on for another birthday and then another and another.  She'll take all the birthdays she can get!  I am daily inspired by her.  We can't have birthdays every day, but we can appreciate each day as a gift from God.  I have an opportunity every morning to wake up and decide how I'm going to live my day.  Lord God, help me to be full of gratitude to You, full of love for the people around me, and full of peace in my heart.  Amen.