In May we continued to study Israel. We studied how Joel warned them about the judgment of God that was coming. We studied how God spoke to them as a hurt person, through Hosea, letting them know the He still loved them and that they could still come back to Him. We also saw how the Lord used Jeremiah to warn them of the upcoming judgment and the difficult position of this prophet to see his prophecies fulfilled and the destruction of their beloved Jerusalem.
We studied how the Babylonians took Judah captive. Even during this time, the voice of God was not silent. He used Daniel to speak about the nations and the future and He used Ezekiel to speak to the people in captivity. During a shift of power from the Babylonians to the Medo-Persians, God continued to use Daniel in a place of power and he was tested to remain faithful to the Lord.
We also studied the book of Esther, as the Lord put her in a position of power to free her people from destruction. We looked at our society and ourselves and pondered upon the reason why we are here at this time in history. We continued studying the return of the captivity back to their land and the trials they had to face. The instrumental people God used and the things they had to endure to reestablish themselves in their own land. We studied Ezra who led the people to rebuild the temple, reestablished the Law and the worship unto God. We studied Nehemiah, a man of prayer, who God used to rebuild the Wall of Jerusalem against all opposition and became the civil leader of the people. Together, Ezra ad Nehemiah, ushered a spiritual revival in the people who returned to Jerusalem.
Lastly, we studied Malachi. The Lord used Malachi to call the people to order and to let them know about the judgment of God. He reminded them of all the things they had gone through and all the times God had spoken to them through different prophets. After Malachi finished, God fell silent for about 400 years until a voice was heard from the dessert calling to prepare the way of the Lord. That voice was the voice of John the Baptist. This we will discuss next year.
Miss Rivera
This month took us into the literature of the twentieth century. Modernism took this century by storm. We read different poets, among them Julia de Burgos from Puerto Rico. In reading this poem we were able to see the use of dual perspective. In her poem “A Julia de Burgos”, she writes to herself from the perspective of her true self to her social self. As complicated as that sounds, it was a lot of work to pull both points of view apart and have an idea of what struggles the poet was going through at the time.
We also did an overview of the Spanish literature across the centuries as a review of the perspectives and the themes that predominated across the centuries. We saw how the literature influenced the perspective of the people very much the same way that media influences our perspective today.
Miss Rivera
During this month we had a lot of fun planning and putting together a weather forecast for the news. The students made their own dialogues; their visuals were excellent. Some of the groups used computer models and animation while other used traditional poster board models. Each group tapped into their own strengths and the outcome was beautiful. The language used was very accurate and technical. The students truly shined.
Picking up on the same theme, we worked on making plans according to the weather. Some student planned to go to the beach on a sunny day while others planned to stay home and play videogames on a rainy day. With both these themes we reinforced the use of vocabulary related to activities around the home, and outside, the use of the verbs in the future, inviting people to events and even convincing someone to do what they were not planning to do; all in Spanish. That was excellent work on the part of the students.
Miss Rivera
We continued and finished our study of the book of Acts. We also read the last of Paul’s letters and considered some of the promises God has given us. Here is what some students had to say:
§ Q: Peter and Paul were great influences to the world. Where is your Jerusalem, your area of influence?
§ A: “To be honest, I’m most active at home and at school than outside. I should be more active outside where I can influence the world. I used to be so involved in my old church and as I got older I became part of another church and instead of influencing many, I influenced none. It’s embarrassing to admit I’ve not been much of an influential person in my church or community.”
§ A: “The efforts I have made to share the message of Jesus to the people are efforts usually rooted in many community activities like running a community basketball team for boys, or a community reading program for children.”
§ A: “My place of influence is my home. My mother never took much interest in the things of the Lord until recently. I explain to her what the Bible says and the stories of the Bible to her. I am also one of the elders of the children of the family so I set an example that they can follow and those who are my age or older respect me because I do not mix with anything like drinking or drugs or anything like that.”
Miss Rivera
We continued the book of acts and started studying the life of the apostle Paul. We are studying his missionary travels, his trials and the letters he wrote. We studied the letter to the Galatians and the Thessalonians. We also took the time admire in awe at God’s creation and asked ourselves what is acceptable to God. Here is what some students had to say about this topic and the letters.
§ Q: Is following the Ten Commandments and the golden rule enough to please God?
§ A: “I think we should follow the Ten Commandments and the golden rule, but that is not enough to please God. As humans, we can’t follow all the rules at all times, we do sin. Just like in the Old Testament, the priest had to sacrifice, make offerings for the sins of the people. This is why Jesus came, He made a way for us to have a relationship with God… so following just the rules, but not having a personal relationship with God is not enough. You need faith.”
§ A: “Deeds without faith is nothing to God. Only by throwing your arms and submitting to Christ may you receive favor and blessing. Having faith in the Law is nothing compared to having faith tin the One that made the Law.”
§ Q: Analyze yourself, which part of the fruit of the Spirit is more developed in you?
§ A: “I think I am a very joyful person. Being happy and being joyful is not the same thing. Happiness is only for a season, but joyfulness lasts forever, it never dies because joy comes from God and God is everlasting.”
§ Q: How would you prepare, how would you change your life if you were convinced that Jesus would return in one year?
§ A: “I would prepare by deepening my relationship with the Lord. I would develop a stronger faith in Him and be reluctant towards the world. I would start with prayer and continuous reading of God’s Word. II Thessalonians 3:1-5 speaks of prayer and how we should pray to be delivered from evil and the wicked men. I would stand firm in my beliefs and choose whether I am convinced He is God and not be frustrated. II Thessalonians 2:13-17 speaks on being firm in your actions and in the Lord. I will try not to falter in my beliefs when being questioned. I will show gratitude for all things around me as well. My life would change in a totally positive manner. I would treasure my time on earth, using it for God’s will and focusing on other things. My life will be devoted to God and I will not show weakness. I will show apathetic feelings towards others’ opinions of me and this will lead in God’s work in my life.”
§ Q: What is acceptable worship before the Lord?
§ A: “I believe that an acceptable worship is giving the Lord clean hands and a pure heart, a holy pleasing life. We should give the Lord what he gave us, our lives.”
Miss Rivera
During February, we started our journey through the book of Acts. We studied the ascension of Jesus into the heavens and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. We studied the life of the apostle Peter and read the letter of James, which predates the other letters of the New Testament. Here is what some students had to say when interacting with the Word in the letter of James:
§ “When I face trials I should consider it “pure joy” because the testing of my faith “develops perseverance” and maturity. But when I am in a situation that is making me like giving up, I don’t have that joy; I don’t have that perspective. But I think if I just stop I might realize the purpose of that test.”
§ “If I stop wasting time with things that feed the flesh, I would spend my time wisely feeding my spirit, so that I could have enough strength to overpower the flesh”
§ “I need to submit myself to God wholeheartedly. Submission is sacrificing your soul and not just your body, as an act of spiritual worship.”
§ “In reading this passage (James 1: 19-27) I realized that knowing about God and His will is nothing if I don’t believe it enough to follow it entirely. Because when I do that I end up deceiving myself.”
Miss Rivera
During this month, we started to view the history of Israel and Judah under the kings that came after Solomon. We emphasized on the prophets that God called on different times and on the constant spiritual decline of the nation, with few short periods of revival. We noticed that the cycle perpetrated during the time of the judges continued during the time of the kings. We also emphasized the fact that the Lord God always sent a person to reach out to his people, namely a prophet, so that they would turn back to Him.
We studied men, like Elijah and Elisha, whose power through the Spirit of God is amazing. We also studied men with a word from God, like Amos and Hosea, who pleaded with Israel, the northern kingdom, to turn back to God before they were taken captives by the Assyrians. Isaiah spoke to Judah, the southern kingdom, and they listen and their judgment was held back from time. We hear from Isaiah that our refuge and safety does not depend on man or alliances of men but on God because He is in control. We also hear from Isaiah a lot of Messianic prophecies that point us to Jesus.
In the midst of all this, the Lord does not forget that there are other nations. For his love of these nations and so there would not be excuses the Lord sends prophet to other nations. Jonah and Nahum were sent to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, about a hundred years apart from each other. Jonah prophesized and the Lord held his judgment. Nahum went to the city and the judgment given by Jonah and himself came to pass. The Lord also sent Obadiah to Edom to pronounce judgment over them because of their wickedness.
Miss Rivera
We continue to follow the history of Israel. We concentrated in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. We saw the hand of God on different men and on how their examples teach us to get closer to God. We learned from Hannah, that the Lord listen to our deepest prayers, knows the desires of our hearts, and extends His mercy and remembers us. We learned from Samuel that we must answer the call of God and allow Him to do in our lives as He pleases, for what he wants is greater than our best dreams. We also learned from Samuel that when you do what God wants, He “got your back.” He told Samuel that the people had not rejected him but God himself.
We learned from Saul that it is not good enough to start out right, but to do the good and perfect will of God. Partial obedience is not good enough for God; it is all or nothing. We learned from David that repentance is key in our walk. When we do something wrong, we need to recognize it and “cease and desist” that behavior to attain forgiveness from our sins. We learned that the difference between Saul and David was that Saul excused and insisted in his behavior while David recognized his wrongdoing and repented. Solomon taught us that everything is vain if we do not have God in our lives. From a man that did it all and had it all his counsel to us is “remember your creator in the days of your youth…”
Miss Rivera
As we continue through the history of the nation of Israel we have the hand of God as they conquered and settled the Promised Land. We see in the book of Joshua how God uses Joshua to divide the land and give it in inheritance to the tribes and leaves them with instructions so that they might live in peace in the land.
In the book of Judges we saw, as the tribes were a loose “confederation” and their partial obedience to the commands given by Joshua. This cost them to live in a cycle of getting away from God, being under their enemies oppression, asking God for help, getting closer to God and starting again. We examined our lives and found we are not much better. If not for the grace of God we would not be where we are. Praise be to God.
In the book of Ruth we found the concept of a kinsman redeemer and found a “love story” that reminds us of the love God has for us that redeemed us from the world to be part of Him.
Miss Rivera
This month was spent doing practice Regents in class and preparing the students for the Spanish Regents Exam. We also reviewed for the final exam and took some speaking tests. Everyone was studying diligently!
Mrs. Pascualini