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 OK, so when does this ever happen? This is a magical moment right here, my friends! A double blogging week! Well, I have some just wonderful news for my friends in Dallas and not so much for my friends in MO. When I went home for Christmas, friends and family were asking me, "So, Jo, when you comin' back?" in the popular semi-southern drawl that many of my loved ones have. I answered, "Oh, no, I'm pretty settled, and I don't think I am coming back," thinking to myself, Well isn't that just darn cute that they thought that. Hmm. Yeah.
To give you a brief synopsis, I will just say, that this past year and a half in Kansas City has included me really wrestling with God while being away from close family and friends, (yet making many great ones here in KC, MO) and finding out His delight in me and my delight in Him. I feel a deep and meaningful connection to His love that I have never felt before in my life. I've been able to read the word of God and have it read me to say the least. The stories of the life of David and His awesome partnership with God compel me.
During this past half year, God has been laying a burden on my heart about what to do next but I hadn't opened my heart to receive it yet cause I was comfortable, a somewhat dangerous place to be. The turning point started like this: One morning in February, I woke up and told the Lord, "I know that I feel settled here and I have worked really hard to get my classroom together and I love my pals, but if you want, and give me the grace, we will up and move!" That was a quick, intimate and honest prayer. That very day, the Lord starting confirming things through a friend about the burden of what to do next! I knew that I had been filled up with the word of God and the final straw was just knowing within the core of me that it was time to pour out! It took about a couple weeks before God started planting my heart back in Texas! I told my friends here, principal and other fellow teachers and they have been so supportive and I am very excited about it, yet sad about leaving beautiful Missouri. Oh, Kansas City, I will always remember your red and golden giant Autumn trees and the zeal of the worshipers and intercessors at International House of Prayer Missions Base. But, God will make up the difference!
He has just given me a vision to to follow His lead and invest in young people's lives for a season in Texas. The details are all still in the works, but my anthem has been, "I am not sure about a THING, except that I love you, Lord!" It's kind of difficult to put the process in words, but it's like you're in a wave pool and the current is by all means going one way and then it just turns around and goes the opposite way. I just love flowing along with God's heart. This is the only way for me.
I will be making my way at the beginning of July and I am looking forward to spending time with my old Texan pals and making new ones! So, special friends, I will see ya'll soon in Texas!
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|  Faithfulness and February start with the same letter on purpose. February has been a wonderful month consecutively because it's birthday month for yours truly! I have now been alive for (insert calculation of 365 days times 26, that times minutes , that times seconds and all that jazz) --a long time! A long time of God's faithfulness. I am happy and free and loving being delighted in by the Lord and delighting myself in Him. It's a grand time even though it's not always an enjoyable time. It's rocky and good in a different way. Grace is over sufficient.
A wonderful story for you! I got my Roland XP-80, Rolanda in May 2001 for high school graduation. She's been a good girl but she has so much stuff on there that keyboardists use and I do not consider myself a keyboardist. What am I going to do with sirens and Bubble Bass? Exactly.
When I went to Korea, they delivered a beautiful, real, glossy black piano right into my classroom. I talked about it on here--explore archives if you want to. This thing was great to play on. It was professionally tuned and well, my fingers were spoiled for 8 months. When I went home, I tried to play on my non-weighted Rolanda and there just weren't the same dynamics.
Long story short, I have been praying for a keyboard for a while since then but I didn't know exactly what I wanted. I just knew I wanted something weighted with an accurate depiction of a piano sound. (Sorry, Rolanda, close your ears for this one.) I was getting tired of playing on my keyboard and it was just sounding--wrong. I did my research online. Around the start of the school year, I talked to the Chennankaras and they all told me the Yamaha CP300 was the winner. Meanwhile, I remembered that when I go to the International House of Prayer-prayer room, they have this perfect sounding weighted keyboard that they play on and so I emailed a worship leader to ask only to find out that it is the CP300 that they play on as well!
I began to tell the Lord, I really like this keyboard. I never know how you do it, but thank you for this board. I trust you. You know what I want. February 12, I got a call from the lady who does my taxes in California, who is also my good friend Rebecca's mom. She called me to tell me that I would be getting $791 for my return in the next 4 weeks. I was thinking, Hallelujah! I can sell my keyboard for $700 and then put it together with this and get a couple hundered more and BAM! CP300!
I looked online that weekend and saw a CP33 which is the edition right under for $780 on ebay. I was kinda bummed. I was thinking, If only the money was here right now, I could have bought this board, but it will be too late in 4 weeks!! Then, I remembered God and confessed to Him, No, I trust you, you know what I want, Love.
A week later, I received the tax papers that I had to sign to get the process started. The cover letter on top of the thick packet of papers said, Your refund amount will be paid in the amount of $1,816.00 and it will be processed and given to you in the next 4 weeks after you sign the appropriate forms. I was completely beside myself! That was more than doubled the amount that they told me. I signed the forms and put it in the mail the next day. What was God up to? I felt that familiar feeling of Him taking the reins.
The next day, Rebecca, (who's mom is my tax lady) flew in for my birthday! I told her about the amount and she said it seemed like a type-o and that we would call her mom the next morning to fix it. The next morning, I woke up early and decided to check my bank account. Well, to my shocking surprise, $1, 816.00 was deposited into my account!!!! This didn't make sense. It was only 2 days after I sent the return. The stamped envelope had to hit California and get processed first! God did something! I was ecstatic! I had to go to the bathroom and wash my face and cool off, and I remember thinking, God! What is this? Suddenly, I heard Him in my heart say in my heart, Because you've been faithful. I remember feeling a violent disagreement with this statement in heart. But then I remembered, By the word of the Lord were the heavens and earth made and I will receive His word over me....
I looked online and around at different stores and was somewhat discouraged. This Yamaha CP300 that I wanted cost $2, 199.00. I kept telling the Lord that I know that He is the Author and Finisher and that He won't start something without finishing it. The next day, I looked on ebay and I found a reboxed brand new with factory waranty Yamaha CP300 for $1850.00. My parents gave me a check for $50 for my birthday and I already had $200 in my bank prior to so I used that to in order to pay tithes, so it all totaled out to having a little more than $1850.00!!
I cannot believe that my CP300 that was just a dream a few weeks ago is sitting in my very bedroom! That keyboard a thing of beauty, not just because of aesthetics, but because of the beauty of God in His faithfulness speaking faithfulness over me, wretched and broken, me.
Sidenote: I have this thing about green, right? It's truly my favorite out of existing colors in the world. Thus my guitar's name is Baby Jade--the precious green glass..and so the name for the CP300...Lady Emerald. Because, she is royalty and I feel like a pauper in her presence. I'll take a picture for you guys. Ps. Emerie for short when we're just kickin it girlfriends, oldschool.
Moral of my story:
If you bring the Lord your love with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength- or atleast posture your heart to do so, you will ask for wonders AND GET THEM! :)
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|  Wow, it has been a long, LONG time, my friends. I apologize. Well, what is new, you say? Well by this time, many things have been new that are now old. I'll do my best to give you the brightest of the highlights. I did teach 4th grade last school year, as the last little "article" told ya. That was wonderful. Those children were definitely hurting and God used me to speak truth into their lives. This is definitely a fatherless generation. This summer I got to visit one of my closest of pals, Rebecca, and she and I actually met up in South Carolina to see Jonathan and Lisa, two of the friends we taught with in South Korea. It had been a year since we all left Korea. We gathered in South Carolina because some of the kids we taught in Korea and their parents there for a week! We spent time together for a few days and caught up and shared memories and took pictures. I spent the rest of the summer in Rochester, NY with Beck, (Rebecca) where she is in grad school. Her and her roomies were a blast. When I came back home to MO, I had much prepping and orientation before the new school year. I recieved a job at the same school to teach 2nd graders. (That's us in the top picture.) God worked it all out for me because there was just one opening and this was my favorite grade to teach. I took it! So as of 3 months, I have been teaching my fun-tastic, overly exuberant little 2nd graders. I really enjoy this grade because they are just so darn blunt, oblivious of people's opinion, hilarious unintentionally, cute as heck, sponges awaiting to absorb knowledge, a great balance of independence/dependence and my favorite--randomly and genuinely hug-y. I can honestly say that I am never bored. I am either laughing my head off or a little peeved about something naughty they've done. I am completely devoid of dull moments in that classroom. There are no slate gray, down tempo cubicles involved--(basically, I do not work on the set of Office Space). I have a very lively bunch that keep me on my toes (almost literally) all day long. One thing they have taught me is that consistency equals exhaustion. I feel at times that I am parenting twenty-one little 7 and 8 year olds. About half of them are independent, too smart, and too grown for their age while the rest of them are kind of needy and in need for me to read/explain to them anything with words because of the lack of parent involvement at home. Some kids come to school with old, holey clothes and hungry and it hurts to see them missing out on a good childhood. On the light side, I have about 4 students that are exceptionally hyper ones who also conveniently believe in their little hearts that they are super heroes. No. Seriously. I have one who thinks he is Spiderman and shoots spider webs around the classroom when the rest of us are at the carpet working on decoding new words. Geez. There is one who thinks he is Hulk, and who dismisses himself ever so conveniently from our world and goes off about the room with a "hulk trot"-imaginary muscles and all. Yes, but it's not funny when you are his teacher. You try telling Hulk to trot back to earth and to phonics, at that. Hulk has no interest in learning double o's or frequently misspelled words, for that matter. Well, besides all that drama, I am really enjoying my little "cottage" with my fabulous roommates. I call it so, because well, it just looks like a cottage from the outside. Really, it's a 5 bedroom town home with a neat living room and basement and such. It's cozy and comfortable and just suits me nicely, I think. I still have my guitar and keys and music stuff going on up in my room, and am also taking vocal coaching from a classically trained missy. I am still writing and just loving the Lord and interceding for whatever/whoever He puts on me to pray about. Um. Let's see. Oh yeah! I got to go home to Texas to see my wonderful family and pals for Thanksgiving. That was tremendously wonderful for my heart. I do miss it, but I gotta say, fellow cowboys/gals, there is no lasso in Texas strong enough to pull me away from the beauty I experience here everyday. I kinda live for Kansas City's towering trees rooted on their hilly land homes, and for being surrounded by her gorgeously bright painted dead leaves buried in pure white snow. When the snow melts, the leaves' pretty colored faces are seen again. I can't trade it in for Texas right now. Maybe later. AND maybe later, I will continue to bore you with Kansas City sentiment. Just kidding. However the pictures here show the place and true reason why I am still here in KC, MO...teaching my little friends. In this perverse world, these are the mouthpieces that need to be raised up to make war for righteousness in the name of Jesus Christ. Well, God bless you, keep you and shine all up on ya- 'til next time.    
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|  Guess gee-golly what, Bobby? I have some good news, don't-cha know? I went to my interview last Friday, pressed, dressed, carressed by the Word. I was ready to go! I drove to the Elementary school, and as I was getting out of the car, I could hear the Lord's voice so near, "Take a deep breath, you're alright. " As I was approaching the doors of the school, he said, "I am proud to present you." While I was waiting for them to call me to the backroom for the interview, he said, "You are a daughter of the Most High." These three things I held on to tightly. God was asking me to relax, take confidence and heart and him, and was telling me that he was proud of me and that I belonged to Him. This made it quite a bit easier to sit back. When they called me in, I was asked to sit down at table where already seated was the Principal, School Counselor, the 4th grade teacher I was being interviewed to replace and another teacher. They introduced themselves and told me what the interview was specifically for. It was for a fourth grade teaching position, which I already knew, but I did not know it was for the remainder of this school year and the following school year. I felt like I should just go along with the interview. I knew if God wanted me to do this, I would get it. If not, no. At the first of it, I was a bit nervous, and my brain was telling my mouth to say the cool things it was thinking, but it did not come out so well. After about a minute or two, it picked up and I felt such a grace to give such "Miss America" answers. Meaning, they asked all kinds of questions about student/teacher/parent scenarios, standardized testing, inner-city students and my experience, my teaching and discipline styles, reaching individual students, etc. The Lord gave grace to my lips and I was speaking and some of the most enjoyable answers came out. They were writing away and taking notes furiously as I spoke. At the conclusion of the interview, they said, "Thank you, Jodie, and we will contact the candidates on Monday and inform them of the status of the position." I walked to the car in such a confidence of God that I could have skipped like Little Red Riding Hood. Seriously. He had a special cloak on me. It was nuts. I was driving home, reminding myself of the importance of resting in Him, like I told you guys earlier. When I went home, I started trying to analyze it, and I told myself to stop, and remain underneathe the shadow of His wings. I told the Lord, I don't know if you want me at this school, if you do, give me the job, and if not, I don't even want it. But I had such a good feeling, such a prominent peace. The craziest thing happened next, I layed down on the sofa and fell into such a deep sleep. I usually wake up to anything, I'm such a light sleeper. It's like the Lord LITERALLY had me rest in Him. I woke up to my cell phone ringing at about 2:30PM. It was the counselor of the school. "May I speak to Jodie Varghese?" "This is Varghese," I said, because I was so disoriented. Hilarious! "Ms. Varghese, we would like to offer you the 4th grade teaching position at our school, are you still interested?" Of course, I was. I had to find out how to do a backflip or something quick. I was major-ly happy. They couldn't even wait until Monday! God is magnificent! So, I am a 4th grade teacher starting the 25th of February. Yeehaw! This here is a picture of my 2nd grade students that I student taught in Mesquite 2 years ago. Just thought I'd celebrate children with a picture of some of my old students. Cutsies they are.
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|  It was a matter of a minute before we pulled in to the driveway of an older, tranquil, cute little house. I walked in and it seemed so peaceful. Hazel led me to my room and it was terrific! The walls were-guess what! GREEN! It so happens to be my favorite color and what is incredible is that the walls of my room in Texas are also a similar, but brighter pistachio color! It took but a few moments until I started thinking it would be “home”. I journaled as soon as possible, thanking the Lord for his kindness and stubborn faithfulness. Hazel informed me that rent would be $175 a month. This includes utilities, high speed internet, a brand new free washer and dryer, my own room and privacy! With the check I had received and after tithes, I had exactly $180. I knew the Lord was at work. That evening, I continued journaling, Lord, I’m hungry, but I know that you will take care of food. Just like he reminded me at the airport. Elijah and the ravens. Then it hit me, there was this place called “The Garage” which is this area where organic stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods come and drop off a bunch of their extra food for the ministry students at IHOP. I went into the kitchen where Hazel was and asked her if we could stop by there. She said that she had no idea what I was talking about, “I don’t know what you are talking about, but, you see all this food in this house?” (There were all kinds of organic groceries-fruits and vegetables and fresh bread and pastries and meats and you name it!) “We don’t buy groceries in this house-we go to “The Drop,” She explained that this is a place where quite similarly, Whole Foods has all of this extra food and donates it to IHOP ministry students and families. She told me that I was welcome to eat anything in the house and that we were going to “The Drop” the next morning. Yea! We went and guess what! I had more than I could ask for! WOW-is all that was ringing through the praise halls of my heart. The month has flown by. There were some problems in the relationship dynamics of the house between a couple of the people living there. Just last Thursday, after 3 ½ weeks at the house, the problems between the roommates escalated, and as strange as this may sound, I knew in my heart that my tiny season at the little house had come to a sudden halt. The Lord came and whisked me right out of there within a matter of a 2 days. He paved ways for me to live with my Internship small group leader. I am living there as of now, with 3 other girls in an apartment. No, it is not easy as red velvet cake, but I know he has always has me living with different people than myself to dig out different struggles in the old chambers of my heart, and turn me into gold. This is where I am today, but who knows for tomorrow. I have learned to keep my wings handy. I never know when he wants me up and out. Every day has been a spirit-flesh struggle. I have to understand my role as a daughter of the King. He has been teaching me that the most important job I have as a Christian is to rest. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,” right? Well, what is love without trust, and trust discards itself without rest. I am camping out underneath the shadow of his wings. I hope I’ll meet you there.
Ps. I have an interview at an inner-city school for a 4th grade teaching position at 9:30Am Friday, February 8. Please pray for me. AND I am turning 25 on the 23rd of this month! AAA! Pss. Some have been asking for my mailing address to send postcards, pictures of your baby, tambourine catalogs. OK-here it goes. This will only be good for this month cause I might be moving again, obviously. Peace, Love and the Dove! Jodie Varghese 3307 E. 113th Terrace Kansas City, MO 64137 | | |
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