We’ve been doing swimming for P.E.  Every Friday we pack up the school early and drive out to Kamsar.  This has been a nice end to our week, and a great way to beat the heat.  One of the greatest things about this, though, has been Jesse.  Jesse is 8 years old, somewhat tall for his age, but has been deathly afraid of the pool.  He’s happy to swim around in the baby pool, but refuses to get in the big pool, in spite of the fact that his four year old, pint-sized brother is a daredevil in the pool.

  For the past three weeks he’s been telling his mom on Thursday nights that he’s too sick to go to school the next day.  I believe he probably was sick from anxiety, but nothing beyond that.  Then when we would arrive at the pool, he always had this look of anguish on his face and would nearly always begin to cry.  This was all rather ridiculous, because he’s a decent swimmer and the lessons always end joyfully with Jesse swimming around, diving for objects at the bottom and staying in the water well past the lesson time.

     But yesterday was the greatest. We knew we had reached a breakthrough when he arrived at school excited for swim lessons, without any sign of sickness or worry.  During our swim time he successfully swam the whole length of the pool without any help.  Then to top it all off, we were able to convince him to jump off the diving board in the deep end, and he loved it.  Our time ended with Jesse jumping off in a big karate kick jump, a big smile on his face, just as his mom walked in. Corinne was thrilled and shocked to see him so happy.  

     It’s a small thing to be sure, but these kinds of victories make teaching worthwhile.  We’re grateful God has allowed us to be a blessing in helping these kids this year.  The greatest blessing is being used by God.  If only our neighbors saw us as a blessing too…our mission would be complete.