Browsed by
Category: Dorm at Kent Academy

#alt=The Trouble with Food, debbiejoneswarren.com
The Trouble with Food

The Trouble with Food

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The bright morning sun streamed through the classroom windows at the boarding school for missionaries’ children in central Nigeria. Twenty of us second-graders stared intently at the teacher while she explained the arithmetic problem on the blackboard. My tummy rumbled loudly. The stout, gray-haired woman turned, holding her piece of white chalk in midair. “Whose stomach was that?” The kids around me giggled and pointed my way. “Debbie, didn’t you eat your breakfast?” “Well, yes. But I didn’t eat much.”…

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#alt=Change Table Day, debbiejoneswarren.com
Change Table Day

Change Table Day

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The noon siren wailed, telling us it was lunchtime at Kent Academy, the boarding school for missionary’s children in central Nigeria. “I’ve been waiting for hours to eat,” I said to the other first-grade girl next to me as I closed my desk drawer. “I’m starving.” She crinkled her eyebrows. “Are we having something good for lunch?” I shrugged. “The food here tastes weird to me, and I really miss my mom and dad. No matter how hungry I get,…

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#alt=Hospital building, Comfort is Hard to Come By, debbiejoneswarren.com
Comfort is Hard to Come By

Comfort is Hard to Come By

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The morning sunlight streamed through the crack at the side of the curtain, and I blinked my eyes awake. As I sat up in bed, pain shot through my right arm. Even wrapped in a cloth bandage, my right arm throbbed from when I fell off the monkey bars the day before, on the playground at the boarding school for missionary kids in Nigeria. I scooted to the edge of my lower bunk in the dormitory and slid my feet…

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day

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A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. Proverbs 17:17 I stared out the window of the second-grade classroom at the tall mango tree and listened to the birds tweeting in its branches. The drone of the teacher’s voice faded quietly into the background. My racing heartbeat slowed for a moment. Then the chalk screeched on the blackboard, and I quickly turned my head toward the front of the classroom. I don’t…

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book cover with a blue toy train engine running down the tracks
The Little Engine That Could

The Little Engine That Could

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God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 (KJV) After dinner, I raced to my bedroom in the second-grade hall of the girls’ dorm, my nerves jangling from the noise of the dining room and the constant commotion of people around me. Yesterday I had to fly here to Kent Academy, all day, I could hardly breathe, because my tummy felt clamped shut with homesickness. Especially at mealtime. At home, I loved sitting at…

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The wardrobe and bunk bed in girls dorm
Don’t Cry, Little Debbie

Don’t Cry, Little Debbie

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O Lord, you know everything about me. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away…and when I rest at home. You place your hand of blessing on my head. (Excerpts from Psalm 139:1-5 NLT) “Welcome back to Kent Academy for second grade,” the Auntie said with a smile. I carefully stepped out of the blue VW van parked on the playground in front of the girls’ dorm in Miango, Nigeria. “Follow me, Debbie, and I’ll show you to your…

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