Gospel follow-up

Many of you knew that I had shared the gospel with the students the week before Holy Week. Every day I introduced a new word in English to teach them English while teaching them the gospel.  It is difficult to know exactly how it was received, because of the setting, but some students definitely seemed receptive. Pray for their hearts.  The few times I did have students raise their hands, there were at least a handful that said they had made a decision to follow Jesus for the first time. Hallelujah!

I also saw the Lord at work in some classrooms, which was evident by their attention and look of conviction in some cases. Below are a couple pictures of my presentation of the gospel, a raise of hands demonstrating who wanted to follow Jesus (unfortunately skewed by the fact that I was taking a picture...), and a picture of a cross that I made with the students on the last day as we talked about having LIFE in Christ.

Gospel presentation

crosses we made as a class

With Jesus we can have LIFE

Students who want to live for Jesus

Woodlands Reflections

The other missions trip that came in March was from Stevens Point, WI from a church named Woodlands. It was a fun bunch of Juniors in high school who came to play kickball, help out at a children's home, and partner with the local youth group.  :)

Marie and I met the group the day of the camp. They were great from the beginning! They were very well-prepared, flexible, and fun to work with!

Going into it, Marie and I knew the schedule was going to be tight because of the nature of the culture of Guatemala and the school. The kids are rarely in their classrooms after recess and sometimes classes are not prepared on time as people from the United States expect. I prayed that the Lord would miraculously allow all the classes to complete the kickball camp since we had such a tight schedule.

He said yes! Throughout the week all the students in the school were able to play kickball. Praise the LORD!

The group also helped out at a local children's home by painting trees to keep away bugs and bagging donations of rice, beans, and powdered milk. Finally, they served with the local youth group by running their weekly youth group one night and partnering with small groups to visit homes to encourage local youth.

It is awesome to see how the Lord works through all. Praise the LORD, one of the youth that was visited accepted Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior and has now been attending Youth Group and church for the past week! Continue to pray for Him and the rest of the homes that were visited, that the Lord would be glorified and that they would continue to see the Lord's work in their lives.

Finally, as we visited homes, I was thinking about the practicality in the United States. I didn't see 15- and 16-years-old in the United States having time or hospitality to invite a bunch of people into their homes, simply due to the nature of the United States culture. However, the Lord confirmed in me that there are ways to encourage youth in the United States. Our small groups can take visit with students over coffee, invite them to our houses to play games and have a little chat, and I'm sure there are other ways too. What ways is the Lord asking you or your small group to encourage someone in your life this week?

I definitely can think of ways that the Lord wants to use me to encourage and challenge those I know, both those younger than me and the same age as me.

In conclusion, our God is amazing and is always working in our lives. Sometimes we just need to know what to look for, but He is always there!

Love from Guatemala <3

Why am I here? Part 2

Earlier I wrote a post about living like a missionary and asked the question, "Why am I here?"

Well, God is always refining. :)

Last week he gave me a revelation as I was getting frustrated and losing focus.

They are going to forget English. I am going to forget Spanish. An eternal salvation will never be lost.

I realized that I was missing my purpose here. My goal here is not to teach English. My goal here is to spread the gospel of Christ. Part of that is teaching English, but that is not my goal. Because of the work of the local church, Los Olivos, we are permitted to talk about God in the schools. Every day I pray before class, but this wasn't enough. I knew I needed to do more.

This week is the week before Holy Week, which is a big deal here, especially because of the Catholic influence. In fact, all of the schools have the whole week off. 

I felt the Lord telling me to present the gospel, so that is what I am doing. How cool! I get to present the gospel in the public school!

Every day I am sharing a word of the gospel (holy, sin, cross, resurrection) and singing The Doughnut Song (from The Donut Man). On Thursday I plan to do a craft or something of the sort to share the resurrection/Easter story. I would love prayers for the Spirit to touch lives and to guard our places with the protection of His armor! Praise the Lord!

Adventures in the School

School is school. But school is different in Guatemala. Everyday has a new adventure, twist, turn, something unexpected.

The other day was a beautiful twist. I was standing all alone when a student came by to say hello (this is normal), but they we proceeded to walk around the soccer field (which is really just a pile of dirt with 2 frames of soccer goals). The twist was that we were singing Christmas carols! She sang in Spanish and I sang in English. It was truly beautiful and couldn't help but praise the Lord for the beauty of that moment. Two languages, one song, same God.

Then there was the time that recess was 50 minutes long, rather than 30 minutes long, which meant that I had 20 minutes of my 40 minutes taken away from my next class. Oh wait, that's everyday!

Last month there was also an instance where all the students were in the classroom without a teacher (oh wait, that's normal too!), but this was for all day. The other teachers just checked in on the class periodically to make sure they were on task and not killing each other.

Every day is an adventure and I learn about the differences between United States and Guatemalan schools, but it is such a privilege to experience differences and know that God still loves us all every day, no matter what twist or turn may come our way!