Paul didn't lie when he said we shouldn't boast. Well, silly me was all excited these past couple weeks because I hadn't been bit by any mosquitos or bugs, hadn't seen anything decently scary yet (with the exception of this crazy stick bug the other day). Well. Spoke too soon. Today alone, we saw a huge boa at the water tower, we found a huge tarantula climbing on the bilingual songbooks in the house before Alfa, and I squashed a little scorpion in the casita about 10 minutes ago. I hope that's the last of that. Gross. The past few days have been surprisingly not TOO crazy. Although, we pretty much all have gotten sick hah. Amy has a fever, Liz and Julia have had some stomach issues, and I had this like super weird fatigue all day Sunday. Natalie is the only one who has not fallen victim. Give it time. But, for the most part, we're all getting better, so not to worry!
Saturday morning was pretty great though. We went to Margarita to give guitar/piano lessons again. Last week there were like 20 people that came, which was pretty chaotic. It seems that they fulfilled the Great Commission and told all their friends, because this week, there were over 40 people there and only 4 of us. So, in a crowded room with 6ish pianos, and probably like 9 or 10 guitars, we added to the praises in heaven. The kids I taught seemed to understand pretty well, so that was good to see. Probably my favorite part though, was a young man whose name escapes me. He has cerebral palsy but I remember Penny Alden (one of the missionaries here) saying "this young man just absolutely wants to play the guitar so bad! that's all he talks about, so he's coming to your class on Saturday". So, I went up to him and he had a guitar in his hands, and I taught him like 4 different chords. And he was so good! I would say "Toca D" and he would play a D-chord without me having to reposition his fingers! And I wish I could put into words the smile on this boy's face. It was just so so so full of joy. And as he played his D-chord and sang "Alabare" with such happiness, I could just imagine the look on God's face. He quite possibly had a bigger smile than that boy did.
At 4:00 every afternoon we go down to Lucinda to teach English. Yesterday Julia and I went and spent about 40 minutes trying to simply teach "What's your name? My name is...". It took awhile for the two girls we were teaching to comprehend, but they finally got it. So today when I went back with Liz, we stood in front of the class and went up to every single person in the class and said "What's your name?" and they responded with "My name is (their name)". It was so exciting to hear them finally understand. I think the class enjoys us gringos as well hah.
I think a lot of times when people think of missions trips (and Dr. Don has said this a lot too), they think a group is coming to simply put on a VBS or paint a building or bring all kinds of stuff down. But every day I'm seeing that that's not what it should be! We're here to build relationships-- to meet new people and to show them Christ's love in how we act and how we love them. As I mentioned earlier, there's two girls from Rio Esteban that we've recently become friends with; Deyni and Delmi. 
They are Victelia's daughters. They really want to learn english (and naturally we really want to learn Spanish) so they are spending the night here tonight. We went to the water tower together, went star gazing, and they're constantly asking us different phrases in English. The two of them are such an encouragement. They shared tonight at Alfa about forgiving others because Christ forgave us. It's just really cool to see them like, taking a leadership role in their community. And it's been really neat to hear what it's like to be a Christian in such a different place. They're both very patient with us when we speak Spanish, and they speak very slowly so we can understand. It's just very encouraging and we've definitely been having a lot of fun getting to know them. I'm pretty sure we're all staying the night at their house on Friday-- that will definitly be a cultural experience haha.
They are Victelia's daughters. They really want to learn english (and naturally we really want to learn Spanish) so they are spending the night here tonight. We went to the water tower together, went star gazing, and they're constantly asking us different phrases in English. The two of them are such an encouragement. They shared tonight at Alfa about forgiving others because Christ forgave us. It's just really cool to see them like, taking a leadership role in their community. And it's been really neat to hear what it's like to be a Christian in such a different place. They're both very patient with us when we speak Spanish, and they speak very slowly so we can understand. It's just very encouraging and we've definitely been having a lot of fun getting to know them. I'm pretty sure we're all staying the night at their house on Friday-- that will definitly be a cultural experience haha.So, all in all, life is going well. It has its ups and downs but thanks to encouragement from friends from home and here, we will keep pressing on. We drive down the roads now and know many of the people by name. We always smile and wave-- everyone smiles and waves back. This country is beautiful and I wouldn't trade this opportunity for the world.
Go read Matthew 6 and be encouraged. God, the Grand Creator of this incredible world we live in-- cares about you more than anything. If only I could learn to tell people that in Spanish...
Con amor en Cristo,
Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment