Salvation Poem

This past Saturday I got the opportunity to spend some time with some of the youth from the church. There is a movie that has come out here about the Christian rock artist Pablo Oliveras from Argentina. He grew up in a Christian home, but in high school became a Satanist. The movie is all about his time messing with the occult and his mother continuously praying for him. It's a moving movie about the power of prayer. Anyway, the church had planned to go and the plan was to meet at 3 at the church. Well as things do here, the plan changed. The new plan was to meet at 6:30 in town at the taxi stop. I went into town with 2 of the kids from the habitat village and Ken's son Tim. When we got into town, we found out that the trip had been postponed until the next Saturday. Well since we had already paid to get into town, we decided to go. Tim went home. So we get to the mall and go to the theatre (which is really nice. 8 screens). What moved me even more than the movie was that when we were getting ready to go in, both of the kids' faces lit up. Florangel kept saying, "We're going in, we're going in. We're in!" I always know that there are things that we take for granted in the States, but this really opened my eyes. And to think about what they sacrificed to pay to get into the city and into the movie. The church paid half, but still. I was so moved to see how walking into a movie theatre completely brightened the day of 2 young people. If that simple act can better a life, then think about how much of a difference can be made by doing small things for the less fortunate in the world.

Mucho mejor

Thank you to everyone out there who has kept us in your prayers. This week is starting out much better and I have a joyous feeling that it will stay this way. There are of course always things to deal with, but as far as the major issues of last week, they are mostly behind us now. Over the weekend I prayed for patience, wisdom and guidance and strongly believe that God has granted me these.
It went very well this past week at Milagro. On Thursday we went out for the evening service. Jorge is a ten year old who has no school, no shoes, and has to take care of his little sister, but is still always happy to be there and even shows up when we are working and helps however he can. By the faint glow of the generator operated fluorescent lights, I saw a kid running up the hill from the village. He had a cap on and when he got to the door he gave me the biggest hug. I'm sure you have figured out by now that it was of course Jorge. That hug meant a lot to me. It was a little thing that made a big difference in a difficult time. I also noticed that he had a pair of shoes on his feet. They were bright pink flip flops about 5 sizes too big, but they were still protection for his feet. God always amazes me at how he can use the little things to touch our hearts and change our lives.

Prayer Requests

Hey everyone. Well this week was a little rough for the school. Things are going really well in Milagro. I'm constantly amazed at how quickly my fluency is improving. I ask that you keep the school in your prayers. We had 3 major situations come to our attention this week and although I can't share all details with you, I can ask you to pray. We, Ken, Maria, the director, and I, need wisdom and guidance in how to handle each situation. It seems to me that the enemy does not want this first class to graduate.

April 2nd and all is well

It has been a fast 3 weeks. Everything is going really well. I teach 5 hours of English a week. One hour with each of the 5 Secondary School grades. It has been interesting. I am strengthening my Spanish a lot by teaching them. I have been amazed at how much the kids know. They are just scared to use it. Which I completely understand. Speaking a strange language is scary. Next week we are going to start doing short dramas (sketches) to better their pronunciation. Things are also going well at Milagro. The services on Thursday evening and Sunday morning are both well attended. I have been sharing the preaching duties with the pastor from the main church. The people are very gracious and help me when I'm stumbling with a word. It's interesting, because most analogies that I would normally use don't make sense to the people in this village. It is something I've never thought of before. I started sharing a story about a lamp that isn't plugged in being useless and then realized that 90% of them had no idea that there were lamps that could be plugged in. Milagro is one of the more remote villages and they use kerosene lanterns. I love the work out there. i have also been spending quite a bit of time in the office seeing as how Ken is in the States for this month to be with his dad. I have had some responsibilities that I didn't expect, but nothing that has gone awry.
Yesterday was my birthday. I wasn't expecting to do anything but sleep in and stay home and rest (we didn't have classes yesterday or today), but I was pleasantly surprised by the Ruth and the teachers with a big lunch. Then I was surprised again when one of the elders in the church came knocking on my door and told me that they needed me at the church. We walked over and they had the people of the church there with gifts, cake, coffee. Way more than I ever expected. We just had a nice little time of worship and fellowship. Since their kids are in my English classes they were asking a lot of questions about English and the States and my daily life when I'm in the States. It was a lot of fun.