April 20, 2008
Lesson one: Listen to your host family. The bathroom door lock at Leon and Ryan’s house was broken. Jorge told Leon not to close the door or he would be sleeping in the bathroom. It took Leon approximately 3 minutes to lock himself inside. Thankfully Ryan was able to bust him out with a couple credit cards, but not before the two of them learned a valuable lesson about obedience.
This morning our team spent the mornings with our host families. Kim and I are staying with the Valle Cruz Family. Calin and Raquel are the parents and Andrea and Juan Carlos are the kids. Andrea knows some English and her parents are making her practice it as much as possible while we’re around.
They made us a typical El Salvadoran breakfast: eggs, beans, cheese, platanos, watermelon, and coffee.
After breakfast they introduced us to their pet turtle, se llama Gordo:
After spending a little time with our house families, they took us to the church service where Pastor Victor spoke on the qualities of a true friend:
- Un amigo esta confiable (trustworthy)
- Un amigo esta transparente (transparent)
- Un amigo esta disponible (available)
- And un amigo esta respetuoso (respectful)
It was a very good message. We were challenged to really look to have those sorts of people investing in our lives, but even more so to make sure we be that kind of person.
Much like at the Rock, it took quite awhile for us to be able to leave the service. Everywhere you walk there’s another person to meet and/or catch up with. Today I’ve been thinking about John 13:34-35:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
If you’re looking to see this kind of love, hang out for an hour after The Rock in Minneapolis or the Iglesia Gran Comission in San Salvador. You won’t be able to escape it!
Then we went back to the church office to a bounty of KFC. Afterwards, Sarah M, a missionary here with Christina, took us through some extensive training for the classes we’d be planning and teaching for the remainder of our time.
Each teaching pair has about 8 to 12 2-hour-long classes to plan for throughout the week.
The purpose of our time with the students is to teach English and to lead to move people toward a personal relationship with Christ. We are using Bible stories to teach vocabulary and grammar and to test comprehension. For each class, there will also be icebreakers, activities, pronunciation, etc. The classes will be quite small, so we’re hoping to really get to know all our students. For example, Rob and I have seven students that we’ll be working with throughout the week.
The planning task was a LOT more work than any of us anticipated. I easily felt more exhausted after 3 hours of lesson planning than I ever did after a full day of hard labor in New Orleans.
Most of us were able to plan one or two lessons out, which is good. We’ll have a few more hours tomorrow to plan, and I imagine that we’ll have a better idea what sorts of things need to be worked out after we’ve taught a class and have met our students.
After several hours of planning, our group had a dinner of huevos, frijoles, tortillas, y platanos before heading back to our host homes.
As we were driving back to our host families, I began thinking about how personally overwhelmed I’ve been for the past 48 hours. When I look at all the schedule and the work that is awaiting us, I am quick to feel anxious and more than a bit over my head.
What I’m learning is that when I’m so busy that the very last thing I want to do is stop and pray and seek the Lord’s help and guidance, this is precisely the time when we most need to stop whatever we’re doing, humble ourselves, lay all our anxiety at His feet, and trust Him to take care of us and do His work within us. I am guilty of far too often trying to do my work without relying on the help our Lord gives freely.
My prayer for myself and for our team is Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.
Some more pictures:
Rob, myself, and Beth:
Lindsey and Kim:
Ryan and Ben and Eli:
A couple cultural things that I haven’t blogged about:
- We can’t drink the tap water or we’ll get sick. We use bottled water for brushing our teeth and make sure not to open our mouths while showering – no bigs!
- We can’t flush toilet paper. There is a little trash can by all the toilets where we put it. This is important, but unfortunately really easy to forget. I’ve had to fish out two pieces already (you might want to never touch my hands again).
- There are certain food stuffs we can handle, and certain food stuffs we cannot handle. For instance, pork and cabbage are big no’s. Our team leaders have been good about telling us what foods we can eat and what foods we can’t.
We found out last night that this yellow stuff sitting on the table was a big no:
But, of course, the delicious egg-dish on each of our plates was a resounding yes:
And finally, Jon:
Me gusta leer tus updates en la computadora. Ora (?) que nunca persona se sick (gets sick) y que Dios bendiga los todos with mucho energy. (Maybe I should have gone on the trip – my six years of Spanish is pretty rusty!)
Dios Bendiga!
pictures of everyone but Seth…(and Jamie, but Jon was wearing her Elvis glasses, so that almost counts)
I’m hurt Chrissy, really hurt!
I would like to meet Gordo, tho, he looks like one cool turtle…
I tried to get a picture of him with our leaders but they were too busy deciding important matters…
But hey thanks for the pictute of kevin. I love the updates. You are doing a great job.