God projects

Today is my last day here in Costa Rica for this summer! I can’t even believe it! Looking back it seems like it went quickly, but at the same time, it seems like forever since I was home! Today is going to be a great day. After school I have a graduation ceremony. Then I’m going to spend the evening with my host family. Hopefully I’ll be able to write an update about today, later on.

The highlight of my last week here was getting the chance to teach Bible study on Wednesday night – in Spanish! About three weeks ago I started going to a Bible study with my friends from school. A tico family that has been hosting students from school for over 20 years (they say that they have had over 200 students live with them!) holds a Bible study at their house every Wednesday night. The Bible study is for both Ticos from the community and students. The members of the host family are devote Christians and they genuinely want to help students learn Spanish and to equip them for the mission field. The bible study is a great opportunity for the students to utilize their Spanish skills because a different student leads Bible study every week. And since the host family only speaks Spanish, that forces everyone to step out of their comfort zone and use the skill they have been learning every day!

Well three weeks ago was my first time at this Bible study. I loved it! After it was over, they asked me and another girl if either of us would be willing to lead it the next week. My friend declined, so I volunteered! Ahhh, what had I just gotten myself into!? After all, I was a newbie! As the next week approached, I started preparing the lesson; however, in tune to Latin American culture, the Bible study got canceled for some unknown reason that week (Here in Costa Rica, if something starts at 12:00, that really means 12:15 - 12:30ish, and if ticos make plans, there’s about a 50% chance that they won’t happen…). So this week Bible study picked back up and I was still scheduled to teach.

My mom gave me the idea to teach on Mark 9 when Jesus healed the deaf and mute boy who also had an evil spirit living inside of him. My prayer while preparing for the Bible study was that the message that God wanted each person to hear was received despite my imperfections in Spanish. I was a little bit nervous when it finally came time, but I think that it went really well! I had everything written out exactly how I wanted to say it, so it was a challenge not to just read the lesson to everyone.

I had broken the lesson up into different sections. I had someone read a few verses of the main passage in Spanish and then in English and then I had other people read other verses that enhanced that section. To do this I had written each verse out on a separate note-card and numbered each note card in the order that they were to be read. The front of the note card said the reference of the verse that they were to look up and read in their Spanish Bibles, and the other side of the note card had the actual verse written out in English for them to read after they read it in Spanish. (There were students of all levels at the Bible study. Some who had only been learning Spanish since our program started, and some that were fluent. And thus, I wanted to read the scripture in both languages to ensure that everyone was able to understand that part). This note card system worked really well! I handed all the note cards out at the very beginning and everyone looked up their verse(s) so that as we went along, everyone was ready. There were enough verses so that each person was able to read at least one, some read up to three. This was great, because it got everyone participating and involved.

I also incorporated lots of questions into the lesson. Some of the questions were really simple, such as comprehension questions like: Who tried to heal the boy and couldn’t? Or: What did Jesus say was the reason that the disciples could not heal the boy? I also asked application questions such as: how does this story apply to our lives? What are some examples? I had my own answers prepared, which was good, because sometimes no one had anything to say (I’m sure they had answers, but sometimes it is difficult to communicate in Spanish on the spot like that – especially if you are a beginner). In such cases, I was able to give an example and use that to continue teaching and to keep things moving. I was a little bit worried before hand that I wouldn’t always understand their answers and be able to appropriately respond (because that’s not something that you can prepare for ahead of time!). But God is awesome because for the most part, I understood everything that everyone said! And, the mom of the host family was great! She was so helpful. She understood everything that I said and even added more to the lesson and articulated what I wasn’t able to say. She was really a blessing!

Overall, the main message of the lesson was that Christ gives us power, but that we can’t do anything without Him. We have to acknowledge Him and seek his help through prayer. If we try to do things on our own, then we either fail, or we miss out on the many blessings and the extraordinary things that could happen if we had let Jesus be in control. God gives us projects, just like the disciples. They were doing great things for Jesus, things that He had given them to do; however, we still need His help for every step along the way. We can’t accomplish any of our God given projects without Him. I felt that this was a very applicable message for us as we were all in Costa Rica doing a “God project” – learning Spanish (and believe me, learning another language with the goal of fluency is no easy task!). I also knew that each person also had other projects in his or her lives that were difficult. Such as aspects of their ministries, raising a family in a foreign country, raising support etc. And this is why my prayer was that God’s message for each individual person would be received. I didn’t know what each person needed to hear, who needed to be encouraged or who might be struggling with some tough God projects in their lives – but God knew. In closing, I used one of my favorite verses to encourage them (a verse that I tend to cling to around finals time…haha!):

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I know that God answered my prayer! After the Bible study, I walked home with another student. She has been in Costa Rica for a while and is now fluent in Spanish. She and her husband will be finishing their Spanish classes at the end of next week and then hopefully moving with their little kids to the mission field. As we were walking home, she shared with me that most of their support fell down the tube when the economy in the U.S. crashed. She said that this year has been extremely difficult because of that. The day of the Bible study, she had had a breakdown at lunch because they couldn’t even buy their plane tickets to go back to the U.S. to raise support. She laughed as she said that hearing the lesson, she knew that God was saying that she just need to trust Him and let it be His project. Wow! God is so great!

I absolutely loved getting to use my Spanish for something practical, something beyond doing little oral reports in class – something that glorified God! That’s truly what it’s all about! That’s why I’m here learning Spanish. Not so that I can enhance my résumé someday, but so that I can actually use it for the glory of God! I want to be able to communicate, encourage, and help Spanish speakers who might not otherwise be able to communicate. I can’t wait to see how God is going to use my Spanish in the future, because I honestly have no clue! But nights like last Wednesday give me a little taste of what’s to come someday, and I’m thankful for the opportunities, the God projects, that He gives me TODAY.