Exhausted. Another full day. But I got to write. Today we got to go to the university to invite students there to our bible talk on Friday. I think for a lot of us there were some fears. Mostly the language barrier and also the normal fears that come with sharing your faith. But josue did a great job at allaying those fears and building our faith. He read from mark about the paralytic and his friends and talked about seeing the solution rather than the obstacles. When we have faith we are able to see the end result and find a way to get there rather than being hung up by the obstacles in our way. The room that Jesus was in was full and yet they still found a way in. Through the roof! It really emboldened and unhindered us from feeling self-conscious about our language barriers and reminded us that God would show up powerfully if we acted in faith.
And He did! We got to the campus and split up in groups of two and three. I had the privilege of going out with marcello the campus leader. Once we took off the fear was pretty much gone and i threw myself in full force. I was greeting all sorts of people in my broken Spanish and marcello was taking up e slack and explaining what the church was about and the bible talk we were having at the end of the week. The great thing was that the majority of the people we met spoke English and they were more than happy to have the practice of speaking it. Most of them were very open to coming out and studying. Marcello told me I had the "eye of the tiger" because I chose the open people to talk to. I also got to connect with him a little bit about music and what I've learned that could help him. We ended up meeting and inviting 120 people out to bible talk and church. Jayelle invited 18 people on her own!
While we were meeting up to go home I met two other people, Antonio and another girl which I'm having trouble remembering the name but it means "alter of God". She was carrying a steven king book and I noticed it was in English and said "That's a great book." she immediately came over and started talking to me. Turns out she is an international relations student and knows quite a bit of English. She ended up talking to us for like 20 minutes. She should be coming out Friday.
After the university we went to the mall to have lunch. I had some amazing corn nuggets and then mister donut, which Mel has addicted me to.
Then we went to the church to do some painting of the walls and cleaning. A while back when I found out I was going on this trip, I had it on my heart to do a mural for them somewhere. I did not know how it was going to happen but Sara and I kept it in our back pocket just in case. Oddly enough, when Jonathan was briefing us this morning about the painting he asked if any of us were artists. Sara and I just looked at each other and raised our hands. "oh, good" he said "i don't know if it would be possible but Id like to do some sort of mural". He had no idea that we had been working on that idea. So we went off to get the supplies and came back and started on the mural. Sara and I put our heads together and used some of her character designs to create a pretty sweet mural for the kids room. I can't wait to post the pictures. But what was really cool was seeing everyone getting involved in making my dream a reality. Everyone was so excited to get involved and we ended up staying there through dinner about 4 hours longer than we were supposed to. I know it is going to have a lasting impression on generations and I am grateful God put it on my heart to make it happen.
I can't even tell you how fulfilling it is to use your talents for God. I feel I have been extremely blessed to be able to serve in ways that I love and I can't wait to continue to pour myself out.
In other news, jay has a new favorite Spanish word. Montegilla de caca huete. Shout that out! I gotta admit it's pretty fun to say. I think it may be my new favorite word too. It means peanut butter.
And He did! We got to the campus and split up in groups of two and three. I had the privilege of going out with marcello the campus leader. Once we took off the fear was pretty much gone and i threw myself in full force. I was greeting all sorts of people in my broken Spanish and marcello was taking up e slack and explaining what the church was about and the bible talk we were having at the end of the week. The great thing was that the majority of the people we met spoke English and they were more than happy to have the practice of speaking it. Most of them were very open to coming out and studying. Marcello told me I had the "eye of the tiger" because I chose the open people to talk to. I also got to connect with him a little bit about music and what I've learned that could help him. We ended up meeting and inviting 120 people out to bible talk and church. Jayelle invited 18 people on her own!
While we were meeting up to go home I met two other people, Antonio and another girl which I'm having trouble remembering the name but it means "alter of God". She was carrying a steven king book and I noticed it was in English and said "That's a great book." she immediately came over and started talking to me. Turns out she is an international relations student and knows quite a bit of English. She ended up talking to us for like 20 minutes. She should be coming out Friday.
After the university we went to the mall to have lunch. I had some amazing corn nuggets and then mister donut, which Mel has addicted me to.
Then we went to the church to do some painting of the walls and cleaning. A while back when I found out I was going on this trip, I had it on my heart to do a mural for them somewhere. I did not know how it was going to happen but Sara and I kept it in our back pocket just in case. Oddly enough, when Jonathan was briefing us this morning about the painting he asked if any of us were artists. Sara and I just looked at each other and raised our hands. "oh, good" he said "i don't know if it would be possible but Id like to do some sort of mural". He had no idea that we had been working on that idea. So we went off to get the supplies and came back and started on the mural. Sara and I put our heads together and used some of her character designs to create a pretty sweet mural for the kids room. I can't wait to post the pictures. But what was really cool was seeing everyone getting involved in making my dream a reality. Everyone was so excited to get involved and we ended up staying there through dinner about 4 hours longer than we were supposed to. I know it is going to have a lasting impression on generations and I am grateful God put it on my heart to make it happen.
I can't even tell you how fulfilling it is to use your talents for God. I feel I have been extremely blessed to be able to serve in ways that I love and I can't wait to continue to pour myself out.
In other news, jay has a new favorite Spanish word. Montegilla de caca huete. Shout that out! I gotta admit it's pretty fun to say. I think it may be my new favorite word too. It means peanut butter.
It remembers to me the american mission team that came in Tirana, Albania...The same fears they have, but in the end they went back full of zeal, faith and very inspired becuause God used them powerfully...a hundred came, for different motivations (to speak english or just to hang out with foreigners) but in the end some of them got to know God, his love and they are part of the church now...May God use your heart to serve in another state and may you feel used as God's hand to save as many as possible :)
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