Since we are the first people to ever live in this village, we have to get acquainted with the village our own way. We were all a little nervous thinking about how we were going to get into this village, and we prayed God would open up a door for us. So Zoe(our amazing translator), Erica, and I thought, what better way to spend a first night than playing basketball with some highschoolers. When we walked up to them they looked at us like we were crazy haha. However, after a couple games we had made a connection(we hoped). Later on God answered our prayers. The people who we played basketball with came to our house and sat on our porch for over an hour just talking with us telling us about the village and inviting us to do a lot of things already. It was our first night! It was crazy how fast God provided for us.
On the second day we went to a beautiful river in the village with our friends from the night before. It was a great little journey with our new friends that we all really enjoyed. We continued to make our way around the village making a connection with a friendly neighbor I'll call Sarah. Sarah is very popular in the village and is a very sweet person we have been very happy to meet. We have a dinner date planned with her right when we get back.
Our 3rd day was so crazy! We get called into the president's office with all the principals of the school in the village. We figured out a schedule and were told we were going to teach a middle school class in 10 minutes. So me, in my teacher mindset, laughed because I am normally given a lot of time to think of a lesson plan, but when you are told to teach you teach! haha It ended up being great and such a highlight to my time in the village. Later in the week we were asked to teach at the elementary school starting on monday, so we are eager to begin those classes as well. We quickly became a lot busier than we ever thought we would. We started doing extra english practice in the afternoons, which some kids took advantage of that was great. However, one thing we have to get use to is that when you say we have an english review session at house house at 3 that means 3:30, 3:45, or even 4:30 to some people in the village. So that is something we are trying to adapt to and also to teach the kids about respect and responsibility. our translator told us this is problem throughout Mexico that needs to change. We also started a zumba class. Erica is a zumba instructor and one of the guys in the village leads a dancing class. He invited her to teach three times a week. So we tried that out and it went great! Around 30 women came and had a blast. We are excited to see where this goes. :)
Our fourth day we were super busy with teaching english and more teaching. Something my team and I are very adamant about is having a daily bible study with each other in the mornings. This is a great way to bring us together and encourage each other every day. We know how important it is to stay in the word individually and with each other in a place where the gospel has not been present. We taught and played a lot of soccer on this day which was great. Up to this point we had played a lot of basketball, which is not my best sport haha, but playing soccer really helped me challenge the kids and have a lot of fun with them. I am really enjoying these middle school kids we have been blessed to meet.
Our fifth day we left to go back to Oaxaca to discuss with the missionaries in Oaxaca and get supplies. However, we were able to teach a lesson before we went. :)
We have kept very busy to this point and are going to have to be diligent about planning rest time for us this coming week. We have made some great connections with a lot of people, but three people really stick out to us, Sarah, Luke, and Cindy. These three people have made a lot of time for us and have helped us get use to the village and introduce us to the village. We are excited to continue these friendships.
What we could us prayer for:
- This week we realized that the believers we knew of in the village have a very distorted view of what living as a Christian means. They had accepted Christ about twenty five years ago and have been without discipleship or teaching for that amount of time. They have now created their own view of Christ, which is very sad to us. Since this is an older couple we are going to pray that some older men can come and help describe what the bible truly says to these people and not what they think the bible says. This just proves how important disciple making really is. We need to not just tell people about Christ, but also teach people about Christ.
- We also have made some great connections this week and have some plans already for next week. So prayer that we can continue to develop a deeper friendship with them and share with them about Christ would be much appreciated.
I will continue to keep you as updated as possible. :)
May He and His Kingdom be glorified this summer no matter where you are in the world. :)
(p.s. There are some pretty pictures that are from a monastery in Oaxaca we went to visit on our day off! So pretty!)
Jordan :)
No comments:
Post a Comment