Does it really happen like this??

That morning I had prayed for more opportunities to share the gospel. I had prayed that the Lord would bring people into the café who needed to know him. And that afternoon she walked through the doors.
A cute small dark haired Ecuadorian came up to the register when I happened to be sitting there (doing nothing because there wasn’t anyone in the shop). She asked me if I knew of any churches she could go to, so I started to tell her that we all went to different churches and she could come with us to any of ours. And then I asked her what her story was and how she heard about El Sendero and she stood there in front of me at the register and began to cry.
I offered her a seat and a tissue as she began to share a part of her story. I quickly found out her name was Carmen and she was 26 years old. Her family is Catholic and her brother is evangelical and she just knew that there was something missing in her life. She looked at me with all sincerity and said, “I want to have a relationship with God but I don’t know how.” (If that’s not an introduction to the gospel, I don’t know what is!) I asked her if I could share with her from the Bible how she could have a relationship with God and she said she would really like that.
Sidenote: for some reason my Spanish was really awful that day. So as I spoke I just prayed that she understood what I was saying. This is where I am SO glad that the Word speaks for itself and that God is more powerful than my Spanish mumblings.
I asked her if any of what I had just said made sense, and she said, “Let me see if I understand, so you’re saying…” and spit the entire gospel back to me. YES! That was what I was trying to say, but didn’t think I was doing a very good job at it!
Over the past 2 days, Carmen has come with me to youth group and church. My church is a little full on, but she seemed to like it. As we walked to church yesterday she began to cry again as she explained to me that he dad was a Catholic and he would not approve of her coming to church with me, but that she knew this was right and desperately wanted to know God.
Today at 3:00, we are meeting to start studying the Word because she wants to know. Please pray that Carmen would truly understand the love of God and his desire to have a relationship with her.

The Thing I was most afraid of has come true…

Before I moved here I remember crying about the Thing I was most afraid of. Some peopl wondered if it was the lack of friends… others thought maybe getting sick… or new food… or new culture… but I really I was TERRIFIED that my Spanish would never be good enough to express my heart.

This week it happened. Three different times I had the opportunity to share my heart with someone and I was found wanting due to my lack of Spanish ability. Here’s the story: Leydi is a friend that I’ve been hanging out a lot with and we’ve gotten really close. Right now she is having some guy “issues” and so we met for lunch. She explained to me her desire for a good man and when I asked if she could just be single for a while she said, “No.” And then asked me how I did it.

The there was Philippe. He’s a guy in the English class. This week we ended up talking about heaven for a really long time. He told me how only good people go to heaven. We discussed what separated a good person from a bad person… and eventually he asked for my opinion.

And finally it was at the Bible study as Gabi, one of the girls told a story about her mom not liking the fact that she was going to the Bible study. Last week her mom asked, “Are you turning into a Christian?” She calmed her mom’s fears as she told her that she was indeed still Catholic. This week as she was heading out the door to go to Bible study, her mom stopped her to tell her that if this “change” in her life was due to this Bible study, then she was fine with Gabi going.

Did I have deep thought-provoking words to tell Leydi? No, but I did share with her how my Jesus completes me. That he satisfies me loves me deeply.

Did I have a theologically worded argument to tell Philippe? No, but I told him how much God desired to have a relationship with sinners like me. That no one was good enough to have a relationship with the perfect God of the universe and THAT is why he sent Jesus.

Did I encourage Gabi with a well-worded monologue? Of course not but I loved her and I praised God because of the growth that I (and her mom) see in her.

This week I was more frustrated that I have been in the last 3 months over my Spanish. I was on the verge of tears during Spanish class on Friday. As I sat on the steps and cried out to the Lord, he brought back these three instances to my heart and said to me, “The thing you were most worried about, I took care of. No, your Spanish isn’t good enough to express every word on your heart, but I the Lord will speak for you and will say the things I want to say.

The thing I was most afraid of has come true, but the One I trust with all my heart has come through for me in spite of my inadequacy.

6:00 en punto...

I think God shows MORE power by using an inadequate instrument like me that just making something happen out of thin air. Today I had my first Spanish Bible Study. To say the least, I was absolutely terrified. But as per usual, God took little me to use for His glory.

Maria, Gabi, Maria de los Angeles and I started studying the Purpose Driven Life at 6:00 EN PUNTO (Ecuadorians are NEVER on time, but they weren’t just on time, they were EARLY!! This is a miracle in and of itself). I had all my questions written out in Spanish so that when I got stuck, I could go back to my notes… but I didn’t need them. The Lord took over. After we read the first chapter, Maria de los Angeles said, “Jesus tells us to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. So many people have a “Jesus” category and a “you” category. But if this is true, than your WHOLE life is His, not just a part.” I love hearing the thoughts of new believers. They haven’t had time to spiritualize everything or make everything fit in their little box. They just call it how they see it. I loved her raw honesty… “How do you do that??”

It was amazing to see God use our conversation to bring about more questions and more thoughts… let’s just say I can’t wait to see what HE does next week.