Nuevos Amigos

Hello All,
I had a wonderful weekend in Tegus, and I got to see Alvin! I was so blessed by his willingness to take time to visit with me. I spent the weekend with my girls and helping Tía Sara prepare for a Danish team and a couple from Belize that are staying at Alvin´s this week. (The couple from Belize are so amazing! Our interactions were so natural, and it was so easy to get along with them.) It was so nice to be back in that house that feels so much like home. I haven´t really been keeping track of time since I´ve been here, but occasionally, I get a reminder that I´ll have to leave at some point, and I undergo a wave of sadness. This place is home. I love it here, and once again, it will be very difficult to leave--although the abundant promises of God will make it easier.

I had a very interesting bus ride yesterday. I took the very last bus from Tegus--at 5. I made a knew friend on the ride--a man name Cesar who is a lawyer in Tegus. It was such a God thing to meet him. There was a man preaching on the bus for almost an hour--this is a pretty common occurrence actually. He was quite passionate in what he was saying, and I could see where his tone of voice could be interpreted as forceful or even angry. I was watching the reactions of people on the bus as this man was saying that if you don´t believe in God, you´re dead. And I was pondering the methodology. I have been asking God to teach me how to witness. I have been so burnt by church formulas for witnessing, so brainwashed by step-by-step blanket approaches, etc., that I don´t feel like I truly know how to share Jesus with someone else. This, however, is the perfect place to me because every person is different. Witnessing is meant to be a natural outpouring of Jesus´ love for someone else. It´s not meant to be contrived. It should be as natural as breathing. With this in mind, I listened to the preacher and asked that God would speak to me through the situation.

After the man spoke, Cesar and I began to talk. Cesar felt threatened by the man. He felt as if the man´s tone was angry and didn´t convey the love of God. He felt as if the man wanted to fight, and Cesar wanted to provoke him to fight. I listened and offered as much of a stabilizing reasoning as I could, but I also understood Cesar´s point. I explained to Cesar that I understood that it was much easier to receive God´s love through someone who is a consistent friend, who meets you where you are, who knows your struggle, rather than through someone who invades your life for only a moment on a bus. I know in my heart that God can work through both, and perhaps, in the case of Cesar, He will work through both the preacher and me. I don´t know. But it was lovely to meet Cesar. He offered to pay my bus fare, and when he got off in Comayagua, he told me that he really enjoyed my company--a random, gringa stranger. We exchanged e-mail addresses at his suggestion, so I hope to continue to show the love of Jesus to Cesar however possible. I am so blessed by the people that God places on my path here.

Today, we got a ride back from the school from a man who works for World Vision. This man, Nelson, and I swapped World Vision stories since I worked for World Vision in West Virginia for a summer. It was such a blessing to meet him as well. He was very kind, let us ride inside the truck, and didn´t charge us.

Anyway, teaching went so very well today! I was so proud of my second grade boys. They remembered so much of the alphabet that we had gone over. First grade is still a ridiculous challenge. I don´t know that they´re going to learn or retain anything, but we have fun with them anyway. We made name tags to try to help us learn the students´names. It was such a good idea to do so! The kids respond so much better to the personal mention of their names. They have all learned my name, and at the end of class, after I had made a point to learn the names of the students in my group, I was swarmed with hugs. We played sound bingo with the sixth grade. It went amazingly well. I was so blessed by how much our students remembered and how excited they are to learn. I truly love teaching there, and I love my students very much.

Until next time,
Sarita