Since being here God has opened a couple doors for me and I want to share about one with you today. Let me first start by telling you about school. In my first week of class I had a young teacher and she was a good teacher, but I had to change the time of my class by half an hour and she could not make that work so the school assigned me a new teacher for the start of week two. By the end of the first day with my new teacher I was completely fried and felt like I was not going to be able to learn anything. I had just figured out the way the first teacher taught and we had found a rhythm and then everything changed. The next day I went back nervous but ready to get to know the new teacher. Her name is Grace and she has actually turned out to be a super great teacher, she very patient with me. I believe it was totally God moving these pieces around for me so that I would have a better learning experience but also open a door for me.
Grace asked me the first day we met why I wanted to learn Spanish. Easy! Because I want to be a missionary here in Nicaragua. Well little did I know that this conversation that I have had million times over would be the start of God doing something new. Over the last few weeks Grace and I have talked about our lives and the differences of growing up in different countries. Part of my classes are to have conversation and it is much easier to talk about real life than to make up stories. On Monday we began our class as usual with her asking me about the day before. I spend most of my day on Sunday in the church, the rest I usually spend at home with my family here. She then asked me what we are talking about in church...and well my friends this is where it gets interesting. Currently we are in a series talking about Revelation (have you read it?? Its not easy to understand in English..and I go to a spanish speaking church..duh)). I told her that and then she asked me if I could give her and overview of the book....I want to remind you here that we are speaking Spanish and NOT English. So I told her I would do my best but that it would probably be a bit rough!
As I began to explain how Revelation tells us how the end will be. That Christ will come for His church and there will be a lot of events that happen during this time. (I will not go into detail because I know there are many beliefs on how things will play out, but I told her as I believe). I ended by saying in the very end of all of this the Bible tells us that all those who have not accepted the free gift of salvation will be thrown into hell and suffer there for eternity. But all those who chose to accept that gift and be saved from their sin will go with Him to the New Heaven and New Earth (perfection) where we will spend our eternity. Well as I had been explaining all this I was just praying that I was not losing her and that God would make it make sense. Something I forgot to mention is that my teacher, Grace, is not saved and has never really attended church. Anyways...the next question that came out of her mouth scared me to my core. "So how do I get saved and not spend eternity in hell?" ummmmm...HEEEEELLLLPPPP!!! Where is the pastor who speaks spanish when I need him?! So I said a quick prayer silently and started to share with her about this free gift of salvation. We are all born as sinners and there is nothing that we can do to change that, no good works will change the fact that we deserve to pay for our sins. But God in his great love and grace sent his only son to earth to live a perfect life, free of sin and then sacrificed his life on the cross to pay the punishment for my sin...for your sin..for the sin of the entire world. But Christ did not stay dead, he resurrected and with his resurrection he brought new life to all who believe. So it is pretty simple, believe and receive because Christ did all the work. And the crazy thing is that He knows that even once we accept him we will continue to sin and he loves us and that will not take away our gift of salvation. Nothing in this life whether you chose to follow him or not will change the fact that he loves you. ((Okay breathe Kerri...God will use this it doesn't matter if you said everything perfect..he is planting seeds and watering.))
After that she kind of smiled and then asked me "what about the people who are the worst..like the murderers and thieves? Is there salvation for them too? "
Yes! Salvation is for everyone who believes! God has made no exclusions to who can come to him..the only thing he asks is that you would believe what he did for you and accept the gift of freedom he is offering. He wants a relationship with you, not for you to spend your life trying to be good enough to come to him. He wants you just as you are.
She told me that is incredible and very interesting. After that we moved on to something else but I know that God is working. He is working even when we least expect it! My prayer was that God would give me opportunities to serve him and I had no idea it would be by sharing his love with one of my teachers.
So that is the excitement from this week! haha.
Prayer:
Would you pray with me for Grace? For God to give me more opportunities to share his love with her and that she would have a tender heart to hear.
Pray for me as a begin my second book in class...this one looks a lot harder. Learning a new language is no joke my friends! It is dificil(difficult)!
Praise God for the opportunities and doors He is opening! It is scary and exciting at the same time!
Thank you so much my friends! I love you all and pray that God blesses you with an opportunity to share His love as well! Look for the opportunities...there are more than you think. And if I can do it in Spanish..you definitely can in English! Hasta luego :)
