Maayo Bontag (Good morning) from Talisay-
Today (Wednesday) marks only our 6th day ofreading, but we are already amazed at the conversations we have had so far! Aswe have quickly learned, most of our readers have exceptional English conversational skills and most of our readers have at least heard the story of Jesus through their Catholic churches—some have even read it for themselves! This makes for an exceptional opportunity from our standpoint. We signed up to come and help people practice their English with the hopes of the opportunitythat somewhere in the middle of defining words and discovering the main idea ofthe story, the conversations would eventually lead to deeper discussions of faith. Instead, God has blessed us with the amazing opportunity to essentially dive headfirst into Bible study with most of our readers.
The Let’s Start Talking workbooks are designed with aneasy-to-read translation of the book of Luke followed by simple questions thatare used as a springboard into conversation between us and our Readers. The program is designed to work through one lesson each time the Reader attends a 45-minute session. What we quickly found out is that the level of English comprehension that most of our Readers have far surpasses these basic lessons; this has presented us with the amazing opportunity to open our Bibles and readfrom a harder translation. Picture two people sitting across the table fromeach other pouring themselves over the Word of God. It doesn’t get much betterthan that!
The first few lessons are very basic introduction stories.Lesson 1 is Luke 1:1-4 which is Luke’s introduction and address to Theophilus;we focus on the fact that Luke took the time to research and write a true report of the things that had beenhappening to complete God’s plan. Lesson 2 is Luke 1:26-38 which is the story of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary to tell her that God is going to give her ababy who will be holy and will be called the Son of God; we focus on the fact that God is all-powerful and can do anything. Lesson 3 is Luke 2:1-7 which is the birth story of Jesus; we focus on Jesus’s lowly birth and how this is a great example of the amount of research Luke put into his report (look at all the names and places in those few verses…it looks like a history book, doesn't it?)
For our fluent English speakers, these lessons are a breeze to go through and not only comprehend, but also agree upon the fact that they are true. This leaves a good amount of time at the end of each lesson for opendiscussion. These past few days, I have been leaving the direction of the conversation open to wherever my Reader wants it to go. If they want to ask questions about me or about the United States, they can. If they want to tell me about themselves, they can. If they want to go deeper into the Word, we will! What has truly been a blessing to me are the conversations that we have had in our open time after the lesson has been completely covered. While someof my Readers are interested in asking surface level questions about the USA orabout me, a majority of them have deeper theological or faith-based questions about various topics!
Monday night, I read with Maria Elena. She is a 17-year-oldyoung lady who is searching for her purpose in life. She has dreams and desires to go to college (high school graduation happens at age 16 in the Philippines),but her family does not have the money to send her. So she is caught in the middle of the decision. She has already tearfully expressed worry about her future and what it holds. On Monday night, I shared with her Jeremiah 29:11-14.Though I love and appreciate that Jeremiah 29:11 is so widely used and known, I believe that that the real encouragement and direction for our lives comes fromthe verses after it.
11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord,and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
While it is encouraging to know that God has a plan for my life…and for Maria Elena’s, it is even more encouraging to know how I willdiscover that plan. We spent a long time that night talking about beingservants of God. How will we know what God is calling us to do? While somepeople hear an audible voice calling them to do a certain thing, we are notalways that fortunate. But Jeremiah tells us that when we seek God (keywords:)with all our heart, we will findHim and he will restore our fortunes to us and gather us back to Him. We arecalled first and foremost to seek God…that is the first step to discovering ourpurpose and the plan that He has for our lives.
I have several otherstories of wonderful conversations that I have had with my Readers already inthe past few days, but I realize this blog entry is already getting longenough…
I am incrediblyexcited to see what God has in store for my conversations for the rest of mytime here…just look what He has already done in 6 short days!
How you can bepraying for us: Pray that God will continue to bless our conversations and thatHe will place the urgency to come to reading sessions on the hearts of ourReaders. We would love nothing more to read every scheduled hour of every dayfrom here on out. Pray for Wayne and Margie and that God will prepare them forthe follow up with our Readers after we have left. Pray that they are able tomaintain in contact with our Readers and can continue to have the opportunitiesto share God’s love with our new friends.
Thank you so muchfor your prayers!
Here are a fewpictures (as promised!) of our reading sessions so far:
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