Well its been a bit since I've gotten the chance to write, but with a full day of rain showers today, I had ample time for homework and now catching up with this blog.
The weekend continued well with Friday spent in Cartago doing some touristy type things. I'll get some pictures up soon of some of the neat places I got to see. Saturday was teaching English in Sabanilla to the Nicaraguan immigrants. My class is really moving forward and learning a lot, although there is still so much variety on the skills of the students; some speak a ton and others hardly at all. It was a neat class, as we spent the entire first hour asking Tommy, Howard's friend, many questions. It fit perfectly with the lesson, as they are working on asking questions, especially with using the auxilliary verb "do". I think Tommy also enjoyed being a part of the class and seeing a glimpse of the ministry we do here every weekend. After class, we headed to the Argentine restuarant to celebrate Tommy's birthday again, and really just as an excuse to eat some really good meat:)
Sunday was a busy day, as a large group of us went to church, it was Helmer, his brother Juan Jose and Juan Jose's wife, Marjorie, as well as Javier, Howard, Patricia, a friend of Patricia's, myself, and a friend of mine, Gioconda. It was really an awesome service with Pastor talking about "a harvest that lasts for eternity" and even doing a skit about cleaning dirt and toiling and harvesting seeds, and showing how we have to prepare the soil to plant the seeds and see a harvest. Please pray every time you think of it for the salvation of Juan Jose and Marjorie. I feel it is only a matter of time before these two family members of Helmer's come to accept Christ's free gift of salvation and eternal life. Juan Jose seemed very impacted by the sermon Sunday and is planning on attending a men's dinner this Friday. Please pray for their salvation. God is really working! Also pray for my friend Gioconda, a nicaraguan who was in my English class for about a month. She is out of work and has two small children ages 7 and 8 back in Nicaragua. SHe is a Christian from my gathering, and was looking for a church, although she hasn't attended anywhere in the past year or so. She loved the service, and may even come to the women's retreat with me this Friday-Saturday. Pray for her growth, for a job, and that she would either continue coming to church with us or find a good church elsewhere.
Sunday evening was the cell group Bible study which went well. Angie and Sabrina came as well as Marvin, Howard and me. Angie shared with me how she thinks Satan is trying to tempt her to stop growing in her new faith. She shared how she didn't really feel like coming Sunday night but she knew God wanted her to, so she did. She asked for prayer that she won't give up on studying the Bible and she'll keep coming to this study. Please pray likewise and also the same for Angie, Marvin, Steven, Johnny, and Javier, those who attend regularly right now. We talked about baptism, having personal time alone with God daily, and sharing your faith with others--all things we must do after we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord.
Monday and Tuesday (today) were two busy days of class. We're now on Subjunctive rules #11-12. I have a big test on Thursday and it is going to be very hard. I have struggled on the last two tests, as this teacher really gives harder tests than last trimester. Please pray for me this Thursday, as I have a huge exam around 11 am. Also today we had a surprise oral exam on every single type of verb conjugation. I did ok, but my teacher said my accents and pronunciation are still off in some tenses. Tomorrow we have cultural day, where we'll have a special speaker, as well as a scavenger hunt where we will learn about different parts of latin american culture. Thursday is class again, and then Friday will be reserved for watching Costa Rica as they play the inaugural world cup game against Germany. I guess this is a huge thing, and a privilege and honor to be elected to play this opening game; its sort of like the opening of the Olympics. The World Cup goes from June 9-July 9 with over 60 games. Costa Rica plays Germany as the opening game, and then later Ecuador and Poland, among some of the harder teams. Its such a huge deal here, its all people are talking about. They are even selling Coca-Cola in soccer ball shaped bottles! It's amazing!
Another cool thing was Monday night we took Helmer to a worship and testimony-sharing time with a short-term missions team here from Kentucky of college students. He was so impressed by them as Christians and really got into the Christian fellowship. A few of them shared their testimonies of how they came here, and Howard and I both shared a bit about how God brought us here and where we are each going afterwards as missionaries. We also sang in Spanish and then a bit in English with the praise team from church leading the music. Helmer wants to spend more time with them in the future, so pray we gets to and he continues to be impacted by more young adult Christians. Its so good for him to see other young adults surrendering their time and talent to serve Christ, as Helmer is starting to see a bigger picture of what serving Christ is all about. Pray for more groups and opportunities for him to serve and be influenced in this way.
I will write more soon, after my exam on Thursday most likely. Tomorrow we have the English conversation time in the afternoon around 3:30 and then a night of studying!
Thanks for all your prayers,
Bethany
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