Who would have thought that I would move thousands of miles away from home, to a foreign country- only to find a sister church (10 min down the road) to the church that I love and attend back in Athens, GA???
Isn't God clever?
Three years ago, thanks to encouragement from my older sister, I joined a community group at Athens Church that impacted my life immensely. In January, one of my hardest goodbyes was with my AC Small Group.
Upon arriving to Costa Rica, a new colleague mentioned to me a church in the area called "Open House". He said that it was a church for "unchurched people". I thought, hmmm...that sounds familiar.
So, I promptly looked up the website and discovered that Open House was based off of the North Point Ministries in Alpharetta, GA. I was so excited! I did the best that I could to write a short Spanish email to the director of small groups at Open House. She responded telling me that she was from Georgia and spoke English- but that she appreciated my Spanish effort. Whoops!
Before even attending Open House, I decided to join a Small Group...and offered to have them at my house every week (this helped solve the 'no car situation') because I knew like the back of my hand that circles were better than rows.
Now, I've been attending Open House and hosting community group at my place for about a month. The service is in Spanish and our community group is in Spanglish.
One of the deepest desires of my heart remains the same: I have to know Spanish to connect with these people!
Right now, I sit through the services, feeling lucky that I have a good background in the Bible and can piece together the sermon from the program, the verses, and the notes on the big screen. During small group, we have started sharing our "stories" to get to know one another and become more vulnerable with each other. I have been watching these girls pour their hearts out around my kitchen table- and I can only understand half of it. My heart is just longing to build relationships with, connect with, and minister to these girls. But how?
I know that figuring out all this Spanish will take time. Everyone just keeps telling me "poco por poco"- little by little. But my fear is that just as I'm on the cusp of actually being able to use the language productively, I'll be leaving.
Our lives are so dependent on the power of words! However, I know that my identity isn't in language. I can show who I am without all the right words, it's just a new way of thinking. Love speaks every language right?
I just keep praying that I will get some of that Acts 2 Holy Spirit anointing!
Isn't God clever?
Three years ago, thanks to encouragement from my older sister, I joined a community group at Athens Church that impacted my life immensely. In January, one of my hardest goodbyes was with my AC Small Group.
Upon arriving to Costa Rica, a new colleague mentioned to me a church in the area called "Open House". He said that it was a church for "unchurched people". I thought, hmmm...that sounds familiar.
So, I promptly looked up the website and discovered that Open House was based off of the North Point Ministries in Alpharetta, GA. I was so excited! I did the best that I could to write a short Spanish email to the director of small groups at Open House. She responded telling me that she was from Georgia and spoke English- but that she appreciated my Spanish effort. Whoops!
Before even attending Open House, I decided to join a Small Group...and offered to have them at my house every week (this helped solve the 'no car situation') because I knew like the back of my hand that circles were better than rows.
Now, I've been attending Open House and hosting community group at my place for about a month. The service is in Spanish and our community group is in Spanglish.
One of the deepest desires of my heart remains the same: I have to know Spanish to connect with these people!
Right now, I sit through the services, feeling lucky that I have a good background in the Bible and can piece together the sermon from the program, the verses, and the notes on the big screen. During small group, we have started sharing our "stories" to get to know one another and become more vulnerable with each other. I have been watching these girls pour their hearts out around my kitchen table- and I can only understand half of it. My heart is just longing to build relationships with, connect with, and minister to these girls. But how?
I know that figuring out all this Spanish will take time. Everyone just keeps telling me "poco por poco"- little by little. But my fear is that just as I'm on the cusp of actually being able to use the language productively, I'll be leaving.
Our lives are so dependent on the power of words! However, I know that my identity isn't in language. I can show who I am without all the right words, it's just a new way of thinking. Love speaks every language right?
I just keep praying that I will get some of that Acts 2 Holy Spirit anointing!
Who can guess this song???
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| A Program from Open House |
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| Easter Sunday |
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| A CD of Spanish worship music that I bought! |
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| They sing A LOT of the same songs. Just in Spanish! |
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This is amazing!! I don't know if you remember but I go to North Point Church and that is crazy that they have a church in Costa Rica RIGHT by you!! It has to be fate.
ReplyDeleteLoving following your journey and hope everything is going as well as it sounds and congrats on the engagement and everything amazing that is happening in your life. You have no idea how much I envy you. Keep on enjoying it :)
You know what's funny though? I envy you too! Because you have so much more time left in college. Make the most of it while it lasts- it goes by SO quickly! :)
DeleteI've definitely learned that. It's my first year in college and i'm already a sophomore with all of my credits! That's so scary it's already going by way too fast.
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