I wrote Friday about the short-lived hope that a new student had come, but it actually happened! Not the same student I saw, but one of the students left- I wasn't sure why- then he came back with his sister. She knew very little Spanish, but it has been extremely impressive how fast she has learned in only two days! While he was gone to get her, I was the only person in the house who spoke English so that was a little strange. When we were eating dinner, I asked what something was, but I didn't recognize the word and no one knew it in English. We kind of laughed, because we realized nobody could translate. Turns out they were beets. And they were delicious.
Saturday morning, Doña Cyndi took us (myself and the aforementioned brother and sister) on a tour of Xela to La demo (a huge four-block market), parque central, and other places around the city. She bought strawberries, star fruit (which she later made juice from! ¡Qué rico!), mangoes. The market was pretty packed (SO many fruits and veggies!), so we moved through fairly quickly.
Something clicked while I was talking with Doña Cyndi... Sure, I didn't have all the vocabulary that I have in English to tell a story, but I realized the benefit of sound effects. So I started using noises and hand motions to communicate things I don't have the words for. I might look crazy, but it works well enough!
After the tour, we came back to the house and had lunch, then I raided the library and read until about four when we had a dance class by Angel at the school. He kept saying "¡Todo está en las caderas!" Apparently, my brain can't work fast enough to count the beats, move my feet, and move my hips as well. I'll get it though. Afterwards, we played Jenga for a while, then had dinner. Listen. Doña Cyndi made eggs with hot dogs mixed in. If you know how much I love hot dogs, you know how happy I was. I love hot dogs. I love eggs. How come I never thought of combining them?! I'm bringing that recipe home.
After una cena delicioso, we decided to take a walk to parque central again. A student named Onelia hooked arms with me and as we walked, she told me all about her family and how she misses her big brother. She's precious! We witnessed a bizarre and loud battle-of-the-bands deal in the park, where two stages were set up not thirty yards from each other, a rock band and a Christian band, both singing and playing at the same time. It was so strange! Como la fiesta contra Dios. We went to a coffee shop after which was filled with antique cameras and pictures and newspapers. Really neat.
Sunday, the Lastrapes picked me up for church, which was a great experience! It was so neat hearing popular praise songs translated into Spanish. There was a mission team there and one of their members gave the sermon, while a missionary translated into Spanish. He talked about how the world and sometimes Christians seem confused about who Jesus is, but that the answer is literally spelled out in Scripture in Matthew 16. He made the statement that we need nothing more than what the scripture tells us about Jesus. Read it if you get a chance, it's good stuff. At the end of church, the pastor was talking and saying something about another guest that he wanted to welcome, who came with Geraldo y Sara, and I was like, "Oh! He's talking about me." He ask Sarah what my name was. "Se llama Rae." He looked at her for a moment, then said, "¡eso!" and left it at that.
One of the things I knew I was going to miss most is conversations with Jonathan about church and sermons and Scripture. A clear phone conversation is not really possible with the wifi at the school. I sure did miss him today!
After church, we went out to eat, then to WalMart (it's in a mall, you guys!), then back to the Lastrapes' house. They were kind enough to let me wash my clothes there, which was awesome, and sweet Mrs. Sarah made some killerrrrrrrrrr sugar-free cookies. <3 They brought me back to the school just in time to go to misa (mass) with the students.
Very cool experience. Very different. But cool. On the way home, Angel asked me if I believed in the saints. We discussed that, then he asked me if I always followed the Word of God. Let me tell you, answering questions así in another language is a challenge! I started answering as we got back to the house and he told me to sit down by him for dinner because he wanted to know my response. We talked for about two hours, about what I thought being a Christian meant and how one could see the hand of God in the midst of hard, incomprehensible situations. I pray that God gave me the words that he needed to hear.
It was a very cool opportunity. Not to mention while we were talking, there was literally an earthquake. I never thought an earthquake would make me excited, but you guys, I was so excited. I was grinning so big and felt unnecessarily accomplished. My first earthquake. It was short and light, but still. It was awesome.
I know I have put a lot of details for two days, but even with what I wrote on Friday and things that I was feeling that I did not write, I could see God's answering of prayers, calming of fears, presenting of opportunities, and I would not want to spare anyone from being able to see his hand at work. A glimpse of his glory is a precious, precious gift.
No comments:
Post a Comment