Yo Hablo Español Un Poco
Hello friends! I am excited to tell you that God has led me to a new ministry opportunity in my home church of Northwest Baptist Church, OKC. I have been working rather actively in the Children’s Ministry with the 3 year olds and that’s been fun but now a new ministry has been placed in front of me – the English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at NWBC.
Starting in 7th grade, I took Spanish classes and made it all the way up to Spanish III before my life became too hectic. I could speak Spanish relatively well and even comprehend it pretty well during my heyday. But, after high school, I found that I rarely used it or at least not often enough to remain super fluent. However, I never forgot how to speak it, and I would often read the Spanish labels on various products I had just to see how much of it I could comprehend. I am not sure why I remembered it until now. God wants me to use it.
As it stands, I have been serving in this capacity for about two months even though the freezing weather and other schedule conflicts has made me not able to go for a while. But when I am there it is loads of fun. I have never seen people so excited about learning as I did with these folks. One of my favorite students works every day of the week except Wednesday and yet he comes to the church just to learn. I have also learned a great deal more about their culture which has been very exciting.
One side that I am still not sure about is how much the ESL leader brags about me. I have spent my whole life trying to not let pride get the best of me but it seems like every day I am there, the whole teacher group goes on and on about how good of a teacher I am. The one Wednesday I missed (the others were missed because of the ice closing down OKC), the leader of the ESL classes said everyone was asking where I was and that I was very missed. I can’t believe how much these people brag on. I am flattered but that also puts me with big shoes to fill.
God is realy working on my heart and helping me to dig through the various experiences I have had in ministry to better clear my heart for new options. It’s an exciting time but also a time of anxiety. God has this all under control though, so I am doing a good job by letting Him do his work through me.