First Sunday in Lautaro Part 2

Read Part 1

The following quote jumped out at me the other day.

"Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try."

That quote sums up what happened last Sunday in Lautaro.

Believe me...I was nervous. I couldn't believe I was going to get up in front of a congregation and say something in another language. A rookie missionary NEVER feels fully ready linguistically. If they say they are, they are deceiving themselves and you.

Sometime I just want to curl up in a corner and not talk to anybody. It takes work to engage your brain in another language. Everything in my being is screaming for me to delay the inevitable. The inevitable is really trying. I had to get to a point (with the Lord's help) to make a decision to try. So in the adult SS class, that's what I did...tried to do my best at reading a prepared written manuscript.

My theme for SS was Being Transformed in the Image of God. Overall, it went ok. Errors were made, but the people understood me and were patient (and at times, probably amused). It was a bit frustrating to not be able to look at people during the lesson, due to the fact I read the whole lesson.

The lesson ended earlier than the allotted time, so Kristi was asked to give her testimony and share a few things about our family. She did a wonderful job, of course, since she is fluent and waltzes in and out of complex verb tenses and sentence constructions like how Tiger Woods puts golf balls anywhere he aims on the golf course.

After the service, we had lunch at the church with several church members and BI students. Over lunch, we were able to get to know Victor and his wife, Myriam, and Hans and his family in a better way.

After lunch, Victor and Hans invited me to go with them to visit an elderly couple. This couple has many health needs and needed some encouragement. I was thankful that Victor and Hans included me, since they know these visitation times are good opportunities for me to watch, learn, and sometimes participate in conversation.

After listening to the couple for a while, Victor read a passage from Psalms, Hans encouraged them to let the church people know if they needed any help during the week, and then Victor asked me to pray for the couple. I wasn't expecting that, but prayed in Spanish. Again, you've got to start somewhere. Victor gave me an opportunity to try.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back at church. The kids played with some toys that we brought along. Hans' wife is trying to learn basic English, so Kristi helped her learn the pronunciation for the English alphabet.

I spoke during the evening service as well. We all were pretty tuckered out after the long day. Kaylee and Ben fell asleep during the evening service. After chatting with people for a while, we packed up and drove the 30 mins. back home. Our beds never felt so good!

We will be going up to Lautaro again this coming Sunday. It looks like I will be preaching on the 1st and 2nd Sunday of June and July. We will probably not go up to Lautaro during the month of August, because of Kristi's due date.

Thank you all who have been praying for our family and this Lautaro ministry. God is Good. There is so much to learn and there is so much to do here in the ministry. We need God's wisdom and discernment.