A typical day for us in Vietnam consists of two English classes. We spent the entire first week just figuring out which class was where and when but we finally have it down. We weren’t really sure what we would be walking into with each class but our host would sometimes ask us to prepare a lesson or topic. We often got confused becasue would prepare something and then when we arrived, our host would tell us that was for a different class and ask what we had prepared for the current class… So we’ve gotten very good at thinking on our feet and improvising.
Even when we have lessons perfectly planned out, it doesn’t always work out. For example, our first Wednesday night class, we were asked to prepare questions for the students about joy, peace, sin, and those sorts of topics. I made a list of questions and emailed them to our host and she seemed to like them. Then we arrived and the students struggled with saying “my name is…” And I was met with a blank stare more often than not when I asked “what are you studying?”
Needless to say, a fruitful discussion of whether people are inherently good or inherently bad was NOT about to happen.
So we threw the plans out the window and improvised and guess what? God showed up.
We were asked to sing a song- not something we were prepared for, but we sang Amazing Grace. I had been asked to share my testimony and had no idea if the audience would be receptive to it or not. I was told 15 minutes but we also had a translator so that cut the time in half. I prayed that God would highlight the parts of my story that would resonate well with the class and went for it. And guess what? 3 of the people who attended the class accepted Jesus!
At our next meeting of the same class, our host asked Lyndsee to preach about 5 minutes before class started. We had planned to go over emotions in class but ended up spending most of class teaching the Cha-Cha Slide and doing the Cotton-Eyed Joe. Then Susan shared her testimony, Lyndsee preached, and at the end of the night, four students accepted Christ.
That makes the score God:2, Our plans:0
You see, it is easy to get caught up in the plan. We spent time planning lessons and preparing for class- we don’t want that to go to waste, but often times, the Lord calls an audible. In a football game, when a quarterback calls on audible, he has seen something in the defense that others may not have seen. Even though the team is prepared and ready to do one thing, they quickly change plans because they trust the knowledge and intuition of their quarterback. God is like the quarterback- He can see things that we cannot see and we need to trust Him just as the players on the field trust their quarterback- even when he throws the plan out the window.
So, what have we learned thus far in Vietnam? Throw the plans out the window and just let God work.
