English you have been my PIT but now you are my PEAK
PIT: Lows, challenging things.
PEAK: Highs, great things.
“But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent,
either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant,
but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
Then the Lord said to him,
“Who has made man’s mouth?
Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?
Is it not I, the Lord?
Now therefore go,
and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
Exodus 4:10-13
Being an international world-racer can be hard! First thing, you have to be bilingual if your native language is not English!
Second, you will have struggles! But, you have to understand, if you are here it’s because God wants you here. Don’t look back, do not go back home for any reason unless God literally comes down and tell you face to face “Go home”.
With that being said I want to tell you a little bit about my experience, struggles, victories and what I’ve learned through this process. You will probably have them too, but do not worry, be happy. 🙂
I am from Costa Rica, so my native language is Spanish. Right now I am in the second week of my second month. We are in Nepal!
Honestly in Costa Rica I had a good job but it just helped me to pay my bills and helped me with some stuff at home. I prayed to God, for so many years, on missions. While I was waiting on him I had the chance to serve in a lot of ministries at my church. The whole time “missions” was on my heart. A friend who already did the WR, knew my passion for missions so he told me that I should apply for the WR. I researched it and loved it but there was no way that I could raise $17,617. I decided to scratch that option. For some weeks God was reminding me about the WR over and over again. I made a deal with him “If I get accepted it’s because you want me to go “.. Then “God if my USA visa is approved I will go” … “God if I can reach first goal I will go”…. deal after deal and guess what? Be careful with what you ask for! Hahah Let me tell you, if God wants you to go, believe me He will provides as He did it with me.
When I first arrived to training camp I definitely felt culture shock and the enemy was trying to make me feel incapable. I believed that and for so many days I didn’t wanna talk to anybody, because I kept thinking what would happen if they don’t understand what I’m saying? What would happen if my pronunciation was not the best? Maybe my accent or I am not good enough? I am surrounded by English natives. A lot of doubts and lies made me step back. So, will you feel culture shock? Definitely! But do not push yourself away! That’s completely normal! You are out of your comfort zone, out of what you are used to doing, what you are used to eating, what you are used to wearing and now doing life with people who you don’t have any idea who they are. Also your family is a thousand of thousands miles away, that’s crazy, sad, heartbreaking but it takes a lot of bravery and boldness to do that. So let me tell you—> I AM SO PROUD OF YOU! And as I said before do not go back home for any reason unless God literally comes down and tell you face to face “Go home”.
Also so many times I felt that because I was from another country people looked at me as if I was a weirdo hahah or didn’t fit with anyone or in any group! Let me tell ya —> Everyone feels the same at training camp, you are not the only one struggling with that! So calm down! Keep it up together!
The first 3 days were the worst for me, I was ready to go back home but because I wanted not because God was telling me. First day my tent, clothes and stuff got so wet because it was a little storm and didn’t know until that night that my tent wasn’t waterproof (My advice: Make sure your tent is waterproof). 🙂
Also my phone and glasses got broken, one after the other, so I definitely wasn’t ready for that but God was teaching me through my struggles to depend on him. It could be so easy for him to give us what we want, how we want and when we want it but if that happens then our dependency on God will never grow and will never exist.
Many times God spoke to my life and asked me to say something to someone and because I was afraid, again of my language, I didn’t obey God. I would ask him to use someone else. By the end, so many times, I would find out that the person really needed that word. It was because I decided to fail before I try that I didn’t let God to use me. Of course he used someone else but he first choose me and I just decided to turn my back to that call.
Some weeks ago we were in India and we had a team time and the person who was in charge of it told us to ask the Holy Spirit a word for each of our teammates. So we pray and we wrote according to the Holy Spirit and someone wrote in my piece of paper “Freedom”. So I said “No thank you! that’s not for me”. Some weeks later we had a debrief time and there I was; just discovering that my words were so POWERFUL. I needed FREEDOM about my insecurities because I had been treating myself as INCAPABLE! What a lie! Even in the bible when God told Moses to go and speak in his name, he said, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
For me my pit has been English because I have been so afraid and insecure about it. God has been teaching me that if he wants to use me He will speak for me. He will make a way. I just have to trust him and depend on him. I am still learning a lot about English but now my Peak is English because I know God will use me. He will speak through me. It is a continually growing experience but I love the process. It doesn’t mean that I won’t fail but it means that God will be always there.
PD: Also many times I said some wrong words like trying to say “focusing” and by the end saying “fu$&^%*” (Oops!). Or praying for someone and saying: the enemy cannot steal the Jo in joy’s heart hahahahaha but by the end at least I made people laugh! 🙂 God has sense of humor too! Don’t forget! 🙂
