Just Another Free Day
I’m now writing this on September 26th about my day on September 25th…September 25th was our free day, a.k.a our day free of ministry. Or at least, that’s what I thought the day was going to be…
So our group is rotating staying every half week in Manatiales and Medellin. And last night, we stayed in Medellin. Yesterday was also our free day, aka our day that you guys would call Saturday in the states. Although my “Saturday” (actually Monday) didn’t include Alabama football, it was a good day. We spent the first half of the day travelling to a part of Medellin called Poblado. There, we would get wifi at coffee shops, get coffee, lunch, buy the things we need and wanted to keep, and check out some of the local community. Me and 6 boys ate breakfast at the place we were staying at approximately 8 AM and left at about 9 AM for our day. Our group had a small amount of things our checklist to do: I had to return two watches that were not very good, Nick had to get a haircut, we wanted to get lunch in the square, and then spend some time at coffee shops getting wifi…all of this to be back by 2 PM. Our form of transportation was taxi by the way, it’s only a dollar a person here for the ride we take. We had to be back by 2 PM so we could play soccer with some of the guys going through the Church’s program that they have. As we arrived back with 5 minutes to spare and knocking off our checklists, we were ready to go play some soccer…to find out that soccer would not be happening today. We were unsure as to why, but to us that also meant very well we could have nap time. We made our way back to our room and got snug in. The guys then decided they wanted to walk to the local grocery market which is about a half mile from where we’re staying. While the guys decided to do that, I decided to stay behind and hang out. About that time, while the guys we’re out and about, I posted my blog and began to just play some guitar…that’s when Jose walked in.
I say I was playing guitar but what I was actually doing was learning a worship song that I liked in Spanish. So Jose sat down next to me and, with the lyrics pulled up in front of me, began to join in with me in song. Immediately after, he wanted to continue with his Spanish song of choice…his choice: oceans. So after singing song after song, we began having communication with each other through google translate…next thing I knew he was showing me his school books and knick-knacks and prized comic books in Spanish of course. The last books he brought out were his Spanish bibles. So after we spent time checking out and talking about his books, we began to look through his bible. He told me about how he studied the bible in his classes and had a notebook in school but didn’t outside. So immediately, it came to mind. “¿Quieres tener un estudio bíblico esta noche?” I asked…Which means “Do you want to have a bible study tonight?” A smile lit up his face…he asked “You and me?” and I responded yes. And so in that moment we set in stone the time of when we’d study the bible. After dinner at 7:00.
Together, me and Jose passed the time through singing worship songs, talking about his books, and then just playing some guitar. And then after a quick dinner, I came back to Jose waiting so we could go on with the time together. 7:00 arrived and it was time for our bible study. Jose sat next to me and I asked what he wanted to study. His choice was John 1. So we rotated reading verse by verse our Spanish English translations then went on talking about the verses that stuck out to us. For him it was verse 12. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” He talked about how cool it was that we we are children of God and we must solely believe in His name and how we then earn the right to be called children of God, wherever we’re at in life. And for me it was verse 5. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And I talked about how there can be darkness in areas of our lives but how as we invite God into those areas of our lives the darkness cannot overcome the light but light always overcomes and darkness is simply the absence of light. He loved it as we went on with the study. He didn’t have much of a take and go way of studying the bible so I asked him if he wanted to know how I studied the bible. Again, his face lit up with a smile and resounding Si. And so he went and got his notebook and I showed him how to study the bible verse by verse checking out context, looking for challenges and application, and then praying about it. He wrote it all out. And then to take and apply this we looked at 1 Timothy 4:8.
“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Tim. 4:8
We both did our own S.O.A.P. study through this verse, Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. And once we finished, we spoke out the prayer that we wrote out and after that, we closed in prayer. And once finished, we went our separate ways both with a smile on our face. Oh, and by the way, we’re now doing a bible study in the morning when we get back to Manatiales…crazy how the little things like not going to a grocery store end up leading to being able to worshipping in Spanish, doing a bible study, teaching the boy how to study the bible and apply it to life, and now having more studies to come before I leave…Not to mention, this was my free day, my day free from the long week of our scheduled ministry.
My takeaway?
Just because I’m not doing scheduled ministry doesn’t mean my life isn’t ministry every second of every day. I have the ability to constantly be pointing people around me towards or away from God every second of every day whether I realize it or not and it can impact both my life and the lives of those around me for the better as I point people towards the simple choice of fulfillment in Christ.
