This month in Chile we have been teaching English classes to students in grades 8-12 at a Christian academy.
Today was our last day of class with our Seniors. As our last assignment, my teammate Erin chose Jeremiah 29:11 for each student to recite as a way to practice their English pronunciation. If you don’t know what the verse says, it says the following:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
When Erin asked if anyone would like to stand up and read it, no one volunteered. I thought it was because they were just being shy or something (which is rare for them, seeing as they are our most outgoing class). So instead she ended up picking Lucas, one of the sweetest yet goofiest students. Lucas smiled, shook his head and then said “I don’t believe.” He wasn’t talking about how he didn’t believe he could recite it, instead he was saying that he didn’t believe what the scripture was saying. He didn’t believe in God.
I remember coming into the school hearing how although it was a Christian school, there were students who were not Christians so in someways his response didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me though was what happened when we divided ourselves into two groups. Ashley and I sat with one group, while Erin and Kristina sat with another in order to continue practicing their pronunciation. After each student went around in the group and recited th verse, I felt compelled to ask them, “How many of you actually believe what you are reciting?” Immediately two or three of them said “no,” while the others shook their heads in unison. My heart dropped. Out of the entire group, only two raised their hands and identified themselves as Christians. I then asked, “How many of you grew up in a Christian home?” Almost all of them raised their hands! I continued and asked, “if you grew up in a Christian home, why don’t you believe?” None of them spoke up except for one of the boys who knew English the best in class. He answered saying, “God has never helped me. Everything I have is because I worked hard for it. Even my dad who has a good job, he worked hard to get it. We have no one to give credit to but ourselves.” Sadly the conversation ended there because we had to continue onto the next activity, but coming home left me in a funk. I’m still in that funk right now.
These are kids who grew up knowing about Jesus, but yet still reject him. My heart is literally breaking for them. One of my biggest prayers for this month was to see a non-believing student come to Christ and I’m still holding out for that!
Tomorrow we will be having a goodbye session where we get to share our experiences as teachers with the students and then share a bit of our testimony with them. We plan to have an altar call after that. Please join me in praying that tomorrow some of these kids, if not all of them, will give their lives to Christ. That they will see that all they have is because of Christ and not themselves. That even if their parents reject the Lord, they won’t. That they will see how much the Lord loves them!
