We were invited back to the school yesterday to give another
“free speech.” this time, to
300 attending students. the topic chosen for us was … “how do the students learn english ‘good’.” hehe. i wanted to start by saying, well you would say “well” in place of “good,” but i dont think that was a major concern at the moment. 🙂
so the five of us got together a couple hours before to pray about what we should talk about, and also how to share the gospel with all these students. what we came up with was a little of everything. it was kind of difficult to help them with their limited financial resources and the lack of english speakers to practice with.
we prepared the following…
friske to play three worship songs… “sanctuary, how great is our God, and Jesus loves you”
laura would lead them in some tongue twister games
kim helped teach them the words to the songs
paul was going to share the gospel message
and i was also going to do a “who can yell louder” game with them
we all were prepared to talk about our hometown and answer any questions they might have. so once again, the teachers lead us into the school and we can just hear the uproar from the students. unbelievable. this time, i peek my head in the door first and see a literal press conference table with microphones. so now, im like a little nervous thinking…”what in the world is going on?” “we really are NOT famous guys!”
so we walk in to a full room of applauds. kim and i both kind of hid our faces in laughter. they introduced us once again and began the “questions for the foreigners.” they literally all asked the same question
…”how can i learn english good?” paul talked first and pretty much gave them every idea we had… (music, flashcards, internet, practice, etc). well, the next 4 people all asked the same question again. we were scrambling for suggestions. it was funny.
THEN, one girl decides to ask me a question…and says “who is your favorite band.” so i’m thinking…ok simple…um, john mayer. she then precedes to ask…
“can you please sing a song for me?” oh just WONDERFUL! everyone on my team starts laughing because i always get asked to sing. its silent in the room. they are all looking at me. i’m NOT about to bust out a song…even though the girl was really sweet, i was trying to think of everyone in that room. 🙂 so, mean old jessica told her that i didnt have the words in front of me for the song to sing…and it went on to the next question. wheeeeew.
next up was the teaching of the songs. we wrote the words on the blackboard and for the next 20 minutes,
praised Jesus together. it was great 🙂 when that was finished, i decided to do my game with them.
so i got up from our little conference table and stood in the middle of the room. i split the kids in half and had my team help demonstrate the game. if you are familiar…it is the one that is like
“halleluja, halleluja, halleluja, halleluja…..praise ye the Lord” so each side takes a part and goes through the song yelling it as loud as they can. they had tons of fun with it (who doesnt love to yell in school?) and when we picked the winner… we had a bag full of candy that we threw out to them.
after this, we were planning on having laura do her games and then paul talk with an invitation to accept Christ at the end. it ended up being that we were out of time and were not able to finish. it was so hard walking out of there knowing we weren’t able to share what we had planned…but received like 3 more invitations from other teachers to visit their classes. we encouraged the kids to come talk to us on the streets if they see and i’m hoping they do.
the funniest part…and i’m going to say this with complete humility happened as we were leaving. we were literally rushed with kids wanting autographs. not the usual one or two who is pushed by his friend, but the whole class throwing paper and pens at us. yes, for the moment, i felt like a celebrity. i had a kid want me to autograph his sweatshirt, another one pushed his sleeve back and wanted me to sign his arm! are you kidding me?!! haha. the teacher had to come back in and pull us out.
but through the craziness…
God continued to remind me that “He must increase, and I must decrease.” John 3:30. so even though it was cute and flattering…we need to continue to show them Christs’ love and give them the clear message of salvation.
we treated a few teachers and some students to dinner last night and are continuing to build the relationships here. my favorite question from earlier was
“can i be your friend?” aweeeeeeeeeeee. so that is what we are doing here. making friends, building trust, and loving on these people. we will be here for the rest of the week and would love for prayers of “opportunities to share the message to many!”
thank you all back home for your support! we too, are holding you up lovingly through prayer…
XOXO
