Lost in Translation

I've had the great privilege of being one of Roberth's students this trimester. In many ways he reminds me of myself . . . well, okay in one or two ways. He has a love for learning, reading, the Bible, the ministry, and teaching. We've talked about things in his class as diverse as the rise of gangs in Central America to the nature of prayer according to the Bible.

On Wednesday, I went with him to his ministry in a poorer neighborhood of Cartago, which is about 30 minutes from San Jose. As we pulled into the neighborhood, which lay at the beginnings of the mountains, the roads became ravines, mitigated by the occasional boulder. We walked around on a muddy path to reach a house, constructed from corrugated metal. The washer, sink, fridge, table, and stove were all situated in the main room of the house, leaving just enough space to navigate through the room. A mother and her three children lived there. She made us some fresh tortillas and some agua dulce (hot sugar water), while Roberth talked with the kids. I tried to give any input I could, but I obviously don't have the social skills of a native speaker yet. I noticed the fourteen year-old girl looking at me shyly, probably because she found my blue eyes different than what she was used to.

Roberth told me that he makes a special effort to affirm young girls like that one in front of their mothers. He made several comments about how smart she was, etc. He told me that many girls her age end up pregnant. They don't have many godly male role models in their lives, so they don't know how men and women can relate in a good way.

Later the four of this family squeezed into the back seat, and we drove to another house to study the Bible. Roberth talked about prayer. It was excellent! He's never studied the Bible or the ministry formally, but obviously God has taught him a lot. The whole trip brought me back to the south of Bogota. The sights and sounds were very similar, as well as the people. I could get used to ministering in a context like this.

I just received my copy of the latest Evangelical Missions Quarterly journal. It's my favorite journal because it keeps me up-to-date with what's going on in the field of missions, stretches my thinking, and convicts me. Here are a few convicting quotes and questions from an article I just read about the culture of the cross:

"Is Jesus the center of my thoughts and conversations?"

"What percentage of my personal life and my ministry is a work of the Spirit?"

"Our action-oriented culture conditions us to be disinclined to spend significant time surrendering our needs and concerns to God in prayer."

"Do I follow him [Christ] to the boundary of suffering and then hold back?"

God has really been working on me lately through a Bible study I've been doing and also through extra reading such as this.