Encounter Grace: September 2013

You know that one song that talks about African plains and Asian believers? Most people who listen to Christian radio or watch inspirational slide shows about missions have heard it. Since K Love plays in my house in Bozeman and in all the Keena cars, I have had my fair share of this song. I remember listening to it in fourth grade with a friend who was a missionary kid in Tanzania. That was eight years ago so I assure you, I know this song well. In fact, I've kinda grown numb to it.

A lot of songs we sing in church or hear on the radio are overplayed and then we often forget why we're singing them. It becomes a habit to just sing the songs, it's muscle memory. The songs we sing can lose meaning overtime and we become numb to the rich words of some if these songs.

Yesterday was our fourth Sunday here and the band began to play the song I was talking about earlier, He Reigns. I wasn't really excited to hear the song cause I had actually become bored and tired of the song, but I sang along loudly because I knew the words in English. As church was beginning to end, the leader played the chorus over and over again. As he played, people began to hug one another and pray for eachother. The rest of the congregation continued to quietly sing

"Todos niños cantan gloria gloria, aleyluia el Rey."

As a group we continued to repeat this part of the song. After about the fifth time, it finally hit me. We are living out this song.

We are all of God's children.

We are the body of Christ.

Together we are singing glory glory hallelujah he reigns.

Everyone was singing in Spanish except the four Americans and that's okay. Living breathing proof that we do not worship a God of one nation.

But a boundless, endless, limitless God.

I can barely communicate with majority of the people in our church, but there is nothing holding us back from worshiping our God together. He hears us all. We will continue singing glory glory to our sweet precious king.

This song is no longer dull or boring and I am no longer numb to the lyrics because I saw this song happen. I witnessed the words come to life.

Hallelujah. He Reigns.

I simply can not believe that I am here and have been for two weeks already. It was just the other day that I realized I am living out a childhood dream of mine. Ever since I started learning Spanish in fourth grade, I knew I wanted to take time off after high school to go to a Spanish speaking country on a missions trip and teach English. Seventh grade was the year I decided I wanted to go to Guatemala. I am actually fulfilling a dream I have had for over five years. I have also wanted to be a missionary for so long and now I am.

I am a missionary who is teaching in a Spanish speaking country.

My life here in Antigua is delightful, hard, rewarding, sweet, frustrating, restful, and chaotic. The past few weeks we have been teaching over 300 students about intimacy, abstinenence, and addictions. The moment we walk into each classroom we have everyone's attention, but only because we are white women.This is a hard job when only a few are listening and the rest are laughing at the inappropriate comments and jokes made my classmates. The few who are attentive make each class pleasant. The questions that the students ask are real, blunt, and very honest. "Why do we wait till marriage? How is porn bad for you heart? What if we feel really pressured in a single moment, how do we say no?" Later our host told us they ask the questions because they have been put in those specific situations or are struggling with the things they ask about. They don't ask out of curiosity. This culture is very physical, which made it hard for them to understand why we wait and why I still haven't kissed my boyfriend of two years. Through lots of Q&A time we were able to depict what relationships should look like and students slowly began to understand. I've always heard its refreshing for teachers when their students begin to think about things deeply. I now know.

Friday, we went through orientation to work at a Cerebral Palsy hospital. No one spoke English. None of the nurses, doctors, physical therapists,cooks, or laundry ladies spoke a drop of English. We spent a good amount of time folding jump suits and pjs with an older lady who tried to understand our very broken Spanish. Maybe I didn't understand everything she said, but when I asked her if she enjoyed her job she smiled and said she did, very much. The sweet lady who cleans and folds the clothes of seventy special needs patients loves her job. I look forward to going back and serving along side her because I think she can teach me a thing or two, even if it's just the proper way to fold footie pajamas. After laundry, we were given the chance to feed the patients. I have never fed anyone over the age of one, so I was slightly terrified. Diego was the first boy I fed. I looked at him and prayed out loud "Jesus, show me these children through your eyes. Please show up." He did. As each wheel chair rolled up to my feet to be fed, I was able to look at each patient as a precious child of God. Romans 8:38 says,

^"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I believe that firmly. No mental disease will prevent these children or any person ever from receiving the sweet gift of God's love. That is good. We will continue to volunteer at this hospital the rest of our time here in Antigua and I look forward to seeing God's love glow through each face at this facility.

Here are a few pictures from our wonderful adventures here in beautiful beautiful beautiful Antigua.