Thoughts on my first week...

What a week it's been. Because it'd be impossible to cohesively describe everything together, I'll break it up into days.

Monday
Classes began Monday. The week's topic was the Character and Nature of God and it was taught by Bruce Ahlberg. We discussed the importance of knowing God and what our beliefs about Him affect, such as our relationships with Him, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. We also talked about different views and misconceptions about God from other religions. We ended with God's incomprehensibility—how we cannot ever know Him fully or completely (Job 26:14; Isaiah 55:89)—and the ways that He does reveal parts of Himself to us, such as through Scripture and creation (Romans 2:14-15).

That night we went into Antigua for an English worship service at Iglesia del Camino. It really stood out to me the way the people there worshipped God: with absolutely no reservations. They gave their all to Him with confidence and paid no mind to any distractions. I want to learn to worship God as freely and fearlessly as they do.

Tuesday
Tuesday I got up early and went to the roof to read Psalms and watch the sunrise. It's indescribable how beautiful it is here, especially early in the morning. In class, Bruce began teaching about some of the attributes of God, such as how He is self-existent, immutable, eternal, omnipresent, undivided, infinite, and transcendent. These are what we call His incommunicable traits; ones that we cannot cultivate in our own lives. We learned that He also has traits that we, as we are made in His image, can have, such as having emotions and being creative and relational. We closed by discussing the ever-recurring question of the ages: Why does God allow suffering? Why does a good God allow evil? We found many answers to this question: it makes it so love must be a choice and therefore is more valuable, it can produce dependence on God, it can help develop godly virtues and deter us from sinning, and it can prove and purify our faith. There were more reasons discussed, but there are the ones that stood out most to me.

Tuesday night was peaceful and spent here at the base. We had a bonfire up on the roof and it was great just to hang out with my new friends and get to know everyone better. Also, the volcano (I think it was Fuego?) erupted a bit and it was very beautiful.

Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, the class was primarily about God's love, grace, and mercy. We also touched on His patience and holiness and justice. My favorite part of the lesson was about John 3:16, which was broken down as follows...

For God, the greatest lover,
so loved, to the greatest degree,
the world, the greatest number,
that He gave, the greatest act,
His one and only Son, the greatest gift,
That whoever, the greatest invitation,
believes, the greatest simplicity,
in Him, the greatest person
Shall not perish, the greatest deliverance,
but, the greatest difference,
have, the greatest certainty,
eternal life, the greatest possession.

That afternoon was one of the highlights of my week: Tom the German asked me to read our assigned book with him so he could practice his English pronunciation. So we went up on the roof, and Santiago, who is from Colombia, joined us as well and we read through a couple chapters. It really affirmed for me that God has called me to teach and has given me a passion for languages. That night there was a ministry called Soup Run, in which people take soup to the homeless and talk and pray with them, but not everyone in our group can go at one time, so the rest of us went into town and hung out in a café and in the central park.

Thursday
Thursday we discussed more of God's traits: He is jealous for His people, has wrath in response to sin and rebellion, and is generous, humble, omnipotent, and sovereign. Until this class I had never realized the true meaning of sovereignty: absolute rule over creation. He is in control of the whole world, in everything down to our own individual lives. We closed the week's class with talking about God's "summary attributes": He is immanent, perfect, blessed, and glorified. Everything in all the earth is designed to bring glory to God!

I don't remember what we did Thursday night because I didn't journal much about it. I think we began our Creative Journals, which are required for our schooling.

Friday
We don't have classes on Fridays; we have worship and prayer time in the morning, then time set aside for quiet time, small group time, then work or free time depending on our own assignments, then exercise time, then free time, then dinner, then "family" time.

Prayer time was a great experience. We split into pairs and went on prayer walks throughout Ciudad Vieja. Next, all the girls and some of the female staff went into Antigua to have ice cream at McDonalds and have our small group meeting. This time is designed to be a safe environment for us to discuss the week with each other, pray for each other, and talk about the lessons. When we came back, we had lunch and then I had free time because I have my work time in cooking breakfast and cleaning up after lunch and dinner, which I spent reading with Tom. I'm so proud of him! He's already making a ton of progress and after five months of practice he's probably going to be the best German English-speaker of all time. That night we had family game night, which was also really fun. Some of the best times are getting to know everyone here.

Saturday
On the weekends, we have very few requirements: have all your work done, be inside by curfew, go in groups, and go to church Sunday morning. So Saturday morning a bunch of us went into Antigua for shopping at the Artisan's market and lunch at a crepe restaurant. Then I came home, took a nap, and FaceTimed with Mom, Mamaw, and Aunt Sandy. That night there was a ministry called Soul Patrol, so Tom and I went into Antigua to help with that. We meet in Central Park and then Mark begins an illusion show, with tricks such as floating cards and disappearing objects. After he draws a crowd, he transitions into sharing the gospel with the people and asking if anyone wants to receive Jesus as their Savior; last night, 12 or more people did! Many things about it were amazing to me: the boldness of the people to come forward, how they stayed to listen even after the show was over, and the respect and reverence they had in coming before the Lord. We also prayed and talked with people in the park, and I got to translate for the first time here. This experience showed me that I still need a ton of practice in my Spanish.

Sunday
This morning I got up early and went to church in town with Emma and Renzo, two of the staff members here. Then, since we went to the early service, we got back early enough to attend church in Antigua with the rest of the group. After, I stayed in town with Mirjam and Christoph and we went to lunch and to sit in the park for a while. Then we went back to the base, and dinner will be soon. After that I have a lot of homework to do for tomorrow! It's been an absolutely wonderful week here, and it feels like I've been away and been with these people for months already. I can't wait to continue getting to know them and growing closer to God.