Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I miss the sound of your voice

Things are slowly getting to a start around here. We have all been in school for about 2 weeks now. I feel like I am learning a lot, but I am still anxious about speaking in Spanish. I need to find a way to not be afraid to make mistakes. I'm trying to think about it as not just learning a language, but as an act of worship.

This week is the start of our ministry season. Typically we will have 3 events a week, but this week we just have one to get us started. Wednesday night we are having a pancake dinner- In English! yay! Typically on Wed night we have cafe ingles, but for this first one, we wanted it to be special to celebrate the end of finals for the Spanish students and the beginning of the year for us.

Next week we will be going full swing. Every Tuesday we have a lunchtime event called Tertulia. Its basically a free lunch for the university students, time to hang out and meet other students and there will be a 10 min gospel lesson. Its "first time" oriented, intended for anyone who is interested in what we are all about. On wednesday night, like I said, we will be having cafe ingles. Its name is pretty self explanatory- english coffee. We give out free coffee and tea and give spanish students a chance to practice english with us. Its possible that we may never talk about Jesus or the Bible on these nights and that is ok. Its just a chance to meet new people, get them interested in the ministry and try to minister by example. Every other Thurs we have a bible study/worship night at the house. This is for the people in the ministry looking to go a little deeper. On the weeks we do not have bible study, there is a leadership group that meets with the staff while the non-leadership students get to hang out somewhere else with the exchange students- woot woot! On Sundays we go to a local Christian church. Not going to lie, its a little rough right now. Its a lot of older men who do the speaking (their Spanish is typically harder to understand than younger adults and students) and the worship is all hymns that I don't know in English, much less in Spanish. Every once in a while we will get to one that I at least know the tune of (How great is our God! Yes!). I'm hoping it gets easier as my Spanish continues to improve, but for now, thank God for 3F podcasts :)

Things are starting to get into a routine around here. 2 of the girls in our apt have morning classes, and Koral and I have afternoon. It makes it nice because then everyone gets some time in quiet to do homework or whatever. We were all assigned our "jobs" for the semester (although I am sure we will pick up more as time allows). I am in charge of writing a newsletter for all of us to send out to family/friends/supporters, so be on the lookout for that! I am also helping with all the grocery shopping for En Vivo, which as you might imagine is a lot, and doing the chalkboard wall in the house once a week. I will also be doing some stuff with the band as a rotation allows. I'm going to try to get Koral to record it so I can get it up on facebook for everyone to see.

Alright... I have a newsletter to write. :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell me you're not excited about pancakes ;)

Brandy said...

Boy, you are definitely keeping busy there!
You will catch on to the Spanish, slowly but surely.
Miss your face at 3F! I found myself looking for you a few weeks ago, then I realized you were gone. :P I'm such a spaz sometimes!