Wow. This post has been the hardest to write by far. I don't even know why, because it's definitely been the one that I'm most excited about. It did turn out very long, so bear with me :)
Starting off I'll just summarize the week a little. We had class like usual, lots of it, and learned a bunch. For our Bible class we're doing two different studies: Chronology of the Bible with Andy, and Ephesians with Noel. Both are phenomenal! I'm really looking forward to learning some crazy cool stuff from both of these very wise men who desire nothing more than to teach us all they know from God's Word. It's amazing how much God has blessed this group with leadership. I'm really humbled and challenged every day by just their example of living. I'm even in Spanish class with 3 of our leaders, and just watching them work hard and study just as much as I do while simultaneously balancing all their responsibilities AND families.. wow. They rock!
Ministry this week was awesome. This week at Coronado I was able to teach some English in Spanish which was really cool. Challenging in some ways, but definitely cool! Then I went to be with the kids :) I'm in charge of ten older kids (12-14 year olds) and this week we were helping them memorize John 3:16. They have to recite it next week in order to be officially initiated into the Coronado Bible Club. My kids learned it pretty fast. I was very proud. We had the verse written out on a big poster paper and we would read it together, then I would cover a couple words, we'd read it again, cover more, and so on. Eventually they all knew the whole thing. It was an awesome day. I believe that two more kids responded to the message and decided to live for Christ as an heir of the Kingdom!! Praise the Lord!! Please keep praying for the ministry in Coronado. Then later I got to lead some songs at my church's youth group Saturday night. There was also a missionary speaker who gave the message. He instantly became one of my heroes. He translated for himself. Yes. English-Spanish/Spanish-English. And never lost his train of thought. INCREDIBLE!!! He just started preaching and would occasionally start a thought in English and then when he finished translate into Spanish, but then continue to the next thought in Spanish and translate later into English. Holy cow. What brain power!!?!?! That's what I want to be able to do. Be so fluent that I don't even have to work, it just comes naturally either way. Then Sunday I got to visit Bethany's church and see her house. From there we skyped home and got to be on the big screen at BGBC. That was too cool!! It's amazing to be in a different country and be able to talk to your family who is behind you in prayer and love and be able to tell them how amazing God is and what he is doing here.
Ok this is the part that I really wanted to focus on, even though it's slightly out of chronological order. On Thursday we watched the End of the Spear as our Bible class, which is a missionary movie about Jim Elliot's son Steve and his follow up with the tribe his father contacted. It's incredibly moving and wonderfully made. It makes me cry. But even though I've seen it before, for a certain reason it particularly touched me this time. I've felt that God's desire for my life is going to be outside the United States. (I mentioned this in part of my Haiti blog) I feel so passionate and driven when I get to work in other countries. But I have never specifically felt like I would do missions work. For some reason the picture in my head was always LIVE in a different country, but just have a normal job there. Nothing through a missions organization or anything just living location and missions through my work or something. But as I was watching this movie, the part when the natives are begging Steve to live with them and he pleads that he can't because he has a life and family in the States.. but then he decides that he can give that up and he moves to live with the tribe, it hit me hard. It was like "Hannah, could you do that? Could you move away and rely completely on God to provide everything? Could you really trust him with your life and well-being?" And for the first time in good faith I could say yes. I could. And I feel strongly that I will. It's what I want to do! When we were skyping, Pastor Kenny pointed out that our church's goal is to raise up missionaries from our very own congregation. Well, Pastor, I want to be one. I want to be a missionary raised in the care of Battle Ground Bible Church, and with them behind me and my Lord Jesus before me, dedicate my life fully to his service with no turning back! What that exactly looks like or where I'll end up who knows but God. But here I am telling him to send me. It's a radical decision to follow God, but I've always loved doing the radical.. I mean, I'm in Costa Rica!! So I say bring it on. I'm still going to study linguistics next year and be a language master so that I can reach as many people as possible :) and, yes Pastor Kenny, I might even get to translate the Bible!! So I'm super excited to see where he sends me and what he gives me to do.. I'm banking on the promise that he has a plan to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future. Starting now, this is my life in reaction to the radical call of God.
