Week Five

Just one month into the school term and it feels like we've known these students for much longer!  It took a couple of weeks for everyone to find their places and to get settled into routines, myself included, but here we are, a third of the way through our time together!

The students are much younger than they have been in the past year (so I'm told!) and it brings with it its own unique blessings and challenges.  The youngest is Yarely, a young woman who us 17 years old, turning 18 soon, the oldest is Roberto, 28, who is here with his wife and two young daughters.  Often in the past they have had pastors who are in their 40's or 50's and even one man who was 60.  But this year God saw fit to bring these particular students!

As with their age, in many ways these students are young in their faith.  Several of them have testimonies of lives lived in drugs and violence until the Lord brought them to a place of repentance and change.  Others have grown up "in the church" so to speak and are learning what it means to walk in a greater intimacy with the Lord.  The other evening we had a time of sharing, a "family time", and it was encouraging and challenging to hear what God is doing in their lives.  Some of them are grasping onto some basic concepts such as what it means to meditate on God's word, and encountering God in deeper ways in those personal times.  Others shared about their desire to return to their communities and share the gospel with those who live there.  One woman in particular, Luciana, the wife of Roberto, who has a particularly tender heart towards the Lord shared with tears how she was sad to think of the people who were perishing who haven't heard or haven't put their faith in the Lord.  Here desire is to return to her town and share with those who don't know the Gospel.  How I wish I had the same depth of passion for those who don't know Christ that she does!  Its encouraging to not only hear from their hearts but to see how God is shaping and moulding them, placing His desires in their hearts.  More than anything, that's the goal of the school here, the desire we have for the students, not only that their knowledge of God would increase, but that this knowledge would lead to transformed lives!

My role is becoming more defined as I go along.  Now that school is in session, my roles have been more in the administration as well as working with the students. A fair bit of my time is spent in the office, helping with whatever needs to be done from helping to prepare for the classes, organizing the weekend ministry placements each of the students take part in each weekend and things like that. I have also been doing a little bit of teaching music as well as sitting in on a small group with all of the guys. It's been a lot of fun to get to know each one of the students and we are excited to see God doing a work in each one of their lives. Some of them, especially some of the guys are particularly reserved or quiet when it comes to sharing what's on their heart, specifically what God is doing in their lives but we pray that He will continue this work deep in their hearts and that they will let their guards down to share this with others.

We've put together a brief description of each of the students, and how you can pray for each one of them.  You can view these mini-biographies HERE.

Pray for us as a staff also! Living in community as the students do always brings with it it's own unique set of challenges but these are all moments to shape and mold character and to become more like Christ! Pray that we would have wisdom as we seek to model Christ's character and walk along side the students in this process!  Pray for me personally as I continue to find my place in this new ministry. I want to be willing to do whatever God may want me to do, for His honor and glory!