10 days to go

Wow, April 1st...  How did that happen?? I imagine for many of you waiting for the release of winter, it couldn't come soon enough...eventually the cold and the snow HAVE to give way to spring time and warmer weather and perhaps most importantly, no snow! Here though, April brings with it the promise of HOT weather but more importantly our school's graduation! I think the last time I wrote we were in the midst of week five here at the seminary. Well, April 1st finds us on the first day of week 13, with only one more week to go! Where did the time go?

It's been a tremendous ride so far, with challenges and joys along the way. There's no chance of avoiding at times difficult circumstances and a healthy dose of growing pains when you put together ten students and a number of staff in a close, intense environment aimed at sharpening each other's walks with the Lord and spurring one another on. But the fruits of His work in our lives, as challenging as it can be at times is always whatever path He may take us on. I was reading this morning from James, chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 which talk about considering it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of our faith develops perseverance and perseverance is indispensable in our journey towards spiritual maturity. "If only there could be another way," I hear my flesh groaning!

Nonetheless, looking back there has been significant growth in the lives of each one of the students who have been with us since the beginning of January and it is exciting to see. Of particular interest is one young couple, a pastor's daughter and her husband, Manuel and Areli (the pastor and his wife having gone through this program the year before).  They have grown in leaps and bounds during the past three months. They had been involved in ministry before coming here, working together with her parents in their church.  But as they have been challenged not only in their understanding of the Scriptures through a lot of intense studying but also having been encouraged to focus on their relationship with the Lord, they have found a new, deeper passion for serving the Lord. Manuel was so excited coming back from their weekly weekend ministry for how the Lord had worked through him as he had a chance to preach for the first time, filling in for his father in law who wasn't able to be there to preach.  He also shared their experience of a small discipleship group that he has been leading with his wife and how tearfully they had completed their last formal lesson together in a course that they had taken here in school and were guiding them through.

Another student, Emanuel, came back excited with the new opportunity to disciple his brother and sister in law whom had recently decided that they wanted to turn their life around and come back to Christ.  They went right to Emanuel and asked him to disciple them and share with them what he's been learning over the past while.  Obviously, they are seeing in him an example that they want to follow.

Last week during the craziness of Semana Santa, we had a tremendous opportunity for ministry, which for those who have never experienced Semana Santa here in San Carlos, is a week of partying and celebrating centered around the Holy Week leading up to Easter.  (Yeah, it is nothing short of ironic and deeply sad that many, many people take to the streets here in San Carlos in drunkenness and partying during the time when we celebrate and remember Christ's death and resurrection...)  The students were involved one afternoon with a ministry outreach project that was put on by the local English Church, handing out tracts and Bibles to many of the thousands and thousands of people walking the main street in San Carlos from Thursday to Saturday of last week.  Each evening was capped off with a Christian concert where the Gospel was clearly presented.

The students took to the streets during the afternoon to advertise for the concert and also armed with tracts, they walked up and down the streets handing them out and talking with those who wanted to know more.  In particular there was one couple who were deeply impacted by that experience, Roberto and Luciana.  These two couldn't be more opposite in many ways when it comes to their approach to evangelism.  Luciana is a bold, fearless witness and came back feeling so sad at some of the people with whom she had talked to, who had not even wanted to take the tracts that she had offered them.  She expressed such sadness as they wanted nothing to have to do with it, even though she encouraged them to take the tracts anyway for the moment when they needed them.  Roberto, on the other hand, is a pretty quiet and reserved kind of guy, especially when it comes to sharing what's on his heart or sharing about Christ.  But with the bold witness of his wife by his side, he came back pumped and excited for the freedom that he felt in being out there and sharing with many the Gospel.

I've had the opportunity to do some teaching in these last couple of weeks and I'm glad to say that I've got the first class under my belt!  Last week I had the opportunity to begin teaching an introduction to homiletics.  Not sure how I exactly got nominated for this role, seeing I'm far from an experienced preacher, never mind teacher, but if you've got extra prayer time open, by all means I'd appreciate it if you fire up a few prayers for me (and maybe more so for the students!)

That's all for now.  We'll be having our graduation next week Friday, April 12th, and just like that it's gonna be over for this school term.  God bless each one of you and thanks for your continued encouragement and support!  ¡Dios les bendiga!