Day Number 17, But Who's Counting?

Tomorrow will bring us to the quarter-way mark of our semester together...in some ways it feels like we've already been together for months and yet it has only been just over three weeks.  I apologize for the lack of updates - don't for a minute think that I don't appreciate you or covet your prayers!  On the contrary we have been lifted up by them and know that many have been praying.  God has been at work not only in the students but in us as staff as well.

This year God brought us nine students, ranging in age from 17 to into the sixties.  Perhaps I identify even more with this group as a number of them are people who have grown up in Christian homes.  They come from different parts of the country though the majority are here from the state of Sonora.  It's an open group, an interactive group, an energetic group (every free moment we're playing...or attempting to play volleyball), and a group that each day is showing a hunger for a deeper understanding of who God is.

Back (L to R): Jesús (Jalisco), Alexis (Jalisco), Leydi (Nayarit), Carmen (Sonora), Dariana (Sonora),                   José Antonio (Sonora) Front: Juan (Sonora), José Luis (Sonora), Jonathan (Sonora)

Being together 24-7 has its advantages and disadvantages.  Last week I "hit a wall" with regards to tiredness, going to bed at 8:00 one evening.  With all that is going on, including teaching, organizing, spending time with the students, etc., one gets worn out, but the advantages far out-weight these inconveniences.

Perhaps the greatest advantage is being able to see and be a part of the change that God does in each one of us, not only through the classes but outside of them as well.  Sometimes I wonder who grows and learns more: teachers or students?  One thing that I've learning personally is connected with the classes I've been teaching over the last few weeks on Spiritual Disciplines.  If I could boil it down to one essential point it would have to be John 15:5 where Jesus talks about us remaining in Him.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.  Those are humbling and yet empowering words.  Sometimes I'm so much more preoccupied with doing that I forget about just simply being with God and yet this is the source, the only source of life.  On the contrary, when I worry more about being with Him, the fruit will come, I cannot help but bear fruit in my life.  For myself this has become very obvious especially in teaching - for all the preparation I can do for the classes, my attitude, my posture before Him, and my connection to Him are what truly make the difference.

Another thing that I've been learning is to leave each class, truly leaving the class.  Perhaps that doesn't make much sense but I realize how easy it is to take the class with me, running over what I missed, what I could have done, etc., often feeling disappointed with what I thought "could have been."  I suppose I'm my own worst critic and I do want to continually evaluate each class so that I can improve (sometimes it hurts to admit that I am not perfect and that there will always be room for improvement).  But at the end of each class, all I can do is trust that God used it, entrusting the outcome for each person to Him.  Believe me, as simple as this sounds, it has been something that God is reminding me about - once again I believe it comes back to simply abiding in Him, trusting in Him, and realizing that it's He who does the work in each student's heart, not so much my "impressive" (or lack there-of) teaching ability!

On the other side of things, to see God at work in each and every one of the students is encouraging as well.  One student comes to mind in particular.  Without sharing details, one of our students entered CEC having committed some pretty big errors in his life only several months before coming.  In some ways coming here was a type of spiritual retreat to deal with these things personally and to draw closer to God.  Over the first few weeks, though, we as a staff noticed several things that were concerning, making us question his sincerity in being at CEC and in truly being willing to deal with the things he had done.  Last week we took the opportunity to raise these concerns with him personally, challenging him in several ways, hoping and praying that we would see a genuine, sincere response from him.  It certainly isn't the first time that we've done this with students and conversations like these have often lead to students deciding that maybe being here wasn't for them.  Praise God we have seen him respond, rising to the challenges, and most importantly showing through his actions a genuine repentance and desire to seek God.

It's exciting for us to witness these responses, to see not only people's actions but their genuine desire to seek after God - this is probably the doubled edged sword of living in community as we are: you can only hide the real you for so long (disadvantage!) but this is also the advantage in that, that's where change really happens.  This is where God begins to work in us, when we get beneath the layers of who we pretend to be and get honest with Him and with ourselves about who we really are and what is really going on inside of us.

Please don't stop praying for our students and staff!  We're only just beginning - the layers are just beginning to come off as we get to know one another.  It's not always a fun process the but results are always worth it.  ¡Dios les bendiga!