teaching english in colombia

Hey everyone,

Apologies that this update on my trip to Colombia is so belated.   A lot of unexpected things have been happening since I got back.  Among other things, my grandmother passed away on March 25 in Korea at the age of 102, so as soon as I found out, I got on a plane and flew into Seoul to be with family for her funeral.   We were all thankful for her life and the peaceful way in which she died, at home in bed surrounded by family, not sick or hooked up to machines.   And now she's with her Papa, and also reunited with my grandfather after 40 years of separation.  It was also neat to learn about and experience firsthand a Korean funeral.  (It occurs to me that funeral customs so rarely come up in ESL classes when we discuss various cultural celebrations and rituals.  Perhaps because many young students don't have much experience with death yet?)

Anyway, rewind to Colombia.  Jie, Hsi-Ping and I went to the YWAM base in the Caribbean city of Cartagena from March 1-14, where I taught English pronunciation to latino missionaries in an English language learning school.   Thank you for all your prayers, as they were all answered!  I was able to finish my lesson preparations before we left and when I got there, I was able to use almost everything I had prepared with the 12 or so students in the school.  Teaching again was really a joy - it was so great to see the students participating so enthusiastically and responding so well to the lessons and activities.  It was a nice reminder that I (still) love teaching and feel like in a way it is easier to be who God created me to be when I am in the classroom.  After I returned to the States, the director of the English school emailed me and wrote that two of her students in particular (she teaches the lowest level class) have improved noticeably in their pronunciation and that they are much easier to understand now.   That was encouraging, since I had been a  little worried about overwhelming the low level students with all the material.
 

Jie did wonderfully.  She got only one mosquito bite as far as I could tell (and I'm not even sure the one I saw was really a bite) and had just one not-so-bad spell of diarrhea the day before we returned home.   After she got adjusted to everything, she ate and slept reasonably well and got along well with her "nanny" Hsi-Ping.  She learned some basic Spanish greetings, developed a taste for arepas and empanadas and even made 2 little Colombian friends, Salma (age 3) and Felipe (age 2), whom she regularly talks about and remembers fondly.  It was really great to have her experience the daily community of the YWAM base.  I hope she can experience more of that kind of real community in the future.

Hsi-Ping, who prior to this trip knew absolutely nothing about YWAM, also had a good time.  She bonded quickly with many of the students despite not speaking Spanish and was impressed by their faith, passion and determination to serve God wherever He might call them.  She also visited several local Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood and witnessed to the owners.  She said some of them had never heard of Jesus or the Gospel.  What a blessing that she had the boldness to plant some seeds in the few short visits she had with them.

Even though I guess this was technically a mission trip, the only part that really felt like a mission trip was when I was asked on Saturday night to give the message at the base's Sunday night family worship service.  Doh!  Everything in me protested, but deep down I knew God was asking me to lay down my pride, fear of failure, perfectionism and desire for control in order to take a step of faith with Him.  God reminded me that as much as He can use me in my areas of strength (e.g., teaching), He can also use me in my weakness (i.e., in this case, being sensitive enough to prepare a message from Him and deliver it!).  But besides that 24-hour period of angst, :) I didn't feel very spiritual.  I mainly just felt physically exhausted, between teaching and taking care of Yohana without all the comforts and conveniences of home.  Not that I didn't enjoy my time there - but it was definitely a different sort of mission trip in that way.  But perhaps a taste of what life might be like living in a foreign country with a small child?

Thank you again for all your prayers.  Probably the biggest thing I brought back from this trip was this: God's kingdom is marching forward.  What He is doing in people's hearts around the world is much, much bigger than me and what I can do for Him.   I'm thankful for this and glad that I was able to catch a glimpse of it again.  May we all have eyes to see Jesus, so much bigger and brighter and more worthy than ourselves.  May we decrease while He increases.