Insufficient

Zoky Tara, the ground in America is white and not brown, like here, right? Zoky Tara, are there bad people living in America? Zoky Tara, he (talking about the kid sitting next to me) is really good at pick pocketing. Zoky Tara, I want to accept Jesus as my Savior.

Teaching these precious kids, my Good News Club kids, is truly the highlight of every week. The cutest and often funniest things come out of their mouths, and hearing the words, “Zoky Tara, I want to accept Jesus as my Savior,” is something that I could never get tired of. Each Tuesday morning, I prepare the Bible lesson, memory verse and review game for the week, and then meet with my language helper, Haja in the afternoon to make sure I am on the right track and learn any new words I want to use. Then on Wednesday, I usually just teach the memory verse and teach the Bible lesson on Thursday, Friday and Monday. I try to have the lesson ready by Wednesday, but this week, that didn’t happen. Let’s just say, by Tuesday afternoon, I felt like it should be Friday already. The electricity mysteriously went out in my house on Monday, so the laptop died, meaning I couldn’t get any CYIA stuff done. Tuesday, after a trip down to the electricity place to get them to go check things out, I hurried off to town to meet with my landlord, ended up with an hour to lesson plan, which got scrawled on a piece of paper instead of typed up on the computer, and then went to meet with Haja, still not really knowing what I wanted to ask him about or new words I might want to use. So this morning, Wednesday, with still no electricity in my house, I was running late, and grabbed the memory verse visual, but not the Bible lesson book because while I sort of had outlined the story in English, ok, the first half anyway, I knew there was no way I was ready to teach it, which wasn’t a problem because the others always do the lesson on Wednesday anyway. So I get to our morning club, still thinking about the electricity issue and how I was even going to manage the memory verse that hadn’t gotten completely prepared. My teaching partner tells me she can’t figure out this Bible lesson, and has no idea how to teach it and asks if I can do it. *deer in headlights* Um………..Suurrrreeee….BUT, this could be one interesting lesson that is for sure…. So as she gets club started, I am searching through my Bible to get the story straight, who kills who, who gets back at who, who ends up dead, what exactly happens to Isboseta…where to put applications in…. You get the idea. And to top it off, the boys in the back row wanted me to sit with them, which, while there is never a dull moment sitting with them, it means it’s kinda hard to makes heads or tails of the lesson you are about to teach. Though, when a boy in a different row asked if he could use my Bible to find the memory verse, the boy sitting next to me goes, ‘Can’t you see she’s busy?? Stop distracting her!!’ I decided not to point out that that is exactly what he and his friends had been doing.  As I sat there, I explain to God that I was not ready. I couldn’t do this. It was gonna have to be all Him. Somehow, I delivered the lesson. I think the right people killed who they were suppose to, the right people got revenge on the right people, and the right people ended up dead, I think. And I have nooooo idea what happened to Isboseth. He kinda disappeared somewhere in the story and never reappeared. Thank goodness he wasn’t a main character… I did manage to get in the applications and the invitation, which is totally a God thing. I told the kids that when the kids left for recess, they could come sit in the front row if they wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior. Club ended, the kids filed out. I began gathering my things, and notice two little girls sitting in the front row, watching me. I was totally caught off guard, and was like, um…..did you want to talk to me? The one says, ‘yes, we want to accept Jesus as our Savior.’ I hesitate for an instant, completely caught off guard, wondering how anything could have come for that ill prepared lesson I just taught, but then remembered that I had asked God to teach through me. Grabbing my Bible, I sat down beside them, and we talked about God’s amazing plan to save them and make them His very own children. They took turns praying, and we got to my favorite part. They said amen and I asked, ‘Whose child are you now?’ Smiling, they both answered, ‘I am God’s child.’ And as I walked out of there, I couldn’t believe what God had done, despite my complete insufficiency. But, especially after these last two years, I have this funny feeling that that is what He loves to do, it’s what He is all about.  He takes what I have, which always seems so insufficient, and somehow makes something beautiful. I have often asked Him why He sent me here, not that I don’t love being here, but wouldn’t it have been easier if he had called to reach children in my own country? Children whose language I speak, whose culture I know? Why did He send me to children who speak a language that is not my own and a culture I sometimes can’t even seem to figure out? I still don’t know. But, I taught the children today that God always works for our good out of His great love for us, and we can trust Him even when He doesn’t answer our prayers how we want or do what we want Him to do in our lives. And that is exactly what God reminded me of today. No matter His reason for sending me here, I somehow ended up with a ton of precious kids that I get the privilege of teaching and build relationships with every week. Somehow, even as I stumble through a lesson, or an invitation, things I could so easily do in English, He speaks to the children’s hearts and draws them to Himself. Today, I am so excited that I have two new little sisters, Tsiky and Mandrindra. And I am thrilled that somehow, God chose to use me in His often mysterious plan to save the world.

And, as I walked into the house today, still marveling at what an amazing God I serve, I went to flip on the lights with out even thinking, and they came on!!! My two day electricity outage taught me an awful lot, but I am ever so happy to have it back! :)