Feliz Navidad
Happy Holidays Family and Friends,
Its hard to imagine that Christmas is almost here. Christmas as you might imagine is pretty big here (being a predominantly catholic country). As always this blog is a choose your own adventure so choose away, after all its Christmas. The first part will talk about my English classes; the second part will talk about the orphanage; and the third will be a seasonal salad bar.
Fun With English
For the past four weeks I have been teaching English from 4 in the afternoon to 7 at night. Classes finally ended this past Friday, which frees up a lot of time for me. My Basic English class was predominantly children, 8 years and older. They were really cute and fun to teach but were incredibly exhausting. The Intermediate class was probably my favorite because they really wanted to learn and the majority of the class was between 15-25 years old. Conversational class was my last class of the night and was my time to rest my brain and speak in English. However, the students were sporadic, at best, in their attendance.
When living in another country it can be discouraging at times to not know the inside jokes or the slang words, let alone the mother tongue. I have misunderstood many jokes and often found myself to be the punch line of my friend’s jokes. For this reason, the highlight of English class was that we played on my turf for once. I often would right examples on the board for people to repeat, to practice punctuation. One time I wrote “Jacob is my favorite teacher and quite good looking as well”. I would say it first and then have everyone repeat it, and then say “gracias” and have them practice again. I would fight back the laughter as my friends, who would tease me in Spanish, unknowingly showered me with compliments in English. Oooh, what fun.
The Orphanage
Pastor Libni and I have been talking recently about the next step in the orphanage. We have agreed that its best not to wait until we have funds to buy a house for the orphanage, but instead do what we can in the mean time. When Libni started the church they started with a children’s ministry that reached out to kids who were living next to a sewer and they didn’t need much money. So we have decided to start working with an organization here in Bogota that works with child prostitutes. Libni and I are excited to start our work with children and we are praying that God would use us and that people who learn of our work would be led to give to help purchase a building for the orphanage. This is refreshing because I was getting antsy (sp?) to start working with the kids. We will take the next few weeks during the holidays to learn of organizations that we can work with. Pray that we would connect with the right group and that God would use us.
Seasonal Salad Bar
On a whole I am very content here and don’t really miss home (sorry mommy, I love you). No seriously I have been blessed with great community here. However, there are things that I miss about this time of year that I can’t find in Bogota. I have, however, found some suitable replacements.
Skiing: I miss the feel of bounding through the fresh powder and standing on top of the mountain. I miss the adrenaline rush of throwing a back flip into a deep powder landing. However, riding a motorcycle in Bogota has been a suitable replacement. And while there are no jumps to ski off of, almost getting side swiped by a bus seems to suffice for an adrenaline rush.
Mom’s cooking: The absence of my mom’s cookies at Christmas time is like a manger scene without the baby Jesus. Ok, that was a bit blasphemous but, I really do miss her chocolate chip cookies. Instead I am eating buñuelos, a cheese bread shaped like a donut hole, which is tradition for this time of year.
Christmas morning: Instead of rolling out of bed and opening stockings I will be rolling out of bed and opening Tamalés, which is a banana leaf, wrapped typical breakfast food here.
An Uncomfortable Faith
I wanted to include a quick section in the end here to talk about faith and what I am learning here. In several recent emails and conversations with friends I have talked a lot about faith and was encouraged by Justin to share. So here it goes.
In the fall of my senior year I really struggled with my faith and questioned God´s existence. I was a theology major with a good intellectual understanding. However, when several friends began to challenge my beliefs, my intellectual answers were just fronts to my inner doubts. After talking and receiving some invaluable advice from Roger Mohrlang, I began to look at my faith differently. Since I have been here I have been continually convicted of my lack of faith. I didn’t really need faith in the US, after all I worked hard, made good money, and everything else was intellectual. My faith was simply a matter of going to the right compartment in my brain and pulling out the right answer. On the contrary, when one doesn’t have a dime to spare, only a high school education and is faced with true hardships, faith is all they have. And in turn God does amazing things. Unfortunately, for me and I would say much of US Christianity, we have compromised the vulnerability that faith requires for comfort and convenience. Faith is a humble and confident decision of recognizing that we don’t know everything and cant do everything, but God can. Therefore faith then becomes apart of everyday life. Here, my intellectual shell has been exposed by the needs around me and the vibrant faith of those who put everything on the line for their love of Christ.
My prayer for myself and for you all is that this holiday season would be a time to reassess our faith and what it asks of us. I also pray that we would have a spirit of gratefulness, but a gratefulness that demands a response that leads us to give. I love you all and cherish your support and friendships.
Dios les Bendiga,
Jacob
Its hard to imagine that Christmas is almost here. Christmas as you might imagine is pretty big here (being a predominantly catholic country). As always this blog is a choose your own adventure so choose away, after all its Christmas. The first part will talk about my English classes; the second part will talk about the orphanage; and the third will be a seasonal salad bar.
Fun With English
For the past four weeks I have been teaching English from 4 in the afternoon to 7 at night. Classes finally ended this past Friday, which frees up a lot of time for me. My Basic English class was predominantly children, 8 years and older. They were really cute and fun to teach but were incredibly exhausting. The Intermediate class was probably my favorite because they really wanted to learn and the majority of the class was between 15-25 years old. Conversational class was my last class of the night and was my time to rest my brain and speak in English. However, the students were sporadic, at best, in their attendance.
When living in another country it can be discouraging at times to not know the inside jokes or the slang words, let alone the mother tongue. I have misunderstood many jokes and often found myself to be the punch line of my friend’s jokes. For this reason, the highlight of English class was that we played on my turf for once. I often would right examples on the board for people to repeat, to practice punctuation. One time I wrote “Jacob is my favorite teacher and quite good looking as well”. I would say it first and then have everyone repeat it, and then say “gracias” and have them practice again. I would fight back the laughter as my friends, who would tease me in Spanish, unknowingly showered me with compliments in English. Oooh, what fun.
The Orphanage
Pastor Libni and I have been talking recently about the next step in the orphanage. We have agreed that its best not to wait until we have funds to buy a house for the orphanage, but instead do what we can in the mean time. When Libni started the church they started with a children’s ministry that reached out to kids who were living next to a sewer and they didn’t need much money. So we have decided to start working with an organization here in Bogota that works with child prostitutes. Libni and I are excited to start our work with children and we are praying that God would use us and that people who learn of our work would be led to give to help purchase a building for the orphanage. This is refreshing because I was getting antsy (sp?) to start working with the kids. We will take the next few weeks during the holidays to learn of organizations that we can work with. Pray that we would connect with the right group and that God would use us.
Seasonal Salad Bar
On a whole I am very content here and don’t really miss home (sorry mommy, I love you). No seriously I have been blessed with great community here. However, there are things that I miss about this time of year that I can’t find in Bogota. I have, however, found some suitable replacements.
Skiing: I miss the feel of bounding through the fresh powder and standing on top of the mountain. I miss the adrenaline rush of throwing a back flip into a deep powder landing. However, riding a motorcycle in Bogota has been a suitable replacement. And while there are no jumps to ski off of, almost getting side swiped by a bus seems to suffice for an adrenaline rush.
Mom’s cooking: The absence of my mom’s cookies at Christmas time is like a manger scene without the baby Jesus. Ok, that was a bit blasphemous but, I really do miss her chocolate chip cookies. Instead I am eating buñuelos, a cheese bread shaped like a donut hole, which is tradition for this time of year.
Christmas morning: Instead of rolling out of bed and opening stockings I will be rolling out of bed and opening Tamalés, which is a banana leaf, wrapped typical breakfast food here.
An Uncomfortable Faith
I wanted to include a quick section in the end here to talk about faith and what I am learning here. In several recent emails and conversations with friends I have talked a lot about faith and was encouraged by Justin to share. So here it goes.
In the fall of my senior year I really struggled with my faith and questioned God´s existence. I was a theology major with a good intellectual understanding. However, when several friends began to challenge my beliefs, my intellectual answers were just fronts to my inner doubts. After talking and receiving some invaluable advice from Roger Mohrlang, I began to look at my faith differently. Since I have been here I have been continually convicted of my lack of faith. I didn’t really need faith in the US, after all I worked hard, made good money, and everything else was intellectual. My faith was simply a matter of going to the right compartment in my brain and pulling out the right answer. On the contrary, when one doesn’t have a dime to spare, only a high school education and is faced with true hardships, faith is all they have. And in turn God does amazing things. Unfortunately, for me and I would say much of US Christianity, we have compromised the vulnerability that faith requires for comfort and convenience. Faith is a humble and confident decision of recognizing that we don’t know everything and cant do everything, but God can. Therefore faith then becomes apart of everyday life. Here, my intellectual shell has been exposed by the needs around me and the vibrant faith of those who put everything on the line for their love of Christ.
My prayer for myself and for you all is that this holiday season would be a time to reassess our faith and what it asks of us. I also pray that we would have a spirit of gratefulness, but a gratefulness that demands a response that leads us to give. I love you all and cherish your support and friendships.
Dios les Bendiga,
Jacob
posted by Jacob Grady | 3:34 PM
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