Monday Monday...

God is SOOOO great! Praise His glorious name!

This morning John Mark and I went to SMAC and taught the song "Everlasting" by Sonicflood for the first hour. The second hour consisted of them making up a story, sentence by sentence, and repeating it. I know that the best way to learn the language is to get people to talk, so that's what they did today... the first story was about a guy named Matthew who was afraid of wolves, lived in a small town, liked to play the flute and guitar, wanted to be a singer, and died at the hands of thieves at the very end. The second story was about a "strange" fox that had five legs, three eyes, strange kids (also with three eyes), and green fur. These are my students. And I love them!

Afterwards, JM and I parted ways and I met up with Wong, the TKD instructor. We went to his casa (house) to talk in English and have lunch. The family he's living with is very nice! They have four kids, from 23 to 15ish, and some can speak decent English. Wong gave me a pirated copy of Lion King, LK 2 and LK 3 all on one DVD because it wouldn't work on his computer. Sweet. I accepted it so that I can watch the Spanish version and learn something (maybe... though I hardly ever watch movies). Disney apparently has great translation.

After talking with him, I met the oldest daughter, Diana. She spent a year in the States so knows a great deal of English but still wants to learn more. So I'm planning on helping her and any of her other siblings learn English, as well! It was fun talking to the parents during lunch and encouraging, for they said that my Spanish was very good! Praise God! All glory to Him...

I met up with Mr. Johnny and John Mark for a sort-of debrief time and it was good. Afterwards, John Mark and I walked Riobamba, buying brownie mix and dry-erase markers (for SMAC). We headed over to the TKD building and then parted ways again. Training was fun tonight! It was a lot of hard work, but the initial warm-up was really sweet... it involved leap frog, hopscotch and sprinting out of strange positions (lying on your back, sitting down, kneeling, etc). I then was pulled aside for my lack of a good kick (my inflexibility rearing it's ugly head) along with three other guys and we practiced a roundhouse kick... very difficult (the way Wong taught us). After more lessons (defense forms), we finished, and Wong and I walked across town to catch a bus back to Riobamba Norte (for me... he went to the gym). The Maust family was very kind and invited me over for dinner and waited for me to finish TKD as well! God bless them for that... it was a wonderful pot-roast meal and reminded me of my Mother's back home... my Mom makes the BEST Pot Roast in the world... it's been confirmed ;-).

After Pot Roast, I had a lovely conversation with my sister Elise, wrote a few e-mails, downloaded some hilarious "This Is Sportscenter" promo ads, and finished the night talking with Brett and KJ. Thank the Lord for such a wonderful sister and friends... may the Lord bless, lead, and guide them all for His greatest glory...

Please pray for Abby, that she finishes her last few weeks in Tennessee strong and that she continues to learn and apply... also for me, that I would be open to the Lord, listening to what He says. It's going to go by very fast, and while I truly miss my family and friends back home, I can't say I'm ready to leave or really want to...

1 Peter 5:5-6 was on my agenda this morning. "All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another..." is how verse 6 starts. This really struck me, for we can fool ourselves into thinking that we're humble enough because we humble ourselves before the Lord when in reality He is calling us to humble ourselves "towards one another". In doing this, we will be humbling ourselves before Him... is there anyone in your life you need to humble yourself towards?

Christ's unworthy servant, seeking to do the duty set before him...

Luke