Tuesdays with... Wong?

Praise God for another day of breath... I pray that I use each and every one of those breaths for His greatest glory in every facet of my life...

This morning I had a nice quiet time in 1 Peter (5:6-9)... it is a very encouraging Scripture talking about casting all your cares on Him "because He cares for you". Wow! God cares for us! Although we falter and sin and hurt His perfect glory, He still cares for us and desire for us to cast our anxieties on Him... also, verse 8 talks about being "self-controlled and alert". This is found multiple times throughout the Scriptures, but it is always good to hear again, because I know that I tend to slack off and be a bit too relaxed at times... praise the Lord for His wonderful Word.

SMAC was aight this morning. John Mark led the first hour dealing with idioms and I actually learned a new one or two (I can't remember which ones, but I think "row your own canoe" was one of them. Ask JM what it means). The second hour dealt with irregular verbs and the Lord allowed me the wonderful opportunity to put into practice a lesson He's taught me... "clothe yourselves with humility towards one another". Right before the time was up, I decided to launch "Lie vs. Lay" on the poor Ecuadorians... the worst part about it all was that I wasn't 100% sure of the correct tenses! My phenomenal Grandmother, Dona Sjogren Petty, has taught me plenty about grammar, especially this one, but it slipped my mind today... I'm sorry I failed you Gra'ma (and you too, second-grammar-teacher: Mom). I recalled that one of them had the same past tense and past participle tense, but seemed to think that "lay" sounded good for the past and past participle of "lie". For those who don't know, to lay something down is "Today I lay the book down, yesterday I laid the book down, and in the past I have laid the book down." To lie down means you're lying yourself down: "Today I lie down, yesterday I lay down, and I have lain down in the past" (this doesn't apply to lie when it means "telling a lie"). I thought it might be "lay, laid, lain" and "lie, lay, lay", for although it didn't sound 100% correct, it sounded more correct to me (at the time) than the other. John Mark disagreed, so I went to the internet to check it and sure enough, John Mark was right.

So I had the opportunity to be proud and not really say anything, or to go admit that he was right and I wrong. In the Lord's strength, I was able to tell him that he was correct and say "good job". Praise God for being strong in our weakness... for that is definitely one of my weaknesses. All glory to Him.

After SMAC, we grabbed some mid-morning ice-cream (similar to second breakfast for hobbits) and then I caught the bus on my way to Wong's house. He told me to disembark at the first light, so that's what I did... although with him being a native Corean learning Spanish and me being a Gringo learning Spanish, I believe something got "lost in translation", for I did not recognize my landing spot as I started to walk around the street corner. I called him, discovered it was the first light AFTER the Polytecnica (one of the colleges in Riobamba), and then walked with him back to his place. We talked about politics (not my strong point) and religion a bit more, then hung out in the kitchen eating peanuts and cantaloupe while lunch was prepared. Please pray for His heart as he considers himself a "half-Christian", not wanting to associate with believers due to the hypocrisy in many of their lives, yet lives with a Christian Ecuadorian family (they LOVE Hillsong United- an automatic plus with me) and his family back home is apparently Christian, as well.

I talked with the family a lot today, and it was just a very blessed feeling being able to converse 100% in Spanish and understand the vast majority of what they were saying! Praise God! Luis called me and wanted to meet, so we played basketball a bit and then sat in their tiny library. The University Libraries here are small. Tiny. Microscopic.

I took a taxi home from the University, changed clothes, and then headed off to TKD early to meet with Henry to help him with English. He works at a restaurant and was asking me questions like "How do you say, 'Welcome', 'what would you like to eat', 'juice'" and other things. It is a pleasure to help him because he's so receptive! He's also a beast at TKD. Tonight's class involved learning some sweet new kicks (bad guys, watch out) and continuing to see that my inflexibility really hurts my TKD ability. We had about 20 minutes of stretching to finish the day, and it was crazy. I don't think I've ever pushed my legs that far apart. Wow...

Chill time with Wong as we walked, bus back to my place (ice-cream pick-up on the way), walking with Laura Coupe to get some eggs for the brownies, meeting the lady I was supposed to stay with this whole time (and her husband) and talking with them (a blessing!), then showering and a quick dinner. After that, off to the Coupes for some brownies and skype with the family!

This afternoon was supposed to be my free afternoon where I could read, relax, and clean up my dirty apartment a bit (it's not messy, just dirty in some places). But God had other plans... I'm thankful that He is using me in these people's lives. Please pray that I continue in His strength alone...

Luke

PS If you have yet to, please check out my Sunday blog and read what the Lord's been teaching me. It's some really sweet stuff, and I'm so thankful.