I can't believe it's been over a month now. The language is coming slowly for me but I've really known the grace of God to cope with limited communication. It reminds me of when God said to Moses – 'Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.' Lord teach us what to speak, be with our mouths!
Last weekend I went on a Christian retreat with 70 young people from Extremadura (the region). An evangelist from Madrid presented several powerful messages which clearly impacted many of the youth. One message was 'Crucified with Christ' and at the end many young people took a nail and symbolically hammered it to a cross to represent their old self. God was doing many things in their lives.
As time goes by, I'm getting more opportunities to speak into the lives of young Christians. I know I'm very 'slow of speech and tongue', but God made my mouth and He is able to fill it with words!
This week there was a carnival here for four days culminating in the 'Burial of the Sardine'. They paraded a papier-mache fish round the town before cremating it. Slightly strange! They also gave out 'comida gratis' to anyone who wanted. Practically the whole town turned up and queued for hours just for a ham and cheese roll followed by a sardine.
Free food is good but the truth about this festival is it is pagan and the Catholic attempt at 'redeeming' it has failed miserable. There wasn't a good atmosphere in the town and so I went to play pool with the youth of the church instead. Many of them would rather join in with the fiesta and Paco has told me how much they are torn between the world and the church. He believes God has and will use me to help them see that living in the light is the most liberating experience they can have.
Finally an anecdote. On the coach to Badajoz, my orange came out of the bag as the coach stopped suddenly, and rolled all the way to the front through several passengers legs. First I tried to look completely oblivious but eventually faced up to the embarrassment of asking them if they'd seen an orange. Yes they had but only in transit! Finally a lady bent down and came up holding the orange above her head. There are guaranteed ways of drawing attention to oneself!
Points for prayer:
1.Thank God for showing me more clearly my purpose here – to be a support, encouragement and example to the youth.
2.Pray for the grace necessary for this.
3.Pray that I'd know whether to continue traveling to Badajoz each weekend and where I should stay in the future
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