Last night was the racetrack ministry graduation. Tuesday was our last teaching night and I was glad to have been able to go to both. Throughout the summer, I went to Thursday nights consistently, but came on Tuesdays whenever I was free as well. One of our students Evelio was the only consistent student throughout the entire summer, he came to every meeting! Unfortunately, this summer compared to previous ones, the numbers were lower for students because we had to compete with other activities occurring at the same time such as soccer leagues and other Bible studies. But, Joann and I were so happy to always have at least one student whereas other volunteers would come and have noone show up. For the graduation though, we ended up having three adult students who also ended up bringing some of their family making a total of ten people. The night ended up being very different than what we had in mind, but God worked everything out the way he wanted it, I think.
(Excuse me if the next chunk of explaning things is jumbled) Sadly, our leader for the ministry was unable to be there because of her father being gravely ill, so a lot of the preparations for the night were not finished. We didn't know this until we got to the church and realized that there was no plan for the evening. Right away, the other teachers and I sat down together to pray because we had no music, no fluent Spanish speaker to give the Gospel, nothing set up ahead of time, and no plan for the order of events. I contacted one of the pastors, Troy, that I know and he started to help us by printing off some graduation certificates and putting together some gift bags.These gift bags were extras that were given to him months ago and as they sat on his bookshelf, he had no idea what to do with them until tonight! He came with them and asked if it was enough. I felt like we had a "feeding of the five thousand" moment because we had 5 adults coming and 6 bags to hand out. On top of that, Troy found a bunch of candy and toys to give the kids that fit their ages and genders perfectly!
Now, we needed to find someone that could speak Spanish and comfortably share the Gospel; this became my job. While a few teachers drove to the racetrack to bring the students back to church, I wandered the halls asking strangers if they could speak Spanish. It was good that I was the one who did this because it reminded me of why I want to learn Spanish or at least enough of it to help out in situations like this. After wandering and asking a few people, I ran into another pastor who I hadn't met yet but might I add, talked highly of Jonathon and his servant hood at church. He then was able to ask two classrooms full of people and one person volunteered and turned out to be a missionary's kid from Peru-perfect! So, while we were out in the lobby praying as a group for someone, she was actually sitting in a room nearby, at a table with Jonathon none the less (Jon was at a meeting for new small group leaders). Another teacher read her testimony in Spanish that randomly was in her trunk and then Sarah spoke Spanish and gave a personal message. We really loved that she had a South American background to connect with them and told us that they need something real and not just a "go to church" type of story because of their Catholic background; again, it was perfect!
Afterwards, we had dinner together, chatted, and then sadly we had to bring our students back to the racetrack and say good bye. We asked if they would be back next year, Alejandra said yes, but Evelio said he wasn't sure. So, it's always hard to say good bye when you've invested time into someone and you're not sure if you'll see the person again. We shared the Gospel many times and Evelio seemed to have a very good background and understanding, we just hope that they will have a personal relationship with Christ if they don't already. I now realize how much I will miss them after seeing them every week. Although I didn't always feel like teaching again after already being at school for 9 hours, but every night I knew it was well worth it and was a blessing to me.
I came back to the church and ran into Troy and Jon's pastor mentor, Jeff and we talked about how God worked out everything perfectly for tonight. I was in awe of how everything happened and how they seemed to enjoy being at Harvest even though we had a crazy start to the night as leaders. But, when we prayed to God and handed everything over to Him, amazing things happened.
(Excuse me if the next chunk of explaning things is jumbled) Sadly, our leader for the ministry was unable to be there because of her father being gravely ill, so a lot of the preparations for the night were not finished. We didn't know this until we got to the church and realized that there was no plan for the evening. Right away, the other teachers and I sat down together to pray because we had no music, no fluent Spanish speaker to give the Gospel, nothing set up ahead of time, and no plan for the order of events. I contacted one of the pastors, Troy, that I know and he started to help us by printing off some graduation certificates and putting together some gift bags.These gift bags were extras that were given to him months ago and as they sat on his bookshelf, he had no idea what to do with them until tonight! He came with them and asked if it was enough. I felt like we had a "feeding of the five thousand" moment because we had 5 adults coming and 6 bags to hand out. On top of that, Troy found a bunch of candy and toys to give the kids that fit their ages and genders perfectly!
Now, we needed to find someone that could speak Spanish and comfortably share the Gospel; this became my job. While a few teachers drove to the racetrack to bring the students back to church, I wandered the halls asking strangers if they could speak Spanish. It was good that I was the one who did this because it reminded me of why I want to learn Spanish or at least enough of it to help out in situations like this. After wandering and asking a few people, I ran into another pastor who I hadn't met yet but might I add, talked highly of Jonathon and his servant hood at church. He then was able to ask two classrooms full of people and one person volunteered and turned out to be a missionary's kid from Peru-perfect! So, while we were out in the lobby praying as a group for someone, she was actually sitting in a room nearby, at a table with Jonathon none the less (Jon was at a meeting for new small group leaders). Another teacher read her testimony in Spanish that randomly was in her trunk and then Sarah spoke Spanish and gave a personal message. We really loved that she had a South American background to connect with them and told us that they need something real and not just a "go to church" type of story because of their Catholic background; again, it was perfect!
Afterwards, we had dinner together, chatted, and then sadly we had to bring our students back to the racetrack and say good bye. We asked if they would be back next year, Alejandra said yes, but Evelio said he wasn't sure. So, it's always hard to say good bye when you've invested time into someone and you're not sure if you'll see the person again. We shared the Gospel many times and Evelio seemed to have a very good background and understanding, we just hope that they will have a personal relationship with Christ if they don't already. I now realize how much I will miss them after seeing them every week. Although I didn't always feel like teaching again after already being at school for 9 hours, but every night I knew it was well worth it and was a blessing to me.
I came back to the church and ran into Troy and Jon's pastor mentor, Jeff and we talked about how God worked out everything perfectly for tonight. I was in awe of how everything happened and how they seemed to enjoy being at Harvest even though we had a crazy start to the night as leaders. But, when we prayed to God and handed everything over to Him, amazing things happened.
2 comments:
THIS IS OUR GOD!!! And how HE LOVES to take the little you offer Him, and MULLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTIIIIPPPPLLLLLYYYYY
it!!! Just like your title reads! Isn't it exciting to SEE HIm at work so flawlessly?!
You were faithful each week, no matter what, God was there already, and met you and the students, and was the Mighty JEHOVAH JIREH when you WENT TO HIM IN PRAYER!!! oh yes, THIS IS OUR GOD!!!
I'll be sure I put those names and unnamed on my gold sheets. Thanks Anika, and all your/our comrades!
your hoodie xoxoxoxox
Oh how uplifting your story was to read! God works in mighty and small ways, often we don't see them or are even aware of them. But this one was a mighty one and timed perfectly for you! Oh the little details that happened; like meeting a mentor of Jonathon's, and having some families of your students come along...you never know how this ministry will work in them one day!!!
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