New Projects

Here are the New Projects that God has placed before me...

The first one is teaching English to two pastors. The truth is that I have taught various English classes in the time that I have been down here, but it has never been something that I have been excited about. One reason for that is I feel like I don't really even know where to start with teaching English. It's true, I speak the language, but how do you teach someone something that you have just always known? The other reason that it hasn't excited me, is because I want everything I do to bear fruit for the Lord, and sometimes I question if I couldn't better use my time for Him in a different way. However, about two months ago my friend Luis Fernando, (A local pastor that I personally support) asked me if I would be willing to teach him English. I will admit I was not very excited but I agreed to help him. After agreeing, I thought of Eliut, the pastor of the church I am working with in Quebracho, and decided to see if he would also like to join us. Which he did. Since that time, I still feel like I have no idea how to go about teaching this crazy language called English, but I have gotten excited to be helping these two pastors in an area where they might otherwise not be able to grow. I am also excited because I know that both of these men will use what they learn to serve the Lord, and that I really am working for Christ by doing something, even seemingly mundane like teaching English...

The second project is one that Andrea and I are working on together. If you know something about the ministry we have been doing here in Nicaragua, you are probably aware that we have been writing a Children's Church Curriculum in Spanish to support the local ministry. We are coming to the end of two years worth of curriculum. Eight churches currently have copies of the curriculum (although we are not really sure beyond four, if they are all using it). Andrea and I had decided that two years would be the finishing point for the curriculum as her and Orlando are currently waiting on approval to be able to move to the States. and I have been trying to plan with the other teachers in Quebracho. Then, one day we received an Email from a fellow missionary whose teachers had been using our curriculum. She wanted to know how to make the lessons we had planned more than just rules, and focus in on the real issue of knowing God. At first we were a bit taken aback,  because we are confident in the lessons that we have written. We feel strongly that the person teaching is the one who takes the material and makes it more relational with the kids. But the truth is that all of us so often can fall into the habit of just teaching what is on the page, but when we take the time to seek God and study the story ourselves there is a shift. It becomes real to us as well, even if it is Noah's Ark. So, we feel that the Lord has inspired us to write  a Teacher's Devotional to accompany the children's curriculum. It will be designed to use the same lessons that the kids are being taught but take them a little deeper for the teacher to apply to their own life. There is so much that God wants to teach us out of those stories no matter how old we are or where we are in life. By applying the exact same lessons to our lives, we can then be excited about teaching it to the children and make it more personal. So many of the teachers here are just discovering Christ for themselves. They are new in their walk and trying to figure out how to teach to others. Since Str8way's heart is discipleship, we feel like this is the perfect opportunity to disciple other teachers through these devotional lessons.

We are in the test stages of this new project, but it seems to be well received so far. We are taking the stories that specific ministries are currently on and making a devotional for their next lesson or two so they can give us feedback on the structure of it and if it really does help in teaching the children.

The truth is that neither Andrea or myself ever thought we would be writing a devotional for adults. But I guess I also never thought I would write a children's curriculum, or live in Nicaragua, or even be a missionary for that matter. hahaha. And so goes the truth that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways...