The Latest

We are in the midst of big changes in our Panama project and we wanted you to know what is going on.

As you should know, we have been working at a university, UDELAS since March. The semester is ending there and the students are now taking final exams. Most of our readers are UDELAS students and they are have many the end of the semester pressures, so it is difficult for them to continue with our reading sessions. We ended our project there on Friday. During our 4 months at the university we had reading sessions with about 45 different people, many of them were with us the whole time. We also got to work with two other LST teams at that location. There are a few of those readers that we will continue to meet with. Some ongoing through July and August and others that we will reschedule in August.

Now, I'm sure you are curious what's next for us. Today we spent the day at a local high school organizing our next project. It is the high school where our church meets on Sundays. We will spend the next three weeks meeting with students from that school during the day and then at night we will try to meet with some of our current readers. We spent today at the school organizing the schedule and meeting the students. Tomorrow we hope to begin reading sessions. Although we don't usually prefer to work with high schoolers, we know that this will be a great project. These are great students who are very excited about practicing their English and we hope to get them excited about Jesus, too. Another reason this is an exciting project is the impact it will have on the congregation we worship with. They really want to reach out to the community of the school and this is one way to do that. Greg and I are so glad to do something to bless this church that has been so good to us!

LESSON 13

I used to dread Lesson 13 in the LST workbook. I would just try to get through it as fast as I could and hope that my readers would just kind of overlook it and move on.
As I read over those two sentences, I realize, that doesn't sound very good. That's not the attitude of someone who likes to read the Gospels and talk about Jesus. But when I tell you what scriptures this lesson covers, maybe you will understand and forgive me. Lesson 13 is Luke 19:28-36, in English we refer to this occurrence in Jesus' life as "The Transfiguration". This is when Jesus and Peter, John and James go up on a mountain to pray and Moses and Elijah came to visit. Now let's be honest, this piece of scripture can be hard to understand in an "easy to read" translation of the Bible in your own language. Why are two "ghosts or angels" meeting up to chat with Jesus? Why is Peter wanting to put up tents (yes, our LST version says "tents", which makes the discussion even harder) for these three guys? Why does God interrupt Peter when he is talking? Is he angry at Peter? What does it mean, "Peter did not know what he was saying"?
Well, reading the same passages of scripture over and over for 10 months provides many blessings. Mainly, the blessing of new insights that the Holy Spirit will provide as you continue to re-read those passages. It is true that the Bible is the "Living Word". I know it is alive, because I continue to encounter that "Life" in my heart and I see that "Life" in the hearts of many of my readers.

Of the truths I have learned about this particular passage, two stay on my mind and cause me a great feeling of AWE. First is the realization that I don't need to know the answer to all the "Why?" questions to know that God had a definite purpose in this event. He wanted everyone to know and understand that Jesus is his son and he wants all people to obey only Jesus. (It was important for the Jews to let go of their obedience to Moses' and Elijah's teachings, and that couldn't have been an easy message for them to take in, they had been doing that for generations.) The second truth comes to me from the end of the lesson. The scriptures say, "And for a long time after that they told no one about what they had seen." A great question to ask my LST readers is, "Why didn't they talk about this to other people?" This question makes for good, easy conversation but it also gives me an opportunity to share my faith, because many months ago the Holy Spirit taught me a truth through this question. My answer is that although we don't know exactly why they didn't tell anyone, I think that maybe they were overwhelmed by the presence of God. In other places in the Bible when people encounter God they are overcome by strong emotions and reactions, fear being one. These guys have just heard the voice of God, I'm sure that was stunning. Maybe they just needed to process that encounter internally for a while. Although I have never heard the audible voice of God, when I encounter Him in my heart, I am overwhelmed, I don't know how to process it and I usually can't share the experience with anyone, at least for a while. Telling this makes me think of the song "I Can Only Imagine". I don't know how I will respond to the presence of God, will I stand and sing and shout for joy or will I fall to my knees unable to speak?

I can truthfully say, I no longer dread Lesson 13. I love the chills I get as I share this with my readers. I love the unanswered questions, they are evidence of faith. And best of all, I love the fact that many readers say, "I'm going to go home and read this in Spanish to try and understand it better." That is the power of the "Living Word"!

Here is a link to Youtube, if you want to listen to Mercy Me singing "I Can Only Imagine".