Month 9 we have been in Santiago, Chile!! Yes, it was very cold this month. Please feel free to make the dad joke.
This month we partnered with a local church. We volunteered at a nearby school during the week and helped with bible studies, kids ministry and Sunday services on the evenings and weekends. It was a very busy month with lots of activities, and also a lot of mental downtime. At the school, we helped out wherever we could but many times, because of the language barrier, it was difficult to communicate with teachers and students. We have been working a lot on our Spanish, so as time went on we were able to communicate better but we still found it difficult to form relationships.
After a couple weeks of going to the school, I was starting to feel a little discouraged. I felt like we were not able to be very useful to the students or the school and I wanted to do more. I did start to realize that it is not always about doing. Sometimes just being present for people is really all that matters, and it is enough.
But one day, I decided to ask God to show up extra and show me where He was in the school that day.
We were sitting in the break room on our first break of the day around 10am and the religion teacher suddenly came in and asked the three of us to speak to her class. Through some hand gestures and a few Spanish words we knew, we figured out she was asking us to present ourselves. So we went in to her classroom and presented ourselves to the class. Somehow the words I needed in Spanish just flowed out of me and I was able to tell the class who we were and what we were doing around the world!
The teacher then sat us down and asked us to watch some of the kids perform a song for the class. I leaned over to Jen and asked, “So do you think we’re next?” At this point on the race, we are really used to being asked to perform a song or dance, or talk about ourselves on the spot. Sure enough, as soon as they were done the teacher looked at us and pointed to the front of the class to go perform a song for them. We laughed, probably a little too hard, at how unsurprising this was and dutifully walked up to the front of the classroom.
Jess then whispered to me, “I think we should do King of My Heart”. Which I readily agreed to, not only because this had hand motions and would therefore be more interesting to watch, but because I also have taught these motions in almost every country I have been to. So with no music, we started to sing and dance to King of My Heart. At first, it felt a little awkward with the blank stares, but I knew we had to keep going with confidence. Most things feel a little weird the first time you do them.
After we were done, I saw a few of the kids trying to do the motions themselves, so I asked if they wanted to learn. They responded with a resounding “Yes!”. The teacher then found the song in Spanish so the kids could sing along as well and we spent the next 20 minutes singing and dancing together. The teacher then made an entire lesson out of the song and taught the class about worshipping God.
My heart was so full this day. We not only got to teach about worship, which if you don’t know by now is my whole heart, but we also got to teach about it in a school! God reminded me that day what he put me on this earth to do, and gave me the opportunity to fulfill this purpose in this country.
Not every day can always be fulfilling. Some days will feel more draining then others. But God is always faithful to fulfill his promises and He will show up.
You just have to ask Him. 🙂
This is the school we volunteered at, set in the beautiful Andes mountains.
*I am only &1,650 away from being fully funded!! Please consider donating and helping me reach my goal and finish this race! Thank you so much for all of your help so far, I am so deeply grateful!
