Saturday Post -- 05/03/11

Last week, loyal readers were left on something of a cliffhanger as I alluded to my forthcoming meeting with the local school head-teacher, with a view to providing English classes there. Well, we met and I was thrown straight into things, given 8th-grade and 7th-grade classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, respectively, and starting the next day.

As I walked into the classroom, I realised that, while I had been participating in various educational ventures over the past year as part of my work here, it had been some 14 months since I had stood in front of a group consisting solely of pre-teens/teens. I acknowledge that the thought of working with teenagers will cause most people to reach for the anti-shuddering pills. Yet as I delivered the lesson, entirely free of nerves, communicating with clarity to the students, I felt such a powerful sense of re-affirmation that the Lord has graciously gifted me in this field. It was a real encouragement.

And now that my working week is far more centred around education, I do feel a greater sense of purpose to what I've been placed here in Trinidad to do. It's not that all the little, non-educational jobs I was doing before were not important; they're just better suited to those whose talents lie in those areas.

Amanda, too, is experiencing similar feelings. The directors here saw our first year as being very much a trial period -- not for us personally, so much as our 'getting to grips' with the language and various aspects of the work. Now those 12 months are complete, we've been encouraged to hone our focus. In Amanda's case, this has been in Audiology. The other day we were talking together about how much more busy we have been since we got back from Santa Cruz, yet how much more fulfilled we feel in our work and in our personal lives. We still miss home very much but feel more convinced than at any point in the past that this is where we are meant to be.

An extra-curricular avenue opened up this week as Amanda and I realised another life-long ambition: we were invited on to the board of a football club, I as vice-president and Amanda as a sitting member. Our friend Maicol's team, Libertad, are getting ready for the domestic league season which kicks off at the end of March. This being Bolivia, part of that preparation involves mounds of paperwork and part of that paperwork is the formation of a board. Now, at the very thought of my new role, I had been planning on dropping in on training sessions in my club helicopter from time to time and reading the riot act to disenchanted players after a poor performance at the weekend (those who have seen me play will no doubt be contacting Chambers to assist them in changing their definition of 'naked hypocrisy'), however, it appears that the role simply entails signing a few forms from time to time. The chopper, too, will have to wait, but there are other perks: Amanda and I both get a free pass to all league games, saving us a tidy 30 Bolivianos per match in the process.

All that talk of paperwork reminded me that I almost forgot to mention our visa application, which was finally 'completed' this week. We can't be 100% sure as the people in La Paz may well get in touch within the next couple of months to request more items from us. However, it's on its way now and we just have to pray those passports will be well looked-after.

Lent starts on Wednesday, meaning this is Carnaval weekend. Given that Lent is a period of abstinence and reflection, the preceding three or four days must automatically be a period of debauchery and recklessness. Right? Sadly, that's very much the prevailing mentality down here and we can only pray that the people will at least be safe. For many of the younger people who come to church, such festivities aren't much fun; one girl we know was dumped with her baby sister at Christmas while her parents and other family members partied for some 36 hours, leaving no food in the house.

So, to keep their focus on what matters (and to keep many from going crazy) the youth group are staging a day of games, worship and teaching here at the church. In fact, we're expected there any time now, so that'll be it for now. Thanks for your continued interest.

Prayer
• For safe travels for our passports and visa application.
• For the event at the church today and, indeed, all the Carnaval festivities, which continue until Tuesday. Pray that, in the quiet moments of reflexion, more and more people would appreciate the meaninglessness of such events and their need of a saviour.

Praise
• For an encouraging season of re-affirmation and purpose in our work here.
• For the opportunity we have to work with, and minister to, so many young people, in the church and FT.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda