Monday, 2/18/13

Dear Journal,

Bible class is officially my favorite class. Teaching young people who do not have much prior knowledge of Biblical truths or Bible stories has been challenging me to get down to the very basic foundation of the gospel, and in the process I am discovering truth in a whole new way myself. I truly feel like in these last two weeks or so I am falling in love with Jesus all over again. I pray for the same experience for my students.

God has been merciful to me and is helping me pull my thoughts together into cohesive points. Today we discussed the law of God, (a.k.a. "Why Rules?") I woke up in the morning feeling very fuzzy on it myself and unsure of what I would say, but spending time in prayer brought me to humble trust, and within a couple hours, the whole thing came together.

My speech class has responded remarkably to having me take my own class along with them. They have dug in the last couple days and are preparing their speeches like there's no tomorrow. Thank you, Lord! This first speech that I assigned is to be about "A challenge you have faced and how you overcame it." This is particularly challenging for one young lady in my class. She comes from a horrendous background and is completely sealed up when it comes to talking about her past, her family, or herself in general. She stays on the surface and will not venture into much of anything deeper than movies and clothes. I have been "accidentally" choosing speeches to show them in class which present messages of courage, resilience, overcoming baggage and the like. I know these have been hitting key triggers for her. She has struggled more than anyone else in the class to think of a topic for her speech. Today I overheard one of the boys in the class encouraging her to be open and honest. He said he had really struggled about sharing too, but after he shared his testimony about overcoming drinking at Spiritual Retreat he was a lot more comfortable. At the end of the period, I was delightedly shocked to hear her say, "I can't believe I'm going to do this. I NEVER share about stuff like this."

Can't wait to hear this!