Tourism Tuesday

I got a big mental workout today. Greg took me to his office and I got to sit and listen to a meeting discussing building plans for the school. As attentive as I was, I couldn't follow a tenth of it. After the meeting Greg sent me off with Ramiro to go buy some guitar strings and get a feel for the city.

What an experience. Ramiro knows hardly any English at all, but we did fairly well at communicating. I had to work hard to bring up any high school Spanish I could remember. It was like looking under my bed for some old Spanish only to find that a nasty pizza had rotted on top of it and I think some milk too. Overall, it was a lot of fun. We managed to communicate. He was able to ask about my family. I was able to tell him what my mom, dad, and brother do. I was able to ask him about the street system. He was able to explain it to me. It was really a perfect combination because Ramiro is about to start an English class and I'm trying to learn Spanish. Together we made a lot of breakthroughs (if only I could remember what they were). Needless to say, by the end of the day my brain was dead... but it was good.

We got guitar strings and took a tour of the city, but that's hardly worth reporting on yet. Pictures speak loudern than words.

Tonight was also a lot of fun. Greg asked me to lead some worship after dinner. It was just us - Greg, Faith, and the girls - but it was good. It helped me to overcome my fear of playing in front of small audiences. A youth group of 150? No problem. A family of five? I am near wetting my pants. Thank you God for the courage and strength to get over the hurdle of self-consciousness. If you would like to pray for me, please pray about that. I am a bit of a perfectionist and it takes a lot for me to risk my pride to play in front of people or to attempt to speak what I know will be a horrible piece of Spanish gibberish. I am very thankful that I was able to talk all day with Ramiro. I have been praying hard-core for the humility to try speaking Spanish with people and the Lord has helped me a great deal in that.

Grace and Peace,
Clay