Living at the Tower of Babel
In the last few weeks I have really come to appreciate the uniqueness and creativity God had in creating different languages. What a neat way to challenge people than to confuse their languages. This September I feel like I have been plunked into the confusion of the Tower Babel surrounded by different languages, trying to communicate with those around me. This year I have the privilege of teaching 4 (come January I will have 5) students, who all speak different languages. Czech, Italian, Polish, Korean, and all are at different levels of learning English.
We do face our moments of frustration when words are not enough. I have a young Polish boy desperate to communicate with me. He tries Czech and wild hand gestures and you can see his thoughts convey that perhaps if I only speak louder my teacher may understand me! I can only imagine what their day in the classroom must be like. I can picture myself to be like the teachers in Charlie Brown cartoons: Mwaha maw mwa mwah muaaaaw.
Some days I wonder if I am getting through to them... are we learning anything? Yet there are those moments when I can see the cogs turning and the little light bulbs turning on and I get excited. One of those moments was when I introduced the children's picture Bibles. The majority of my students have not seen a Bible before and aren't that familiar with the Bible stories. I read about Creation and Adam and Eve and when it was time to collect the Bibles the whole group of them clutched them tightly and shouted NOOOOO! It was something I had never experienced before. I don't know if they were enthralled with the cartoon pictures or that the stories were so captivating. Either way it made me realize what a ministry I have before me and the joy it will be to expose these children to the gospel message and the word of God. Please pray for us this year as the seeds of the gospel are being planted in the lives of these children and their families.
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