Spiritual Emphasis Week

We are studying Spanish at The Spanish Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Institute is a language school especially for missionaries. There are a few students who have come just to learn Spanish, but almost all the students will be missionaries somewhere in Latin America.

It is a really cool thing to be able to study language at a place where pretty much everyone is a Christian. We begin most of our classes with prayer or use Scripture as text for practicing our pronunciation. As we progress, we will prepare Bible studies for our homework and learn to share our testimony in Spanish. Praise the Lord!

As a result, our language school feels it is important for us to not put learning Spanish ahead of our relationship with Jesus. They feel so strongly that every trimester they have what they call Spiritual Emphasis Week. During the week (this week) each class is a few minutes shorter and we have chapel everyday in the morning and in the afternoon. Other regular activities (sports, tutoring...) are cancelled so that we can spend time in fellowship with friends and 'working' on our relationship with the Lord. 

So far it has been great! We have a guest speaker for the chapel times who is a PCA pastor from Philadelphia (go Phillies) who is sharing about change and how, with the help of the Holy Spirit, it is possible for us to change and grow closer to the Lord. So far he has talked about how the 12 apostles, Jonah, and David have gone through major changes in their lives and in their walks with the Lord. 

It is great to have a small break in the intensity of language learning halfway through the trimester. We ask for prayers that the Lord would guard our hearts and cause us to focus on Him for everything, even learning Spanish. 

Here is something our speaker shared with us this morning:

The Gospel tells us that:

we can do nothing to cause God to love us any more than He loves us!

we can do nothing to cause God to love us any less than He loves us!