open doors

1/15 Wednesday 11:43am

Today we had our first "C day" of the session, tests on the vocabulary, verbs, and grammar of three lessons. Also today at 1pm here on the base will be the first ever Mexican Sign Language class, taught by me and my assistant/friend Genna Cragoe.

As much as I would love to move on to a new place and quickly get to where I thought I needed to be (Queretaro), God is patiently teaching me and showing me otherwise. I could so easily look to where I think I need to be and completely miss all that He wants to do in and through me now, where I am. I wonder how many times I will have to remember that He is in the process! I try to get ahead most times and I feel He is like "Hey! Where are you going? I'm back here and want to teach you."

Let me back up a little...
So I woke up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago before the December break knowing one thing God is calling me to right now. Working on Mexican Sign Language and the Deaf culture with the people here on base and in town in order to reach the Deaf. I can bring two things that can change the lives of the Deaf that have yet to communicate and understand. I bring Mexican Sign Language in order to help them understand and be understood and Jesus, who saved them. I cannot get up and leave knowing these things are here for me to do.

I dont have to be in it alone. God gave me this vision of teaching the Bible student from the base. After they've learned MSL and once they are done here they'll be able to branch out to many more places to reach the Deaf. Using the Bible School to teach and equip passionate Mexicans to go out and use the language (and maybe along the way teach it to more people and share the Gospel) is where I feel God is calling me right now. They each go back to their hometowns regularly to use what they know from all of their Bible classes and, I hope, from the MSL class as well. From any given town Deaf people may be found and it is exciting to see an opportunity for people to reach out to them.

So Genna convinced me last Friday to go talk to a few people and share the idea with them ASAP before this new year of students began. We rushed over fist to Dave Nelsons house, the Director and teacher of the Spanish School and shared the idea. He loved and thought it was a great opportunity. He then helped explain it to his neighbor Chely who is one of the directors of the Bible School. She too liked the idea but had to talk with her husband, Chavy (the Director of the Bible School), then he would get back to me. I had to wait the entire weekend, then Monday morning I had the opportunity to share the vision again with Chavy. It was then he let me know the next day at 1pm I would be able to share with all of the Bible students and if I could get students to sign up then I could teach the class as a vocation. And I did, 5 students signed up which is more than I thought would. The students school session goes until August... which means I too will be here, teaching them until then. Wednesday, today I will teach the first class 1pm-3pm with Genna. I am feeling amazed and fully shocked that this door is wide open but I am excited to see what God does from here.



Thursday 1/16

We had the class yesterday and it was great! We taught the ABS's and practiced them to different music beats, slow, faster, and double time. Some of the students had a difficult time with the hand shapes, but for the most part they got it. They learned numbers 1-10 and a few greetings. With some extra time remaining we practiced facial expressions and finger spelling basic words.
I had a lot of fun and I know they enjoyed it also, because after class they kept throwing the signs up to people and each other around the dining hall. Nelsy, one of the Deaf women in town, was there selling her items and a few of the students right away went up to her trying to communicate. I thought this was awesome! No one told them to try to talk with her, they did it on their own with joy.

In class today we reviewed from yesterday, taught personal and possessive pronouns, and animal vocabulary. Both Genna and I were surprised to see how well they remembered the alphabet.  For the weekend their homework is to go up to five people asking to finger spell their own name and finger spell the others name... we'll see how this goes!