Living and Active

Building relationships with my students and seeing them encounter God's word is such a blessing! Even between the first and second weeks of studying together I have already seen progress. One student was not particularly excited about using the Bible to study English, but at the end of our second session together told me how interesting he thought the stories he'd read were and thanked me at least three times for studying with him. Another student got an English Bible so that he can make notes in the margins, and his girlfriend wants to start studying with me as well. Tuesday night I added a new student, a young lady who works in a laboratory and is studying for a Ph.D. in pharmacology. I feel privileged to be part of these people's spiritual journeys and pray that in time the small seeds I am attempting to plant will bear fruit.


"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." ~Hebrews 4:12


David, Debbie, and I have begun to have a short devotional and Italian study each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. We have each selected grammatical concepts we wish to improve and are helping each other practice. These are also the days which Rosa makes lunch, so we get to converse with her as well. And Friday I helped her make home-made pasta!


Sveta invited me to her house to practice English with her Friday afternoon! She is a member of the church who studies English (her fourth language!) with David and me on Thursdays before the Bible study. I really enjoyed getting to know her better and sampling various Italian and Russian foods. Friday night at 8 p.m. was my first assemblea, a monthly meeting at church to discuss business matters and plan upcoming events. Everything was settled in record time of about half an hour; I've heard these meetings sometimes last until midnight!


Each Sunday morning a different man is responsible for the opening of the worship service, which can range from presenting an interesting thought to teaching new songs. Today we wrote cards to church members who are sick, needing encouragement, or are far away from the church either physically or emotionally. I actually haven't yet met any of the people we wrote to, though Wednesday morning I will get to meet Liliana. She was widowed a few months ago and is a shut-in, and we are having a ladies' prayer breakfast at her house! I am supposed to think of a short devotional thought to share in Italian.


Today while picking up lunch at the rosticceria, David got into a conversation with a man waiting on some chicken, and he happens to have studied English at the Bible School over ten years ago! He said he'll drop by the school later this week. I've also been in touch with a few other former and prospective students who intend to set up appointments to study with me, and I look forward to meeting them!