Immersed in Spanish

This week I am participating in a Spanish Immersion Course sponsored by the North Texas Conference. We have 2 amazing teachers and 4 students. We are having a lot of fun and I think I am actually learning something this time. I took 2 semesters of Spanish in college and have tried for years to learn. I can understand a fair amount of Spanish, but I have never been able to speak it - mainly because of my own perfectionism. I hate to make a mistake; thus I refuse to speak if I am not absolutely certain that I am speaking correctly. This class is helping me to get over that.

The class came about because last year at conference we passed a resolution saying that 20% of the pastors in the conference should be conversational in Spanish by a certain year (2020 maybe?). However, there was no provision in the resolution for helping to meet that goal. Some leaders in the conference heard the problem and decided to help meet the need. They created this course for pastors and church leaders. Evidently it has been difficult for pastors to find the time to do this, but I highly recommend this program. This is the jump-start that I needed.

Tonight we attended a Spanish-language prayer service in Dallas. It was simple, beautiful, and powerful. The faith of those attending and their commitment to serving God and sharing the kingdom was awesome. This is a new Spanish-language congregation and they are seeking God's will and way in all they do. We had the privilege of praying with them and praying for those that had asked for intercession. I didn't understand all the words they used, but I understood the spirit and that was sufficient for now.

Learning enough Spanish to minister to people has been a dream for a long time. I pray that God will enable me to make full use of this opportunity.