Learning to Teach.

This week we have been at the base in Antigua, teaching a class on Intercession for the group of 11 students in the Discipleschip Training Program. 

 I would be the first to tell you that I am not a natural teacher, but when our director asked Dave and I to teach, we felt God was looking for us to be willing.  We began preparing six weeks beforehand, reading books on prayer, and listening to sermons and finding every reference to prayer in the Bible, and of course-- praying.  We wanted to do the best we possibly could, even though to be honest I felt fairly overwhelmed and underqualified to teach a bunch of students anything about anything(most of them only a year or two younger than I).  

I listened to a sermon that talked about the beginning of a certain pastor's preaching career.  I don't remember the exact quote but in essence he said, "prepare for preaching to ten as though you are preaching to a thousand... And then one day you may get the chance to preach to the thousand". So we did.  

The week started out with the story of Dave and I coming to Guatemala as missionaries, and then over the last four days we taught about many aspects of a life of prayer including spiritual warfare, faith, and studying many stories of prayer and healing in the Bible.  It was nothing overly profound.  Our studies of Greek and Hebrew words were copied from the books of more-educated people who had learned these languages... But we feel that we did the best we could, and the students responded very well. 

Another aspect of this week for me was the fact that by teaching, I learned.  I studied the Bible in a new way and came to deeper understanding of things that had previously been only vague ideas in my mind.  Also, just the fact that Dave and I were teaching together gave us completely new opportunities to work together and interact in a way we never have before.  Its taught us about mutual respect and teamwork.  

I just hope the students gained as much as we have from this class!  😄

Pictures to go along with our story.  Dave took care of the PowerPoint while I did most of the talking.  I'm sure no one is surprised by this set-up.  Haha.. 

Z learning some new skills with some of the guys.  Mario Cart!