Week 11

What a week!  Only two days really stand out in this post, Friday and today (Monday).  Friday was, of course, the Deaf believers gathering.  Monday was my usual Word study group with Deaf friends.  It's no surprise that my two favorite days involved me sharing stories from the Word.

Friday, the usual teacher has departed for the whole of October.  This means that I and my supervisors are now in charge of teaching the gathering for the whole month.  This is a great opportunity given to us by the Father!  I shared the story I crafted for that week.  I implemented techniques that I learned and had not yet put them into practice.  The first discussion is a recall of what happened in the story I just signed.  None of the people could really tell me what happened, so I employed the technique.  I had several people come up and put up a skit which I directed.  After witnessing the skit AND being in the skit, the people gained more of an understanding of what happened in the story.  It's a great technique to have in my arsenal in the quest for sharing the Word to the Deaf!  Then I proceeded to rest the rest of the weekend until Monday's (today's) lesson.

Today's lesson went really smoothly!  Today, I had two people show up.  I had the friend I taught for the longest teach the other friend stories under my supervision.  The friend did really well for his first time!  I hold high hopes for this friend to begin teaching the Word to his Deaf peers.  As for the other friend, I am excited to teach story-telling methods to a new person!  These two friends are what I had in mind for sharing the Word to the Deaf population.  I thank the Father for giving me these two friends to teach and disciple.  Please lift us up that the rest of the lessons will go according to His will.

Week 10

I will be publishing all future blogs on Monday until further notice due to having to prepare for Monday's lesson with a Deaf student and plus I want to include said lesson in the blogs while it is fresh in my mind!

Honestly, not much happened this week.  This is what I would consider a "normal" week.  I crafted stories in sign language, had mentoring time with my supervisors and hung out at home in my free time.  This week was only exceptional because of my second visa run that weekend.  I also used an eastern toilet for number two the first time as well.  Teaching my Deaf student how to teach stories and lead discussion today was exceptional as well!

During my visa run, I visited the same mall I did last time because it has an exhaustive variety of stores and has good food.  I had a South Asian donut for the first time ever!  Way sweeter than our donuts, which was great!  I visited a second mall which I have not visited last time.  This outdoor mall reminded me of street markets, except that it still had a roof over all the stores.  The layout was confusing and the maps hardly helped.  We still had a great time there though!  The next day we visited the place where Mother Theresa stayed and was buried, wow!  It was a humble abode and I was filled with awe at how simple her accommodations were.

Then I came back and had my Sabbath on Sunday.  Today, I taught Animash the story of 3000 converts in Acts.  It was a longer story this time and we did not have time to film it.  We went off tangent sometimes to talk about our lives and in what ways life here was similar to American life.  I had a small discussion of what would happen in the end times, which was interesting.  He is blooming into a good student and I cannot wait to see what a fine teacher he'll become!  That's it for this week, tune in next time for week 11!

Week 9

This week was interesting!  I waited until later to publish this because I had one last thing to do before writing this blog that I just had to include in this post.  Many firsts were done this week.  I traveled, I taught, I met new people, oh my!  If this is a taste of what is to come, I sure like it.

First, I went to the believers' gathering Friday as usual.  The reins were handed over to the usual teacher, but I did help portray the story through a short skit of it.  The Deaf loved the skit because it really showed what happened in the story.  After the gathering, I went back to my supervisors' house with a friend to eat lunch there.  After one hour, my friend and I left to go to a Deaf meeting in another city, WITHOUT my supervisors!  I finally went somewhere far away without my supervisors and only a Deaf guide.  It was a first for me, and I loved the adventure!  At the Deaf meeting, so many people asked me questions about America and how I liked and adjusted to my country of assignment.  When the official meeting started, I was asked to introduce myself, and they were impressed by me signing their language.  That was a fun night.  The Deaf friend took me home and saw my house for the first time ever.  He loves it, of course.

Saturday, I went to a birthday party at an American club.  The kid turned ten.  I swam, ate lunch and cake, and watched the birthday boy open his presents.  He got several cans of my favorite drink, root beer.  Boy, was I jealous.  My favorite part of this day was playing with a younger child in the pool.  He's so cute!  I previously played Wii with him.  Sunday, I just rested because that's my self-appointed Sabbath each week.

Today, Monday, I finally got into teaching one of my Deaf friends my method of storytelling and discussion.  He holds much promise and I cannot wait to see the end product of his training!  I taught him for five hours straight, which will probably become a normal thing every Monday.  In two weeks I'll have another Deaf person joining us.  I'm really excited to have Deaf people, who actually live here, to start teaching their own people.  That is why I came here!

Lift up the people I am teaching and will teach.  They need to be able to understand the most effective story-telling methods and be able to teach their friends the good news!  Oh and by the way, this post is written from my own house!  I finally have internet where I live, praise the Father!  What did I tell you, many firsts!

Week 8

Customer service here is quite different from America.  Here it seems like the companies will do anything to keep your money and go through so many steps to try to avoid refunds.  It's quite frustrating and a hassle to deal with, especially since I'm deaf.  I have my supervisors call the companies.  As a result, I still do not have internet at my place and I'm trying to move over to a different internet company for my apartment.  So please lift me up for that to be resolved.  Thank you.

Now onto pleasant and better things!  I've successfully crafted my first story solo.  It is the story of the watchman in Zach.  I'm supposed to video myself signing this story and then teach at least one deaf person this story.  Last Friday I did not get to go to the Deaf believers gathering because I'm trying to start my own group and I do not want to keep interfering in Friday's group.  They already have a teacher there and I'm only a guest teaching the group.  I have three cities in mind to go and start my group in as well as two people in mind for me to disciple.  Please petition the Father to show me one of the three cities to start my group in and for me to disciple the two Deaf people well.

Saturday I got to meet one of my Deaf friend's family in their city about one hour away by auto-rickshaw.  His mother, father and brother are all really nice.  The teacher of Friday's gathering and her friend also came to visit.  They taught the mother some things pertaining to the book.  I did likewise with my Deaf friend.  He has a number of videos of JC, and I was able to show him which of those videos were true and which were false by discernment.  I have the Father to thank for teaching me so well to discern between what is true and what is a lie.  My friend is as excited as ever to learn the Father's stories from me, and he is also one of the two people I'm going to disciple.  Keep lifting us up!