Moving forward…by looking back…

 

I went to college to study Civil Engineering. One of my favorite classes was surveying. I loved being outdoors shooting grades, working with bearings, and establishing benchmarks. I was the guy that got to operate the transit (the thing you look through).

What I learned as a transit operator was a way of projecting a straight line forward. All one had to do was to take a backsight on a marker that was behind me, lock down the controls and just flip the scope over 180 degrees and then whatever I sighted on would be in an exact straight line from where I came from.

So as I apply this principle to my life and look back on 2014…here is what I see…

I have just finished my first year in ministry. It was wonderful, to say the least! We were able to take part in some significant life changes in Guatemala and growth in our ministry. For the first time in my life…I know I’m on the path that God created me to walk.

So as I lock down those controls and flip the scope…

Here is what I see looking forward to 2015…

In order for me to continue to grow and be effective in a multi-cultural ministry, I must be able to speak the language. As it stands right now, I have been relying on two years of High School Spanish to communicate with the people we serve in Guatemala. I’m horrible at it and they deserve better than that. The only reason I have not learned the language is that it’s difficult. I always find “other things” that I need to be doing when I am at home. This must change…

So, I have made the decision to move to Guatemala in June for a minimum of six months in order to learn the language. I’m going total immersion…No English! My plan is to spend the first month going to a language school in Antigua to get the basics. Then after the first month, I’ll stay with Oscar and Amy Garcia, our Ministry Leaders in Guatemala. I’ll work with them doing just about anything and everything… but only speaking Spanish.

I’ll be blogging on a weekly basis and sharing everything that I am doing, learning, and goofing up… The big question for me is…can I do it? Can I really learn the language in six months? What happens after that?

All these answers we’ll soon find out…so I hope you’ll follow me and see what happens. I guarantee it will be interesting!