Eternity in the Hearts of Men

We have been here for a few days now and I have already learned so much! We spent the first three days in orientation learning about the culture and the history of this great country. Here's a highlight! 


Last night, Brett and I taught our first English class. We have four students eager to practice the language. Our topic we chose was about hope. The introduction was an excerpt from the Shawshank Redemption movie. This is one of my favorite movies. Each of the students took turns reading the script. 


"Get busy living or get busy dying," one of the students read. This began a discussion about living life to the fullest and never giving up on dreams. Each student spoke of words that were related to hope. 


Faith. 
Expectation. 
Dreams.
Self-esteem. 
Steadfast. 


After defining hope, we continued with the script. Everyone was participating and engaging in conversation. We were all asking questions and debating this topic. We kept going with the script.  


"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." 


Then I asked, "what gives you hope?" The answers were family and friends. Then one person said religion. This was a perfect transition into, "how is hope related to Christianity?"


One guy answered, "Followers of Jesus believe He died for them and paid a price that gives them hope to know they can be forgiven." 


Yes. yes. yes. This was a perfect way to end the class. I shared Hebrews 6:19 with the class. 

1. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. Amazed and asking if this was from the Old or New Testament, they all wrote down the verse!

So, just a reminder, that was our first class. We will have many more over the next four weeks and I trust the God brought them each to our class. Please pray for more spiritual conversations. As we talk about Hope, Peace, Sacrifice, may each conversation point to Jesus Christ the Author and Perfecter.