For the past couple of days, “from the beginning” has been ringing in my head. Our ministry here in Pau has us finding ourselves at the beginning of many things.
As we teach English four days a week, we are taking it to the basics. The students have been learning English since primary school, but I use the term, learning, loosely. They have been doing the “puke-style” of learning. They can follow along as we read a passage about Ellis Island; but if you ask them a question about it, all you get in return is blank stares. Sadly, I pretty much applied the same learning style to Spanish. I can read a whole book in Spanish but can’t answer a lot of questions about the book afterward. It makes my heart ache when I observe the way the kids have been learning English. They have books that are just universal English books so the lessons are not translated into Thai, so they don’t really have any clue as to what the English means. The teachers are not well equipped either as we have all struggled to have a fluent conversation with the English teachers. Our answer to all of this is – “from the beginning”. When they don’t know how to spell their name, we will teach them the alphabet. When they can’t understand a question, we will teach them question words. When they don’t understand past tense, we will teach them what verbs are.
We have also shared with our students that we are not only there to teach them English. Yes, we do want them to gain a better understanding and become more confident with their English skills. But the primary reason we are in Thailand is to be missionaries. Now, you have to remember that the term missionary does not mean anything to them so we then go into explaining that. Then we have to specify which God, as it is not the god of Buddhism, Hinduism, or black magic. It is a different God – the father of Jesus. Wait. They don’t know who Jesus is. Well, this is a first for me. So I guess the only thing to do is take it “from the beginning”. Well, there is the Bible, which is the holy word of God spoken to men to write down to record. There is also an old and a new testament, and in the Bible there are parables that teach us about God. Oh yes, that Jesus guy we mentioned. He died to save you. Wait, why they might ask? Because of sin. Wait, what is sin they ask? Because of the fall. Wait, what is the fall?
Fewww.
Then there is this whole Christmas thing, too. Their schoolbooks tell them Christmas is a holiday season where Santa comes with presents, stockings and wreathes are hung, and carols are sung. Nothing about a child being born in a manger. So again “from the beginning”.
It looks like God is just going to continue to remind us to take it back to the beginning. So that is just what we will do…
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
