Please pray about:
~ My student Lionel (she's a female). She came to Friday Night Bible study two weeks ago to play guitar with me afterwards, and is coming again this Friday. We've talked about faith and she thinks believing in herself is the only safe thing to believe in. She used to go to a church until she felt pressure to be baptized, so she left. Please pray that she's willing to go into the Bible study class on Friday night, or if not, that God would give us opportunities to talk about faith again just between the two of us. I have so much compassion for this girl and want to see God bring her to faith.
~ My 11th grade Spanish students. We had a big fieldtrip to Taiwan's 2nd biggest city to see a museum and eat Spanish food, and God really blessed our trip-- I didn't lose any students (can never take that for granted!) and we had a wonderful time. It gave me time to observe how the student's interact with each other and also helped me to build my relationships with them (They nicknamed me "Shia Shia Shao Jie", which means "Miss Shrimp".... it's a long story). Lately I've been hearing students saying inappropriate and hurtful things (in general, not just this class), so I decided to have a discussion with my 11th graders about the Power of Words. We watched a video, read some Bible verses, and discussed the affect that words have on us. I told them that if I teach them to have perfect Spanish, but they don't know God's love or how to love other people, then I have failed. What is the point of knowing how to speak another language if you use it only to say evil things? This is the class that I know the best, feel the closest with, and I pray for them every day.
~ Endurance. Like life anywhere, it's hard to stay on top of everything. I think I've taken on too many activities outside of school, and now I'm trying to cut down on my schedule to not sacrifice the quality of my work. Please pray that our team's endurance and joy in the stress and monotony of life would shine throughout the school and community. It's easy to "get comfortable", and want to sleep or relax instead of helping out with the Bible studies and fellowship events. Relaxing is important sometimes, but too much can make me greedy for even more than I need. Pray that I and the rest of the team can find a healthy balance.
~Homesickness. As Thanksgiving is coming up, I often find my thoughts wandering back home. I assume the rest of the team is more accustomed to being away for the holidays, but they still deal with homesickness from time to time. Please pray that this won't be a distraction for us.
How about you? Prayer requests from home? I'm hungry to hear from you my friends back home, so if you have prayer requests or just want to tell me how life is going, please email me: anna.gruen@cuw.edu or anna.gruen@lcms.intl.org.
Thanks for your prayers!
Anna
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Grace
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
I don't enjoy traveling as much as I thought, and I will explain why. It's true that being a tourist behind a camera can be intriguing for a while. A short visit somewhere exotic often eludes the cares and pressures of normal everyday life. Experiencing the vistas, aromas, noises, flavors, and textures of Taiwan has certainly been an adventure for me. However, there's something special about finally settling down here. It feels less like visiting and more like living. Working with the people, learning from them, laughing with them, joking with them, sweating with them, shivering with them, sharing anecdotes and advice with them, praying with them, even crying with them-- it's much too up-close and messy to have a rosy, perfect picture of each other. But isn't that the point? Ministry is done living along side each other. Ministry is not about showing our strengths, our abilities, our confidences, our perfection. It's about Christ showing his perfection and faithfulness through our lives, the good and the bad of us. God can show His glory even, no, especially amidst our weakness, failure, and doubt.
The cultural norm in Taiwan is to never mention social imperfections. They don't talk about insecurities, depression, abuse, rape, or death. Sometimes a student will be gone for weeks, and we won't know why until someone mentions that their mom or dad died, and it isn't brought up again. When my friend and team member Rachel tried to console a high school student after her dad passed away, she simply forced a smiled and said, "I'm fine!" It's probably a natural reaction to try to synthesize false strength rather than admit honest weakness, and it's a trap many a Christian falls into as well.
I think one of our crowning characteristics as a school body and a Christian team (American and Taiwanese together) is our transparency. When someone is struggling with adjusting to life here or missing home, we pray about it as a team. When someone is stressed to the maximum, we pray about it. When someone is doubting their calling here, we pray about it. When we are heartbroken over our students who are lost, we pray about it. When we are stressed about health concern or financial problems, we pray about it. We are not perfect with this by any means, but it really stands out because it's so anti-cultural. And when we do share with each other, God's grace is ever-present.
We have to be transparent in our classes too: acknowledging forgiveness for students who constantly make class difficult (though not withholding discipline), and asking for forgiveness when we mess up as teachers. It's a bit humbling when we discipline our students for coming late to class and then show up late for class ourselves. We learn the importance of grace. God's grace must cover me as much as it covers anyone. Even in discipline, God is gracious and loving with us. And even in our discipline, we must show grace and love to our students. Last week I got particularly upset with a group of unruly 9th grade boys in my Spanish class. They continually showed disrespect to me and their classmates. After disciplining them sufficiently, I took time to talk to them about why discipline is important and why I had to do it. "I love you guys and respect you," I explained, and of course they looked to each other and giggled (they are high school boys after all). But I could tell that they understood.
Like my students, I'm not perfect. A couple days ago I was planning to make piñatas in my Spanish class, but while I was handing out materials, I realized I didn't have enough balloons! Now, you can't make piñatas without balloons (or if you can, please inform me!), so mid-class I had to resort to a plan B. The students could tell I was a bit flustered, and they were amazingly helpful and rushed to clean everything up and prepare for "plan B". I was so thankful for their grace! At that moment, I needed it and it was such a beautiful thing.
Obviously we never plan to make mistakes, but when we do, it's so good to be honest about it and immediately receive grace. I have a bad habit of thinking I need to clean up my act before I come to God, to get it all figured out before I pray and explain it to him. I know it's ridiculous! If I wait to pray to God until I've got it figured out, I won't ever pray! But we know we can simply take our trash to God and let him sort it out. We don't have to hide it, because obviously we can't hide it. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." David says in Psalm 32 that he was in anguish until he was honest with God and confessed his imperfection, and God was gracious to David. God is the source of all grace, and ultimately is the reason behind the grace we are able to show and be shown with and from each other.
My Chinese name, reflective of my English middle name, means "Beautiful Grace". I only pray that God will use even our weaknesses and imperfections here in Taiwan to His glory. His grace is sufficient!
In Christ,
Anna
谷恩娜
I don't enjoy traveling as much as I thought, and I will explain why. It's true that being a tourist behind a camera can be intriguing for a while. A short visit somewhere exotic often eludes the cares and pressures of normal everyday life. Experiencing the vistas, aromas, noises, flavors, and textures of Taiwan has certainly been an adventure for me. However, there's something special about finally settling down here. It feels less like visiting and more like living. Working with the people, learning from them, laughing with them, joking with them, sweating with them, shivering with them, sharing anecdotes and advice with them, praying with them, even crying with them-- it's much too up-close and messy to have a rosy, perfect picture of each other. But isn't that the point? Ministry is done living along side each other. Ministry is not about showing our strengths, our abilities, our confidences, our perfection. It's about Christ showing his perfection and faithfulness through our lives, the good and the bad of us. God can show His glory even, no, especially amidst our weakness, failure, and doubt.
The cultural norm in Taiwan is to never mention social imperfections. They don't talk about insecurities, depression, abuse, rape, or death. Sometimes a student will be gone for weeks, and we won't know why until someone mentions that their mom or dad died, and it isn't brought up again. When my friend and team member Rachel tried to console a high school student after her dad passed away, she simply forced a smiled and said, "I'm fine!" It's probably a natural reaction to try to synthesize false strength rather than admit honest weakness, and it's a trap many a Christian falls into as well.
I think one of our crowning characteristics as a school body and a Christian team (American and Taiwanese together) is our transparency. When someone is struggling with adjusting to life here or missing home, we pray about it as a team. When someone is stressed to the maximum, we pray about it. When someone is doubting their calling here, we pray about it. When we are heartbroken over our students who are lost, we pray about it. When we are stressed about health concern or financial problems, we pray about it. We are not perfect with this by any means, but it really stands out because it's so anti-cultural. And when we do share with each other, God's grace is ever-present.
We have to be transparent in our classes too: acknowledging forgiveness for students who constantly make class difficult (though not withholding discipline), and asking for forgiveness when we mess up as teachers. It's a bit humbling when we discipline our students for coming late to class and then show up late for class ourselves. We learn the importance of grace. God's grace must cover me as much as it covers anyone. Even in discipline, God is gracious and loving with us. And even in our discipline, we must show grace and love to our students. Last week I got particularly upset with a group of unruly 9th grade boys in my Spanish class. They continually showed disrespect to me and their classmates. After disciplining them sufficiently, I took time to talk to them about why discipline is important and why I had to do it. "I love you guys and respect you," I explained, and of course they looked to each other and giggled (they are high school boys after all). But I could tell that they understood.
Like my students, I'm not perfect. A couple days ago I was planning to make piñatas in my Spanish class, but while I was handing out materials, I realized I didn't have enough balloons! Now, you can't make piñatas without balloons (or if you can, please inform me!), so mid-class I had to resort to a plan B. The students could tell I was a bit flustered, and they were amazingly helpful and rushed to clean everything up and prepare for "plan B". I was so thankful for their grace! At that moment, I needed it and it was such a beautiful thing.
Obviously we never plan to make mistakes, but when we do, it's so good to be honest about it and immediately receive grace. I have a bad habit of thinking I need to clean up my act before I come to God, to get it all figured out before I pray and explain it to him. I know it's ridiculous! If I wait to pray to God until I've got it figured out, I won't ever pray! But we know we can simply take our trash to God and let him sort it out. We don't have to hide it, because obviously we can't hide it. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." David says in Psalm 32 that he was in anguish until he was honest with God and confessed his imperfection, and God was gracious to David. God is the source of all grace, and ultimately is the reason behind the grace we are able to show and be shown with and from each other.
My Chinese name, reflective of my English middle name, means "Beautiful Grace". I only pray that God will use even our weaknesses and imperfections here in Taiwan to His glory. His grace is sufficient!
In Christ,
Anna
谷恩娜
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