A few weeks ago I told you about what I do on
Mondays. Mondays are for my basic English students. We chat (very slowly) together in English and read the Gospel of Luke. They explain Jesus's parables to me and I tell them whether or not I agree. And a lot of times we eat chocolate, which, ironically, is always brought by the dentist.
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| (let's play a quick game of "guess the Gringo") |
Mondays are one of my favorite days of the week, but Fridays are quickly catching up. You probably love Fridays because of what they represent. Friday is my day off, so I know all about what a good Friday means. However, my Fridays have taken on a new look recently, besides sleeping in and watching my favorite real-estate reality shows. This picture was taken at my apartment a couple Friday nights ago, around 9pm.
This is a group of single young women from our church. You've probably seen several of them in pictures on this blog before. Two of them are the daughters of my teammates, one is my roommate, and two are recent converts. Since I got back to Natal in February, we have been meeting monthly on Friday nights to study the Bible together.
Since the first study I made it very clear that all were invited, but the only ones who were welcome were those who really wanted to be there. Falling on a Friday night meant that often the girls would have other obligations and commitments, and I wanted them to not feel in the least bit guilty if they ever needed to miss our study. I wanted it to be something they looked forward to and enjoyed, rather than something where attendance would be taken.
What has resulted is turning out to be one of the biggest blessings of 2012. The girls were
thrilled to spend their Friday nights once a month studying the Bible, and asked why we weren't meeting more often! We've met three times, and Catherine prepared the lesson at the last study. My dream was not only for us to study the Bible more, but for them to have the chance to prepare and teach those studies.
I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate Friday. But with these girls, we have a whole new reason to love a good Friday night.
2 comments:
Cris, I have followed you for years now and just had to write and say thank you. Your life and example is amazing. I remember the young Carpenter girls from Santa Barbara, had the priviledge of serving with Kelly and Mark at Pepperdine and just plain love your family. Yet, we didn't get time together to serve. Maybe the Lord will remedy that someday but I continue to watch from a distance the good things you are doing for the Kingdom. The article in the Christian Chronicle just made me want to thank you for living such a great life for God. LST was a catalyst, but you exploded...God be with you and the entire Carpenter clan as you serve God...Scott Lambert (former Campus Minister at Pepperdine, now Kairos Church Planting)
I can't really compete with any compliment from Scott Lambert. He was after all my campus minister at Pepperdine. :)
Anyway, I just want to say "bravo!" to you, Cris. The work the Lord is doing in the hearts of you and these other women is powerful and I'm so excited to see what comes of this. Love that you're doing this!
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