"I maybe weak, but Your Spirit's strong in me; My flesh may fail, but my God You never will!"

(First Compassion Blog Month Blogging Assignment)

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 

~ 1 Corinthians 1:27

This is something that God has really taught me over the past couple of years. The first time this verse really became real to me was when I lived in Nepal for six months in 2011. I had gone to Nepal to teach at a Deaf school, because I knew that was something God wanted me to do, but in reality I had no experience in teaching. None. I walked into that school the first day, clueless and alone. I didn’t know anybody at the school, and there was no one who went with me that first day…except God of course. I sat and observed in the different classes, but I didn’t really know what was going on, the sign language seemed so different from the American Sign Language I knew, and even the hearing teachers could not speak very much English. I felt so alone and so out of place and so utterly clueless and weak. Things got better when I went and observed the 1^st and 2^nd grade class. That class was taught by a Deaf man who knew how to read and write in English pretty well. After he got the students started on their assignments, he started helping me learn Nepali sign. By the end of the day I was feeling a little more confident. But then the next day I showed up, and I sat at the back of the 5^th  grade class to observe like I had done the day before. The teacher had written a long list of words in Devanagari (written Nepali), along with the English translation on the blackboard. He pointed to each word on the list and showed the students the signs, and they copied him. When he finished, he looked at me, and said okay your turn and walked out of the room. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I got up and stood in front of that 5^th grade class, and I’m sure I must have had a look of complete cluelessness on my face. I signed one of the few Nepali signs I knew, “I don’t know.” Thankfully the 7^th graders were in the same classroom, the 5^th grade class was on the left side of the classroom and 7^th on the right (they had no 6th graders at the time). One of the 7^th grade boys came over and helped me go over the new vocabulary with the 5^th grade students.

When the teacher had said it was my turn, and I first stood up in front of that class, I was thinking to myself, why am I here? I have no clue what I’m doing. I’ve never taught anything to anyone before. I don’t know Nepali sign language. I haven’t even had a chance to look at their textbooks. God, why do you have me here? What in the world can I do? I am weak and foolish. Later that night, when I was back at the house I was staying at, God showed me 1 Corinthians 1:27, and He spoke to my heart and told me that He had brought me there, that He could use me. That yes I was weak, but that was why He wanted me to do this, so His power could work through me and so He would receive all the glory. Since then there have been many other times that I knew God was asking me to do something that I felt like I didn’t have the ability to do, but because of what I learned from that first experience I was more willing to step out right away and allow Him to work through me, instead of feeling weak and useless. 

This lesson that God taught me is one that I hope I am helping my Compassion child to learn. I am sure there are times that she too feels weak and maybe even foolish, when she feels she doesn’t have the ability to do things and when she just wants to give up. But I hope that she will come to learn, as I have, that it’s okay to be weak and foolish, but that she won’t give up, because she knows that God can work through her weaknesses to show His power. That God wants to use her to do great things, and that He has a great purpose and plan for her life.

Maybe there are lessons that God is teaching or has taught you in your life, would you be willing to share those lessons by sponsoring a Compassion child and writing letters to them so that they too can experience the hope that you and I have as Believers? Today, would you prayerfully consider stepping out in obedience to the many commands in God's Word to care for the poor and needy by sponsoring a child through Compassion International?  If this is something you feel God is leading you to do, then go to

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=133384 today to begin sponsoring a child.

"He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done."

Proverbs 19:17