Sunny

Tuesday, November 4th was a special day in my classroom. My student, Sunny, and I had been talking about Biblical things and, more specifically, about salvation since April. This was of course supplemented by Cathi Costa's "witness tutoring" over the summer while I was gone. :) When I arrived back to school in September, the prayers of so many of you for Sunny came with me, and God initiated such a clear time of teaching and learning basic Biblical doctrine in my classroom each morning. The other students were involved and Sunny just kept asking question after question, each one very well-thought-out. Whoever thinks you can't be mentally and spiritually challenged by children needs to spend some more time around them!
Along came November 4th, and during our morning devotional time, I read to the studnets about the old person passing away and that we are made into a new creation when we trust Christ. Sunny was baffled by this. She shot question after question at me, each one showing the thought process of a genuine, child-like heart (or actual child in this case!). I was still in the process of speaking to all my studnets when I brought up the phrase, "being born again." When Sunny said, "WHAT?? How can you be born AGAIN??" (probably a little less emphatically haha), then I knew it was time for her and I to talk alone. I took her to the library and we read the story of Nicodemus and Jesus in John 3. We talked about God's love, we talked about the forgiveness of sins, we talked about confessing with your mouth, we talked about believing in your heart. She appeared to be in genuine shock that it was "that easy." Only having been with us from Korea for about 7 months, she still struggles with the English language a bit and was wondering how to pray. I didn't want her to simply copy words that I said, so I told her to pray what was in her heart. She said, "Jesus thank you for dying for me and please forgive my sins."
If there was only a way to explain to you the change that I sensed in her during this time, I would. Her questions were not cyncial but curious. She was seeking, and that's the change I saw. She took her first steps of belief. Her heart was different. Since then I have listened to her in her first faltering class prayers which, if they have been such a delight for me to hear I can't even imagine how they must delight our Father.
To witness the work of God in someone is truly amazing, but to witness God in a child's heart is a gift inexpressible.
I praise God for all of you and your prayers for Sunny. Please pray for her and myself as I still have a little over half a school year to disciple her. Woo hoo!! God is truly capable of more than we can even imagine, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!