Volunteer Work

I admit this has been a source of frustration. Last week, I asked my school about volunteer opportunities (they advertise that they arrange these things), and the woman suggested that I wait a week or two in order to be more comfortable with Spanish before working with youth. I may have undersold my ability since I can actually communicate pretty well even though it’s not anywhere close to perfect. I still need tons of grace. Adoring children usually offer such grace.


Then I thought maybe instead of going through the school, I would see how I could support a local church. Maybe there’s a church here that needs help with something. I found a protestant church to attend on Sunday, and I asked some leaders about volunteer opportunities. Most everyone’s answer was to ask someone else or told me that they would ask someone else. I guess I had mistakenly thought that if I showed up and said I was a Protestant Christian that they would welcome me with open arms and invite me to be a part of things. I now realize that there is probably a lot of turnover here in such a tourist town, and they need to be careful about what level of involvement to invite people into when those people will leave soon.

This morning, things finally started looking up. I went again to the woman at my school in charge of arranging volunteer work. It’s been a week and my Spanish is better. Our last conversation was in English, but this time I spoke to her solely in Spanish to prove that I could. I said I would like to work with young girls if possible. She mentioned a secondary school where they may be able to use someone to teach things like English, sports or computer. (At least I think and hope that’s what she said.) I said that sounds great, and she is going to arrange for me to visit next Monday to see if it’s a fit!

Please pray with me that God would show me where to spend my afternoons for the next two months.