spanish with yuri

language has been somewhat of a drain on our team as a whole, because it becomes very exhausting to have to have your mind working so hard constantly to translate everything in order to eat, or know whats going on, or make important decisions with the national staff, or simply have a conversation with a student.. these are things i have taken for granted until i got here and realized how hard it is.. it has been fun, but it has definitely been challenging.. we have had some trouble finding someone who would be able to tutor us, seeing as most tutors around are english tutors.. there are also french schools and german schools, but there is obviously not a big market here for americans trying to learn spanish..

today we started our spanish tutoring! manuel, one of the national staff here, talked to an acquaintance of his that was willing to tutor us in spanish.. it wasnt until meeting him today that we found out just how privileged we are.. his name is yuri, he is a Christian salvadorian jew, and he has an incredible story.. when the war began, he was fifteen years old.. he loved languages as a kid, and taught himself english and german, so when the war started he made a very good living translating for all the reporters from the u.s., england, and germany.. when he was seventeen, the president of el salvador went about hiring a personal translator, and yuri was hired among the hundreds of applicants.. although he was a year too young to work by law, the president simply signed papers making him eighteen years old so he could hire him! yuri has been working for the president personally for twenty two years now, and is the only man in the country with the power to sign off on legal documents in other languages.. he oversees image for both political parties here in el salvador.. he is fluent in nine languages and five dialects, including hebrew, portuguese, italian, french, russian, yittish, japanese, and zulu.. he is currently teaching himself mandarin as well.. he only teaches executives and high ranking government officials, and charges $300/hr per person for his lessons, because he has been able to make people fluent in a second language within two months.. he is a very brilliant and gifted man, who truly loves the Lord and cares about us..

oh, and he is teaching all ten of us on the team, an hour each week, absolutely free!

praise God for His provision! there is no way that something like this can happen apart from the Lord simply providing for us, and desiring to make our ministry effective.. please pray that we will be diligent in learning the language, devoting time to it, and not wasting this incredible blessing.. be encouraged that God is watching out for us.. pray that these spanish lessons will enable us to have a much stronger ministry here.. and pray that we get to meet the president of the country! it may not happen, but it is entirely possible, and change happens quicker if it happens from the top down..

love you all..