His Grace is Truly Amazing

God's grace is truly amazing, and it is so humbling because not only am I undeserving of His grace, God lavishes me with it even when I have little faith.  Today was a great reminder of His grace to me as I went to the Museum of Man to meet up with fellow students from the ITP (Interpreter's Training Program) to practice and prepare for  the exhibits we will interpret later on in the upcoming months.  Though I started in the same cohort with these students, they are 2 semesters ahead of me because I stopped taking classes in the program during the latter half of my senior year of undergrad at UCSD due various reasons mentioned in a previous post titled "Glorifying God Through ASL."  I have always lacked confidence in my interpreting skills (and still do), so I was afraid to apply to be a volunteer interpreter at the museum fearing that I lack the skills to interpret the exhibits or of being turned away by the interpreting instructor because I haven't taken as much classes as the others.  But to my surprise, the instructor didn't say anything negative but encouraged me and the other student interpreters the entire time and helped us work through the difficult material and gave us many interpreting tips along the way.  The tours will begin in a couple of weeks, and it is nerve wracking for me to learn all the material, but I'm also very excited because I'll get a glimpse of what it will be like to really interpreting for Deaf people.

The second huge encourage of the day or rather night was when I went to Deaf Coffee Night.  There is a Deaf interview assignment that I must complete by the end of this month and I wanted to see if I can find someone to interview tonight.  I went to the event by myself and was quite a loner for a while until I finally mustered up some encourage to ask a group if I could join them, even though they were all hearing people.  By the time it was 7:30 pm, I was quite discouraged from staying because I really wanted to be part of Friday Night bible study at LBC and felt like I was trying to exploit Deaf people because I had a motive to be there tonight.  As more people started coming and I engaged in more conversation with the people that I have met, I decided to stay longer and not worry about doing the interview tonight.  But towards the end of the night, a wonderful Deaf gentlemen, who I met earlier on in the evening, was more than willing to help me and be my interview subject.  I learned new signs and got to know some people better and was truly encouraged every time I told Deaf people that I was studying to become an interpreter.

In the midst of my struggles of learning how to become an interpreter, the Lord has time and time again shown me tremendous grace and encouragement especially when I have a lot of worries and doubts of my skills and future.  I seriously do not actively seek these opportunities, whether it's jobs, volunteer interpreting opportunities, or signing resources; they are all brought to me by God on a silver platter.  It is absolute clear to me that God wants me to continue down this path or else He would not be blessing me with so many opportunities time and time again.  If not for all the wonderful encouragements that the Lord gives me, I would have given up on pursuing this profession a long time ago.  Praise the Lord for His grace and faithfulness!