The Turtles First Sermon

I am a language learning turtle. Being a turtle basically means that you are the slowest one in class, it takes you at least twice as long to get it, you slow the class down and you annoy the teacher. Thankfully Dwight and Barbara Gradin, missionaries to Vietnam in the 60’S with Wycliffe Bible Translators, reminded us last year “Turtles get there too.”

This week my teacher insisted that she would come to my first sermon in Spanish and promptly assigned such a presentation for the Friday class. So my turtle self prepared what must have been the shortest, most halting sermon in history. If anything were to come of it, it would have to be of the Lord who breathes life into the dead. Following is a taste of it in Spanish (without the proper accent marks) and the translation in English.

<…Desee esta vida. Rendi mi vida a Jesucristo, todo. Hoy tengo vida eterna, abundante y tengo paz.>>


“When I was a young man my life was empty. I had no peace. My Aunt gave a Bible. I read of Jesus Christ. He was the son of Joseph and Mary and the Son of God. He was completely God. I learned that Christ was love, grace, all-powerful and holy. He was holy without sin. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”

“Listen to the words of John in John 10:10,’“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ I wanted this life. I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ completely. Today I have life eternal and abundant and I have peace.”