Speaking the Truth in Sex Ed

Justin here... For the past two days I´ve been having an experience that has really surprised me. In fact, you can say I was totally unprepared for it. Nicaragua is a solcialist country - that means, they don´t do our whole God thing. Every year in their schools they take a week to address sex education, and as of late the focus of the curriculm has been what they call "Healthy Sex." Think the "Safe Sex" campaign in America and you´re just about dead on.

There is an elderly pastor here named Donatillo. He is 75 years old, well respected by most people, and because of that was able to get me into 5 schools to talk about sex this week - which just happens to be the week they address this subject - gotta love God´s timing!

I was admittedly nervous about this whole idea. All I could see as I played out the scenarios in my mind were eyes rolling and kids doing anything to distract themselves from the talking head at the front of the classroom. Turns out my fears were unwarranted, big time.

Over two days, we visited 5 schools and went into 9 classrooms. We spent about 50 minutes with each, giving a presentation on what I called, "The Lies of Our Culture." Then we did a Q&A in which they wrote down their questions anonymously. In all we spoke to more than 300 students.

I am not overstating it when I tell you that I became a sort of small time celebrity among these kids (mostly 15 - 19 years old) nearly instantaneously. Why? Simply because I was an American who had come to talk to them about sex.

In my presentation, I talked about three lies our culture is telling us. They are: 1) You become a man by having sex with girls. 2) The most valuable thing a girl has to offer a man is her body. 3) You can have sex before marriage or even outside of marriage and not experience any consequences.

I used Proverbs 7 and alternating between telling that story and my own testimony in non-churchy terms. I showed how I believed these lies and how they eventually ruined my life, and how when I turned to God, repented of my sins and gave my life to Jesus Christ everything began to change.

When I asked each of these classes if the people who are believing these lies have made Nicaragua a better place you could hear a pin drop. Then, undoubtedly they would start to say

"no." It was powerful to see their response.

I really believe God may be showing me a new ministry here. We were preaching the Gospel in school and also giving biblical answers to their questions. It was AMAZING to see that not one person - not even a teacher - ever said anything negative about it or reacted negatively.

I ended by challenging them to reject these lies and to believe the truth. And encouraged them that, in doing that I believe they will change their families, cities and even nation during their lifetimes.

The Q&A times were unreal. I have a stack of questions that is nearly 5 inches tall that we are

hoping to translate and answer, turning the best into some kind of booklet or webpage. They asked everything from "How can I stop masturbating" to "How to I stop the pain of my parents divorce?"

Sometimes I was taken back by their willingness to be so vulnerable in school. But God was doing something. I really believe that. I´m not sure where it will all go, but I do believe that this was just the beginning and that we will be back doing more of this in the future.