Conversation with Lisa then returned to how she was doing living through her trials in life. She mentioned the top ten stressful life events: death of spouse, divorce, marital separation, jail term or death of close family member, personal injury or illness, marriage, loss of job due to termination, marital reconciliation or retirement, pregnancy, change in financial state. She said, “Do you realize that this year I have either experienced or am experiencing five of these ten? There are times I can hardly get out of bed in the morning.”
After lunch Lisa and I went our separate ways. She took the things I brought her from the US and went to a job interview and I caught a bus – I am getting good at catching busses – and headed back home.
Friday morning came and I caught another bus – more practice – and headed off to HUST to teach her class. This was Friday before a holiday weekend when many students would skip and start their holiday events. She expected about half of her class to be missing, but that morning 46 out of 48 were there to listen to what I had to say and engage in conversation with me. That meant so much to me.
I began by asking if they remembered the eight love characteristics I covered last time. One by one they listed them and as they did we talked about them. – They are joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. – We discussed their importance in maintaining good relationships.
Next I asked if they remembered the five love languages: words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, physical touch, and receiving gifts. Again, they remembered. I then asked them to think about five possible pets: a dog, a cat, a goldfish, and a parrot. I asked them to think about the characteristics of these pets and think of what love language would relate with each one, leaving out receiving gifts. Since they sit in twos in class I had them take time and discuss this with their partner.
As they discussed this I wondered around the room to see how they were doing and was pleased to see how well they were figuring this out. As this was taking place, Lisa played a musical piece from the classroom computer over the room speaker system. It was a great learning environment. 
After enough time has elapsed, I asked for their response. They had figured out the relationship and assigned the dog to words of affirmation, the cat to physical touch, the goldfish to acts of service, and the parrot to quality time. Using the idea of pets really helped them get their minds around the concepts.
A student then asked, “How can you determine someone’s love language if you don’t have a test to give them?” My response was to ask them questions about what makes them feel loved, which led me to give the next class exercise. I asked each student to try to determine the love language of their partner at their desk; more music and much more discussion.
After enough time had passed, I went around the room and had all 46 students tell what the love language was of their partner. With only one exception everyone got it. There was one boy who wasn’t clear enough for his partner to figure his out.
My next discussion centered on the sentence, “Let each husband love his own wife as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.” (Ephesians 5:33) I spoke on this for a few minutes and the class got very, very quiet and sober. They knew they were hearing something new and powerful for their lives. We worked on these concepts for awhile and then ended class with a great round of applause and a class picture.
Indeed, we all had a magnificent time together and felt a real presence of love. This is why 46 out of 48 did not want to miss my instruction. It really warmed their hearts and a good start to a holiday weekend.
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