1-28-11

The first week of language school is over. We arrived in Guatemala a week ago today, dragging our tired selves and heavy suitcases (or duffel bags) out of the airport into the slightly humid and exhaust-filled air of Guatemala City. Our field directors, Alex and Evy, met us with a bus and we loaded up for the last phase of our travels from Canada to Guatemala. The night was fairly quiet, with few cars and buses on the roads. After not very long (only an hour and a half) we arrived in Chimaltenango, where resides the Guatemala Bible Seminary, where we were to spend the next two nights.

In Chimal (as we affectionately call it) the students rested while we (mostly “director Krysti” and me) worked on getting money and phone things figured out. As it turns out, Guatemalan SIM cards have to be used at least once every six months, or else the phone number expires and is recycled into the greater Guatemalan system. Because none of our phones were used between April of last year and January of this year, all but one of the SIM cards had expired. Unfortunately, this was only discovered over the period of three days. Thus, rather than having all the phones and their respective numbers assigned and distributed immediately on Sunday, we didn’t have the phones completely cared for until Thursday. Well, at least now they’re taken care of, eh?

Monday we drove to Antigua and began with language school. Originally, I was paired with Andy, with Fredy as our teacher (last year Jordan, Andy, and I were with Fredy, so it was familiar). This year, however, we had a Swiss girl by the name of Samira join our happy little group. She had been studying with Jose in the afternoons, but really wanted to be social with our group and study in the mornings, and since Andy and I were the only ones at her level, she joined us. It has been fun process, laughing and sighing our way through new ideas in a different language. I’ve been surprised at how well I have been able to pick up Spanish again this year.

Between Monday and Friday, we reviewed all of the tenses we learned before, and also picked up gerunds, present progressive, future progressive, past progressive, conditional progressive, past participles, passive voice, and perfect tense. Yes, I think that’s enough for a week. =) We generally learn Spanish from 8-12 in the morning, with a break from 10-10:30. Before the break we learn new things, and after the break we practice by just conversing about different topics. So far we have discussed machismo, typical national foods, places to visit in Guatemala, the relationships between husbands and wives in Guatemala vs. that of boyfriends and girlfriends, the end of the world in 2012, childhood traditions, and more.

During my free time in the afternoons I have been to the market, gone to cafes for internet, had meetings with my group, and read good books. Unfortunately I didn’t bring enough books with me. ~smile~ Today I wandered around Antigua with a friend and looked at things, wandering into several markets, studying the architecture of different buildings, and only buying a pair of sunglasses. Yes, I have sunglasses again… we shall see how long these last. I bargained for them with a little six year old girl whose mother had gone off to buy food. She was very nice and let me talk her down a whole 6 quetzales from the original price. ~laughs~ I think she still got a good deal.

Well, that’s my life. Next week Spanish school continues. I hope to have conquered the “plusqueamperfecto” and “imperative” by the end of next week.

Until then, adios, y Dios te bendiga mucho. (Bye, and God bless you a lot!)

Christmas Break

I'm sitting in the airport right now, waiting for my flight. Yes, it's that time already-- the time when multitudes of college students are released from the confines of their studying and are unleashed on the unsuspecting world. Although on my way home, I have one project yet to finish. In spite of this, I am confident that break will be good, and that I will finish my last bit in plenty of time.

Going home? Yes. Looking forward to it? Yes. Having gotten 9 hours of sleep between the last three nights, I think it'll be nice to try for that in a single night. "Dream on," you say, "that'll never happen." Yes, I realize that it's chances are low, yet I continue to hope, because, after all, that is the foundation of Christianity. [maybe I'll blog on that a little later, hey?]

'tis all

December

Another month has gone by, and it is time again for an update. What have I been up to in the last month? I've written about 70 pages of papers, read countless books, had numerous conversations, and made innumerable cups of coffee/tea. It's been a good month.

For one week during the middle of November I took a course in Calgary. We did five days of class, 6 hours of class a day. It was fun, mostly because I did it with all the other senior interns in Explore and Discover and we were able to hang out together outside of class time. It also snowed, and I was the driver, so I got a lot of practice driving in Alberta snow. 'Twas fun, but I've now had my fill of that variety of winter driving.

Last night Discover had their big fund raising event, raising money for our ministry practicum in El Salvador. The girls put a ton of work into it, and it went off well. We did coffee, punch, and tons of baked goods. Also had live music and live and silent auction items. In the two hour event we made over $2200! I was quite impressed by the entire event and how well they pulled it off.

In personal news, God's been teaching me to depend on Him more. I've been able to develop good relationships with a bunch of the girls in Discover and it's been fun to see what God's done with that. He's able to do abundantly more than we ask or imagine!

A verse which has stood out to me lately is Daniel 11:32b, "but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action." This verse reminds me of three things: 1) I need to continue pursuing God so that I can truly know Him; 2) in what I do know, I must stand firm; and 3) if I know God and know what I should do, then I am obligated to take action on it. It's been neat to see what effect this perspective has on my life.

What's next? I have four more class sessions, one more paper, two finals, four meetings, and a bunch of random things to finish up before I fly home a week from today. It's gonna be good!

~Peace

Updates!

Obviously it has yet again been a couple more months and I am finally updating all y'all again. Here's a rundown of my activities in the last while:

September: I went down to Montana and went white water rafting in the pouring down rain (5-day trip). After that we went camping for a few day (beautiful weather), and then headed to Spokane, WA. In Spokane we did our ministry skills overview: the students spent 9 days learning about community development, church and urban ministry (my focus), and TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages). During that time we lived at a sweet mansion on Liberty Lake and cooked all our own meals together.

October: We began October with our ministry skills specializations. For a week my group lived in downtown Spokane and volunteered at several places (feeding ministry, youth ministry, homeless ministry, etc.). We also partnered with a church there to learn more about ministry and be involved with their ministry a little. The other two groups focused on community development and TESOL respectively. After finishing specialization, we returned to Montana and did some classes. I mostly did homework... and spending time with students... and spiritual formation class.

Now? Well, I'm back at Prairie, starting in on classes. I'm doing Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, Principles of Managing Not-For-Profit Organizations, Acts, and finishing up an Urban Strategies distance ed course, not to mention Spiritual Formation and my internship stuff. It's keeping me busy, but it's fun too-- which is good.

A couple words on Perspectives: If you're a Christian, you should take the course. It's designed for anyone to do. You can be as involved as you want: auditing it, doing the basic work, certificate level work, college level work, or graduate level work. The course is about what God is doing on earth-- His global purpose-- and how we can be involved. It has the power to change your perspective on involvement in missions forever. What does it mean to be a "world-class Christian?" How do you support missions from where you live? What is involved in reaching people who have never heard the Gospel before? Can a Muslim also be a Christian? Is the Great Commission only found in the end of the Gospels, or is it something woven throughout Scripture? Were the Gentiles an afterthought/something God just included because the Jews weren't responsive? All of these questions, and hundreds more, are addressed in the course. Written by experts in their field and people with experience as well, the articles are both interesting and informative.

That was more than a "couple words," but as you can see I'm a huge fan of Perspectives. If you're interested in taking it, let me know-- I can connect you up! While it's been a lot of homework for me (since I'm taking it for credit), it has been well worth the effort and quite enjoyable. As an Intercultural Studies major, I've studied a lot of things related to other cultures and missions, and this course brings everything together in a very coherent and intriguing manner!

Well, that's all for now!

Pictures

Here are some pictures from our backpacking trip:

The view into a valley we had just hiked out of:

Same

My pack

Climbing down the chains-- my favorite part of the backpacking trip!

Catching Up

Well, after another extended break, I'm returning to my blog. After realizing that my latest post was July 6th, I hope to make amends by posting a few times in the next couple days. Considering that there are few who actually read this, well, I hope you enjoy it.

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I returned to college in the end of July. After joyfully reuniting with the rest of my staff team, we headed out on a backpacking trip in the Kananaskis area of Alberta. It's kind near Banff, if you know where that is. We hiked near streams, lakes, and mountains, with beautiful views and great company. Parts of it were challenging, but most of it was just good fun. Raining once a day, there were no problems, except for when our tarp leaked and my sleeping bag got soaked. Oh well, I like spooning with people for warmth anyway. =)

After a few days of hiking and a solo day with God, we returned to Calgary and spent a few days living downtown and getting to know the city. We went straight from backpacking to church (without having showered). Yes, that church definitely had a smoking section that day... camp fire smoke is far superior to tobacco smoke, thankfully. We wandered the city, observed, talked with people, made artisan bread and ate it with random strangers, watched a GreenPeace protest, studied up on different aspects of the city (art and oppression, badges of wealth and signs of poverty, and social estrangement and physical isolation), and served at the Jesus Loves You Society, a place that serves single mothers and their kids. Overall it was an excellent period of group bonding and learning how we work together.

After returning to Prairie we started in getting ready for the students to arrive. This included designing our teams for the year, writing up descriptions of our leadership areas (job areas), getting the details in place for our trip to the U.S., and mentally preparing for another year of serving the students who were to arrive soon.

Students arrived on the 20th. From that point on, things have been busy! More to follow....

Reflection from time in the Word

I was reading one of my favorite psalms this evening, Psalm 63. It begins as follows,

"O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

While these words are an accurate reflection of my heart's long-term desire, it is not my heart's constant desire. I am not constant in my longing for God. Another psalm says,

"My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my hear and flesh sing for joy to the living God." (Ps. 84:2)

Such good words! Yet truly, I find that a more accurate reflection of my heart's state is often found in Psalm 73:2-3,

"But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

The gift of the poet is that he can put words together in such a way that touch the hearts of others. Yet the Christian's life is not poetry. It is not even skillfully written prose. It is more often broken, almost falling apart, envious of those who are not constrained by a relationship with a holy and righteous God, and seeking to become more consistent in its right desires. Yet that is where the power of the Christian's life comes from. Not that he is able to produce a perfect life, devoid of fault and which everyone around is compelled to emulate. No, rather that he is able to live in honesty, admitting the times when he fails or falls, constantly picking up the pieces and continuing to live on.

The Christian life is not about perfection. That will have to wait for heaven. It is about constancy, and continuing to pursue a relationship with the God who has provided a way to know Him personally.

Oh, how did Asaph (the guy who wrote Psalm 73) solve his problem of envy? Check this out:

"But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end." (73:16-17)

Meet with God and consider the end of the matter. Check out the rest of these psalms. It'll be worth it, I assure you. (Psalms 63, 73, and 84).