Thursday I stayed at work late enough for the cleaners, Rigo y Norma, to
arrive. They are believers who go to a Spanish-speaking Baptist church, and
they are happy to have me practice my Spanish on them. They speak so little
English that the Spanish really is necessary! But I've felt stumped lately
because we had talked about all the things I knew the words for.
Until this time! I was able to tell Norma, in Spanish, that my car was in the
shop, that my mother would be picking me up in a few minutes, that I did NOT
want her throwing away my box of mealworms/Darkling beetles because it is bad
to release them into the environment (that concept was a little difficult to
get across), that my students love to gather around the mealworms and examine
them...all these words and their conjugations kept popping into my brain! I'm
sure it wasn't all correct...but it was still really exciting!!
I'm halfway through the first Rosetta Stone (done with Unit 4). I'm finding a
lot of it is solid review with some good vocabulary thrown in. I want to be all
done by the time I go to Spain, in six weeks.
Also - I was considering making t-shirts for my class, and found this awesome
t-shirt website! I've always thought this kind of thing was an obvious use for
the Internet! http://www.customink.com/ It
totalled up to $10 a shirt while I was experimenting - with free consulting
advice (that I did not use) and free shipping! wow!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
OM Ships
OM Ships (http://www.omships.org) is a ministry focused on a ship that travels around the world and uses its floating bookstore as an attraction to allow it into sometimes very hostile-to-Christians countries. I traveled to Florence, SC a couple weeks ago to spend time with some family friends and meet with the people who help run the headquarters there. To quote Myles, whose official position I don't know but who is high in rank, "The ships are the best way I know of to get a grasp of what missions is."
That's quite a claim! But I find it believable, since the ship (currently the Logos Hope) is populated by hundreds of believers from around the world, and makes port in dozens of countries around the world in a two-year time frame. Crew-members regularly have the opportunity to go on land and minister to believers and non-believers there, as well as ministering on the ship.
My main interest lay in learning about what it is like to teach on board. There are about 50 children of crew-members right now, and those children are broken into groups by age, etc. I would mostly likely be teaching a multi-age group, which would be new for me.
As I consider this opportunity, I am impressed with how much I like my comfortable, familiar surroundings, especially being surrounded by people who are relatively like me. That's not a very useful preference if I'm planning to serve in another country.
That's quite a claim! But I find it believable, since the ship (currently the Logos Hope) is populated by hundreds of believers from around the world, and makes port in dozens of countries around the world in a two-year time frame. Crew-members regularly have the opportunity to go on land and minister to believers and non-believers there, as well as ministering on the ship.
My main interest lay in learning about what it is like to teach on board. There are about 50 children of crew-members right now, and those children are broken into groups by age, etc. I would mostly likely be teaching a multi-age group, which would be new for me.
As I consider this opportunity, I am impressed with how much I like my comfortable, familiar surroundings, especially being surrounded by people who are relatively like me. That's not a very useful preference if I'm planning to serve in another country.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Discovery School in Burundi
I was really encouraged by a conversation with Jesse and Joy Johnson last night. The main purpose for getting together was for me to learn more about the Discovery School in Bujumbura, Burundi, and I did learn some very useful, exciting information. But even more helpful to me was just the perspective they gave about overseas work.
I asked Joy to share what I should be doing right now to prepare for teaching overseas later. Here are her two/three tips:
1. Take a course in ESL. (Great idea.)
2. Know yourself. Know what drains you and what fills you up, and then get whatever will fill you up to have it on the field. You can't expect to give to others out of an empty bucket.
3. Get what you need to keep yourself charged spiritually, since you may not get it in the normal places due to the language barrier.
My first thought is that my bucket-filler is children's literature. It is so true that hardly anything satisfies me as much as settling into a good children's or young-adults book. Does this mean I should get a Kindle, so I don't have to cart books around with me? I'm not sure. I need to already think about this for my six-week trip to Europe (France and Spain) this summer.
I asked Joy to share what I should be doing right now to prepare for teaching overseas later. Here are her two/three tips:
1. Take a course in ESL. (Great idea.)
2. Know yourself. Know what drains you and what fills you up, and then get whatever will fill you up to have it on the field. You can't expect to give to others out of an empty bucket.
3. Get what you need to keep yourself charged spiritually, since you may not get it in the normal places due to the language barrier.
My first thought is that my bucket-filler is children's literature. It is so true that hardly anything satisfies me as much as settling into a good children's or young-adults book. Does this mean I should get a Kindle, so I don't have to cart books around with me? I'm not sure. I need to already think about this for my six-week trip to Europe (France and Spain) this summer.
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