Riverwalk

I spent some time at Southwest Bible Camp this summer, and had a number of adventures, including the one below.

The beginning of the journey was so dark that the staffers around me were mere outlines and shadows. After counting everyone present, we plunged into the knee-deep river and began to follow it downstream, guided by a couple flashlights and faint variations of brown and gray in the darkness. Gradually the light increased and I was able to see the water eddying over rocks, the branches laced on either side and sometimes reaching into our pathway, and the flood line painted a few days before, exactly at eye-level. Catches of song floated through the air, overflowing from full hearts. "On the Jericho Road, there's room for just two..."

We paused to observe bear footprints in the mud, now two or three days old. The boys had seen them when they were fresh and wanted to show them to us. Suddenly someone called, "Look behind you!"

We turned to see the sky transformed by a brilliant sunrise, its color reflected in the rippling water. Morning has broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

I stumbled and scraped my knees on the rocks; my walking buddy, Raquel, pulled me up again. With our arms around each other, we were a four-legged creature, much more nimble at navigating the unexpected rocks and hollows that were often invisible under the muddy surface. River mud and weeds pulled at my feet as I crossed a shoulder-deep pool, but the rope in my hand was firm, anchored at either end by one of my new brothers. Eventually we made our way back to camp, where we cleaned up, enjoyed breakfast, and began our work for the day. I found a treasure on each knee: a large bruise, a badge of honor.

The Last Day

I stood in front of my children, all seventeen of them. Their parents sat behind them, but I wasn't talking to the parents at the moment. "Just one thing: You have to say goodbye before you leave!"

Instantly, "GOODBYE!" they all chorused snarkily, and giggled. So did the parents. I put my hands on my hips.

"Not now!" I tried to be grumpy. "And you have to give me a hug before you go, too."

It was too much for them. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of a squish of little bodies, wrapping their arms around me and around each other in an overflow of love. It didn't register until hours later that that precious sandwich, with me as the fixin's, was the beginning of the end of our time together.

One of my darlins...

Experimental Spanish

Hoy compré la Biblia en Español para mi Kindle. Yo leí los primer capitulos de Rut y lo mismo por San Juan. Comprendo el mayor de los libros! Tambien, me gusta viendo películas familiares en Español. Ya sé el sujeto de la película, entonces es mas facíl a comprender. Cuando escucho a las familias en la tienda hablar Español acerca de mí, no comprendo mucho. Ellos hablan muy rapido y no tengo contexto. 

Now, let's test this out with Google Translate. *nervous* I want to give a forewarning that Google Translate is not always the most reliable. Also, I decided not to use a dictionary so I'm uncertain about some of my vocabulary. :)

"Today I bought the Spanish Bible for my Kindle. I read the first chapters of Ruth and the same for San Juan. I understand most of the books! Also, I like watching home movies in Spanish. I know the subject of the film, then it is easier to understand. When I hear families speak Spanish in the shop about me, I do not understand much. They speak very fast and I have no context."

Wow!! That was a lot better than I expected! To clarify what I intended to say: I really enjoyed reading the first two chapters of Ruth and of John in my new Kindle Spanish Bible. I like to watch familiar movies in Spanish because I already know the subject and storyline. Context is very helpful; if I'm eavesdropping on a Hispanic family in the grocery store, I have a hard time because I have no idea what they are talking about to start with, and have no idea what words to listen for.

OK, Spanish-speakers! Help me know how I could have said some of the things above in Spanish more comfortably or correctly!! I'm gonna guess some word orders and word choices could be better.

A Soul Out of My Reach...But Not God's

Most of my students will be with me for two more days,  but I said good-bye to one of my students today. This was her first time at a Christian school, and due to moving she probably won't come back. I knew I might have just one year with her...and now it's gone. She is from a  mildly Hindu background, and for the first few weeks of school she insisted that she had never sinned.

I thank God for how He grew her spiritually this year. Unlike many of my students, who have grown up in a Christian family, she is very earnest and sincere in her growing understanding of what the Bible teaches. She knows she's a sinner not worthy of heaven, and when I would speak to her about something she did wrong, she would immediately ask, "Can we pray right now?" Praying for forgiveness!  How often do I neglect that myself?

But she doesn't yet understand how full His grace is. Today I talked with her one last time, and she still hoped she would be good enough to get to heaven, admitting in the same breath that she isn't good enough. I explained again how Jesus' blood covers our sin in God's eyes - when we believe that His blood is enough. I don't know if the sweet girl understood. All I can do is pray for her - pray that other Christians will come into her life to teach her the pure gospel, pray that she would come to a full understanding. And entrust her to the Lord Jesus, who is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Five weeks!

Well, I just sent out my first update about my travels to Spain and France this summer! I've tried to add anyone who has expressed interest, but if I didn't get you please comment with your email address. I'll add you and delete your comment so that it's not floating around in the Cloud or wherever these blogs are kept now. :)

Soon I want to be cool and start posting in Spanish and English, like my Spanish-speaking friends. :) But not today.

Practico mi Espanol...

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!

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.