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Nothing like an exam to snap me out of my Christmas Break fog.

I’m taking New Testament 2 this semester with PhD student Mike Baker. I’ll be tested over both the Corinthians, both Thessalonians, and Galatians in a couple of days.

Incidentally, I found the required text on a discount rack. It was priced significantly cheaper than sticker price. The only thing, however, is that is the Spanish edition. I bought it. We’ll see if the money saved is worth the inability to speed read it.

I told you about the exam I was giving the folks in the Hispanic Home Bible Study I lead every week. They got really excited about the whole affair. When I showed up, they were all jittery, frantically going over their study guides. They wanted to do well. And they did.

It wasn’t just test night. We made it a fiesta. We ate pizza. Amanda made a German Chocolate Cake. We watched some soccer. And, we sang songs.

Here are a few photos from the shindig.

I’m sold on Bible Storying. Not so much because of the research on orality (though it is compelling), but because it resonates in my own experience of encountering the scriptures. When I read the scriptures as a story, God’s Sacred Story, I connect on a level that has never been reached by argument or logic.

I am storying at a home Bible study that I lead on Wednesday nights. We started with Creation and are about to get into the New Testament. This week we are taking a bit of a break by celebrating how far we’ve come. I’m also giving them a test on the stories we’ve covered thus far.

How well do you know God’s Sacred Story? Click here and see if you know the story and where it is located. For each picture, the students have to tell me: 1) Name of Story. 2) Location of Story (book only). 3) Recite Memory Verse Associated with the Story.

For you linguists out there, go to this site and bask in the sunshine of English/Geek/Spanish/Chinese paralleled.

This kid is amazing. Her capacity to learn and imitate keeps me astounded. I mean, the kid understands and speaks Spanish and English for crying out loud! Now, she is learning to pretend play. She feeds her baby and puts her down for a nap. She likes to be chased by the alligator or lion (me). And she likes tea parties. Here’s a picture of Sophia and her grandma enjoying tea time.

Get a glimpse of my day. Count’em. 31 times she says ‘más’. Más is ‘more’ in Spanish. She really really really wants some more grapes. Talk about persistence!

Here’s a video of Sophia from lunch today for all you stalkers fans out there. There are a couple of things to watch for:

1) Sophia does not have a head-shaking disorder. She shakes her head like that because she likes how her hair feels bouncing against her head. It’s just now getting long enough to feel it.

2) You get to hear Sophia’s Spanish skills first hand. At one point I ask her “Quieres más pan?”. That means “Do you want more bread?” She responds by saying “Más.” and holding her hands out.

3) Finally, you’ll see her doing the hand motions to itsy-bitsy spider. You can hear her saying “itsy-bitsy”.

Ok, that’s it. Enjoy!

Every once and a while I’ll have a really stressful dream. It usually is somewhere along the lines of me being in college, the semester is almost over and I realize that I have forgotten to attend a class the whole semester and now I desperately scramble to try to make up work and get ready for the final. Or, I will have forgotten about some important work that I can’t pass without and I’ve only a few days to get it in.

That dream came true. I’m in an online class at The Southern Baptist Seminary out of Louisville, KY. It’s a class on the New Testament. The thing is, this class is in Spanish. That’s my excuse for what happened. I got the syllabus at the beginning of the semester and I read it, but not very well. I just skimmed it and focussed on what books I needed and the work that was due the soonest. Unfortunately, I never really went back and read it over really well. I had a paper due October 1st and November 15th and I didn’t realize it until last week. Talk about almost losing my lunch. It was that old bad dream feeling . . . except it was for real!

Anyway, I emailed the professor and he was very graceful and said I could turn them in still. Thank you Dr. Hatfield!

Hitting the Books

Here are a few pics from Villa el Salvador.

We were working with a team from German Town FBC. We were sharing in area where there is almost no evangelical work. I loved it. I had a chance to share with a lot of people about my relationship with God and that God wanted to have a relationship with them too.

We had lunch at around two and then sat and talked. Well, mainly they talked and we tried to keep up. We learned the art of acting like we understand. We know when to nod and to laugh, we know when to say “oh” and “mhmm” and we know when to shake our head. This is what we did a lot on Saturday. For hours. I would have sudden moments of panic hoping that they will not ask me questions . . . because they would probably just get an mmhmm.

That evening after we got done “talking” Amanda and I went to our room for a descansa (rest).

Then, back to the sala were we talked some more until 10:00pm when we had dinner!