Story of my Life

Sorry, folks, I have Spanish on the brain.

Ah, Christmas break. School feels like it was 100 years ago. I'm at home, enjoying my family, my sleep, my Bible, and my Spanish studying, in no particular order. It's so lovely to not have deadlines and responsibilities and pressure on every side.

Lord willing, I'm planning on going to Mexico over spring break with a team from school (more details to come), and so I'm hitting the Spanish study really hard. I've worked on it every day for a couple of hours since I've been home. In spite of the fact that I'm rather overwhelmed with the amount of work that goes into learning a language, I feel like I'm actually making some sort of progress. Maybe, by March, I'll actually be more conversational. We're not sure how many Spanish speakers we'll actually have on our team, so Naomi and I have decided that if for no other reason than that, we're going to really work on Spanish. I have other reasons, of course, too...part of my heart is still in Peru. I'm not sure what will happen if I leave another part of my heart in Mexico... It's likely that for the rest of my life, no matter where I go, I'll be leaving pieces of my heart there.

Anyway...I'm still at home for at least the next few weeks, with my family. We're enjoying life together, making cookies, playing Apples to Apples, singing Christmas carols at the tops of our lungs (no kidding), watching movies, yelling at each other, laughing with each other, discussing Christmas presents at length, et cetera.

One of my Spanish projects is reading through the gospel of Juan, hopefully at least a couple of times before I go back to Emmaus. I read 3 chapters today.

Porque tanto amo Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigenito para que todo el que cree en el no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday season with loved ones, whether at home or away. I've been memorizing Ephesians since I've been home, and it's been wonderful to reflect on the amazing blessings we have in Christ. He "has blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!" Over and over again the first chapters say "in Christ...in Christ...in Christ"! It's all about Him and His glory. We live for no other reason. And all the gifts He gives us to enjoy are meant to draw us closer to Him so we can glorify Him all the more. Rest in Him today!

[  Mood: Amused ]

Liz (about to use Victor's Mac to burn a CD, and trying to open the lid): Is there anything in particular I should know about this thing?

Victor (turning the laptop around on Liz's lap): Well, you open it from the other side...

[  Mood: Amused ]
[  Currently: Listening to Randy Travis ]

I just thought I'd pass on the link for an amusing series of Peanuts that I posted on my other blog. http://lizziehannah.blogspot.com/2008/11/ive-kicked-my-cough.html

It's kind of appropriate for this time of year.

[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Waiting ]

Today at lunch I made an Old Testament covenant. See, in the OT, there was a thing called a blood covenant, which happened in Genesis 15 with Abram and God. The two parties were supposed to bring some animals and then they would make a little valley in between them, and they would split the animals/birds in half lengthwise down the middle and lay one half on each side of the valley. Then the blood would trickle down into the valley. Each party would walk through the valley in the blood, barefoot, as a symbol of the covenant, in essence saying, "If I break the covenant, this (what was done to the animals) is what should be done to me." That's what God did to Abram when He made Abram the covenantal promise with him in Genesis 15.

So, before you start worrying that I was splitting animals and getting blood all over the Emmaus cafeteria, hear me out. It was actually with grapes. And it was a truce between Geoff and I. He is always ribbing me about Kansas. I can't imagine why. And in return I always rib him about attending an "agriculture" school in the middle of Minneapolis for his high school years. Soooo...today we made a truce and Geoff split a grape in half and we put it on the sides of my tray and squeezed the grape juice out and dipped our fingers in it and sprinkled it on each other. So now he won't make fun of Kansas and I won't make fun of his *ahem* Ag school.

[  Mood: In Love ]
[  Currently: Listening to Barlow Girl ]

...with Latin American kids.

Oh my. Tonight when I went downtown to tutor, Jorge wasn't there, so I didn't have anyone to tutor, but I played with 4 little Hispanic kids so their moms could focus on their tutoring sessions better. Oh my. Jessica was 6, Haley was 5, then I'd guess that Charlie was 3-ish, and Emilie was probably 2. We first laid out Haley's Disney princess blanket in the toy corner and then settled down to read stories. Even though we were technically playing, I worked in lots of English lessons. Every now and then as I was reading, I'd stop and ask "What does that word mean?" For instance... "The Beast's face was fierce looking, but he had a kind and gentle heart...What does fierce mean?" Two little girl hands would shoot up and I'd call on one. "Um, like, strong?" "Well, that's close. More like kind of mean looking - like this:" I scrunch up my face and curl my fingers. The kids giggle and we proceed.

Then we got a box of opposite picture flash cards and made up a game with them. We discussed opposites, and identified them, then we played a sort of "go fish" type of game. It was so fun! The girls giggled and giggled. Then we (all of us at the center) had our break time and ate snacks. Jessica spent most of the time telling me that she wanted another cookie. She eventually got her mom to let her have one. Oh, I discovered the Spanish word for cookie - galleta. I absolutely LOVE being able to say some Spanish words to them, for instance, when we were playing a game of "memory" with picture cards later, I'd ask "Que es esta en Espanol?" And they'd answer me in Spanish as if it were the most natural thing. When we played memory Charlie thought it was most amusing to drive his fire engine over our game, which made it virtually impossible to play. We kept asking him to stop, in English AND Spanish, but it didn't work, because he just kept giggling and saying "Iss funny!" "No, no, no, por favor! Malo nino!" (Naughty boy) Memory was another great English teaching tool, because we discussed each picture as it came up and said it in English and sometimes in Spanish. Oh my. What funness. Yup, I'm in love.

[  Mood: Happy ]

Wow! I'm excited. I had no idea that real English teaching would look so much like the things we talk about and practice in class! For my Methods in TESOL class, I need to have 4 sessions of tutoring experience and 4 sessions of ESL classroom observation. Our TESOL teacher is new this year and has been working to make connections with teachers here in Dubuque, and it's been hard to break into the circle, but the Lord has opened up (finally...halfway into the semester - in His perfect time) doors for us now.

There is a center in downtown Dubuque run by Catholic sisters, which is a tutoring institution. People come there for help and you spend a couple of hours in a session with them, tutoring them. There are tons of books, materials, etc. to help and each student keeps a notebook of where they are and what they've been doing so you as a tutor can jump right to the spot where they're working and help them with what they need. I went there for an interview Tuesday afternoon and they asked if I could come back that night to start tutoring! So I had my first session with Jorge, who comes in with his wife Cecila and their little girl, Jessica. We worked through "who" and "where" questions and talked about some vocabulary words and how the plural of "child" is "children" not "childrens" and then we spent a good bit of time just talking about his family and mine and practicing the concepts we had just covered. It was so cool. And so much easier than I expected! What a blessing from the Lord.

Then today, I was able to go downtown to Prescott Elementary School and observe an ESL teacher for an hour. She had 3 Hispanic 2nd graders in the classroom first, then she switched them out for 3 4th graders. It was so cool to watch her in action and see how ESL teaching (in that setting at least) was not really that difficult. But so cool. Those kids respected her and really seemed to enjoy their session with her. Ricardo, Mondardo, Wendy, Sally, Luis, and Alex...precious kids. Most from Mexico, but one from Brazil. It's really cool to think about the possibility of reaching whole families through ESL teaching.

Sister Corine at the tutoring center talked about how we do not proselytize the students - that is, we don't tell them about Jesus - that's not what we're here for. I can respect that, but I'm looking forward to the time when I CAN reach people through this. However, perhaps the Lord may even open some doors outside of the classrooms here. Who knows?

I'm learning Spanish little by little while going to the Spanish Bible study that Mr. Hernandez, one of my teachers, leads on Sunday evenings. I sit for about 2 1/2 hours immersed in the language, listening to the Hispanics talk, pray, discuss Scriptures, sing (although I join them singing bc they have a songbook and I can read it). Then, when we eat (amazing Peruvian, Mexican, and Brasilian food) they talk with me and help me try to learn the language. It's a slow, painful process because that day is the only time I have to practice it, but it helps a bit, anyway. It was cool to understand exactly what the kids today were saying when they said some things to each other in Spanish.

Wow, I can't wait to be an English teacher...and I'm so thankful for the Lord's leading in this direction. Thanks, all of you who are praying. I appreciate that so much!

Wow, I think this is the worst I've been at communication in my whole life. Well, maybe. Maybe not. But it HAS been almost 1 1/2 months since I blogged and that's ridiculous. It's kind of like when I stopped by Mrs. Van Dine's office the other day (our registrar and in-school grandma). She said that it had been too long since I talked to her, but I told her that I had been waiting till just the right time because I knew it was going to be a long talk when I actually DID get around to talking to her. So, this will probably be a long entry. Or maybe I should just write a bunch of entries consecutively to catch you up.

In any case, well, yes, I am back at school. I was busy last year. I was busy this summer. But over these past couple of months I have felt unrealistically busy. I don't even know where to start. Hmm...

Well, the first couple of weeks, I was an emotional basketcase because my classes were rearranged at least three times, which was frustrating, one of the boys from home I care about was hurt in a bad car wreck, one of my best friends from school here was struggling with some real issues emotionally, I was trying to slide back into routine and it wasn't happening, I was trying to catch up with everyone and we were all trying to fit back into each others' lives again...and it was just crazy.

After about a month of classes, things finally fell into routine, and I'm feeling very settled and thankful now. What a blessing! The tough thing is that practically every moment of every day of my week is scheduled for me...and if you know me well, you know that structure is a challenge for me. Sure, some is fine, but this is borderline control-freakishness. (I mean that my schedule is being the control freak.) So at times I just want to burst out and go away somewhere like a sandy beach in Peru where no one can tell me where to be at what time or for what reason. I'm managing alright, though...the Lord is giving me grace for each day.

So, as far as classes go, I love all of mine this year. Some of you know that I was planning to work toward getting my BS in 3 years instead of 4. Well, after a week of thinking that was going to happen this semester, I nearly cracked mentally and I realized I couldn't press myself like that. Not having a summer break from classes and jumping right back into 19.5 hours of schoolwork was too much. So I dropped two classes and am at 15.5 credit hours for the semester. That has been a blessing, truly. The workload is just perfect. Enough that I still get this feeling of "Ah! I can't do it!" and have to run back to the Lord, but not so much that I'm already feeling like there's no way I'll get everything done.

I am taking Methods in TESOL I, Intro to Missions, and Hermeneutics (science of Bible study) on Mon/Wed/Fri and I'm taking Life of David and Cultural Anthropology on T/Th. I'm learning a lot about Bible study in both Life of David and Hermeneutics - a lot of practical things that should serve me well for the rest of my life. Then, in Intro to Missions and Cultural Anthropology I'm learning so much about cultures, mission work, and a lot of spiritual things I've never considered, or never knew much about. For instance, how does God reveal His glory through cultures, how do I experience God's leading and direction, how do you deal with cultural things in Scripture like slavery and holy kisses, etc. Really cool stuff. Methods in TESOL is a very practical class, and we're talking about how to teach English grammar. I need to find a tutoring position and do some hours of observation and teaching in ESL classes around Dubuque, so if you would pray with me about those details, I'd appreciate it.

It's good to be back with the people here at school and church in Dubuque. The Lord has given me a lot of service opportunities and I'm thankful for that. When I say service, I mean practical service...cleaning here at school, helping moms with their kids, helping people in practical ways. I'm learning a lot.

So, yes, now I can continue to blog in a more timely fashion, perhaps. That is, if I still have any readers...I know it's been so long! God bless, all!

"Goodnight! Love you!"
"Goodnight! See you in the morning, Lord willing."

Those words are the equivalent of "Goodnight, John-boy" in our house.
And I only have one more night to hear them before I'll be back on Asbury Road, in Dubuque, Iowa, sleeping in my dorm room. Whoosh! What a summer! Where has it gone? I'm looking forward to being back in school, but I am already missing everyone here. It was sad to say goodbye to my little cousins on Sunday.

And little Deborah keeps coming into my room to hang around and tell me that she doesn't want me to leave. Boxes are starting to pile up in my room, and it is looking emptier. I have so much stuff. Why on earth? And every time I move, I give some more of it away. Soon I won't have anything. That is, after I move about 150 more times. For instance, I gave away two shirts today - one was one of my Hawaiian shirts. I have three and I only wear one of them. I offered one to Abby, and she took the one I always wear. That's a good thing, because then I'll actually wear the other two. It really is all just stuff. Most of it I could live without if I had to. But since I don't have to live without it and it makes life more pleasant, for the time being anyway, I keep it (except for what I give away).

I'll be heading up to Iowa on Friday morning, Lord willing. My next post will probably be from the land of never-ending cornfields.

Farewell, Kansas...I'll miss thee.

[  Mood: Happy ]

...that I'm blogging at 1:00 a.m. Hmm, strange person I am. I guess it's because I've been rather busy all week and Sunday I'll be going to camp, and I have a to-do list the size of my family's Christmas lists put together to do tomorrow, so I'm neglecting sleep to blog again. This is becoming habitual (this blogging), I'm afraid. I'm afraid because I'll probably disappoint you all and just as you're getting used to seeing new updates, you won't be getting them because I'll be immersed in 19 hours of schoolwork again in exactly four weeks, Lord willing. I will try, though. I will try.

Soooo...speaking of camp, Lord willing, from July 27-August 1, I'll be speaking at girls' grade school week of camp at Kansas Bible Camp. I am SO excited about it! Preparing the messages this month has been such a huge blessing. I am learning so much. We will be talking about faith in the lives of Anna, Rebekah, Hannah, the Widow of Zarephath, the Widow of 2 Kings 4, with the oil jug, and Naaman's wife's maid (boy, it'd sure be easier if the Lord had just named these dear women!). I had an amazingly timely and challenging reminder from a friend the other night, though. We were talking about preparing messages, and he was telling me about his "unorthodox" way of going about it. His steps to message prepration (in his words) are to:
1. Pray
2. Pray
3. Pray
4. Pray
5. Pray
6. Pray
7. Prepare the message
8. Pray
9. Practice the message
10. Pray
I don't doubt it for a minute, either. I've never known a man of prayer like Caleb. If he prayed that there would be no rain in Japan (where he's working as a missionary) for 3 years, the Lord would probably answer that (like Elijah, you know). In any case, it was kind of a gentle prodding from the Lord - "Maybe you should be praying more steadily and consistent about these messages, Elizabeth." So I've been doing that. I really covet your prayers this coming week! I know the Lord can do mighty things through His word. I only want to be the vessel. I want to be like Ezekiel, whose mouth was opened and shut by the Lord's hand. Please pray 1 Cor. 2:1-5 for me and for Sherry, the other speaker. THANK YOU!

For pictures of some summer loveliness, you can go to my other blog - Story of my Life.