It's been awhile...

Ok, I've neglected this blog for waaaaay too long...

I would like to claim that I have just been too busy, but really, it's just a matter of how I've been allocating my time.  I really do want to start blogging more often again.  :)

A brief update on life at the moment:
I'm still living in Tyler, TX, and still on staff with YWAM.  I went through YWAM's School of the Bible (aka SOTB) last summer, and ended it with an amazing outreach in Nepal, during the month of July.  Since then, I've been involved in staffing the latest SOTB, which began at the end of August 2009-it's hard to believe it's already half way over!  I have the privilege of teaching from time to time, as well as encouraging our students in the everyday rough and tumble of life.  I LOVE our students!!!

On the personal front, there are a number of areas in which I am being challenged right now...I will probably blog more about some of these later.  Suffice it to say, there is a lot floating around in my head right now.

And thus ends my rambling for the day...  :)

live blog from class

Welcome to the wonderful world of the School of the Bible classroom.

Theoretically, we are discussing economics right now...in reality, at the moment the discussion is centered around authority, who has it in various situations, and what is right. (For example, when is it right for the government to intervene in a situation with children, what happens when people pray for healing but don't seem to receive it, etc.) I love some of the discussions we get into here! There is quite a bit of variety in our class here, in age, experience, country of origin, etc., so the discussions often get quite lively.

Eventually, the discussion usually gets back to the topic du jour, but it takes a while sometimes. :)

It is hard to believe that the year is almost finished here at School of the Bible. It has been a busy year, but a good one. There is still a lot on my plate: preparing my final project (a paper and 45 minute teaching on the book of James), our regular homework, gearing up for my one-month outreach to Nepal, etc. It gets a bit challenging sometimes-my brain can feel so full that there seems to be no more room for even one more fact, no matter how valuable. But, overall, it has been a good year and a real time of growing.

A continuation of current class conditions-now we are discussing the free market economy and how it has changed in the past few years. What did Wal Mart music look like two years ago, and what does it look like now, because of the popularity of digital music services?

To switch back somewhat to the subject of a previous paragraph, my plans after outreach are to stay on here and help staff the next School of the Bible, which will start in September. (I get back from outreach at the very beginning of August.) It is still a real time of change and growth for me, but I'm excited. God is so good, and I'm excited to see what will happen in this new season that is opening up.

Well, I had better wrap this blog entry up for now. It is almost time for a break in class anyways.

God bless y'all! (I'm still learning to speak Texan)

p.s. if anyone who reads this blog uses Twitter, I recently joined, so you can now follow my frequent, rather random updates. My handle is missionsgirl. :)

God's mercy, and Greek wrestling

This has been an interesting but good week.

On Monday and Tuesday, we ditched our normal class schedule in favor of spending time in prayer and worship. (we also switched the schedule from starting at 7:45 a.m. to starting at 9-and there was much rejoicing!) We had some really great worship, and then wound up with different people in our school just being honest about where they are at right now.

"Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." "Confession is good for the soul." We had some really good times of prayer and ministry with each other. God is so good and so faithful. Wednesday night we also had a time of prayer and foot washing by our staff-a big blessing.

On a completely different topic, I am continuing to contemplate the monumental task of comprehending New Testament Greek. I am discovering just how little I really know about nouns, verbs, and the like. Right now, we are learning how Greek grammar works, and learning some of the Greek words, in preparation for translating 1st John later in the school (with the aid of a computer program-don't get too impressed.)

An example: How to translate the word "speak" when the "parsing code" (i.e. reminder of what is a verb, noun, etc. in shorthand) looks like this: V-PPI-3S? Thankfully, our staff has been extremely good at going over things second and third times, allowing us to use our lesson notes during quizzes, etc.

The point of this, you may ask? To better understand what God is saying in His word. There is a big difference when reading about how God deals with sin when you can see whether He is talking about someone who sins once and repents, as opposed to someone who is continually sinning and rebelling against Him. This should be an interesting study.

Well, I think that's enough for one update. We are looking at the book of Judges today in class. This should be good.

Weekend roamings, and ponderings on Deuteronomy

Howdy Y'all!

Oh, the joy of monday mornings. After two cups of coffee, my brain is fully functional, and life is happy. ;) I hope that everyone who is reading this has had a wonderful weekend, blessed with good weather, good friends, and good fun. (I suppose bad fun would be an oxymoron.)

It is finally starting to feel like fall here, or at least the Texas equivalent. Temperatures in the 70s, so we can still wear t-shirts, but not be sweating all day long. :)

On saturday, I joined some friends for a 3 mile walk at a local park, with wonderful weather and the chance to pick a friend's brain on some of the customs of Nepal. (She has been there before, and I will probably be going there in July for our final outreach.) We topped it off with a visit to a locally well-known burger joint. In the evening, I spent some time with another friend, who is attempting to teach me the fine art of sewing. Perhaps I will post some pictures, after I complete my first project!

This week in class, we are spending some time looking at Deuteronomy. A book that is often thought of as a boring book of laws. We will be taking a closer look at these laws, and asking what God's purpose was for them-just some restrictions, or loving boundaries to keep His people safe, holy, and happy. Are these laws even obey-able? Another question we will be looking at. We will also be reading the book of Ruth towards the end of the week.

I don't have any deep thoughts on this book of the bible yet, but I'm looking forwards to taking a closer look, asking a few questions, and finding out more about who God is by even the seemingly "mundane" laws He gave in the Old Testament. I would challenge everyone to do the same. Take another look at the books that seem unimportant for today, ask a few questions about who God is-you may just be surprised at the answers!

Well, happy monday everyone. Enjoy the beginning of a new week. I will try to post more as the week goes on and we learn more about Deuteronomy.

monday night musings

A mellow monday evening. All of my homework is finished, and I have the chance to contemplate, perhaps read a good book, and just chill out. Homework tonight was reading Leviticus 1-13. The description of some of the different kinds of offerings, Aaron's ordination, and how to identify your garden-variety clean and unclean animals.

We also had an informal outreach meeting tonight. Our first outreach for School of the Bible is next month-a "leadership outreach". Basically, we will be interning at a church, "job shadowing" the pastor, and getting a better feel for the internal workings of a church. The cool thing about School of the Bible is that you have a lot of flexibility in basically setting up your own outreaches.

Myself and four others from the school will be traveling to Ohio to do our outreach at a church pastored by a guy named Mike Huckins, who taught in our school for hermeneutics week. (basically a college word for biblical interpretation. Feel free to make use of it to impress your friends and family. ;)

There isn't much else to say right now. It has been a good day, and I am interested to see what all we will discover as we look at Leviticus this week. Oh, and I am really, really glad that we didn't get any Greek homework last friday, since I would probably be doing it right now instead of writing this blog! More on that another time.

Until my next musing,
Susie

Pondering the Plagues

Here it is, my very first blog post ever! Hopefully I will be able to post often.

Right now I'm sitting here in the classroom during a break between teachers. Our topic this week is the book of Exodus. We just took a quick look at the 10 Plagues. It was quite interesting to me to find out that every single one of the plagues was directed at one or more of the gods of Egypt, showing their powerlessness in the face of the true God. (if you serve a god who controls the sky, for example, it would be rather embarassing if someone else's God darkens the sky with "a darkness that can be felt" for three whole days, and your god can't make the sun shine.)

Well, break time is over. Hopefully I can post more later today.