"Drink while you swim"

Or kill two birds with one stone? Literal translations sometimes make no sense. An encouraging thought while I study languages for missions. Oh boy...

Oh man, this has been the most frustrating few days, academically. My brain is looking at a mirror and seeing it's great lack of intelligence. I'm taking a philosophy class. Oh my goodness--I thought I knew how to think...I think i was wrong :D It took me (with a partner) 30 minutes to decide if we agreed on a statement about the universe. WHAT THE HECK!? The statement was by a man who believed that in order for divinity to have created existence, it would have had to exist, meaning that before there was divinity, there was existence. Uh...make sense out of that one if you can.

In addition to crazy philosophy, I've started my major-specific classes relating to missions. Cultural Anthropology and Intercultural Comm. If you ever want to be convinced that you DON'T know anything about people and SHOULDN'T go outside of your own, take these classes. They'll scare you pretty good :) On the other hand, if you know that you're suppose to be in cross-cultural work, be prepared for INCREDIBLE realizations. In the first 20 minutes of one class, I experienced the tiniest piece of what it means to be a minority--one that can't understand the language, can't ask for help, is dominated by the ruling majority, and has to play by that culture's rules. SOOO interesting to think through. Like the illustration above--the title is a direct translation to English of a common Sudanese phrase. To an American, "drink while you swim" is a strange phrase, and to a Sudanese person "kill two birds with one stone" or "straight from the horse's mouth" might cause incredible confusion! Let's not even begin to talk about minor tonal differences in languages that COMPLETELY change the meaning of what you're saying. In one of the Sudanese dialects, a slight change in tone could tell the difference of saying, "Fine weather today" versus "I'm pregnant"--not a mistake I want to make! Oh praise the Lord for the funny ways He can humble us in any culture :)

Since school is my life, I will continue sharing from what I'm observing here. Every institution has a statement of beliefs that are composed of the bare-bones, but they of course cannot include EVERY detail of their doctrine. So throughout your time in that institution, however long or short, they will infiltrate their classes, via books and opinion, the rest of the institutional beliefs. At first they're subtle--then not so subtle. It is, essentially, a method of brain-washing. Not necessarily bad, but something to consider.

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Share with me what your personal opinions would be about these questions. Please answer as simply or complicated as you wish:
**Is the Holy Spirit's work of illumination limited to that which is taken from hermeneutics and exegesis of Scripture?

**Just because a method of evangelism produces valid results (meaning souls saved by Christ), does that make it correct and/or a method to be replicated?
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The word of the semester for me is: Consistency. "Reliability; uniformity; the quality of being consistent" (yay wiktionary). My amazing roommate/friend and I have been working through various aspects of our daily lives (yes cliche, but true) and figuring out practically the areas that need work. My general list has mostly to do with time-management and habitual devotions. I was not raised to keep a consistent schedule, though I'm sure my parents would have loved it :) I was the wild child when it came to being responsible and unfortunately I am paying the price. I STINK at making/maintaining habits. One of my favorite pastors preached a sermon series on creating/maintaining godly habits. Talk about conviction! Living a godly life is so interconnected between physical/spiritual! Think about it--more rested means more alert and aware while reading/living out principles of Scripture. It's almost one of those "DUH" moments. You'd think we'd learn after a while! SO...if you think of it, pray for me and Tiffany this semester that we would be consistent in good habits and godly lifestyle. Thanks :)

Alright--I need to get off my blog and get back to work/hw. :) Too many thoughts and not enough getting accomplished.

A great many blessings to you today and hopes of a beautiful evening for you. (PS--it's snowing here. My roommate's happy) ;)

Em