How did I not know about this? Click on the link to see th ewhole article, or click on the picture of the text to be able to read it.
My father is fond of telling me that a linguist first documented Klingon, so I could get a job. I would not however, speak Klingon to a child for the first three years of his life. mmmBELLYmay is a much better choice.
So I'm testing stories, and I'm nervous again because God's story and my friend's worldview are coming more and more into conflict. This time, I'm worried about the piece where Mary was pregnant with Jesus through God's power. I mean, come on. it's weird. And I've heard it's pretty blasphemous to people from my friend's background
So we listen to the story, and I ask. How could God cause a woman to have a baby without a man?
And my friend says, well you have to go back to the beginning of the story. Look how God made the world. Look how God took David when he was just a kid, a shepherd and made him into a king. If God can do all of that, you have to believe that he could do this for Mary too.
Huh. Guess this works. Nice when theory lines up with real life. See, Bible storying is different from telling stories from the Bible – each story is told as an episode in the bigger story of God and people. The theory is that having this global view gets the message across more powerfully. I guess it's true.
Want to help keep the stories coming? I have an end of year shortfall that could delay stuff. Click here to find out how, or comment or something, and I'll get you info.
My friend Dennis is blogging through a Christmas reading plan. The first section just happens to be part of the story I tested today. So I decided to blog about that passage too.
You’d think after yesterday’s fantastic testing session, I wouldn’t be worried about today’s. But I was. Perversely, I was also really bummed when only one guy came to test with me. I figured, well, the stories are starting to conflict with their religion, so they’re not coming. But, maybe that’s ok. Because I’ve heard that people from this guy’s religion think that Christ followers worship three gods instead of one, that they don’t get the idea of the trinity at all, and that it offends the snot out of them.
Course, I don’t have a ton of experience with people from this group. Good to actually talk to some and hear from them what they believe. (This blogger thinks so too.)
We’re sitting in a smallish room, filled with books. Since it’s just the two of us, I have a window open. We’re at the corner of a busy street, so there’s lots of traffic. The open window makes it noisy, but keeps it appropriate.
So, after I putz around and procrastinate, we got into the story.
…So Mary had the baby in Bethlehem…eight days later, Joseph brought him to the place where people worship. A man was there who had been waiting to see the promised savior. When he saw Jesus, he took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Now I have seen the promised savior with my own eyes.”
Why was this man waiting for the promised savior?
Well, God said that he would send him, and he always keeps his promises. And this man was close to God. He took Jesus in his arms and started praising God. Praising him, Jesus. Praising Jesus is the same as praising God. Jesus and God, God and Jesus, they’re the same thing. You can’t believe in God without believing in Jesus. You can’t believe in Jesus without believing in God.
I think to myself, huh. Might have to tweak the way we tell this one. I’m not sure that’s what the story said. I am positive that you are not supposed to believe what you just said.
But you do.
And when we finished with this story, you said “There’s more coming, right?”
Going into our testing session this afternoon I was a little nervous. Isaiah 53 is tricky to tell in story form, would the guys understand it? This is the first story that really spells out what God did for everyone in Jesus, would the guys accept it? Be offended?
After King David, the kings and the people kept disobeying God. But, God still wanted a real friendship with them. So, he sent his spokesman, Isaiah, with this message of hope. . .
We listened to the story several times. They told it back to me, got every last detail. (I recorded them, I have proof!) Then I started asking questions. I was worried about the questions too. Were they dumb? Would I learn anything from the answers?
Why did God still want a real friendship with the people?
He loves us. He can’t abandon us. Even if we don’t think about him much, he loves us. He lets us be free, but he keeps showing us, I’m still here.
Great answers, but the guys were a little fidgety as we got to the end of the story. They’d taken over an hour away from their shops already. I was tempted to skip the last questions, but they could see my list, so I had to finish. We listened to the last part again.
He will be killed, buried amongst the wealthy. But God is going to give him life again.
How is God going to give him back his life?
Well, they buried him, so it’s not going to be on this earth that he gets his life back…I’ve never heard of someone being buried, and God…I just don’t believe it. I’m not convinced yet. For now, no one has ever told me that. I’ve never seen that. I’ve never heard that. I can’t believe it. But, if I hear about it, if I see it, I’ll believe it. There are more stories coming. They’ll tell us.
A few months ago, a friend of mine came up to set up my solar power, spending days measuring and calculating and laying the groundwork. We ran out of time, so he never got to see it wired and working. Here are the pictures I promised to email him. If you want to see more, see them bigger, or read my clueless witty commentary, they're in a photo album on Facebook, which anyone can see even if you're not a member by clicking here. (That means you, Dad.)
Don't bother trying to click on these photos to see them better, I don't know how to make one of these nifty grids on typepad, so it's just a screenshot from FB.
“you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means.” inigo montoya, the princess bride
Found this quote on transplanting me. It's my new motto for language learning. Especially tonal languages like mmmBELLYmay and Thai. Here's a Thai learner's story (not mine, although I wish I could claim it. Mine is below):
"one of the first phrases i learned to say after i arrived in thailand
was “excuse me” or “i’m sorry” and i’ve said it a lot. everywhere.
all over the place. all the time. any time i felt i’d made some sort
of error – which, really, was every time i had any reason to interact
with anyone. you know, accidentally bump into someone, “excuse me”. not
moving fast enough to get out of the way, “excuse me” i didn’t
understand what was said and had no idea how to communicate that,
“excuse me”. and the list goes on and on. today in language class i
learned that i hadn’t exactly been saying what i thought i’d been
saying. instead i’d been saying, “i farted.”
did i mention i’ve said it a lot?" transplanting me
So, I've made plenty of this kind of mistake all across the world. I'm going to leave you to google to figure out my absolute best language error (that I know about!).
I was eating with a bunch of French people, really smart, gracious French people, and finally dared to talk. "The bread is so good here! At home it's filled with preservatives."
Ok, now it's your turn to go have fun with Google translator or an online dictionary something and see why that last sentence made me blush.