Culinary Culture Crossing

The foreign exchange sister that we had from Germany two and a half years ago, Kirstin, sent us German chocolate for Christmas.

It's SO good. I started thinking about foods from other cultures that I like and realized that there are certain foods that take me back to places I've been.

Empanadas and rice prepared a certain way remind me of Bolivia. Also, for meat while I was there I relied heavily on those kind of gross, salty, pre-formed burgers that you can buy at the grocery store, so eating those makes me feel like I'm back in Heather's kitchen.

When I was in British Columbia this summer we could buy really cheap produce, so I ate sandwiches with cheese and all kinds of vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, onions, green beans (they added a nice crunch), and cucumbers. Eating a sandwich like that takes me back to those beautiful mountains and practicing crazy sounds for phonetics class.

Refried beans remind me of my time in Mexico only if they're flavorless and really soupy. Sadly, my food experiences there weren't what I wish they were.

Do you have a food that takes you to a place?

I'm Back

After over six months of concentrating on my studies, months that allowed me to say that I feel a little like a linguist and that I'm content to sail through my last semester, I am back to blogging. I have journaled this whole time, but for me journaling is just getting what I feel on paper. I'd like to really reason through what I think in this blog, even if I'm the only one who reads it.
I had planned on blogging this semester for several months because I've thought through a lot of things lately, but my recent return from Urbana 09 has given me the added motivation I needed. At this student missions conference, I heard a lot of things that will take me a long time to process. My plan is to weave these thoughts between my other posts over the course of the semester.
Before I begin all that, let me give a few general impressions of Urbana.
1. God made real to me His love for all peoples. Woah.
2. For the first time, I understood and experienced how and why missionaries on the field don't get along. God has given us different passions and gifts, and sometimes these conflict.
3. I feel called to fight injustice with my actions more than my words.
4. I have a huge respect for those who have gone into God's harvest before me.
Throughout 5 days of the Holy Spirit's presence in challenging addresses, "neighborhood" worship, and a focus on the incarnation, 16,000 college students felt called to be a reflection of Jesus-in-the-flesh where we live now and wherever God calls us. He dwelt among us; we must dwell among those God loves.
Revelation 5:9
"... You were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."

Linguistic Observations

Last summer I spent two months in British Columbia with linguists-in-training from all over the world. As you might guess, we spent lots of time talking about accents. For example, Canadians say process with the pro sounding like the way I say professional. My friend from Oregon would never have said the name of her state as Ore-gone, the way I grew up saying it.

Coming from Wisconsin, I never thought I had an accent. Midwest dialect isn’t far from standard in some ways, but as a linguist I’ve learned that everyone has an accent. Just the way I say Wisconsin makes mine pretty easy to identify. Over the last semester I became really interested in differences in speech based on social and geographical positions. Yesterday I got to interact with a speaker from my own state, and I loved her accent!

Some of my favorite moments:

Speaking about her son: “He bought that gosh darn evolution when he went to college, an’ nat was the end a that.”

Buying eggs: “Them are the organtic (organic) kind”

Fixing a vacuum: “Ner we go, now that’s flesh (flush) with da thing.”

I couldn’t peg her speech at all. Do most women from my town who have lived here all their lives have an accent like hers? Times like those make me want to do my own research. I’m ready to graduate and get to work!

Can- IL

Ok, so I'm here. Why haven't I written yet? Because I have been BUSY! I can hardly believe that I've been here for less than a week. I have a test almost every day for the rest of my three week class that began on Monday. My brain is feeling slightly fried, and I'm actually hoping that getting a few thoughts down would help me 'relax'.

First, I have to say that everyone here is amazing. We are all together for many hours each day, so although I'm sure that by the end of nine weeks we will have some issues, it is so nice to be with other believers who have such a similar vision. I have had great times in the word, in prayer, and in... contemplation with so many sweet people.

I don't know what else to say, but hopefully i'll have more to share soon.

p.s. God is teachine me so much about treasuring Him above all else. JP gets me so on fire. woo hoo.

Dolor y esperanza

Como pienso que nadie lee este blog excepto que yo- y como necesito como nada practicar mi español- voy a escribir éste en castellano. Este fin de semana tenía la oportunidad de hablar con uno de mis amigos que recién fue a Bolivia por poco tiempo más que yo y con propósito similar. Era una charla buenísima. La cosa es que después de hablar por tanto tiempo de Bolivia y escuchar tantos cosas de allí, quiero visitar otra vez. Tengo que orar que si Dios no me quiere allí que toque mi corazón con propósito diferente.


Es asombroso cómo Dios usa los personas que van por allí por Su gloria. Noté que mi amigo ayudó mucho con la tarea en el hogar Talita Cumi, y con su presencia en Cristo Viene niños, y es obvio que la gente allí será impactada por su visita. Me anima que Dios sea glorificado a través de sus siervos débiles- porque estos somos.
Mi corazón está lleno de deseos de ver el evangelio predicado tras el mundo, y quiero que Dios sea alabado en cada lengua, nación, y pueblo. Señor, úseme.

Feeling busy

I so often get this feeling that if my planner isn't sufficiently filled with activities to keep me busy for most of the day I'm not doing good enough. This past semester was filled with that feeling. I had two jobs, neither of which ended up giving me half as many hours as I was expecting, and I took 17 credits, which was smallest load since my freshman year. I had free time, and I was justifiably upset with myself that too much of that time was spent watching episodes of Boy Meets World on Youtube or thinking about the things I should be doing.

This lack of activity isn't all bad, though. I opened myself to so many new oportunities and experiences. I got involved in the Spanish-speaking church plant that Bethlehem is doing, which was great for my Spanish and began a few new relationships. I got to spend more time with girls on my hall doing crazy stuff. I volunteered in an adult ESL class once a week, and I ended up loving it. In the ESL class I tutored the same Taiwanese girl, Lesley, almost every week. Because this class is through my church, there are lots of opportunities to share the gospel, and I did get to share with her exactly what I believed a few times. It's crazy that I got so upset about not making money and getting as many classes as possible in my schedule, when God was using me to accomplish His will in a different way than I had planned. I am definitely learning to be more open to what He has for me. His plans are perfect.

Ponderings

I realize that this post is long overdue, and I am guilty of wanting to write in here but not wanting to take the time to do it.
I am the prayer coordinator for our missions fellowship on campus next year. Me. The prayer coordinator. I feel so inadequate. I have been struggling with these feelings since last Thursday when I met with the prayer coordinator from last year and just realized how much God has gifted her in prayer. I don't have those same gifts. Prayer for me is a spiritual discipline that often is just that- something I discipline myself to do.
Don't get me wrong, I like praying, and I love that the God who created me wants to hear from me and cares about what I have to say and responds when I cry out to Him in accordance with His Word. It's just that I am weak. I am so easily distracted in my praying. I find a quiet place, begin to seek God, and next week's schedule pops into my head. I realize a wonderful thing God has done, begin to praise Him, and I start running my accomplishments through my mind. I start to intercede for a friend, and my last conversation with that friends starts to worry me, or make me happy, or just DISTRACT me.
I am confident that if God has placed me in this position for next year, He will use me. I'm not sure if I'm taking this verse a little out of context when I say that my situation is like in Romans 8:26, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." In my weakness of praying God will intercede when I cannot. Anyway, I do know that He will use me even though I am unworthy. I look forward to all I will learn about prayer, but I am still pretty scared. I guess I just don't even know what to do or think. What a wonderful way to end.