Examen hecho

Exam finished; and whew!

It all started with a months intensive course in another city, Cáceres. A Spanish course. Four weeks of studying vocab, grammar, nexos, objectos indirectos, directos, pretérito pluscuamperfectos, etc. And I loved it. That was September.

At the same time I got to thinking about doing this exam called the D.E.L.E. Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera. Or a Diploma in Spanish as a Foreign Language. Let's just say you can't be Spanish and take it cause its like a level test. See where you are at in your language learning. It's recognized all over the world and in fact you can take it all over the world. So I got to thinking that it would be something worth having.

There are three levels. Beginners, Intermediate, and Superior. I figured there wasn't much sense in going for anything less than the top one, and if I fail you can always go for it again! It can serve for many things, but the main thing is that it's an official document that shows your language level. In my case Spanish.

That led to buying a book to prepare for the thing. And lots and lots of mornings dedicated to passing the thing. It's not free by the way, so all the more motivation!

Well a couple of months went by like so. Mornings studying and afternoons teaching. And then the 21st of November arrived and it was the day of the exam!


Hour 1- read three texts and answer questions. Read questions from an interview and match the appropriate responses. Sounds easy but believe me they find ways to make it complicated!

Hour 2- write a formal letter about a certain topic they give you and then write an essay on another topic they give you.

half hour for coffee and mental relaxation!

Hour 3- listen to a bunch of interviews and readings on a cd- answer questions accordingly.

Hour 4- vocabulary and grammar. answer loads of questions about, well, grammar and vocab.

lunch.

and finally the oral exam! Really it was lots of nerves for nothing. In the end I sat down for this bit and it was no problem. We usually just fear that which we don't know. In the case of the oral exam that is true.



Well that was the exam and by the time it was finished I was exhausted (more from the stress than anything) and quite pleased since it had went well. So I went home and took a siesta. Several months of hard work and stress and wondering how the exam would go can take it out of you.


Now I sit and wait. Till February when the results are released. Not exactly overnight service, but I guess since they do the exam all over the world and then they are all sent to Madrid to be graded, well that takes time.

So I don't know if I passed or not, but I have a good feeling. And that's all we have to go on for now!

weird dancing take II

don't ask me why- but going with the weird dancing theme a couple of posts ago...

historia de perros

En aquel entonces yo vivía en una pequeña granja que quedaba justo a las afueras de un pequeño pueblo tranquilo. Tenía 9 años y habían pasado cuatro meses desde que mi fiel perro Pud había muerto a una edad bastante mayor. Mi padre había decidido que era tiempo de comprar otro perro, ya que la época de luto había transcurrido la suficiente y así llegó Traca, envuelta en una vieja toalla dentro de una caja en la parte frontal de la camioneta de mi padre.

Era un cocker color negro con mechas doradas por la cara. A primera vista quedó olvidado el dolor que habían provocado las memorias de mi antiguo compañero Pud. Así es cuando uno tiene 9 años. En el momento que murió, había dicho que nunca tendría otro perro y que tampoco volvería a jugar con uno, sin embargo, con Traca en mis brazos, lamiéndome la cara, la felicidad que proporciona una mascota propia me llenó otra vez. Así es cuando uno tiene 9 años.

Pasaron los meses y Traca creció y se convirtió en mi fiel compañero. Me seguía por todas partes (menos al colegio donde no dejaban entrar los perros) y compartíamos todo.
Pasó un año y casi cualquier recuerdo que guardaba de Pud había desaparecido. Me acordé de él solo cuando oí mencionar su nombre o vi una foto en un álbum. Tenía a Traca y todos esos antiguos recuerdos se estaban reemplazando con nuevos.

Hasta que el día en que llegué a casa después del colegio y vi las caras de mis padres. Lagrimosamente mi madre me contó que Traca había sido atropellada unas horas antes por un coche y no había sobrevivido. Fue todo muy rápido y no sufrió mucho se empeño en decirme.

Mi sufrimiento duró mucho más. Unos tres meses o por ahí, hasta el momento en que llegó Sadie, una cachorra negra con mechas blancas por su cara. Así es cuando uno tiene 10 años.

Where the hell is Matt? Scuse the language.

Watch it and not smile. Just try.



Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Las Caras de Jesús- por Buechner

Con la cara de un bebé, surge una esperanza y a la vez un temor, que el mundo no haya visto antes. Porque ahora Dios tiene una cara.

El mundo ya no es seguro de como es Dios. Una vez que haya aparecido en un establo, quien puede saber donde aparecerá después o hasta que extremos irá o hasta que nivel de auto-humillación se someterá en su búsqueda del corazón humano.
Si su poder, majestad y santidad estuvieron presentes en este evento tan prometedor (auspicioso), el nacimiento de un hijo de campesinos, entonces no hay lugar, ni tiempo demasiado insignificante donde Dios no pueda estar. Eso es la esperanza!!
Y el temor... Todo eso quiere decir que no estamos a salvo de él, no hay lugar donde podamos escondernos de Dios, no hay sitio donde estemos a salvo de su poder para interrumpir, entrar y quebrantar nuestro corazón humano. Porque es justo cuando él parece más impotente e indefenso que en realidad es más fuerte. Y justo en el sitio donde lo esperamos menos es donde aparece con su plena presencia.

Pero al mismo tiempo este nacimiento significa que Dios nunca está a salvo de nosotros. Él nos viene de tal manera que siempre lo podemos rechazar, igual como podríamos ignorar a un niño o colgarle a un hombre en una cruz cuando su voz penetra demasiado.
Dios nos aparece en las personas hambrientas, a las cuales no tenemos que dar de comer. Nos viene en las personas que se sienten solas, las cuales no tenemos que consolar. Se nos presenta en la desesperada necesidad humana a la cual siempre podemos dar la espalda. Significa que Dios se somete a la merced de nosotros, y no solo en el sentido del sufrimiento que le causamos por nuestra crueldad, egoísmo y frialdad, sino también en el hecho de elegir sufrir nosotros mismos. Porque así es el amor. Cuando alguien que amamos sufre, sufrimos también.


Traducción de una parte de Las Caras de Jesús.

La rana que quería ser una rana auténtica

escrito por Augusto Monterroso. (página web)


Había una vez una rana que quería ser una Rana auténtica, y todos los días se esforzaba en ello.
Al principio se compró un espejo en el que se miraba largamente buscando su ansiada autenticidad. Unas veces parecía encontrarla y otras no, según el humor de ese día o de la hora, hasta que se cansó de esto y guardó el espejo en un baúl.

Por fin pensó que la única forma de conocer su propio valor estaba en la opinión de la gente, y comenzó a peinarse y a vestirse y a desvestirse (cuando no le quedaba otro recurso) para saber si los demás la aprobaban y reconocían que era una Rana auténtica.

Un día observó que lo que más admiraban de ella era su cuerpo, especialmente sus piernas, de manera que se dedicó a hacer sentadillas y a saltar para tener unas ancas cada vez mejores, y sentía que todos la aplaudían.

Y así seguía haciendo esfuerzos hasta que, dispuesta a cualquier cosa para lograr que la consideraran una Rana auténtica, se dejaba arrancar las ancas, y los otros se las comían, y ella todavía alcanzaba a oír con amargura cuando decían que qué buena rana, que parecía pollo.

quote by CS Lewis

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We read so that we might know we are not alone.
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anti-cafeina

Para los que sepan de la ley anti-tobaco aquí en España... Este video resultará interesante y quizás un poco gracioso.

prayer

I feel like I don't know what you are up to. So often insecure, unstable and a little bit alone.
I cannot deny how you have changed me, shaped me, formed me and loved me, though I always seem to have questions running through my mind. I wonder who I am. And who I will be. I know you don't stop working.

I have said it before and I will say it again- that I am yours, before I am my own. You have the right to my innermost and my outermost. To withhold is to rob you on the one thing you ask.

My prayer is that my lack of seeing, of understanding, of capacity will not affect you in me. That you take me despite my constant double mindedness and weakness. Make me, shake me, I am yours.
And when I cry out in weakness, in lack of understanding- remember my words spoken into eternity- perhaps in ignorance but from within. And complete your work in me.

Only remember that I am small and frail and it will be only by your grace that I will be able to withstand- you in me.

change.

I am changing the name of my blog. So if you see various titles floating around in the air know that I am in the process of processing a good title.

blue fence

Must comment on this blog that I found through my friend Katrina's blog (which by the way is excellent, see Standing on the Edge). This blog is called Blue Fence and well, this girl (Shannon) explains it better than I could. So see for yourself...


click here: BLUE FENCE

Wishful Thinking... Buechner

Was reading through this book again by Buechner and came across this about grace. For what it's worth...




GRACE:

...After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words become so shopworn nobody's much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.
...Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.
...A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?
...A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do.
...The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.
...There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it.
...Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

Pt. III

Been a while since I posted from The Shaping of Things to Come. Here is a bit of a summary of recent reading:


Expanding on the INCARNATIONAL approach.

2 Cor 5:19 ...God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself...
Those who seek God will now find him in Jesus the man.

Couple of thoughts now on evangelism (p 44): Jesus commented to his disciples that he would make them fishers of men. Not only was he using words and concepts that the disciples understood but he was hinting at the missional community which was to come.
Fishing rods versus nets. We think of it as going out, casting out our line and with the right bait, the right words, the right church program, the right lingo, the right moment, someone will bite the hook. Its a one on one affair. "If everyone does their bit and gets a couple of friends saved and then into the church, we will be fulfilling Jesus' mandate."
In turn, Jesus wasn't referring to poles and bait but rather nets. They fished with nets, they went out, dragged their net about and then went back to shore, taking with them whatever had been caught in the net. The real key then was not studying the currents, tides and all the other technical details (though it is not unhelpful) but the strength of the nets! If the nets were strong and clean, their would be a catch. Note, they spent more time mending and cleaning their nets than actually out on the water.
Frost sees this image relating to us today in that "instead of adopting a stance that requires a Christian to leave a sacred zone to go and fish for an individual to return with him to that zone (church building), it releases the church to see its 'fishing' as a more relational exercise. If the disciples spent so much time on their nets to ensure a catch, what might those nets be for us today? We propose that the web of relationships, friendships, and acquaintances that Christians normally have makes up the net into which not-yet Christians will swim. This means that the missional-incarnational church will spend more time on building friendships than it will on developing religious programs."

Following that up he quotes:
"But no thought is given to establish what church members are already doing in their neighborhood and places of work. No attempt is made, for example, to identify the medical practitioner who has changed the approach to patients by providing counseling and practical support rather than just curative care. No attempt is made to identify the local (public official) in the congregation who is tackling certain important quality of life and social issues in the community. No attempt is made to support the lady who is conducting an informal neighborhood bible study group. No attempt is made to support prayerfully the teacher who has just started work in an inner-city school with many pupils from broken families. And no attempt is made to see ones family's care for their disabled child as a ministry worthy of the church's support and prayers."
More than that, we don't see businessmen, students, youth workers, lecturers, plumbers, electricians, and homemakers as having missional roles in their worlds... We don't see the strong creation of friendships that parents make through the local school as being anything to do with mission (unless they're inviting them to church). We can't see the regular gathering of *whatever group* as part of the net that catches people into the kingdom of God.



*all thoughts taken from The Shaping of Things to Come*

october in Badajoz

mainly posting this post because i like the how the title follows my previous posting. surely that should be reason enough for a post. sometimes one thinks of a thrown-in title for something profound they have written. and other times the content might just be throw-in for a profound title.

Cáceres in September

I spent a month in Cáceres, a beautiful city in the north of Extremadura. The month of September to further define it. I was doing a months intensive Spanish course. I realized a couple of things during that month. One was that I enjoy studying things that I enjoy. Like Spanish. The other is that I kinda dig living alone. I spent two months this summer living alone (for the first time really as I've always lived with a family ((mine or a borrowed one)) or friends). There are advantages to each one, but this past month I appreciated what it is to live alone.

I am doing a Spanish exam in November so this course was preparing me if you will. Currently I am going through a prep book I bought for this exam. Needless to say if I didn't like Spanish this would be as fun as watching grass grow, but like I mentioned before, studying something I enjoy isn't all that bad. So the month was good, I met some great people from all over the world: Palestine, Leictenstein/Pakistan, Granada, Cáceres, England, Argentina, etc, ate some great food, ie torta del casar (good strong cheese if its your thing), lentils from Palestine, secreto iberico, as well as some other stuff whose names I can't remember!

Anyways, I am back in Badajoz now and the course is finished (as is the lack of internet access which I very much learned to appreciate). Teaching has kicked off and is now in high gear. An income is usually a good thing. Not to much on the cooker for the next month or so, just studying for the DELE exam and teaching the english.

FYI, in the fotos are my friends Jared and Mau with the old lady when they came to visit me in Cáceres. Good times in a nice city. Recommend it on your tour of Spain.

contrast

if the below post is maybe what church should be about, than the above picture is maybe what church shouldn't be.

nicked from the website of small boat big sea.

Pt. II

Expanding on the three flaws of the current church: ATTRACTIONAL, DUALISTIC, AND HIERARCHICAL.

The current mindset in the church is that it has to get it "right" and people will come flooding in to be changed by the gospel. That we have to "attract" people. If the teaching is interesting enough, if the music is good enough, if the children's program is quality and the lighting is perfect then the community will come flocking into the services. It as if everything has to do with the service itself, as if people are looking for a service to attend on Sunday morning, just that they haven't found the one that is perfect yet. This is the problem with attractional. It is a COME-TO-US attitude instead of a GO-TO-THEM mentality which is clearly the more biblical of the two.

Dualism is the act of separating the sacred from the profane, the holy from the unholy, and unfortunately what has become "religious and secular". It produces a gap between belief and everyday life. We talk about the "world out there" and "us in here". Clearly a Christ-like way of seeing it. (sarcasm there if you missed it).

Heirarchical leadership is dominant. What about Paul's radical dissolution of the traditional distinctions between priests and laity, between officials and ordinary members, between holy men and common people? "The first Christians radically reshaped the language of "priesthood" and "sacrifice." In one sense all are priests; believers are their own priests for all have immediacy of access to God's grace in Christ. What priests have performed for others before, believers can now do for themselves. In another sense, none can be appointed priests in the Christian church, for Christ has fulfilled the priestly role once for all." To say it clearly, there needs to be a recognition that the common layman has as equally important, and needs to be equipped for such as much as any "pastor" or "minister." It is a recognition of the ministry of a daily life. This is not doing away with leadership, for that is biblical, but rather a shift needs to take place in the understanding that we all have ministries, we all are priests, we all are "sent-ones" and there is no such thing as a high-calling to the pastorate or the mission field. Check Ephesians 4 and the concept of a body with Christ as the head, heirarchical or apostolic leadership? Quite clearly it is the latter and as the church we have gravitated to a top-down model with someone other than Christ as the head.




So then, these trends must be reversed and what emerges is a missional church, which by its very nature will be an anti-clone of the existing traditional model. Rather than being attractional, it will be incarnational. It will leave its own religious zones and live comfortably with non-church-goers, seeping into the host culture like salt and light. It will be an infiltrating, transformational community. Second, rather than being dualistic, it will embrace a messianic spirituality. That is, a spirituality of engagement with culture and the world in the same mode as the Messiah himself. And third, the missional church will develop an apostolic form of leadership rather than the traditional hierarchical model.


(Again, these are quotes and thoughts taken from The Shaping of Things to Come.)

Currently

Currently without internet access in all other places except the library.

Currently I am also spending the month in Cáceres.

Later I will post what I am up to, what life is like here, and some more thoughts from Things to Come.

Pt. I continued- All quotes.

"The missional church represents God in the encounter between God and human culture. It exists not because of human goals or desires, but as a result of God's creating and saving work in the world. It is a visible manifestation of how the Good News of Jesus Christ is present in human life and transforms human culture to reflect more faithfully God's intentions for creation. It is a community that visibly and effectively participates in God's activity, just as Jesus indicated when he referred to it in metaphorical language as salt, yeast, and light in the world."

Three overarching principles...

1. The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don't yet know him.

2. The missional church is messianic, not dualistic, in its spirituality. That is, it adopts the worldview of Jesus the Messiah, rather than that of the Greco-Roman empire. Instead of seeing the world as divided between the sacred (religious) and profane (nonreligious), like Christ it sees the world and God's place in it as more holistic and integrated.

3. The missional church adopts an apostolic, rather than a hierarchical, mode of leadership. By apostolic we mean a mode of leadership that recognizes the fivefold model detailed by Paul in Ephesians 4. It abandons the triangular hierarchies of the traditional church and embraces a biblical, flat-leadership community that unleashes the gifts of evangelism, apostleship, and prophecy, as well as the currently popular pastoral and teaching gifts.


-the emerging missional church must see itself as being able to interact meaningfully with culture without eve being beguiled by it.

-to see itself as a missionary movement rather than as an institution.




The above were all quoted from chapter 1, The Shaping of Things to Come.