Well, this week has been really busy, but still good. I anticipate that this is how the rest of my time here will be. This up coming week in particular because I have 3 tests and a teaching project that I must prepare for. In the midst of busyness the Lord continues to speak to me in His still small voice and teach me in the most unexpected ways. This last week specifically there has been three things He has been impressing upon me. First, during the week I had a couple of days where all my time outside of class was spent reading and doing homework. Being here I have to be very strategic in the time that I have because there is not much free time. I have to decide what is the most important thing to get done and plan on when to get the rest of it done. Specifically on Tuesday and Wednesday when I was trying to schedule out my days while walking to class the Lord just spoke to me and pointed out that I am strategic with my homework and how I spend my time because I value my grades. I prioritize and plan what I value. I felt the Lord then say "Do you value Me? Do you value the people who don't know me?" The rest of my week I have really evaluating my heart by the way I have spent my time this last year. Have I really valued the power of the cross for salvation? Have I really valued my unbelieving friends when I have not shared the pure gospel with them? Have I been strategic in praying so those conversations and opportunities to arise? And if I haven't been doing these things why? Second thing the Lord has been impressing upon me is my need to pray/fast. One thing that I struggle with is wanting to control things. I want to do things on my own, or I want to help "fix" other peoples issues. Specifically, my roommates both have so much going on back in Texas, and I wish so much just to be there and help them with everything they have going on. Also many of my church friends are learning how to inductively study the Word together as they go through 2 Timothy. I want to be there so much and walk through that with them, and continue to learn from my leaders there, but I can't be. As I have been analyzing how I have been feeling about being away from my community at home and not being able to physically help with things or be involved, the Lord has been impressing upon my heart the need to pray for them. It is so hard for me to pray for people sometimes because I feel like it is such a passive thing to do, when I feel like I need to actively participate. I am reminded again even as I type this that I am powerless to change circumstances or the hearts of people, only God can do that. The most powerful thing I can do for my friends is intercede for them, not try to fix all of their problems or change their hearts.
Third thing that I am learning is that I must have time to rest and refresh. God truly knew His people when He gave them the command to have a Sabbath. It is so easy at home and here to always go go go because there is ALWAYS something more to do. Realizing that I must rest and have time to renew in Him but also knowing how to balance everything that must be done is challenge. Again it goes back to being strategic with my time in praying for the people in my life, valuing the gospel by intentionally sharing it, and carving out daily time to rest in the Word and weekly time to rest in body and spirit.
While these are not new things the Lord has been speaking to me about, it has been a good time of self reflection and evaluation on what do I really value. Pray for me this week in my busyness that I would be faithful in obedience as the things the Lord is revealing about things about my heart and my sin tendencies.
Blessings and Peace to you all.
Catherine
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
8 Days In
Well still here, just finished my 8th day of classes and I got my official student ID earlier this week!
While last week seemed to be go by slowly, this week has flown by. Most of my time outside of class time is spent reading, doing homework, or writing up summaries. I am taking 4 classes which I am really enjoying. I have learned SO much that if you told me before I came up here what I would know how to do after just 8 classes I probably wouldn't have believed you!
My classes are:
(1) Morphology and Syntax 1
(2) Sign Language Phonetics
(3) Sociolinguistics
(4) Second Language Acquisition with a lab where I am learning Colombian Sign Language!
My days are pretty packed full...first class is at 8am and I have classes until 11, chapel is 11:10-11:50, lunch, then classes from 1-2 and 3-4. On top of that I have some meeting and my work assignment, so all the free time I have is mostly on homework. On top of learning some really cool things I have also met some really awesome people. It is really cool to be around so many linguistics and missions minded people. Most of the students here have either been on the field already, or training to be on the field, and as far as I can tell all of the professors have spent significant amount of time on the field with many different types of langu/cultural groups. I have been able to have such great conversations with people gleaning from their experiences. My roommate has been a missionary overseas since 2007, I met a someone who is working with a Biblical translations team for the Deaf in Kenya, one of my professors was a missionary and language surveyor with the Deaf in Spain, and I have also had an encouraging conversation with a Deaf translator with Wycliffe about how to teach the Deaf to study the Word of God.
I honestly can't believe I have gained so much in such a short amount of time here at SIL. So many more things I want to type about, but unfortunately I have a list of things to get done tonight. Miss all of you back home, and feel free to text or call any time. If I don't answer I will get back to you!
Oh, and did I say that the weather this week has been much nicer than last week! My dorm room which is on the 3rd floor does not have AC, and it was in the 90s last week. This week however the highs have been in the 50s - mid 70s...which is a lot more comfortable without AC! Here is a Picture of my dorm room.
Well, I will blog again soon, but in the meantime check out the PDF of this newsletter about Wycliffe's partnerships and their work with the Deaf.
Word Alive: Deaf Around the World
My classes are:
(1) Morphology and Syntax 1
(2) Sign Language Phonetics
(3) Sociolinguistics
(4) Second Language Acquisition with a lab where I am learning Colombian Sign Language!
My days are pretty packed full...first class is at 8am and I have classes until 11, chapel is 11:10-11:50, lunch, then classes from 1-2 and 3-4. On top of that I have some meeting and my work assignment, so all the free time I have is mostly on homework. On top of learning some really cool things I have also met some really awesome people. It is really cool to be around so many linguistics and missions minded people. Most of the students here have either been on the field already, or training to be on the field, and as far as I can tell all of the professors have spent significant amount of time on the field with many different types of langu/cultural groups. I have been able to have such great conversations with people gleaning from their experiences. My roommate has been a missionary overseas since 2007, I met a someone who is working with a Biblical translations team for the Deaf in Kenya, one of my professors was a missionary and language surveyor with the Deaf in Spain, and I have also had an encouraging conversation with a Deaf translator with Wycliffe about how to teach the Deaf to study the Word of God.
I honestly can't believe I have gained so much in such a short amount of time here at SIL. So many more things I want to type about, but unfortunately I have a list of things to get done tonight. Miss all of you back home, and feel free to text or call any time. If I don't answer I will get back to you!Oh, and did I say that the weather this week has been much nicer than last week! My dorm room which is on the 3rd floor does not have AC, and it was in the 90s last week. This week however the highs have been in the 50s - mid 70s...which is a lot more comfortable without AC! Here is a Picture of my dorm room.
Well, I will blog again soon, but in the meantime check out the PDF of this newsletter about Wycliffe's partnerships and their work with the Deaf.
Word Alive: Deaf Around the World
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
I'm writing this from my dorm room at the University of North Dakota about to start my first day of classes for the summer. The last month has been crazy in finishing up the school year, packing up all my things to store for the summer, and getting ready to come out here for the next two months. As I was deciding to spend my summer here at UND I struggled with leaving my community at home so I invited key people to process the decision with and allowed them to speak truth into my life. After I made the final decision of coming, there was SO much to get done, that I didn't really have the chance to talk to many of my friends and family to let them know exactly what I will be doing during my time here. Since I already had this blog I thought this would be a good way to explain what I will be doing and learning here, as well as keep you all updated while I am 1,200 miles away from most of you.
So here it goes. As many of you know the Lord has given me the desire, passion, and skill to work with the Deaf. Over the last couple of years the Lord has really opened my eyes to the global Deaf community, the lack of gospel influence within the Deaf Community, and the importance of the Word of God to all believers. As the Lord has been gracious in continuing to open my eyes to things I was previously blind to, my mind and heart has stirred with many questions about how can the Deaf know Jesus if the Word is not in their heart language? How can translated stories serve as making effective disciples of Jesus if there is no context within to define abstract concepts? or Even if there is a full Bible translation in a Deaf persons heart language how do you teach them to study a visual language inductively? These are just some of the questions that have been on my heart and mind the last year or so. As I have contemplated these things, I have sought out people to ask, as well as places to train. In my research and through various people I have spoken with I came across a program called Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) which works closely with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Many students who go through SIL want to be on the field as Bible Translators. As I continued to do research I found out that they have special courses which focus on Deafness and the linguistic features of sign languages from around the world. The neat thing about this program is that even though many people here want to work in Biblical Translations, it is really just a linguistics program and also attracts people of other faiths and backgrounds to learn more about linguistics. I am excited about the classes that I am taking because I know that it will not only push me more towards things I want to be doing in the future, but also will benefit me in my current job as an interpreter going between spoken English and American Sign Language on a regular basis. I don't really know where the Lord will be leading me the next few years, but I do feel like this training and networking opportunity will be a catalyst towards where ever I end up being.
I will be posting here through out the summer as an update on what's going on and how everything is going. On a side note, my dorm room here does not have AC and I'm on the 3rd floor (heat rises)! I swear I have sweated more here than I ever do in Texas! Definitely not as cool here as I was expecting!
Will be posting more soon! :-)
If you are interested in learning more about SIL and what it offers here is the link to their website.
http://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/index.cfm
So here it goes. As many of you know the Lord has given me the desire, passion, and skill to work with the Deaf. Over the last couple of years the Lord has really opened my eyes to the global Deaf community, the lack of gospel influence within the Deaf Community, and the importance of the Word of God to all believers. As the Lord has been gracious in continuing to open my eyes to things I was previously blind to, my mind and heart has stirred with many questions about how can the Deaf know Jesus if the Word is not in their heart language? How can translated stories serve as making effective disciples of Jesus if there is no context within to define abstract concepts? or Even if there is a full Bible translation in a Deaf persons heart language how do you teach them to study a visual language inductively? These are just some of the questions that have been on my heart and mind the last year or so. As I have contemplated these things, I have sought out people to ask, as well as places to train. In my research and through various people I have spoken with I came across a program called Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) which works closely with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Many students who go through SIL want to be on the field as Bible Translators. As I continued to do research I found out that they have special courses which focus on Deafness and the linguistic features of sign languages from around the world. The neat thing about this program is that even though many people here want to work in Biblical Translations, it is really just a linguistics program and also attracts people of other faiths and backgrounds to learn more about linguistics. I am excited about the classes that I am taking because I know that it will not only push me more towards things I want to be doing in the future, but also will benefit me in my current job as an interpreter going between spoken English and American Sign Language on a regular basis. I don't really know where the Lord will be leading me the next few years, but I do feel like this training and networking opportunity will be a catalyst towards where ever I end up being.
I will be posting here through out the summer as an update on what's going on and how everything is going. On a side note, my dorm room here does not have AC and I'm on the 3rd floor (heat rises)! I swear I have sweated more here than I ever do in Texas! Definitely not as cool here as I was expecting!
Will be posting more soon! :-)
If you are interested in learning more about SIL and what it offers here is the link to their website.
http://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/index.cfm
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