The journey of learning marches on

What are my thoughts and feeling as I sit in class for a class on Leadership and Organizational Development and then attend a one-day conference for missions work? 

• What a wealth of new knowledge is available to us because scholars, students, practitioners have invested untold hours of their time and thought to study and distill but a small part of all they are learning.
•  How can I effectively "translate" some of these gold nuggets to those I work with?
•  Listening to these brilliant men and women make me curious to know more. It makes me thirsty. 
• Listening to these scholars lets me put but a finger on the world of knowledge that floats around like a huge iceberg. I see only the tip of the iceberg as a missionary in Latin America.
• There has been so much study and thought under-girding the missionary endeavor that I am completely unaware of. 
• I have long been content to just be a practitioner, now I am being challenged to be a reflexive practitioner, to act and think and think and act. 
• I am ashamed to admit that for much of my missionary career, I had a hidden disdain for scholarly work and schooling. I just wanted to get the job done!
• I am thankful for God opening my eyes to value the work of scholars, great thinkers, and to setting aside significant hours to think, ponder, and investigate what others around the world are doing and thinking.

In my own PhD journey, I have three more courses to take here at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School  and at that point I will  be a third of the way through.  I will have to do my comprehensive exams which means writing two publishable papers and finally my dissertation.

Whew...

I love each step of the journey and count it a privilege to be walking this path with numerous other co-scholars, outstanding professors, and my group of friends and family who all want a piece of that diploma...when I finally get it!

What journey have you been on lately? How's it feel?

The power of camp

This infographic, created by CCI/USA, does an excellent job conveying the power of camp particularly as contrasted with the power of technology to woo, distract, and entertain the younger generation.
If you cannot view the graphic in the email or need to enlarge it to read the text, I encourage you to view it directly at the link provided below, it is worth pondering.
 
This graphic can be viewed directly at http://thepowerofcamp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/POC-Infographic-Final-small.jpg

Technological problems....

I have been having problems with my blog in that I have made new posts only to discover that they have not been emailed to you.... my subscribers! 

So, thanks to the persistence of my brother-in-law, Rogelio, we are now attempting to solve this problem. I enjoy posting and appreciate the feedback received from you, my readers. 

Let me know if you have received this message either by giving me a quick reply via email- Received! or posting an observation on my blog!

Thanks!

Lisa

(on the learning curve of technology... notice I did not say, on the cutting edge!) 

Creating community in camp

One of my greatest joys is leading camps. That's why it's such a blessing to be able to combine this joy with the service, Alfredo, the children, and I do for our local church, Christian Community, El Hatillo (Tegucigalpa). Each year we hold one Overnight for each Sunday School class.

Here are the results of a recently celebrated Camp-fire overnight for our Sunday School class of 11-13 year olds. We observed a particularly deep level of community developing as each girl shared a personal struggle they were going through and then the rest of the girls gave them wise advice, comfort, and support. What a delight to see them taste in a small way what heaven will be like--sweet community. How differently they acted in camp compared to Sunday School class, no cliques, just one big family!

The main teaching of the event was the "Cosmic Battle" in which we presented the timeline from Creation, to the Fall and entrance of sin into this world, to Christ's redemption, the "now and not yet" Kingdom of God, up until to Christ's Second Coming and the new heaven and earth. For the first time, they saw how the individual Bible stories they know "fit" into God's "Rescue Plan."

I invite you to enjoy the little video we presented to the congregation! (4:18 min.) http://youtu.be/YvaBz9zIK-s

Grafted into a culture and a family

The Bible (Romans 11) talks of us getting grafted into His family as Gentiles and Paul speaks of it as a great mystery. Over the course of last year, 2011,  I experienced a number of moments when I feel like I turned a page over in reading this great mystery. Surely I have much to read but I feel that two experiences in particular have given me experiential insight into this mystery of being grafted into God's family.

Grafted into another culture

LOL with Gloria from Mexico on left, Rixy and Evelyn from El Salvador

We are all laughing hysterically at a very funny video on Youtube. I look at that photo and am overcome with a strong sense of belonging. Sometimes the last thing you "get" when you learn a culture are the jokes, the nuances of language, the play on words, the gist of a joke that depends on understanding the context. These three friends I have known and loved and been loved by since the early 1990's.  From the outside, it's clear I "don't belong", but by God's grace, I have been accepted and "grafted into the Latin culture." What a gift God has given me as a missionary!


Grafted into a family: The Umana-Martinez family

New Year's Eve celebration with the Umana-Martinez and Umana-Anderson families

As we sat down to eat our turkey dinner on New Year's Eve, I looked around the table and experienced a strong sense family. I have lived almost 30 years far away from my biological family and my roots. I realized that God has grafted me into my husband's family even though we are so different, speak different languages, have had such different upbringings, communicate so differently, etc. But as I looked around table, I knew I was accepted for who I am, faults and all. What a gift to enjoy belonging to a family!

Do you have an insight or blessing from 2011 you'd like to share with me? I'd love to hear it! click on "comments" below to post it!