It’s all GREEK to me!

I’ve undertaken a serious endeavor… since this past monday (July 23rd) I have been taking Koine Greek here at Anderson University.  The class runs through August 31st, which means that we will cover 2 semesters of material in 5 weeks!  We’ve already had our mid-term for first semester, and will be having Semester 1 final this Friday.  Every day we have a “quiz” that is more like a test and every Friday a “test” that is more like a midterm or final.  It’s quite intense, but has added quite a challenge to the summer of travel.

It’s amazing how intricate this language is as a simple punctuation can can the meaning of the word entirely.  Studying words such as λογος (“The Word”) has left me quite interested as to how/ why interpreters have done the work they have.  The descrepencies between translations are also coming to the surface as so many Greek words do not have exact English translations.  How interesting!!!

Many nights my roommate and I stay up well past midnight doing the exercises and preparing for the next day’s class session.  As an example of the complexity of the language let me give you a for instance greek sentence with its’ translation:

ή έκκλησιά πέμπέί τόύς άγάθους λογους προς τω κοςμω

 

*let me throw in a disclaimer as I’m working with the computer and do not have the exact program I need to write in Greek… accents/ breathing marks/ even symbols may not be 100% correct (I have to do what I can)

O.K.  now that I’ve covered my self… every word in this sentence has its’ own “parse”  For verbs that includes Tense, Voice, Mood, Person, Number, Lemma, and meaning of lemma.  In this case the verb πέμπέί is Present Active Indicative 3rd person Singular… comes from the root πέμπω= I send.  Because it is 3rd person we need to look for a noun subject, which is ή έκκλησιά.  We know that given that this word is in the nominative case, which we can decide based upon the article before the word and the ending on the word itself.  This word may be familiar to many of you as it means the church. Nouns can be broken down to Gender, Number, and Case  (Feminine, Singular, Nominative).   So on and so forth and every word has its’ place.  Adjectives must agree in G, N, and C of the noun which it modifies… Prepositions must have an object… oh I could go on forever.  Anyway the sentence that I came up with above means:  The church sends (is sending) the good word to the world.

 

Wow… I’m kind of tired now… not good considering I have at least 5 hours of homework in front of me. Anyway I guess I better hit it!  Hope you enjoyed your Greek lesson.  I’m diving in to explore deeper the way in which God has interacted with the generations passed.  What a great story!

Pray for understanding!

Love God love people!

Dreams Realized

Ever since I was about 4 yrs old, it has been my dream to fly.  The picture below captures my heart as my creativity led me in some of the biggest adventures I will ever realize. 

While I was in Washington D.C. I was talking with my girlfriend and she told me she had a surprise for the Thursday after I returned to Anderson.  For an entire week I tried to pull out of her what we were to do.  I even came up with some cleaver ideas as I guessed Rock Climbing, Canoeing, a plane ride, golfing, etc… she wouldn’t budge as I tried every trick I knew.  To tell you the truth it was kind of frustrating as this event began to overtake our conversations, even though I had no idea what was in store.  Finally Thursday came around when I realized how amazing it was that someone would take such time to plan some event, still not knowing what it was.  So I left Audrey a nice little note with some flowers as a way of saying thank you, in expectation of our time together that evening. 

5pm rolled around and we jumped in the car and began to head north away from AU.  So many things were rushing through my head as we began to head toward the river, airport, another little town, and the interstate.  What were we going to do?  Then my eyes lite up as we pulled into the airport… were we going for an airplane ride? Skydiving? What?  We pulled into the parking space in silence, then Audrey explained:  “So I remember how you’ve always wanted to fly, so I bought you your first flight lesson.”  she said my mouth hit the ground as my head automatically began to shake back and forth.  I was in utter astonishment, not believing that someone could know me that well or love much.  So I melted out of the car and began to sweat as one of my childhood dreams was about to come to fruition. 

Walking into the small airport we met the instructor and proceeded straight out of the doors to the airplane.  The three of us climbed into the small 4 seater Cherokee single prop plane.  Before I knew it the engine was primed and ready to go.  Through the headset I listened as the instructor requested permission to taxi to the runway.  Explaining every step we went to the edge of the runway where we tested the engine/ oil pressure before proceeding down the runway.  At about 110mph the aircraft and any grip I had on my excitement lifted off the ground.  We circled AU’s campus and were proceeding toward Indianapolis when I heard the words that will forever ring in my ears, “Do you want to take it?”  Empatically I responded “Absolutely”  Grabbing the controls my heart jumped as I began to get a feel for the aircraft.  What a joy it was to soar high as I was living the flight simulators which had been the only chance to experience anything close. 

Making a few turns and keeping the plane level through the wind, I ended up flying the plane for about 20 minutes.  I even lined up the plane for landing before the instructor took over and brought the plane all the way in.  It was unbelievable as the events unfolded over and over in my head. 

What a joy Audrey has been.  Every day brings new adventures as some of my hearts deepest dream come true.  She has brough a peace and hope to me as we do life together however long God intends.  Hopefully you will all get a chance to meet her one day, but until that time here is a picture to remind you to pray for us.  Thank you!

Family, Friends, Forever ago

I’ve spent the past few days in Maryland, revisiting the homestead which claims the first 8 years of my life.  Remembering the epic tales marked by pillars of pain, joy, and life (many times trees, ditches, stones, etc.), my eyes cannot take in enough as my heart feels at home.  I remember when Adam put me in the large hole, or when we ice skated over the parking lot, the many bike wrecks, playing hide-and-go-seek with church kids, summer afternoon popcicles, bike rides with dad, being chased by the bees…. the list could go on and on.  How refreshing and life giving it was to remember places like Luckeys, the old pond we used to go ice skating on, or homes of people who I care about so deeply.  What a joy it was to see people who raised me, wonderful people who have believed in the person that I was to become and are still becoming.  This place is like a lost oasis which has been accidentally been stumbled upon by someone who used to depend on it for sustenance.   

I don’t know how to resond, how to connect to this place that I left almost 13 years ago.  What is my commitment to these people?  Will I ever be back here? How do you keep in touch with so many wonderful people all over the world?  My commitment rests with the one true God of love and grace.  It is to God that I am commited, allowing my every step to be persuaded down the path of life.  Every person that I meet along that path I strive to reach out to them, with the same love and grace that I receive from the almighty.  Who knows when or if I will ever see these beloved again. 

Conversation has been important as life and passions are dissected.  With every conversation passions reimmerge and certain things grab my heart.  I pray that I will be faithful to those passions and moved by the things that stir my heart.  What an interesting time in life!

Oh how hard it will be and has been already to leave people that mean so much to me.  I pray that God will lavish hope and joy over each of your hearts.  May you live life to its fullest   Loving God and loving people!

The next phase

My travels continue this summer as I write this from Washington D.C.  I am on the campus of Galluadet University for the 2007 Leadership Summit.  Last week I was in Anderson for the National Convention of the Church of God, were I wore my self slap out.  We ran around all week as a whole semester’s work came to fruition.  It was quite the episode when one of the night’s activities were distrupted when the company pulled our games, another day when one of the other interns got sick, not even mentioning when our canoe trip ended up being beached for a good 30 minutes as the storm went through.  What a Week!  It was a blast.  

We did turn right around however and head to D.C. where 90 of us participate in this family group type learning system that equips us to better serve in our communities.  As I write this we having our quite time, which is a joy considering the busy-ness of the last couple of months.  Oh how I cherish this time when I can block out the noise and focus on the things of my Savior and my God. 

Yesterday I was able to share a bit of my heart for servant leadership.  With two stories I hope I communicated my passion for God and people and how those go hand and hand.  John 12 was the verse that I based my speal off of as Jesus washes his disciple’s feet and then instructs us to do the same to others.  What a joy to share! 

The past few weeks, as I’ve seen so many, has been filled with many questions about my future:  What are you going to do?  Where will you go? Who will you be?  Pondering those questions that are now before me as I go into my last semester of college, I find my self relinquishing control… knowing that I don’t know the correct path any way.  Proverbs 3:5,6 is where I continually come back to as I trust the One and only trustworthy God to lead guide and direect me down His path.