language

Learning a new language is prompting me to think a lot about vocabulary.

• On my last night in Costa Rica a guy asked me if I knew "pachuco". It means "slang" in Costa Rica (I don't know if it's a common term in other countries).
• One of my youth asked if I had learned Spanish cuss words. (No, that was not included in my conversation class at the missionary language school.) I'm pretty sure he was trying to figure out if he could still get away with it, or if I knew what he was saying now.
• George was asking the other day where he could learn Christian words so he could share the Gospel better. (I have learned a lot of that from attending worship services, singing praise, and reading the Bible in Spanish.)

The Rosetta Stone curriculum is based on fundamental vocabulary. It is laying a foundation of words and sentences that a person can continue to build on for the rest of their life. (as I am still learning English words all the time) If I were planning to be on a construction site, I would study some construction terms that otherwise I don't need to know right now. To be a medical interpreter, you would have to separately study medical terminology, etc.

My question is, should it really be the same to share the Gospel?

Consider some examples:

• When I had a problem with my sink, it would have been helpful to know more names of parts to explain my problem to the maintenance man. However, when sharing my frustrations with my neighbor, if I used "plumbing terms" she would have been clueless like me.
• When my car makes strange noises, it is helpful to be able to explain the symptoms to the mechanic in mechanical terms, but to most of my friends, all they care to hear is "my car was making a strange noise or the brakes didn't feel right, so it's in the shop."
• When my mom is having trouble with her computer, the technician needs to know exactly what's going on inside and what is the cause - in computer lingo. All my mom wants to know is what she has to do to make her computer run faster, stop crashing, or whatever the problem is.

Please don't misunderstand, I am all for learning and expanding your vocabulary! But as for the necessity and use, consider your audience.

Are we using "professional Christian vocabulary" when we try to share the Gospel with our neighbors, family, and friends? What if they have never read a Bible or attended a church service? To them, are we speaking a foreign language?

Living in a community where English is a second, third, or fourth language for many people (if they know it ) has made me more aware of the expressions I use and I try to make sure I am communicating in a way that is commonly understandable. (Hey, if my language program isn't teaching religious words in spanish, their's probably did not teach them religious words in English!) But even when we are talking with someone who shares our native tongue, we need to make sure they don't need a dictionary in hand to follow the conversation.

lesson from a 5 year old

The other day I read this quote;

129. Don’t pray like a wuss. Continually saturate both yourself and the ministry in prayer. Pray even for the little things.

http://timschmoyer.com/2007/05/04/freebie-friday-19-130-youth-ministry-tips-and-ideas-ebook/

Later that day I was playing a board game with a group of young girls. One girl said to the youngest, "Hope you don't land on blue next time or you'll lose a turn! The 5 year old immediately looked at me and said, "Pray that I don't land on blue!" Well, her next turn came and she landed on blue. Just as quickly she looked up at me in disappointment and said, "You didn't pray!" (She was right.) A little while later she was in the same position and once again looked at me and told me to pray for her. This time I obeyed. She safely passed the blue space and immediately looked up at me and said, "You prayed for me!!!" I reminded her Who she needed to thank and she quickly did so.

Talk about praying and expecting God to answer! I am thankful for her example of childlike faith.

Thankful for the little things

I was spoiled by the warm temperatures in Costa Rica and sure I would freeze when I got back home. All week I have noticed that everyone around me is wearing a lot fewer layers of clothing than I am!

Today is beautiful!

I just checked the weather report for current temperatures:

San Jose: 79

Raleigh: 84

Back Home

I arrived back in Raleigh Saturday evening (on schedule!) Everything went smoothly with the flights and very brief layover in Dallas.

On Monday I went to Kids Club and got to see the new Community Center. The new space has great potential!

It was fun to see the kids and hear their exclamations that I had been gone FOREVER. - All the adults I have talked with said the month went by really fast.

2 different sets of siblings asked right away, "Do you speak Spanish now?" I was a bit surprised by who wanted to know. One of the boys I have never heard speak Spanish outside of his house... His next question was, "¿Comes ratones?" He is rather silly.

(I had a difficult time typing in Costa Rica because the keyboard was programed for Spanish characters, but labeled as a standard English keyboard. I apparently adjusted to it well, because now I keep typing the wrong symbols on my keyboard!)

¡Un día buenisimo!

Wow!  Yesterday was a glorious day from start to finish!  First, I will give the brief summary for those of you who do not enjoy reading and then I will dive into the details.  :)

Transportation all went smoothly, I was not jumped, met a girl who was travelling alone and concerned about safety so spent the day with her, the weather was gorgeous, saw some cool animals, took tons of photos, and got to share the Gospel!  I clearly saw the hand of God on the day - it was unnaturally good!

And now for a few photos (it is so difficult to choose!)

So the taxi driver who took me to the bus station yesterday morning seemed concerned that I was traveling alone and couldn't believe I was not scared.  (Other people had expressed the same concern...)  ¡Tranquilo!  On the bus I was seated next to a girl who was traveling with about 10 members of her family.  Her cute nephew befriended me and I worked on learning 2 year old spanish.  (a completely different language!)  Fortunately we were two rows behind her younger nephew who vomited all over his mother!

Once I arrived in Manuel Antonio I headed directly for the National Park.  (took some tips from an english speaking tour guide, but declined their services)  As I was walking across the beach in the direction of the entrance a girl approached me and asked (in english) if I knew where the entrance was.  Then she wanted to know if it was safe to go in alone.  I said, "Well, I'm getting ready to go!"  She asked if she could join me and we spent the rest of the day together.  She is from Germany.  She came to Costa Rica for a month of language school and then some volunteer work and now has a couple weeks to travel.  Unfortunately, she came without any prior knowledge of Spanish, (as did several other people I have met) and a month isn't really enough time to help if you have not studied previously!  Early on she asked what kind of work I did and as I started explaining she said, "Oh, you're a missionary."  Then she asked if I was Baptist and said she was Christian, Evangelical.  That was about the extent of that conversation, but it came up again.  Later in the she told me she had met some missionaries here in Costa Rica and went to church with them.  After spending about 5 hours in the park I was hungry and we went to a restaurant.  There, she asked how long I had worked with the mission and why I did it.  I simply replied that this is what I believe God wants me to do and that seemed to spark many more questions for her.  I do not think she had heard that you can be sure you are going Heaven until she met the missionaries here.  She wanted to know if I believed that also.  Then she asked the difference between "Baptist" and "Christian".  She said she attends church in her country, but it sounded like her only Bible is the one that the missionaries gave her.  I shared the Gospel and she was very attentive, but still doubtful.  She is having a difficult time with the concept of grace.  When you have spent many years believing you must somehow earn God's approval it is difficult to change your thinking.  We exchanged e'mails and I wrote down some Scriptures in John and Romans for her to read.  I pray that she will read the Scripture, understand, and embrace a relationship with Christ.  It is amazing to me how God works!  Here in a country completely foreign to her, He is leading her to different Believers (also from different countries) who can point her to the Truth!

The national forest was really nice!  It has a horse shoe shaped hiking trail, with several smaller trails branching off.  I only walked the half that was along the coast (after that it turned inland and I had already seen a good selection of animals so I opted to return the way that was close to the ocean.)  The majority of the time to could at least hear the water, and often could see it's brightness through the trees.  The water was very still and there were no waves to speak of until we came back out and the tide had come in.  I saw places that rented boards and advertisements for surfing lessons, so I hope they get bigger waves at some point!  After climbing up one of the side trails through the forest where it was VERY humid we came back down to the beach and I was looking forward to cooling off in the water.  However, it was about the same temperature as a "hot" shower in Costa Rica and wasn't really refreshing.  Note the beach picture with people... that's about how all of the beaches looked.  (there were many beaches along the trail inside the park)  They limit the number of people allowed inside the park each day to protect the environment, but my companion said it was about the same at another beach she went to.  She was very disappointed that the beaches were so empty of people... I thought it was great!  She is also not accostumed to much walking and I wore her out.  (It did not help that her flip flop broke halfway in!)

On the way home I was able to take a couple of sunset pics out the window of the bus.  After it got completely dark I glanced up and saw thousands of stars!  It was amazing!!!  I have NEVER seen so many stars!  I always loved lying out on the beach at Assateague at night away from the lights of civilization and watching the stars, but I could see so many more last night.  It was so clear and they appeared very close!

Oh!  One more thing: as we were reentering San Jose, I looked out the front of the bus and there, over the driver's head, I saw fireworks.  :)

evaluation

We had our presentations in Conversation Class today.  I was NERVOUS!  We had to talk for 6 minutes (he did not care if we went longer).  Part way through I felt like I was going way too fast so I added some more stuff.  In reality, I talked for 11 minutes.  (I cannot judge time when I am talking in front of people!)  I talked about a "normal" week in my life working with Mission Raleigh.  Anyway, we each talked while our teacher took notes and then met with him individually for his evaluation.  He had me say a couple words that I had mispronounced and then questioned 2 verbs that I butchered and he did not understand what I meant.  Then he expressed his concerns.  He said my spanish is beautiful, I have a lot of vocabulary and my work is good (considering the time I have been here).  However, he is worried because I am here for such a short time.  He is worried that I will return to the States and learn a lot of bad habits in conversation and my spanish will be very bad.  He stressed how important it is that I keep studying: by returning to Costa Rica, going to another country, or at least taking a class in the States.  And if all else fails, at least get a good book and study on my own!  I had not thought about that concern (I was only concerned about not getting enough practice), but know it is valid because I got busted my first few days in class for bad Spanglish habits that I already had.

I also got my grammar test back.  It was worse than the first one.  The worst thing is that the section I butchered was in present tense, not the past!  Oh well.

I'm off to the beach tomorrow.  I hope to return with lots of cool pictures.

After tomorrow I only have one week left here.  That is frightening!  Today my head was spinning trying to sort out the perfect and imperfect past tenses.  There is soooo much to learn!  I had no idea what to expect from this month and it is hard to say how I am doing with the language.  I am pretty sure I have progressed more in this month than I did in 2 semesters of Spanish in college!  Granted, I am able to benefit so much from these classes is because I had the college classes (although they are a vague memory) and more recently Rosetta Stone. 

I had my second exam in grammar class today.  I think I did better on this one, but I'm really not sure...  I have quite a bit of homework for Grammar tonight and then I have to pick a topic for my presentation tomorrow and figure out what I'm going to say for six minutes.  Today I found out that it doesn't have to be in past tense!  Hooray!

perritos!

Canela had her puppies today!  I was disappointed when I came home from class and heard that she had them while I was gone.  No worries!  There were 4 when I got home almost 2 hours ago and now there are 8!  I had never seen new born puppies before!  (We only have cats in my family)  It is not quite as exciting as a new baby, but any new life is such a miracle.  We have an amazing Creator!

For other news, I got a contact exam this morning for ten dollars!  I was not sure how that event would go in español, but I think it went quite well.  I did not think to go over my alphabet before going and I always forget how to say a few of the letters.  So I was reading the chart like this: E, Z, M, I don't know this letter in spanish, L.  But it all worked out.  The doctor was very nice.  She said my left eye has not changed, so I am going back tomorrow to pick up contacts for my left eye (I have to order the right ones) and drop off my glasses to get a new right lens.

a new week

¡Gracias Amigos por sus comentarios en español!  Tenemos un estudiante nuevo en la casa esta semana y él no habla español.  Ayer, fui con Rafa y lo llevamos él a su instituto.  Rafa fue porque él sabió el camino y yo fui a interpretar.  ¡Era muy interesante!

When we arraved at the top of Volcán Poás on Saturday we saw.... WHITE.  Yep, the inside of a cloud is quite lovely.  Everyone I talked to earlier in the week who had been to one of the volacanoes said, "Oh it's great if you get to see it, but the clouds often block the view."  Our guide did not seem concerned and said we would wait.  Within a few minutes the clouds were moving and we soon had a perfect view of the crater.  (And there was a lot of cheering from the tourists as the clouds moved!)  Clouds continued to drift by, but not enough to obstruct our view after those first few moments. 

After the volcano we drove down to the Waterfall Gardens.  They had an aviary, butterfly house, frog house, a house set up to show the old way of life, and flowering plants everywhere!  It was a beautiful place.  Then we started down the trail toward the waterfalls.  They were awesome!  I love the sound of moving water and had a blast.  It started raining quite steadily when we left the butterflies, but it didn't bother me a bit.  (I don't think all of my group shared my feelings on that point, but they still had a great time!)  Once you got to the base of one of the falls it really did not matter whether it was raining because the spray from the falls was enough to get you quite wet!  The rain did not last that long.  It was clear when we came out of the trees and got on the bus to take us back up to the entrance.  There we had a delicious buffet lunch.  One girl said it was worth the whole trip for the pizza.  I stayed away from American looking food!  (The only time I eat non-Costa Rican food here is when my host mom prepares it.)  I took un montón de fotos (and put a few of them in my Google album). 

Mi maestro de Conversación decided it is time for exams.  I had been wondering what kind of test he would give for that class.  On Friday (this week and next) we each have to stand up and talk for 6 minutes about a subject and then answer questions from the class.  We get to choose our subjects!  And we're allowed to have an outline!  We also have another test in Grammar on Thursday.

This afternoon I went to the store to buy a magazine.  I had planned on taking the bus home, but traffic was terrible and it seemed like I was going to have a long wait, so I started walking.  I have not walked home from that direction before and was uncertain about the most direct route home.  It was also near dusk, so I did not want to wait too long.  I began walking a saw a familiar house (which was encouraging).  I knew the first turn from that house and headed to the right.  There was a guy walking the same direction on the other side of the street, but I was thinking about which direction I should turn at the next corner and did not pay much attention to him until I heard him say, "Hey, Amy."  It was one of my housemates also on his way home!  So I quickly crossed the street and walked with him the rest of the way home.  He asked if that was the route I normally walked.  : )

I thought I had a montón of homework tonight, but I completed my tarea for Grammar in about 30 minutes.  My assignment for Conversation is to find an ad in a magazine and be prepared to talk about it in class tomorrow.  (We discussed advertising in class today.)  I normally do my homework in the morning, but that worked out well because I am going to try to get an eye exam in the morning.