"If your children learn the language faster than you, there is something wrong with your language program!"
Our trainer said this line in our first day of language acquisition training and it stuck with me. Most of us have the assumption that kids learn language faster than adults. But it shouldn't be true. And if it is, then there is something wrong with the time and attention you are devoting to the language.
Adults can learn a language just as fast as kids do, but they need to be willing to work at it. That is why Amy and I are so grateful to our new boss at WorldVenture for challenging us to take a whole year to devote to language study. Part of us thinks it is so painful to have to delay our arrival in Mozambique for a whole year. But the other part of us knows that we will be far better off in the long run to apply concentrated study to language for a whole year.
So in the mean time, while we continue to raise support, we are going to be using Rosetta Stone and working with a language helper. I'll let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Arguing with God
I have been thinking a lot about prayer recently as I have been praying more fervently about our needs (and also the needs of many of our friends). I picked up a little book that I read years ago by Charles Spurgeon called "The Power in Prayer". The book is a collection of sermons Spurgeon preached and a favorite of mine is called "Order and Argument in Prayer"
Spurgeon suggests a number of arguments which we should use when petitioning God:
God's attributes
God's promises
The Great Name of God
The Sorrows of His People
The Past
The Only True God
The Sufferings of Jesus
Some of these require some explanation, which is why you should get the book. But I am curious what arguments you might use when you knock upon the door or Heaven and cry out to the Almighty.
Spurgeon suggests a number of arguments which we should use when petitioning God:
God's attributes
God's promises
The Great Name of God
The Sorrows of His People
The Past
The Only True God
The Sufferings of Jesus
Some of these require some explanation, which is why you should get the book. But I am curious what arguments you might use when you knock upon the door or Heaven and cry out to the Almighty.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Eradication of Poverty
Yesterday was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. What a sad commentary on our world that we need a whole day to remind us in the West that much of the world is suffering in unimaginable levels of destitution. But why haven't we alleviated poverty yet? Have we failed to give enough?
The answer is NO. In short, we have given more than "enough" over the past 50 years. In fact, the West (North America and Europe) have given trillions (with a "T") in the last 50 years. That is more than enough money to completely pull every poor person on the planet out of destitution, and yet it hasn't. Why?
In short, there are two reasons: corruption and planning.
In case you didn't know, most of the world lives under a government that is corrupt. In other words, when their country is given aid by the West, most of it goes to line the pockets of those at the top of the food chain all the way down to those just above the bottom of the food chain. Why deliver mosquito nets to a village when you can sell them yourself and use the profit to buy better building materials for your house? Why ensure that medicine gets delivered if your boss doesn't really care and you will get paid either way? Why not give cushy jobs to family members instead of people who will actually perform an assignment? Corruption kills the best laid plans.
And that leads us to the second reason that poverty has yet to be eradicated. Plans. You see, capitalism actually works. And capitalism isn't a plan. That's socialism. Socialism attempts to lock smart people into a room and have them decide what is best for the rest of us. Capitalism says that you should decide what is best for you and if you want something, you should be responsible to get it for yourself.
So take for example the release of the most recent Harry Potter book. Millions of copies were delivered in multiple languages to children (and nerdy adults like me) all over the world ON THE SAME DAY! And yet we can't get mosquito nets to children who will die without them this month. If you and I can get a book, why can't we get nets to kids?
And in the question lies the problem. In order to eradicate poverty we need to move from the attitude that WE need to get mosquito nets to THEM, and instead realize that WE need to do everything we can to make the nets attainable by ANYONE who would GO LOOKING for them.
Poverty is not something you and I can plan away. It must be climbed out of by those who are finally given the chance. But you and I can work to give more people that chance.
For more thoughts on this subject read the excellent book "White Man's Burden" by William Easterly. For more on how you can help give people a chance to get out of poverty, email me.
The answer is NO. In short, we have given more than "enough" over the past 50 years. In fact, the West (North America and Europe) have given trillions (with a "T") in the last 50 years. That is more than enough money to completely pull every poor person on the planet out of destitution, and yet it hasn't. Why?
In short, there are two reasons: corruption and planning.
In case you didn't know, most of the world lives under a government that is corrupt. In other words, when their country is given aid by the West, most of it goes to line the pockets of those at the top of the food chain all the way down to those just above the bottom of the food chain. Why deliver mosquito nets to a village when you can sell them yourself and use the profit to buy better building materials for your house? Why ensure that medicine gets delivered if your boss doesn't really care and you will get paid either way? Why not give cushy jobs to family members instead of people who will actually perform an assignment? Corruption kills the best laid plans.
And that leads us to the second reason that poverty has yet to be eradicated. Plans. You see, capitalism actually works. And capitalism isn't a plan. That's socialism. Socialism attempts to lock smart people into a room and have them decide what is best for the rest of us. Capitalism says that you should decide what is best for you and if you want something, you should be responsible to get it for yourself.
So take for example the release of the most recent Harry Potter book. Millions of copies were delivered in multiple languages to children (and nerdy adults like me) all over the world ON THE SAME DAY! And yet we can't get mosquito nets to children who will die without them this month. If you and I can get a book, why can't we get nets to kids?
And in the question lies the problem. In order to eradicate poverty we need to move from the attitude that WE need to get mosquito nets to THEM, and instead realize that WE need to do everything we can to make the nets attainable by ANYONE who would GO LOOKING for them.
Poverty is not something you and I can plan away. It must be climbed out of by those who are finally given the chance. But you and I can work to give more people that chance.
For more thoughts on this subject read the excellent book "White Man's Burden" by William Easterly. For more on how you can help give people a chance to get out of poverty, email me.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sardines
**** WARNING *****
Please do not read this post if you are planning on one day attending training at MTI or if you might ever go to training down here. If you read the rest of this post, it will ruin a significant piece of your experience.
*********************
So now with that said, I can continue. As I have popped up into Denver from training a couple of times over the last few weeks, several people have asked me how training has been going. My answer is usually: intense. Why is it so intense? Simply put, the first 3 weeks of training have been the most emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually exhausting experience I have ever volunteered for. Allow me to explain the capstone of the intensity.
I was locked in a 6' x 6' x 8' plywood box with 21 other people for over 2 hours in a simulated hostage experience at the end of which I was one of 5 men who were dragged from the box, pushed to the floor, and executed by a gunshot (they shot blanks) to the back of my skull.
I'm not sure I can type out the whole story with the necessary drama, but it was real enough that half of the people in the box with me were crying by the end, and I was praying with my forehead on the cold concrete because it felt so real.
Amy had a much different and worse experience than me in her box (what's worse than being executed you say? You will have to ask...). I will let her tell the story if she wants to.
The kids were off playing and had no idea what happened to us. But for us, it brought home the reality of some of the more extreme dangers of life overseas.
Although Mozambique has been at peace for over a decade, as Kenya demonstrated to the world just a couple of years ago, even the most peaceful African country can erupt into flames with one bad election.
For me, one of the most profound elements of impact was recognizing I was in the box with people going to Morocco, China, and other places where security is a real risk. It was a sobering experience to say the least.
Please do not read this post if you are planning on one day attending training at MTI or if you might ever go to training down here. If you read the rest of this post, it will ruin a significant piece of your experience.
*********************
So now with that said, I can continue. As I have popped up into Denver from training a couple of times over the last few weeks, several people have asked me how training has been going. My answer is usually: intense. Why is it so intense? Simply put, the first 3 weeks of training have been the most emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually exhausting experience I have ever volunteered for. Allow me to explain the capstone of the intensity.
I was locked in a 6' x 6' x 8' plywood box with 21 other people for over 2 hours in a simulated hostage experience at the end of which I was one of 5 men who were dragged from the box, pushed to the floor, and executed by a gunshot (they shot blanks) to the back of my skull.
I'm not sure I can type out the whole story with the necessary drama, but it was real enough that half of the people in the box with me were crying by the end, and I was praying with my forehead on the cold concrete because it felt so real.
Amy had a much different and worse experience than me in her box (what's worse than being executed you say? You will have to ask...). I will let her tell the story if she wants to.
The kids were off playing and had no idea what happened to us. But for us, it brought home the reality of some of the more extreme dangers of life overseas.
Although Mozambique has been at peace for over a decade, as Kenya demonstrated to the world just a couple of years ago, even the most peaceful African country can erupt into flames with one bad election.
For me, one of the most profound elements of impact was recognizing I was in the box with people going to Morocco, China, and other places where security is a real risk. It was a sobering experience to say the least.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
It's all about forgiveness
I recently applied for a grant from Wheaton College that pays off the student loans of Wheaties who are headed overseas as missionaries. Amy and I had planned to pay off my loans when she went back to work. But now that we are moving to Mozambique and living off from support, the loans are a bit more of a burden than we thought they would be at this stage of life.
If you are in to prayer (and I hope you are), please pray that I am awarded the scholarship. It would be a huge blessing for our family. We can certainly make our finances work without it, but as anyone with student loans can attest, it would be a big deal if they were forgiven.
If you are in to prayer (and I hope you are), please pray that I am awarded the scholarship. It would be a huge blessing for our family. We can certainly make our finances work without it, but as anyone with student loans can attest, it would be a big deal if they were forgiven.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Week with YWAM
Youth With a Mission (YWAM) invited me to speak at their University of the Nations campus this last week. I spent the week teaching for 3 hours every morning to a group of about 40 20-something students on "The Fundamentals of Christian Leadership".
Besides the joy of teaching about one of my favorite topics, it was great to spend a week with hundreds of people who have committed their life to mission. The entire base seemed to be filled with some of the most passionate followers of Jesus on the planet. It made for an especially fun class as I didn't need to draw students out to help them care. They already did.
Besides having fun and using my gifts, the week forced me to boil all of my leadership thoughts and philosophies down to a just a couple of ideas. I had to ask myself the question: what do I believe are the most important and essential fundamentals of the faith? That was hard work but worth doing. I know it will have lasting impact on the way I think about leadership in the future.
Besides the joy of teaching about one of my favorite topics, it was great to spend a week with hundreds of people who have committed their life to mission. The entire base seemed to be filled with some of the most passionate followers of Jesus on the planet. It made for an especially fun class as I didn't need to draw students out to help them care. They already did.
Besides having fun and using my gifts, the week forced me to boil all of my leadership thoughts and philosophies down to a just a couple of ideas. I had to ask myself the question: what do I believe are the most important and essential fundamentals of the faith? That was hard work but worth doing. I know it will have lasting impact on the way I think about leadership in the future.
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Problem with Democracy
I have just finished reading the biography of John Adams written by David McCullough (reading and writing is about all I can do today as I am sick and in bed). And after reading about the amazing founders of our nation, I have come to a sad conclusion:
When a government is "by the people" in a democracy, then the nation will rise or fall based upon the quality of her citizens. Those elected are simply the product of the people.
I know that this thought is neither new, nor profound, but it makes me all the more determined on a single point. I will do my best for the rest of my life to not simply complain about my elected officials. After all, they were elected by me and my neighbors.
What I will dedicate the rest of my life toward is helping to transform the lives of my neighbors and myself (here and in Africa). After all, only when the people lead, will those they elect follow.
When a government is "by the people" in a democracy, then the nation will rise or fall based upon the quality of her citizens. Those elected are simply the product of the people.
I know that this thought is neither new, nor profound, but it makes me all the more determined on a single point. I will do my best for the rest of my life to not simply complain about my elected officials. After all, they were elected by me and my neighbors.
What I will dedicate the rest of my life toward is helping to transform the lives of my neighbors and myself (here and in Africa). After all, only when the people lead, will those they elect follow.
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