Author Archives: Karyn

What’s in a Name?

I thought I would give a brief linguistic explanation for little Jireh’s name.

Jireh Hebrew

It comes from the Hebrew verb ??????? (yir’eh) which is a qal imperfect (3rd person, mascular singular) form of the verb ??? which has as its first English gloss “to see.” However, the semantic range can extend from that basic idea to mean “to look out for; to see to it; to provide.”

In Genesis 22:8 and 14 (in the story of Abraham offering up his son Isaac) we see the form that Hannah and Philip chose for Jireh’s name. In those passages we read:
Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (Gen. 22:8, ESV)

So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The Lord will provide‘; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’ (Gen. 22:14, ESV)

The Lord has provided this special son to Hannah and Philip, and He will continue to provide everything that Jireh will need in his life.

Study Helps

OK, I admit it. I love to organize things. And I’m a very visual learner. So, for any of my language courses I usually design a notebook for the translation work and get it bound (at www.lulu.com an online on-demand print company). I also decided that the best way for me to remember the Hebrew weak verb rules was to take all those pages of notes and create a two page “at-a-glance” sheet.

I’m making the PDFs for the Hebrew Weak Verb charts available here to anyone who wants to use them. I’m also making available the PDFs for my translation workbooks for OTHT2 and NT223 (Acts & Paul). These are the translation sections assigned for Spring 2006. Nothing fancy, just the text with space to write your parsings/translations in. If you want to get them printed and bound, I’ll post links to the www.lulu.com site where you can order them. I don’t get any money, you just pay them to do the printing and they ship it to you. That’s how I do it for myself (and for Mark). I like the convenience of having all the pages in one place. If you decide to order from lulu.com, just remember that it takes about a week (sometimes longer) for them to print it and for you to receive it.

OK, copyright disclaimer: I created the Weak Verb charts, so I own the copyright. The other workbooks are simply for the people in class who I know already own the BHS or Bible software and who could photocopy or print out their own copy anyway, this is just one person helping other students get it in the format that is more useful. I don’t get any financial benefit from this. If you use the lulu.com site, you are paying for them to print it like you would pay the photocopier to copy your book. Don’t abuse this! If I am totally wrong about this, I will pull the workbooks off and just leave the weak verb charts.

I would have posted these earlier, but I didn’t think anyone would be interested! In class some people have seen my workbook and have asked about it, so I decided to just put the documents here (rather than try to remember who to email them to).


To download the PDF of just the text (no cover) click on the thumbnail. To get the book printed and bound or to download a PDF copy for free click here.


To download the PDF of just the text (no cover) click on the thumbnail. To get the book printed and bound or to download a PDF copy for free click here.

 

I appreciate any comments if any of this is helpful (especially for the weak verb chart because I have other study helps I am working on for Hebrew and Greek also).

What We Don’t Know

As I study for midterms and try to solidify the things I’m supposed to know, I think it appropriate to take a break and look at what Science Magazine recently listed as 125 things we don’t know. These are some of the big puzzles that the world of science still can’t answer. Clicking on the title will take you to an article discussing the topic.

> What Is the Universe Made Of?
> What is the Biological Basis of Consciousness?
> Why Do Humans Have So Few Genes?
> To What Extent Are Genetic Variation and Personal Health Linked?
> Can the Laws of Physics Be Unified?
> How Much Can Human Life Span Be Extended?
> What Controls Organ Regeneration?
> How Can a Skin Cell Become a Nerve Cell?
> How Does a Single Somatic Cell Become a Whole Plant?
> How Does Earth’s Interior Work?
> Are We Alone in the Universe?
> How and Where Did Life on Earth Arise?
> What Determines Species Diversity?
> What Genetic Changes Made Us Uniquely Human?
> How Are Memories Stored and Retrieved?
> How Did Cooperative Behavior Evolve?
> How Will Big Pictures Emerge from a Sea of Biological Data?
> How Far Can We Push Chemical Self-Assembly?
> What Are the Limits of Conventional Computing?
> Can We Selectively Shut Off Immune Responses?
> Do Deeper Principles Underlie Quantum Uncertainty and Nonlocality?
> Is an Effective HIV Vaccine Feasible?
> How Hot Will the Greenhouse World Be?
> What Can Replace Cheap Oil — and When?
> Will Malthus Continue to Be Wrong?

A list of the remaining 100 can be found here.

With all that is still unknown, what a comfort it is that the Creator of the Universe, the Covenant-keeping God, the One who knows all things and rules all things CAN be known.

Why bother?

Why bother to learn Ugaritic? Why take the time to learn Phoenician script and pour over inscription dictionaries? Why look into Canaanite gods and read Ancient Near East texts? Is there any point to studying something so obscure? Can it possibly have any purpose other than generating more journal articles? Is this going to help my understanding of how to live my life in a godly manner? Why is all this so important?

Why, indeed. In a word, Shrek.

Shrek and Fiona

The movies Shrek and Shrek2 are journeys into fractured fairy tales. But reviewing the movies for entertainment value is not my point here. Even if you haven’t seen the movies you have probably heard that they are chock full of cultural references. And therein lies my point. Say in 1000 years some future generation uncovers a treasure trove of DVDs from some landfill. They sit down to see what kind of movies were captivating to this “ancient” civilisation. They pop the movie “Shrek” into the video retrieval system and watch. They probably figure out that this is a story about a princess who falls in love with someone who is not acceptable to her parents and the journey all the characters take toward a change in that opinion. It is about character mattering more than appearance. It is about family pressure. It is about making sacrifices for what is important.

But did they really “get” it? Well, they got the main point. But they hardly grasped the rich context that the movie employs for humor. Without those cultural references to music, movies, fairy tales, books, celebrities, and even institutions like Starbucks you just don’t really appreciate what the moviemakers were trying to communicate. (Gee, even most of the people who have watched the movies in the here and now have hardly caught them all… look here for a list four pages long to see how well you did.) You have to study the culture to fully understand the movie.

So, go back through history in the other direction. You have a book that is thousands of years old. It’s even written in an ancient language (but fortunately, you have a knack for languages and are able to overcome that barrier). You can (somewhat) easily grasp the narrative stories, the histories, the ritual songs and prophecies. But did you really “get” it? Well, yes and no. Of course, I am talking about the Old Testament. And yes, if you read it without any information at all you will learn of the wonderful way that God has revealed himself and interacted with people throughout history. But, you will miss some of the texture, some of the polemic, some of the beauty, and some of the details if you don’t understand the culture and surrounding societies of the people who wrote the book(s).

Case in point: Psalm 29. Great psalm. Speaks to me of the thunderous glory of God. But without knowing about the types of hymns that were written to the god of thunder Baal and the imagery used, I won’t fully appreciate all that is being done. I’m not saying to equate the praises of Yahweh with the hymns to Baal. But, I am asking to consider why (and to what purpose) the psalmist utilized the cultic culture around him.

We can learn much from Ancient Near East (ANE) texts and findings. Studying imagery in artwork, cultic observations, and even treaties helps to reveal richness and layers of understanding when applied to scripture. What can we learn from creation and flood stories of the surrounding cultures? It helps us to see that the way God chose to reveal himself and record that revelation was very carefully crafted to take advantage of the cultural context.

In addition to understanding our own scriptures better, we should learn that rather than scorn contextualization, we might recognize that God has used this to his purposes from the very beginning. This is not some new emerging method. It’s as old as… well, Genesis. We could learn a lot about how to present the One True God in the midst of a pantheon of contemporary gods by looking at how the covenant-keeping Elohim is presented against the backdrop of ANE gods.

So, there is definitely a purpose in studying all those squiggly lines and old texts. And if I can learn enough of that rich, cultural context then maybe I’ll be able to help people understand the Old Testament narratives in the way that my husband (who is much more 20th/21st century savvy than me) “gets” movies like Shrek.

Sudan: Teacher Workshop

This is the long-awaited post about the Teacher Workshop that I was a part of during our trip. I’m sorry it has been so delayed in getting posted. I think the more I thought about our time in Yei, the harder (rather than easier) it became to really put into words all that we have seen and embraced.

While in Sudan my task was to work with Anna Evans and provide a week-long workshop for teachers in Yei. Prior to our trip we had very little direction for how to prepare for that. We did know that we could expect around 20 teachers. We were told that we should bring “modules” for Math, English, and Christian Education. We had no idea what grade level the teachers would be, what kind of curriculum (if any) they were utilizing, what the English language skills of the teachers would be, or what kind of facility we would be teaching in. It was frustrating (Americans really want direction, plans and order). We went online and were able to track down some information that was helpful. We also were able to find some people who had been to Yei and contacted them. They were tremendously helpful and encouraging about things we might encounter.

When we arrived at the designated location (in the local church building, which we could easily walk to from where we were staying) early Monday morning we found we had 18 teachers (16 men, 2 women) from 10 local schools. All taught in the primary grades. The system used in Yei is based on the Ugandan curriculum. They progress from P1-P7 and then move on to a secondary level school (equivalent, more or less, to a US high school). We were thrilled to find that we could teach in English (although we did have some amusing misunderstandings due to pronunciation or cultural differences).

So, what did we do? Well, the week included:

  • Introduction of Learning Styles (Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences)
  • Ideas for using Cooperative Learning in a Classroom
  • Practice using Math Manipulatives (including manipulatives made from local materials…like sticks and bottle caps)
  • Instruction for how to teach some specific math concepts (deriving geometry formulae, generating pie charts, teaching fractions)
  • Ideas for how to teach science (demontrations, hands-on activities, etc.)
  • Instruction for developing lesson plans for the curriculum they use
  • Classroom management and discipline
  • Qualities of a Good Teacher.

But to get a real feel for what happened that week, I think I’ll just tell some stories. They’re more interesting than reading the outline of our notes anyway.

First of all, we had no idea what expectations the teachers had. So early on, Anna and I decided that we would implement a time at the end of each day to get feedback from the teachers about what we had covered that day and what would be helpful to them for us to cover later in the week. The combination of having a plan but being willing to be flexible and change the plan to accommodate their needs worked really well. One humorous result of asking for their “expectations” on the first day was that we got a long list of requests that they were hoping we would give to them… including bicycles, etc. Basically, their idea of “expectations” and our idea of that word were two different things.

While we weren’t able to give them bicycles, we did bring many supplies to share with them. One of the first things we gave each teacher was an inflatable globe. They worked hard to blow them up and had a great time finding Yei, Philadelphia, and other locations on the globe. For a few, it was the first time they had seen the world represented as a sphere. Others were desperately trying to locate all 7 continents. One teacher finally burst out “Where is the 7th continent??” The elusive Antarctica was pointed out.

We also gave them cards, special dice, and other materials to play math games. The most quiet of the group suddenly became the competitors! As they played the games they became more at ease and we had many moments filled with laughter. They used colored pencils and markers to draw maps of their schools. Some of the maps included important details like “mango tree” or “chickens.”

Continue reading →

John Garang Dies

John Garang, leader of the SPLM and newly inaugurated vice president in Sudan has died in an air crash. For details read these news releases:
CNN International Edition
BBC News Release

John Garang

The fragile peace in Sudan is being reaffirmed by the Sudanese government, but the South will need a strong leader to step up and fill Garang’s shoes. We grieve with our friends in New Sudan over their loss of this leader and our prayers are with them as they look to the future.

More Sudan Pictures

If a picture is really worth a thousand words, then maybe these photos will buy me some time to write the rest of my reports.

Babysitter
This is a young (maybe 8 years old) girl who is babysitting for a young infant. The child is tied to her back in the traditional way, with a blanket. When you see women walking toward you who are carrying a baby all you will see is the baby feet sticking out at her sides! Continue reading →

Out of Africa

We’re still tracking down luggage, but we seem to be getting back to the normal routine. And that means Mark is blogging (and making up for not blogging for a while to boot!). He’s done a great job of describing our travel, our arrival, our accommodations, the worship service, the town of Yei and the people we met at the CWEP compound. I won’t try to duplicate those descriptions (how many times can you describe a toilet and shower room or muddy roads), but we will both start to turn our focus to describing the different activities we participated in during the week. Most notably, Mark taught Biblical counseling to the pastors-in-training at the CLIS school and I worked with Anna teaching 18 local teachers. The Teacher Workshop (coordinated by the EPC Education Coordinator) pulled together some of the faculty from 10 local primary schools.

For now, you can read Mark’s series (so far, 4 parts) by clicking here.

Soundbite from Sudan

Here’s an unedited MP3 of some of the young people in Yei singing. It’s a about 3.3 MB in size, but worth it to hear!

Listen to it here.

We’ll post some more of the music that we recorded after we get it cleaned up.