Countdowns (just for fun)

As of today, April 27....

3 days until our Parent-Teacher Fellowship ice cream social :)

17 more days until my dad and stepmom come visit me in Ukraine

27 more days of school (that's counting exams and review days--21 more days of regular lessons)

47 days (and a wake-up) until I leave for the United States

[63 days spent in the US]

80 days until my birthday

112 days until I depart the US for Kyiv again

Bookshelf

*books I want to read*

From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions

Religions of the World

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

Salvation on the Small Screen: 24 Hours of Christian TV, Nadia Bolz-Weber
Myspace to Sacred Space: God for a New Generation, Piatt
The Coffeehouse Gospel: Sharing Your Faith in Everyday Conversation, Matthew Paul Turner
The Princess Bride (unabridged edition)
Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887, Edward Bellamy
My Darling Elia by Eugenie Melnyk
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
No More Throwaway People
Checklist for Life

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Relational Holiness, Oord/Lodahl
A Biblical Case for an Old Earth
What is a Nazarene?: Understanding Our Place in the Religious Community, Tracy Ingersol
A Perfect Life, by Bo Cassell (modern version of Wesley's A Plain Account of Christian Perfection)The Music of His Promises, Elisabeth Elliot
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Paperdoll (Natalie Lloyd)

Third Culture Kids

Celebration of Discipline

Movies I want to Watch (#=$2.99 to rent on iTunes)

Amelia (about Amelia Earhart)

#Letters to Juliet
Miral

Movies Not Yet Released
Winnie the Pooh
Battleship Potemkin
Jane Eyre (Aug 16)

When Harry Tries to Marry (Aug 1)
Soul Surfer (Aug 2)
The Vow
Sarah's Key

Thanks to Cheap Ways to..., I have discovered the website called Paperback Swap. It is a book exchange network, where you earn credits by mailing your own books to others. I'm not sure if I have at least 10 I'm willing to part with, so this may have to wait till I am home and can do an inventory of all my books. You can also swap CD's and DVD's for additional credits.

Zero

For spring break this year, I had the awesome opportunity/privilege to travel to Jerusalem and Israel/Palestine and stay with some missionary friends there. I had envisioned the trip as simply tourism and learning more about Biblical geography/history, but there were so many more dimensions. The conflict between Palestine/Israel has more nuances than I'd realized, I met some neighbors and English language learners, and also had conversations about life and ministry.

The night before Resurrection Sunday, as my new (and old) friends and I traveled back from the Dead Sea and Masada, we listened to the worship song "Breathe."

This is the air I breathe

This is the air I breathe

Your holy presence living in me

This is my daily bread

This is my daily bread

Your very word spoken to me

And I'm desperate for you

And I'm lost without you

As we sang along, I was reminded of something our tour guide Yoni had said a few days earlier. We were in the same passageway from Jerusalem down to the Dead Sea area, and had climbed a small hill so that Yoni could point out Jericho and also the barrenness of the land.

Now, this is not representative of the entire land of Israel, because in the north, at least near Galilee, the land is more verdant. However, this is probably what the Israelites would've seen as they approached the Promised Land, after the Exodus and years of wandering in the desert.

Yoni asked us to consider "What makes the 'Promised Land' so promising?" Looking at this landscape, there is really nothing appealing. If you didn't have sufficient water, you'd die in a matter of days.

Yoni then pointed out the saying/quote (can't find the source), "Without God [we] are nothing." The word for "nothing" in Hebrew is the same as the word for "zero"--"Without God we are zero." Zero is simply a placeholder, is neither positive nor negative, and describes an amount of null size. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Without God's provision, presence, and faithfulness, our lives have no value. We are lost without God, wandering in the wilderness seeking a word from Him. We are desperate for God's presence, in order to breathe Him in and let Him permeate every part of our lives.

How often do I try to live life on my own, as though I could make it through every day without God's guiding hand? How often do I assume that I have it within myself to teach and minister to my students, with no help from God? How often do I chase after MY dreams and not God's?

The truth is: far too often. I need to remember that I am solely dependent on God's provision for His words and His presence. The "Promised Land" is promising because God restores what once was broken: relationships (primarily the relationship between God and humanity), hearts, and lives. I cannot bring about restoration by my own strength, but only through Christ. I cannot live without daily bread from God. I cannot exist from day to day without Christ. I cannot dream dreams without God's big ideas being placed in my mind.

Reminder: Without God I am nothing.

World Languages--Just for Fun

Last week, most likely during a bout of procrastination, I decided to list all the words/phrases I know in other languages. (There is no way I can list all the words I know in Spanish and Russian, and of course I am a native English speaker.)

Spanish: intermediate skills

[On various tests, I've scored at Intermediate 1, Low Intermediate, C1--Advanced (this test was only 15 questions)]

Russian: beginner skills

[Scored "pre-intermediate" on a 60 question test, July 2010]

French: 1 semester in high school--this is ranked lower than Russian because I cannot conjugate basic past and future tenses in French (people here speak to me in French sometimes...it's strange...)

Ukrainian: Besides knowing how to say yes, no, what, and kung-fu, I can't speak other phrases, but if I had text, I could probably guess at some of the words.

German: good day, good morning, please, no, hail, goose, I, thank you, goodbye (I could probably understand some if it was spoken to me)

Hebrew: shalom, Shabbat, good morning, Shma ("hear, O Israel...")

Arabic: thank you (shukran), God willing (En sh'allah), come on (yallah)

Polish: lip, thank you

Mandarin Chinese: hello (ni hao), I love you (wo ai ni)

Cantonese Chinese: gorilla (sing sing)

Dutch: airport (luchthaven)

Albanian: goodbye (mirupafshim)