Week 9: The Bible, and Other Adventures

This week was a wild ride from start to finish. Also, it was probably the longest week of my life. Also, this is for sure my most sarcastic blog post to date. Enjoy, friends.

Monday
This week, our teachers were the base founders from YWAM Nicaragua: Barb and Don Stephens. They taught on the Bible; how to read and interpret it, its historical context, why it's important and how it's still relevant, and stuff like that. Monday was really cool because they shared a lot with us about their work in Nicaragua, and taught on how the Bible was different from any other book throughout all of history. It covers thousands of years of history, is a collection of 66 different books by many, many different authors, but it still has a main theme and purpose throughout every page. And, unlike all other ancient writings, there are thousands upon thousands of existing manuscripts that all stay the same thing. God has preserved His Word and it is truly amazing to think about!

Tuesday
I don't have a journal entry for Tuesday, except to say that I "learned Hindi," and was "sleepy." By "learned Hindi," I obviously meant, "I learned approximately 11 letters in the Hindi alphabet." What a day.

Wednesday
In class on Wednesday, we did a really fun exercise: we took the story of Jonah, broke into three groups, and then each group had to tell the story in a different manner. My group told it orally, as to a group of children; another group acted it out, without words; and the last group researched and presented the historical context of the book. I thought it was a really good tool for teaching. Then, something crazy happened.

I went to the gym.
I know you're all just too shocked to continue reading.

After I got back, we prepared for a children's ministry activity we're doing in the future, and we wrote up our testimonies. It was really cool to sit down and write about my life. Then, I started reading our next required book and went to bed.

Thursday
On Thursday, we finished up Bible week with looking at how to interpret "controversial" topics in the Bible by studying their context, such as the passages in Corinthians and Timothy about how women shouldn't talk in church or teach. By looking into the historical context and the author's purpose, we could conclude quite simply that this was only direction for a certain group at a certain time, and not by any means a strict rule for everyone to follow. I really liked that exercise, because those two passages have always bothered me, and I also think it was really good practice on how to read and interpret the Bible correctly.

Friday
Friday was a crazy day. We went to Panajachel, a town on the beautiful Lago de Atitlán, or Lake Atitlan. It was a really busy day, because we had all of our normal Friday activities, plus packing, and then a three-hour drive down to Pana. When we got there it was already dark, and we ate dinner and went out to explore a bit and get coffee.

Saturday
Saturday was even crazier than Friday. First, we took food to some families around Pana and talked and prayed with them. It was cool because that's Emma and Renzo's ministry, and they shared that experience with all of us. Then, I had the worst experience of my life: I went zip lining.

I went with Tom and Ryan, and first Ryan convinced our tour guides that Tom was our dad, but Tom didn't know because he can't speak Spanish, and that was the only good thing that happened. It was supposed to be super fun, but it was rainy and you couldn't see anything and it was super difficult to do the actual zip lining because you have to brake before you get to the end of the line but I couldn't because everything was wet and also I almost killed the tour guides and I had a cold and we had to hike a lot and I was wearing terrible shoes that ended up getting destroyed and everything was bad and terrible and awful and that is why I hated zip lining. Then, to get back home, we stuck five of us in a TukTuk, which is a very tiny Guatemalan taxi thing. Pictures following, stolen from Ryan Johnson and Christoph Nerz.

The beautiful Lake Atitlán.

 Original title: "5 missionaries in a tiny tuktuk. Keep your eyes on the road, Jorge."

Original title: "Ryan, Amy, and a Bit of Tom."

Updated title: "If Only She Knew What Terrors Lay Ahead"

This is what zip lining is, for those of you who may not be familiar with the concept. Basically, you hang yourself dozens of feet above the ground and slide really fast down a rope and hope for the best.

Then, I had another super crazy experience: walking around Panajachel barefoot with a crazy German man because he needed someone to translate for him to get his beard trimmed and I needed to get new shoes.

Sunday
On Sunday, we went to the lake after breakfast to hang out. It was really beautiful! Then we got lunch and headed home. On the way back, we stopped at the MegaPaca, which is like a giant GoodWill but better. I got a bag full of clothes for about $6. When we got back, Tom and Ashley and I went into Antigua for ice cream, and that evening we had a worship service here at the base because we missed church that morning. Then we hung out and played cards. It was a super great weekend.