Just to let you guys know I'm still alive...
The past two weeks have been good, but there's not a lot to share about them. This past week was Faith & Finances, where we talked a lot about the importance of having a support team and how God really provides for our financial needs when we're doing what He's called us to do. Which applies to everyone that supports me financially and through prayer (hopefully all of you reading this :) ). The week before that, our base director David Clark spoke on Our Purpose In God's Plan. Which when David speaks, it's kind of just about anything and everything. I do like when he speaks though because he really enjoys/allows discussion and questions, even challenging ones. So we talked a lot about creation and the end of the world... It was interesting to say the least.
This weekend we're also having our second MA (Mission Adventures) training! This one is a bit less stressful because I know now what to expect and what's expected of me, so I've been more comfortable hanging out with some of the students and even have done some translating (from Spanish to English) for groups when Monica -one of the SOMD students with me- was speaking. I've never translated in a formal setting before, just kind of back and forth between a few people, so that was intimidating but also really exciting and people tell me it's good practice for the future :).
That's pretty much all I can write about for now, I really need to get to work on my book report for the week... We have a book report due every Monday morning and usually I'm so busy I don't get started on it till the weekend. Which makes things kind of crazy during MA weekends, but thankfully I was somewhat responsible and started reading a couple days ago. Turns out I'm becoming an adult or something because I don't procrastinate as much anymore and I even make my bed and keep my stuff clean without anyone having to tell me. It's in the rules that we need to keep our rooms clean and beds made, but I didn't care very much during DTS, so it's like I'm really growing up or something. Ew.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Our First MA Weekend!
This past week was not as fun as expected because almost everything Lucio -our speaker- talked about we learned before our DTS outreach reading Foreign To Familiar by Sarah Lanier. It was basically the book that all of us read on the plain ride either to Russia or Peru, so we kind of already had an idea of everything he was teaching on the first couple days. However it is a really great book, even just for anyone to read whether you choose to be in the mission world or not because it explains the difference between 'hot and cold cultures'.
The idea is that Northern America, Canada, and Northern Europe (places where it is for the most part cold) is considered cold culture, where everywhere else in the world where climate is generally hot is considered hot culture. So that seems really basic, but the reason for talking about the differences really opened my eyes to how people in different areas and cultures go about life. In the cold culture areas -Minnesota as an obvious example-, people are very task and time oriented. We like to have things scheduled out from start to finish so that we have time to do other things and go other places. We don't typically talk to 'strangers' in public places, in fact we get irritated when someone interrupts our plans for the day.
The hot cultured people on the other hand, so think of like a family from the southern part of the States, are veeeery relationship oriented. For example, if you've got a friend in Louisiana, you can show up at a meal time and assume that they will be happy to see you, invite you inside, and feed you a pretty amazing feast. They'll expect you to stay however long you want because you're welcome to any food they have, you're welcome to their house, you're invited to any events they attend and paid for by the host. A cold culture person however would want to know in advance if you're planning on coming over so they can plan out how much food they need to make, whether or not you need to book a hotel room, and they'll assume that if you're going out to a movie with them that you're paying for yourself. Hot culture views the most priority in relationships, then business. Cold culture being the opposite wants to take care of the task and maybe become friends in the process, but probably not. Because of these kind of drastic differences, people often get offended or feel like others are being rude because that's just not how they've lived their entire life. Since I personally have been to many different places around the U.S. and South and Central America, these differences really make a lot of sense and I kind of wish I would've known them sooner. I feel like if everyone knew this kinda thing, we would avoid so many conflicts.
Of course it's a generalization so it's not the exact definition of anybody that lives in these areas, but it's kind of true also when you think about it.
We also did a temperament test which I kind of think would've applied more to the first week learning about our personalities, and unfortunately I don't have my definitions with me so I'll just sum them up.
There's people that are more Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy, and/or Phlagmatic. I know those words are really weird. I personally am a good split between Choleric and Melancholy. The first two (sanguine and choleric) are typically the outgoing, extroverted people where the melancholy and phlagmatics are much more quiet and introverted. Sanguines are the ones that love people all the time, they're very likeable. Cholerics (don't laugh..) can be kind of harsh and sarcastic, stubborn, and they're not afraid of conflict. Melancholy people tend to be smarter, they can get depressed easily, very loyal in their friendships, they don't often commit to things but when they do, they're extremely deeply committed (this one is my dominant one). Phlagmatic I don't remember much about, but I do think they're very cautious about what they do and they really don't want to hurt people. But yeah that day was interesting too, finding out what everyone fit into most.
Then the excitement of the week! Mission Adventures (MA) is a program run out of our YWAM base that puts on almost a mini-DTS over a weekend for youth groups that then go on a week long mission trip put on by our staff. So our first two teams showed up Thursday night and left this morning for their mission trip at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One of the parts I love about my school right now is that as students we get to help with the MA training weekends. So we helped teach them dramas, dances, my friends Lisa and Tommy spoke at a few different sessions they had, and we got to hang out and spend a lot of time with them. I really, really appreciate how much preparation they're getting for their mission trip. I've been on mission trips before and we didn't have this kind of thing, and those mission trips were great but I think they could've been so much better if we had this kind of training leading up to it. So they spend 2 1/2 days learning about the culture they're about to go into (some of the teams go to Peru, Panama, etc. so it's different every time), learning how to put on a Vacation Bible School for the kids, and really taking their relationship with God seriously before they go out and share it with the people they're about to serve. It was seriously so much fun, Lisa and Tommy's talks were really great, and I enjoyed the weekend a lot... But we're all SO exhausted from it. We hardly had any free time because their schedule is so packed and we're so much a part of it that all of us were giving 150% for 3 days straight, and now basically all of the students are spending all of today doing nothing so we can recover from our tiredness haha. As worn out as we are though, I think we all had a great time and I'm looking forward to the next two training weekends. We're also going on a trip with a team at the end of August which I'm sure I'll tell you guys all about when it happens :).
This post was much longer than I expected, as usual, so I'll give you a break from reading. Once again, hopefully I can find time to update next weekend! I miss you guys!!
The idea is that Northern America, Canada, and Northern Europe (places where it is for the most part cold) is considered cold culture, where everywhere else in the world where climate is generally hot is considered hot culture. So that seems really basic, but the reason for talking about the differences really opened my eyes to how people in different areas and cultures go about life. In the cold culture areas -Minnesota as an obvious example-, people are very task and time oriented. We like to have things scheduled out from start to finish so that we have time to do other things and go other places. We don't typically talk to 'strangers' in public places, in fact we get irritated when someone interrupts our plans for the day.
The hot cultured people on the other hand, so think of like a family from the southern part of the States, are veeeery relationship oriented. For example, if you've got a friend in Louisiana, you can show up at a meal time and assume that they will be happy to see you, invite you inside, and feed you a pretty amazing feast. They'll expect you to stay however long you want because you're welcome to any food they have, you're welcome to their house, you're invited to any events they attend and paid for by the host. A cold culture person however would want to know in advance if you're planning on coming over so they can plan out how much food they need to make, whether or not you need to book a hotel room, and they'll assume that if you're going out to a movie with them that you're paying for yourself. Hot culture views the most priority in relationships, then business. Cold culture being the opposite wants to take care of the task and maybe become friends in the process, but probably not. Because of these kind of drastic differences, people often get offended or feel like others are being rude because that's just not how they've lived their entire life. Since I personally have been to many different places around the U.S. and South and Central America, these differences really make a lot of sense and I kind of wish I would've known them sooner. I feel like if everyone knew this kinda thing, we would avoid so many conflicts.
Of course it's a generalization so it's not the exact definition of anybody that lives in these areas, but it's kind of true also when you think about it.
We also did a temperament test which I kind of think would've applied more to the first week learning about our personalities, and unfortunately I don't have my definitions with me so I'll just sum them up.
There's people that are more Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy, and/or Phlagmatic. I know those words are really weird. I personally am a good split between Choleric and Melancholy. The first two (sanguine and choleric) are typically the outgoing, extroverted people where the melancholy and phlagmatics are much more quiet and introverted. Sanguines are the ones that love people all the time, they're very likeable. Cholerics (don't laugh..) can be kind of harsh and sarcastic, stubborn, and they're not afraid of conflict. Melancholy people tend to be smarter, they can get depressed easily, very loyal in their friendships, they don't often commit to things but when they do, they're extremely deeply committed (this one is my dominant one). Phlagmatic I don't remember much about, but I do think they're very cautious about what they do and they really don't want to hurt people. But yeah that day was interesting too, finding out what everyone fit into most.
Then the excitement of the week! Mission Adventures (MA) is a program run out of our YWAM base that puts on almost a mini-DTS over a weekend for youth groups that then go on a week long mission trip put on by our staff. So our first two teams showed up Thursday night and left this morning for their mission trip at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One of the parts I love about my school right now is that as students we get to help with the MA training weekends. So we helped teach them dramas, dances, my friends Lisa and Tommy spoke at a few different sessions they had, and we got to hang out and spend a lot of time with them. I really, really appreciate how much preparation they're getting for their mission trip. I've been on mission trips before and we didn't have this kind of thing, and those mission trips were great but I think they could've been so much better if we had this kind of training leading up to it. So they spend 2 1/2 days learning about the culture they're about to go into (some of the teams go to Peru, Panama, etc. so it's different every time), learning how to put on a Vacation Bible School for the kids, and really taking their relationship with God seriously before they go out and share it with the people they're about to serve. It was seriously so much fun, Lisa and Tommy's talks were really great, and I enjoyed the weekend a lot... But we're all SO exhausted from it. We hardly had any free time because their schedule is so packed and we're so much a part of it that all of us were giving 150% for 3 days straight, and now basically all of the students are spending all of today doing nothing so we can recover from our tiredness haha. As worn out as we are though, I think we all had a great time and I'm looking forward to the next two training weekends. We're also going on a trip with a team at the end of August which I'm sure I'll tell you guys all about when it happens :).
This post was much longer than I expected, as usual, so I'll give you a break from reading. Once again, hopefully I can find time to update next weekend! I miss you guys!!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Arrived and Already On Brain Overload!
SOMD has officially started! Me and a few friends from DTS met up last Saturday and spent the night together catching up and hanging out before the busy school life started again, and from there me, Ahnna, Kallie, Caitlin, Scott, and Brenden made our way to the YWAM base on Sunday afternoon. We reunited with a few people we'd known before from our base, Jasmine, Jo, Jenesa and Monica, and met Ivan (from Argentina, did his DTS in Chile I think) and Becca (from Texas, did her DTS in England), so we've got 12 students total. It feels like we've already been there a month instead of just a week, but that's usually how it is when you live with people 24/7. Even though it's been a long week with not enough sleep, it has also been really fun and exciting because of our class subject where we learned a LOT about ourselves and each other.
So this week was Strength Finders and Spiritual Gifts. Bonnie, our school counselor, was our speaker. If you haven't heard of Strength Finders (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strengthsfinder-20-tom-rath/1008432146?ean=9781595620156&itm=1&usri=strength%2bfinders#CustomerReviews) you should definitely look into it. You get the book which has a code in the back to take the online test which takes maybe half an hour, you answer a ton of questions about how you relate to people and situations and stuff, and at the end it gives you a list of 5 of your top strengths based on your answers, and how to work with them in your life.
My top five are Communication, Restorative, Empathy, Input, and Belief. It also gives you descriptions for all of those explaining what they are which the book has general explanations of each one, but after taking the online test the definitions it gives you are based on the questions you specifically answered. So there were a lot of other people in my school with empathy, input, and belief in their top 5 but all of their descriptions of how that strength is evident in their life was WAY different than mine. After I got my results, I brought them to a few of my friends in the living room and asked if someone would read them out loud to me, and it ended up being so funny and entertaining how entirely accurate it was (like Communication really explains why I talk so much...I'm a verbal processor to the core) that we ended up reading them out loud for pretty much every student.
Then a couple days later we took another similar test that would give us results for our Spiritual Gifts which gave us equal insight on ourselves and each other because we had 2 days of discussion on all of them during class. So my list of Spiritual Gifts in order are Mercy-74, Encourager/Exhorter-73, Giver-72, Prophet/Proclaimer/Perceiver-68, Teacher-65, Administrator-61, and Server-53. With the Strength Finders there's a really long list of all the strengths so they just give your top 5, but the Spiritual Gifts, I listed all of them (the results you can get) and the numbers are how high I ranked in each one. So it was very interesting seeing how equally I ranked in the top 3, and even through my 4th one -prophet- every word of the descriptions defines me. It's crazy. If you guys wanna see the explanations for all of them, I'd love to show you somehow so you can understand me and the way I function, but I think this blog is gonna be long enough by itself so I'm not gonna type it all up here.
But like I said, this week was really fun and interesting and I'm so grateful we did it the first week. It really helped us understand why people act the way they do and how their brains work, how they react to situations and why. They purposely did it the first week because last year during this school, lots of people were having conflicts until this week when they could really understand each other and they suggested that this week be first for every school because it's so helpful and I agree with that wholeheartedly.
Sooooo I would love to explain more in depth these gifts and strengths but I kinda have to go. I'm at Caribou with a few people right now, but I wanted to give you guys an update and let you know I'm still alive. I'll be sending out update letters within the next couple weeks I'm pretty sure, so if I still need your address, please give it to me!
Next week our topic according to our schedule is Cross-Cultural Communication which will be interesting considering our speaker is one of the funniest people we have on staff at our base. I'm pretty excited about everything we learned this past week and what's coming up!
Oh also, everything we do is being translated in Spanish because Monica doesn't know much English and Ivan understands most English but not everything, so my translating skills are improving drastically. I'm extremely happy about it :)
Ciao guys! I'll try to update again next week!
So this week was Strength Finders and Spiritual Gifts. Bonnie, our school counselor, was our speaker. If you haven't heard of Strength Finders (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strengthsfinder-20-tom-rath/1008432146?ean=9781595620156&itm=1&usri=strength%2bfinders#CustomerReviews) you should definitely look into it. You get the book which has a code in the back to take the online test which takes maybe half an hour, you answer a ton of questions about how you relate to people and situations and stuff, and at the end it gives you a list of 5 of your top strengths based on your answers, and how to work with them in your life.
My top five are Communication, Restorative, Empathy, Input, and Belief. It also gives you descriptions for all of those explaining what they are which the book has general explanations of each one, but after taking the online test the definitions it gives you are based on the questions you specifically answered. So there were a lot of other people in my school with empathy, input, and belief in their top 5 but all of their descriptions of how that strength is evident in their life was WAY different than mine. After I got my results, I brought them to a few of my friends in the living room and asked if someone would read them out loud to me, and it ended up being so funny and entertaining how entirely accurate it was (like Communication really explains why I talk so much...I'm a verbal processor to the core) that we ended up reading them out loud for pretty much every student.
Then a couple days later we took another similar test that would give us results for our Spiritual Gifts which gave us equal insight on ourselves and each other because we had 2 days of discussion on all of them during class. So my list of Spiritual Gifts in order are Mercy-74, Encourager/Exhorter-73, Giver-72, Prophet/Proclaimer/Perceiver-68, Teacher-65, Administrator-61, and Server-53. With the Strength Finders there's a really long list of all the strengths so they just give your top 5, but the Spiritual Gifts, I listed all of them (the results you can get) and the numbers are how high I ranked in each one. So it was very interesting seeing how equally I ranked in the top 3, and even through my 4th one -prophet- every word of the descriptions defines me. It's crazy. If you guys wanna see the explanations for all of them, I'd love to show you somehow so you can understand me and the way I function, but I think this blog is gonna be long enough by itself so I'm not gonna type it all up here.
But like I said, this week was really fun and interesting and I'm so grateful we did it the first week. It really helped us understand why people act the way they do and how their brains work, how they react to situations and why. They purposely did it the first week because last year during this school, lots of people were having conflicts until this week when they could really understand each other and they suggested that this week be first for every school because it's so helpful and I agree with that wholeheartedly.
Sooooo I would love to explain more in depth these gifts and strengths but I kinda have to go. I'm at Caribou with a few people right now, but I wanted to give you guys an update and let you know I'm still alive. I'll be sending out update letters within the next couple weeks I'm pretty sure, so if I still need your address, please give it to me!
Next week our topic according to our schedule is Cross-Cultural Communication which will be interesting considering our speaker is one of the funniest people we have on staff at our base. I'm pretty excited about everything we learned this past week and what's coming up!
Oh also, everything we do is being translated in Spanish because Monica doesn't know much English and Ivan understands most English but not everything, so my translating skills are improving drastically. I'm extremely happy about it :)
Ciao guys! I'll try to update again next week!
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