Martyrdom. Is it meant for all? Or only the radical? Only Jesus' disciples? Only Mother Teresa? Only the missionaries?
"Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." -Matthew 10:38-39
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." -Galatians 2:20
Martyrdom is meant for all. For the radical. For his disciples. For Mother Teresa. For the missionaries.
For the average. For all.
Martyrdom is meant for me.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
In the last month and a half...
Alright, I am going to attempt to update everyone on what has been occurring in Spain in the last month and a half since I haven't blogged at all! :)
We started regular classes at the center. During the month of September, I was only taking an intensive language course. Now I am taking 5 classes in Spanish about the culture, literature, variations of the language, etc. They are going really well. I am a little nervous though because we have only 2 tests in each of them. If I do poorly on them, I will do poorly in the classes. Uh oh! The tests are next week, so I am going to spending this week studying all of the time!
Church is spectacular! I love the body that God has placed me with here. They are such a family. There are many of us guiris (international people) here, but they have welcomed us with open arms. I have been singing with the praise band here, which has been a delight. We had an evangelistic concert a couple of weeks ago in which the choir and the praise band sang and the hip hop dance group performed. So awesome! I just got back yesterday from our fall retreat with the youth. We went to a camp in the mountains near Malaga. It was such a great weekend of fellowship with one another as well as a weekend of huge challenges in the faith. We had a minister from Sevilla come and preach about Romans 12:2. We talked about how we are called to get out of the church essentially. It was especially convicting when he asked us to raise our hands if we had not been raised in a Christian family or raised in the church. Only 6 out of 75 raised their hands. There is something wrong with that picture. We are not called to be salt and light to our Christians friends. We are called to be salt and light to the world. He challenged us to pray long and hard for God to show us how he has gifted us to serve the lost. Then GO! :)
This week I am starting to volunteer with an organization here in which I will be spending a couple hours a week with people (mainly elderly people) in hospitals just keeping them company. I am really excited. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.
The Spanish is getting much better! This is terrible, but for about the first month and half, I barely spoke outside of class. I was too embarrassed and nervous to make mistakes. But, in the last 2 weeks, I have made friends with some Spaniards who have helped bunches. Once you get to know people, and they understand your level of Spanish it isn't nearly as hard to talk. :)
Today is a national holiday. Everyone goes to the graves of people that they knew and leaves flowers, etc. As a result, we don't have school. Therefore, I am blogging! But, right now, I need to get some major reading done for my literature class. It takes about 10 times as long to read in Spanish as it does in English! :)
I miss and love you all dearly! Keep leaving comments, I want to hear from you!
We started regular classes at the center. During the month of September, I was only taking an intensive language course. Now I am taking 5 classes in Spanish about the culture, literature, variations of the language, etc. They are going really well. I am a little nervous though because we have only 2 tests in each of them. If I do poorly on them, I will do poorly in the classes. Uh oh! The tests are next week, so I am going to spending this week studying all of the time!
Church is spectacular! I love the body that God has placed me with here. They are such a family. There are many of us guiris (international people) here, but they have welcomed us with open arms. I have been singing with the praise band here, which has been a delight. We had an evangelistic concert a couple of weeks ago in which the choir and the praise band sang and the hip hop dance group performed. So awesome! I just got back yesterday from our fall retreat with the youth. We went to a camp in the mountains near Malaga. It was such a great weekend of fellowship with one another as well as a weekend of huge challenges in the faith. We had a minister from Sevilla come and preach about Romans 12:2. We talked about how we are called to get out of the church essentially. It was especially convicting when he asked us to raise our hands if we had not been raised in a Christian family or raised in the church. Only 6 out of 75 raised their hands. There is something wrong with that picture. We are not called to be salt and light to our Christians friends. We are called to be salt and light to the world. He challenged us to pray long and hard for God to show us how he has gifted us to serve the lost. Then GO! :)
This week I am starting to volunteer with an organization here in which I will be spending a couple hours a week with people (mainly elderly people) in hospitals just keeping them company. I am really excited. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.
The Spanish is getting much better! This is terrible, but for about the first month and half, I barely spoke outside of class. I was too embarrassed and nervous to make mistakes. But, in the last 2 weeks, I have made friends with some Spaniards who have helped bunches. Once you get to know people, and they understand your level of Spanish it isn't nearly as hard to talk. :)
Today is a national holiday. Everyone goes to the graves of people that they knew and leaves flowers, etc. As a result, we don't have school. Therefore, I am blogging! But, right now, I need to get some major reading done for my literature class. It takes about 10 times as long to read in Spanish as it does in English! :)
I miss and love you all dearly! Keep leaving comments, I want to hear from you!
I love Paris!
After our adventures in Rome, we headed to Paris. Can I just say that I LOVE that city! I want to live there so bad, and I can't wait to learn French. :) I bought a French phrase book, and I am starting the learning as we speak...or well, write.
The first day we were in Paris, we went to the Louvre. It was HUGE. We were only there for three, and only saw about 12 famous works. They said that if you stopped and looked at every work for 2 minutes, it would take you 6 months to see everything! Most famous things we saw: the Mona Lisa and Aphrodite. The Mona Lisa is surprisingly small. It is only like 18 inches by 12 inches or something. Still pretty cool to see it in person though. (Obviously, I am not an art guru.) Aphrodite was a statue without arms. I need to do more research before I can really appreciate it!
That first night, we went on a boat cruise around Paris. It was beautiful. Everything in the city is lit up!
The next day it rained horribly. We were going to a walking tour throughout the city, but the weather just didn't cooperate. We left the tour (I felt so bad for the tour guide! I know how that feels!), and did some souvenir shopping. Then we went to see the Notre Dame. By this time, this was like our 10th Cathedral. They start to look the same. However, this one had a lot more stained glass windows, and they were extremely intricate. We left there, got some lunch, and headed to the Arc de Triumph. So cool! It is much bigger than it appears in pictures. In the afternoon, Alicia (my roommate) and I headed outside of the city on the RER in order to go to the nearest Build-A-Bear. She collects them, so she had to get one to commemorate her time in Europe. It was a fun little adventure.
That night, we went to the Eiffel Tower. I was speechless. It is really beautiful for just being a metal tower. :) It sparkles every hour, so we watched it and took some pictures, then went up to the top of the tower. It is incredibly high up. All of the biggest buildings look like teeny tiny miniature models. The tower wobbles a bit on time especially because it is extremely windy up there. Still terrific though!
I tried to make this one a bit shorter than the last one! Hope you enjoyed the summary! Miss you guys!
The first day we were in Paris, we went to the Louvre. It was HUGE. We were only there for three, and only saw about 12 famous works. They said that if you stopped and looked at every work for 2 minutes, it would take you 6 months to see everything! Most famous things we saw: the Mona Lisa and Aphrodite. The Mona Lisa is surprisingly small. It is only like 18 inches by 12 inches or something. Still pretty cool to see it in person though. (Obviously, I am not an art guru.) Aphrodite was a statue without arms. I need to do more research before I can really appreciate it!
That first night, we went on a boat cruise around Paris. It was beautiful. Everything in the city is lit up!
The next day it rained horribly. We were going to a walking tour throughout the city, but the weather just didn't cooperate. We left the tour (I felt so bad for the tour guide! I know how that feels!), and did some souvenir shopping. Then we went to see the Notre Dame. By this time, this was like our 10th Cathedral. They start to look the same. However, this one had a lot more stained glass windows, and they were extremely intricate. We left there, got some lunch, and headed to the Arc de Triumph. So cool! It is much bigger than it appears in pictures. In the afternoon, Alicia (my roommate) and I headed outside of the city on the RER in order to go to the nearest Build-A-Bear. She collects them, so she had to get one to commemorate her time in Europe. It was a fun little adventure.
That night, we went to the Eiffel Tower. I was speechless. It is really beautiful for just being a metal tower. :) It sparkles every hour, so we watched it and took some pictures, then went up to the top of the tower. It is incredibly high up. All of the biggest buildings look like teeny tiny miniature models. The tower wobbles a bit on time especially because it is extremely windy up there. Still terrific though!
I tried to make this one a bit shorter than the last one! Hope you enjoyed the summary! Miss you guys!
When in Rome...
So, we are back-tracking a little bit here. :) At the end of September and beginning of October we had a week off of school in which 10 of us girls went to Rome and Paris. It was amazing! So amazing in fact, that I didn't really now how I could condense it all into one blog. :) But, here goes!
In Rome, the first night we were there we did a night walk around the city. We saw the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps (in Italy...I know) as well as some of the more famous buildings such as the Pantheon (from the outside of course). We also made a wonderful stop at the world-famous gelato shop Giolitti's. Sooooo good! I even made friends with one of their Italian waiters. haha! He gave us special seats inside, kissed me on the cheek like 4 times, and kept saying, "Ciao, Bella!" Oh, dear...it was a riot.
The second day, we went to the Colisseum in the morning. What history! Wow. I can't believe how old it is and the activities that took place there. They told us that throughout history there were "only 80" people who died, but on one of the sides of the Colisseum they erected a cross years later to commemorate the people who lost their lives. Also, fighting as a gladiator to the death was a way for slaves to be freed. If they won, they were free. I also found it interesting that the games were a sort of political propaganda for the emperor who wanted to make the citizens feel like they had power as the sort of "god" of the games. The emperor had the opportunity to give mercy to the gladiators and let them go without dying at any point in the fights. He would put his hand up in a specific gesture that would signify mercy or no mercy. However, he would purposely choose whatever the crowds did not want, then the crowd would shout, and he would change the decision. This of course made the crowd feel as though they had power over all including the emperor and the life or death of the gladiator. Interesting.
To kill some time, we headed to St. Peter in Chains Church which houses Michaelangelo's Moses (a HUGE sculpture of Moses) as well as the supposed chains of Peter when he was imprisoned and the angel came and freed him without the guards taking notice. It was so strange to be in all of these places that are from the Biblical time period. Seeing as the history of the United States is relatively young, it was hard to imagine how long ago all of this took place.
We walked across the stones to Domitian's old palace which now lies in ruins as nothing more than some pillars and half stone walls. This palace in its day was covered completely in marble and was the most beautiful site in all of Rome. Interesting fact about the marble: Domitian was so paranoid of being murdered he had the marble polished daily so that he could see the reflection of any attacker at any moment. Ironic fact: He was killed by his wife. The palace sat on the highest hill for all to admire. However, when the 'Christians' and barbarians entered and conquered Rome, they destroyed everything and took all of the marble for the Vatican City. (Not so surprisingly, the Roman citizens do not have a high opinion of the Vatican City.) Seeing this "palace" reminded me of just how utterly short our time is here, and just how true Christ's words are: "Do not store up your treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Domitian's life looks pretty sad from today's point of view.
We ate a crazy little Italian restaurant that wouldn't let us share our food with one another, but we did it anyway. haha! Then we went to an elevator that goes to the top of a building which is the highest point in Rome. We took a look at the city for bit, and then headed to see the Pantheon which is the only building in its time that wasn't destroyed during the invasions. Inside is the painter Raphael's grave.
Oh dear, this blog is getting long. Sorry, I didn't think there was this much to write! Well, to sum up, the following day we went to the Vatican City and saw St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum, but no Pope. There was a heck of a lot of marble and really expensive artwork (especially for a church to have)! :) My sentiments in leaving the Vatican City: I sometimes wonder if we aren't missing the point of the church when we are storing up our treasures on earth just as much as everyone else.
Well, this was pretty much my three day trip to Rome in a nutshell. I think I only left out a couple of details. haha. If you wanna know more, just comment! :) I will be sure to make the following blogs shorter, so people actually read them and get to the bottom to read things like what I am writing now. haha. Thanks for reading!
In Rome, the first night we were there we did a night walk around the city. We saw the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps (in Italy...I know) as well as some of the more famous buildings such as the Pantheon (from the outside of course). We also made a wonderful stop at the world-famous gelato shop Giolitti's. Sooooo good! I even made friends with one of their Italian waiters. haha! He gave us special seats inside, kissed me on the cheek like 4 times, and kept saying, "Ciao, Bella!" Oh, dear...it was a riot.
The second day, we went to the Colisseum in the morning. What history! Wow. I can't believe how old it is and the activities that took place there. They told us that throughout history there were "only 80" people who died, but on one of the sides of the Colisseum they erected a cross years later to commemorate the people who lost their lives. Also, fighting as a gladiator to the death was a way for slaves to be freed. If they won, they were free. I also found it interesting that the games were a sort of political propaganda for the emperor who wanted to make the citizens feel like they had power as the sort of "god" of the games. The emperor had the opportunity to give mercy to the gladiators and let them go without dying at any point in the fights. He would put his hand up in a specific gesture that would signify mercy or no mercy. However, he would purposely choose whatever the crowds did not want, then the crowd would shout, and he would change the decision. This of course made the crowd feel as though they had power over all including the emperor and the life or death of the gladiator. Interesting.
To kill some time, we headed to St. Peter in Chains Church which houses Michaelangelo's Moses (a HUGE sculpture of Moses) as well as the supposed chains of Peter when he was imprisoned and the angel came and freed him without the guards taking notice. It was so strange to be in all of these places that are from the Biblical time period. Seeing as the history of the United States is relatively young, it was hard to imagine how long ago all of this took place.
We walked across the stones to Domitian's old palace which now lies in ruins as nothing more than some pillars and half stone walls. This palace in its day was covered completely in marble and was the most beautiful site in all of Rome. Interesting fact about the marble: Domitian was so paranoid of being murdered he had the marble polished daily so that he could see the reflection of any attacker at any moment. Ironic fact: He was killed by his wife. The palace sat on the highest hill for all to admire. However, when the 'Christians' and barbarians entered and conquered Rome, they destroyed everything and took all of the marble for the Vatican City. (Not so surprisingly, the Roman citizens do not have a high opinion of the Vatican City.) Seeing this "palace" reminded me of just how utterly short our time is here, and just how true Christ's words are: "Do not store up your treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Domitian's life looks pretty sad from today's point of view.
We ate a crazy little Italian restaurant that wouldn't let us share our food with one another, but we did it anyway. haha! Then we went to an elevator that goes to the top of a building which is the highest point in Rome. We took a look at the city for bit, and then headed to see the Pantheon which is the only building in its time that wasn't destroyed during the invasions. Inside is the painter Raphael's grave.
Oh dear, this blog is getting long. Sorry, I didn't think there was this much to write! Well, to sum up, the following day we went to the Vatican City and saw St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum, but no Pope. There was a heck of a lot of marble and really expensive artwork (especially for a church to have)! :) My sentiments in leaving the Vatican City: I sometimes wonder if we aren't missing the point of the church when we are storing up our treasures on earth just as much as everyone else.
Well, this was pretty much my three day trip to Rome in a nutshell. I think I only left out a couple of details. haha. If you wanna know more, just comment! :) I will be sure to make the following blogs shorter, so people actually read them and get to the bottom to read things like what I am writing now. haha. Thanks for reading!
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