Month: November 2015

I didn’t post a blog last weekend as I was in Atlanta for the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) conference. This joint conference with the American Academy of Religion draws about 11,000 people from all over the world.

I shared a room in the Marriott, where fortunately most of the sessions I attended were located. My annual roommates are wonderful, fun women, Beth and Carol, who are also Old Testament teachers in higher education.

I was fortunate that my adviser, Knut, comes to the conference a day early to allow time for “supervision.” We spent 7 hours on Friday reviewing my dissertation as it is in this stage of development. He re-read everything, and we discussed how to strengthen my dissertation. One subsection needs to be reworked to a more straight-forward approach, but this isn’t going to be too catastrophic. At then end of the day, he relayed that I was actually farther along than he expected it would be! There is still a lot of work, but I’m cautiously optimistic that I can get him text by the end of December for reading in early January. I’ll work on formatting and checking citations then. After everything is reviewed and revised, then I submit the dissertation. Hopefully, this will be in mid to late January. It takes about 5 months until the public defense. So, hopefully in early June I’ll be defending–if everything goes well!

My former PhD student colleague, Tina (now Dr. Tina), also attended SBL and co-presented a paper with my Norwegian landlord, Rebecca. Another MHS faculty member was there, and later I connected with a faculty colleague at Johannelund in Sweden. I attended his paper presentation, which unfortunately, was at the same time as Tina and Rebecca’s.

Knut also presented a paper.

His three PhD students (two former) were there to hear his paper.

Knut and I both attend the African Biblical Hermeneutics section (hermeneutics, oversimplified, means the philosophy of interpretation). So, here’s Knut showing colleagues some African scholar’s quotations in a new commentary.

Yes, there is a lot of time spent hearing papers read, but there are times to break for meals with friends or see a few local sites. Before things got rolling, Beth and I went to see the Coca-Cola World.

A highlight is tasting all the different flavors from around the world.

Here’s the first one I went to, our beloved Tanzanian ginger soda with a huge kick.

Stoney Tangawezi!

After the conference ended, Beth and I had a bit of time to visit the Ebenezer Baptist Church before departing to the airport. (We were also travel partners, as we both come from the Seattle Area.)

Across the street is a museum. I had to get a picture with one of my heroes, Gandhi. I got a picture with his statue in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa too. (There’s a statue of Gandhi also outside the Bellevue main library!)

It was a great trip, and I’m thankful to the Birkeland Legacy at the School of Mission and Theology for the small grant to pay for my travel expenses.

I’m also grateful for Janet, who comes and stays in our home in the evenings with Anya. Then Anya can have her normal rhythm and sleep well in her own bed. In addition, thanks to Jean and Marv who made the airport runs, filled the gap getting Anya to drivers ed twice in a tight turn around after school, and even got Anya from school when she was sick. As a widowed-single-mom, I’ve learned that I need to ask for help. I’m so grateful for special friends.

We also were with special friends for Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for, and we all shared a few special acknowledgments around the table. Peter and Kristi, Tom and Catherine, and our 5 young women had a great dinner and time together. JaLynn made turkey hoes-d’oeuvres!

You can tell that Anya had a great time braiding hair!

Another notable event(s) of the week was taking out for her practice drives. She’s getting the hang of things quite well as we increase complexity with each drive. She has lots of homework and gymnastics practice, so it is hard finding the time to get on the roads.

Finally, I have been yearning to make something with my hands instead of all the writing, so I took a bit of time this weekend to make a practice balance beam for Anya. It is only about 6 feet long (instead of the official 16 foot version), but with scrap wood, a 50% off coupon for spray adhesive, and 75% off a remnant of fake suede, Anya has a practice beam for less than $10!

With blessings,

Beth

It is much easier to write a blog than a PhD dissertation. Duh. Without really trying, my blog has accumulated 95,138 words since the January this year, prior to this writing.

In contradistinction, I’ve been working on the dissertation, compiling smaller sections since January 2012. But as of 2:00 PM Friday morning, I submitted 82,691 words to my adviser, Knut (including footnotes and bibliography, but not including the appendices which has over 8,000 words). This isn’t finished yet, as there are 2 sub-sections yet to write, and probably much to revise.

I get to see Knut this week in Atlanta at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)conference in Atlanta. Then I’ll get his gracious but challenging critique. That will put me in revision mode and strengthen the last sections of writing.

The SBL is kind of like nerd camp for adults who geek out on biblical studies. I now have a circle of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible women colleagues who have become friends over the years. For once, we get together and the whole group of people are interested in what we do! And we get each others’ jokes! I’ll try to write down some for you and see if they are funny to you!

I’ll also meet with my future Swedish colleague, so it will be good to strengthen my connections there.

So, my next post MAY be from Atlanta, but let’s see if I find any time.

I’ll have two friends here holding down the fort with Anya. Others will be filling gaps with transport and things.

So, most of this week has been feverishly writing, proofing, and preparing the draft dissertation (thus far). Afterwards, it was preparing for the annual lefse party. Lefse is a Norwegian treat that is kind of like a tortilla or chapati that is made from potatoes with wheat flour. It is rolled very thin and dry fried on a large round griddle. With butter and sugar it is delicious! It is one of the few things of our Norwegian heritage that has lasted through 5 generations in the USA.

Janet and I have be doing this since 1992 almost every year. We even rolled lefse in Tanzania when she came to visit!

Fresh lefse that is hot off the griddle and shared with friends was the highlight of the week!

FYI, the last week had visitors to this blog from places I’ve never heard of. I’m hoping to have comments posted from some of you, connecting across cultures, which is one of my intrinsic curiosities and joys of life.

• Bellevue, Washington, 6
• Moscow, Moscow, 5
• Samara, Samara Oblast, 3
• (not set), 2
• Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1
• Dmitrov, Moscow Oblast, 1
• Duluth, Minnesota, 1
• Elista, Kalmykia, 1
• Ipswich, England, 1
• Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast,
• Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, 1
• Kyiv, Kyiv city, 1
• Linyi, Shandong, 1
• London, England, 1
• Memphis, Tennessee, 1
• New York, New York, 1
• Nice, Provence-Alpes-Cote Azur, 1
• Novocheboksarsk, Chuvashia Republic, 1
• Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Oblast, 1
• Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast,
• Odessa, Odessa Oblast, 1
• Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1
• Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, 1
• Savigny-sur-Orge, Ile-de-France, 1
• Seattle, Washington, 1
• Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, 1
• Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, 1
• Tomsk, Tomsk Oblast, 1
• Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast, 1
• Yegoryevsk, Moscow Oblast, 1
• Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, 1

With blessings,

Beth

I’ve got a clear deadline for submitting text to my adviser, Knut. I need to send it Thursday night, Nov. 12. So then, he has time to read it before we meet in Atlanta on the 20th of Nov. We’ll both be attending the annual conference of the  Society of Biblical Literature (yes, it sounds really nerdy). I even got a grant from the School of Mission and Theology to cover my travel expenses, which is great now that I’m unemployed.

So now, I’m trying to be more diligent (and kicking myself a bit harder when I’m not). But all the intensity, mental convolutions, self-critique, and self-doubt is making me a bit loopy. On Tuesday, I thought, “This is cr-p.” And I’m not one to use language like this, so I can tell this is getting mental! Thanks for all your prayers.

If everything goes well, I’ll have text of all but 2 sections of my second to last chapter still to do after the 12th. That should leave the rest of November and most of December for those last 2 sections, revisions, final formatting issues, and citation checks. I think it may happen, but I’ve been delusional about my goals all along!

I am still very appreciative of this journey, the opportunity to learn, what I’m learning, etc. It is just a crazy process. The biblical texts are fascinating. I’m discovering new things all the time, but I’m also running into challenges as to what to do with some of the things that I didn’t expect.

Anya had a week between soccer and the start of gymnastics (tomorrow), so she did some projects for me to earn some money with the bit of extra time. She was happy to visit the new UNIQLO (Japanese clothing) store that opened in the big Bellevue Square mall.

She had her first week of driver’s training classes, so now when we drive, I get the verbal commentary of all the signs that we’re passing!

 

Today after church, I was at a celebration of 20 years of the MaaSAE Girls Lutheran Secondary School and 50 years of Operation Bootstrap Africa, which coordinates the sponsorship for the students. I was asked to make the chai.

The featured speaker was a graduate from the MaaSAE Girls School, who told a sobering tale of overcoming the discouragement and attempts from her father and brothers to stop her education, including the traditional doctor’s medicine to make her fail, in order to marry her off and get the cows for her. She is the only one of more than 40 siblings (her dad had 7 wives) to go to secondary school! Now she is a senior at Concordia College and doing her student teaching with plans to go back and teach at the school. Amazing story! Amazing what education can do! Education is the power to unlock hope and be free to dream! Kalai is now free from a forced marriage. She has now earned the respect of her family. She will now be a huge blessing to her family and to her students!

With regard to a different kind of freedom, I have been freed from buying stuff. It is interesting being 8 or 9 months away from moving to Sweden. While we still need food, toothpaste, and the basics, I have a great sense of freedom from stuff! For Christmas, I’ve asked family just to make a donation to Eric’s memorial scholarship, so I haven’t been very stuff-centric, but now, it is even moreso a sense of freedom of making purchases because of my own desire. However, we still have stuff we’ll have to sort through and dispense of much of it, but I’ll deal with that after my dissertation is submitted!

But I close each day with half-an-hour of Swedish with Duolingo. Here’s my status:

If you don’t know about Duolingo, here’s the link to the story.

With blessings,

Beth

 

Yes, Anya now has her driver’s permit. Her first lesson is Monday night. It is great that two friends from the Spanish immersion schools and recreation soccer team ended up signing up for the same classes! They are all diligent students, so while it will be fun to be with friends, they won’t be distracted from the lessons.

This week, I incredulously signed Anya up for gymnastics at her high school. I am flabbergasted that she is interested in this. I discussed it with her several times over the preceding weeks. She has talked with others on the soccer team who do gymnastics and is assured that there are others who have joined with little or no previous experience. I salute her desire to stay active while developing flexibility and strength. I’m still a bit unsure of this, but I support her spirit and courage.

This week I received emails from the new and former rektors at Johannelund, my future employer (if all comes to fruition). It is good to keep connected and know that I’m still on their thoughts!

Speaking of Sweden… This week, I donated my drum set to my church. I’m starting to think of downsizing for the move next summer, and for tax purposes, it makes sense to donate them this year. So, it is a little loss already for the transition, though I really hadn’t been playing since just before Eric’s death in 2010.

That segues into the next item. Thursday was our wedding anniversary. It would have been 20 years. Yet we know that Eric is free, and God has been gracious to us.

On Thursday, I submitted my next major section (Exodus 34:1-9) to my wonderful proofer/editors. Thanks Marv and Mom! You are so wonderful to help in such major way! It takes a community to write a book!

Friday was Halloween. This was the first time that Anya wasn’t able to go around the neighborhood with her friends and their younger siblings. So, it was a bit of a disappointment for her, because she made a beautiful dress for a costume. But she had a great time handing out candy to our five groups or a total of about 20-24 trick-or-treaters that came to our door.

On Sunday mornings, I often get out for a long walk before showering for church. The fall colors were beautiful. We are so blessed to have green belts close to home. The Wewona Park is a wooded area that many are surprised to discover inside the city limits. It seems like it belongs in the foothills of the mountains with the majestic Western red cedars. I saw a red-headed woodpecker this morning! Last Sunday, I heard an owl. However, I am amazed how many people I see out on a walk but then have their smart phones out.

After church, I went with my friend, Scott, to the UW play, The Cradle will Rock. He was the music director. I had heard about how he had adapted the score to work for this context. It was so masterful that most people never would know that there was a major adaptation. It was great to see a play that was well done, had an important message of how money is power that can corrupt much of society, and was connected to a friend. The first time the play was performed–on the same day as being locked out of one theater–was in 1937. Today in attendance, was an 83-year-old man, who saw the play when he was 5 years old. After the performance, he talked a bit with the cast and Scott.

This week, I’m working on Numbers 14:1-39–consequences for not trusting God! The texts always move me deeply, so we’ll see what happens!

With blessings,

Beth