Month: January 2017

I was at Johannelund all day with preparations for my teaching tomorrow. I am teaching a second term of an introduction to the Old Testament course for the Bible school. This is the non-accredited program here, so there is wonderful flexibility in what I get to do in the classroom. There are 17 students in the class. I’m excited for this engagement, however, I hear that some of the students are less comfortable with English. I hope I can connect meaningfully. I do get to start right away with the Psalms and with some Praying with Color for a spiritual practice.

I like to hit the ground running and dig into Psalm 1. After we get through some Hebrew poetry literary devices, we’ll be writing some psalms. (Pam, you’ll be interested to know that parts of my exegetical Psalms class project with you continues to be incorporated into these lessons!)

I stayed on campus until a very nice evening dinner for the 17 students who finished a 4.5 year priest training program. (They are called priests here, even though this is a Lutheran program.) In some places, this program might be called a bachelor’s of divinity, but I actually don’t know what it is called here. About two-thirds will be priests in the Church of Sweden and the remaining in the Evangelical Swedish Mission churches throughout Sweden.

I was seated with a nice young priest couple. One was Rebecca, who was the only student to attend both of my research seminars this past fall. We’ve had just a few short but very meaningful connections. It is wonderful to get to know some of the students this fall and be encouraged by the caliber of the people coming out of Johannelund.

(Sorry, Kathi, but I forgot to take pictures!)

I left the campus into a layer of wet snow and some blustery winds. I hope I can get to sleep better tonight as the jet lag is fading. I even tried reading an early history of the Makane Yesus church in Ethiopia, but that didn’t make me tired. (Yes, I will be going to Ethiopia in February, so I am a little interested.)

With blessings,

Beth

The morning started with a difficult dragging of a jet-lagged body out of bed to give an exam for the end of the Introduction to the Old Testament course that I’ve been co-teaching.

The Swedish educational system is a bit different. Students have 5 opportunities to take and pass the exam. So, there were students there today who did not take the mid-term, so I had to have a revised mid-term available. Also, there were some students who did not pass the mid-term, so they retook all or portions of the mid-term. However, one was feeling bad with a cold, so he opted to not finish the course now but to resit the mid-term later. I have to figure out how the publishing of the re-sit examination dates get to these students. The school gets paid when students finish the course with a passing grade, so it is incumbent upon the school to get students completed.

In the USA, you must complete the coursework, arrange for an incomplete, or take the course again. There is a financial cost to paying for a course and not passing or completing it. Here, there is no tuition and no fees to pay for a resit of an exam. The financial consequences of not passing or completing are born by the institution. However, students can graduate–or in our case–get ordained without completing their course requirements. So, there is still an important goal.

I spent the afternoon studying for my final exam for my Swedish for Academics course. I studied a little too long, and with my jet-lagged brain reading military time, I missed the first hour of the exam–the listening comprehension part! Well, I don’t think I would have done well on that part anyway, and it ended up leaving me actually less stressed for the last two hours of writing.

I think I did reasonably well on the grammar parts and the reading comprehension. The written essay was more challenging, because we didn’t have access to a dictionary. I had to use words that I could pull out of my head and spell fairly accurately. I think I actually used avslut (“close”) when I should have used beslut (“decision”). When I write for my homework, I also use my computer, which has a spell and grammar checker. Perhaps the essay is passable, but barely.

In retrospect, I should have been in level 2, but I made the best beslut with what I knew, trusting the teacher’s evaluation of my placement test.

I have 4 more tries to pass the exam (!)–if I want to make the effort. There is nothing binding for me with the grade, so I may not even try to complete the listening comprehension part.

I biked home and stopped to take a picture of the Epiphany lights still in the windows here. The lights are displayed through Epiphany. I understand Epiphany, but that was Dec. 12. I have to learn why the lights continue to be lit. There is something about January 20 on the calendar … humm.

I celebrated the end of the term with an opening of part of my Christmas present from Anya.

If you don’t know what a baobab tree looks like, here a beautiful sunset from our travels to Tanzania this summer.

I’m wide awake but need to sleep. Anya meant to have an hour nap this afternoon but woke up about 6 hours later! Jet lag does strange things!

With blessings,

Beth

Life is not fun when you’re jet-lagged. Anya and I are adjusting with opposite schedules. I saw her for half-a-minute as I passed on on the path while biking home from work. I stopped and chatted, as well as greeted her friend who just flew in from Luxembourg.

In the morning, I biked to my class to find out that I missed the email sent to my work account. At least it got me up in the morning and active.

I worked on Swedish, studying for the rest of the morning back at home. After lunch, I went off to revise my draft exams with my co-teacher. The will be given tomorrow morning. My brain was thick, and I wasn’t tracking well. Let’s just say that I wasn’t stellar.

I am still trying to figure out what my role is for overseeing reading courses. I tried to respond to emails with my limited knowledge. I replied in English as my jet-lagged head couldn’t process the Swedish efficiently enough. I was starting to get discouraged, but I realized I must not entertain these thoughts while jet-lagged.

I biked home (the Anya sighting) and worked on Swedish review as far as I could go with my transitional time zone brain. Anya is out with friends to keep her up and to try to adjust to Swedish time.

I might not see Anya in the morning, as I have to be at Johannelund before 8:00 to rearrange the classroom to be more conducive for an exam. Anya starts her school day at 9:45.

My final exam for my Swedish course is tomorrow. I’ll need all the prayers and divine intervention possible!

With blessings,

Beth

We are back home in Uppsala safely. I don’t take it for granted how relatively simple it is to travel internationally–compared to even when my grandparents were my age–especially in well-worn paths. Yet the speed of jets takes its toll as we push ourselves 9 hours ahead.

My first post of this new year comes the day after Epiphany, the celebration of the coming of the magi to the Christ child, perhaps two years after his birth.

We have been traveling in the USA. We had a nice time visiting with Eric’s family in the Monterrey Bay, and then we spent a little over a week in Bellevue and the Seattle area visiting friends and doing a bit of work related to our home and the storage portion of the garage.

I’ll be sharing highlights soon, but not today. If I slow down too much, I will want to sleep!

Blessings on your 2017!

Beth