Month: August 2017

I think we all have wondered what crazy mistakes we can make with just a couple extra key strokes on the computer. Well, when tired and working in the Moodle program that I don’t know really well, I ended up with 887 extra topics added to my course page for my Introduction to the Old Testament course! And it didn’t question my sanity! Yes, on one course page, the Moodle program allowed me to add 888 topics, when I was only planning to add 1! Beyond perhaps 25 topics, even 100 topics, don’t you think there should be a little reality check with a pop-up box asking, “Do you really want to add 888 topics to this course?” A nice way of saying, “Are you really that crazy!?!”

Unfortunately, it takes about 20-25 seconds to delete each extra topic. I tried to search for a multiple delete option, but I didn’t find one. So, these next few days when I’m streaming PBS news or YouTube videos on carving marble statues or traditional Japanese wood joinery, I’m deleted topics from the Moodle page. I have only 733 more to go.

If life wasn’t so full right now, it wouldn’t be much of an issue, as it is something to twiddle with while streaming something. And tonight, the task gave me a reason after several very full days to watch the news and some amazing skill that creates beautiful works .

There were new students to meet on Monday with orientation sessions. On Tuesday, we had our opening convocation to launch the academic year. Our inaugural presentation of the award given for the strongest bachelor’s essay in exegetical theology was awarded to Johanna, and there was a wonderful sense from the community that this is a good thing, especially for students who will be continuing their studies in international programs. I took Johanna to lunch, and I came up with a brilliant idea. She wants to keep her Hebrew active, and I have one student, Lena, who will be studying Hebrew independently by watching lessons on a DVD and working through the workbook. So, Johanna agreed–and was eager–to be a resource for Lena via phone/Skype. (They actually live on almost the opposite ends of Sweden!) I love win-win situations!

Every other spare during these days moment was spent preparing for lessons on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, I had three, 45 minute sessions on building a bridge from the Old Testament “then” to “now,” with a healthy dose of motivation to encourage preaching and teaching from the Old Testament. Half were my students from last fall, so that was fun. They know my integration of small group discussion questions with large group debriefing. I also tried the “devil’s advocate” role playing, which a great way to engage critical thinking, a teaching strategy modeled to me by an excellent Fuller seminary prof. (Thanks, Charlie!) I think it went quite well, and not just because the case study from my PhD research resulted in two students wondering where they could get my PhD dissertation to read. In fact, one told me that it is now posted for pre-sale for an Oct. 15 availability. Wow! That surprised me. But with the $85 price tag, I told these folks that if they wanted to read a bit, the PhD defense copy is in the library. I told them that I could email them the executive summary and save them slogging through reading a whole book of difficult academic language. The best thing for me was the conversations that this stimulated. One student is renewed in her desire to study the Hebrew language and more Old Testament. Another is going to start some Bible studies on OT books at his church. Wonderful!

Today, Thursday, I had 4.5 hours of class on the first day of Introduction to the Old Testament. What a long time to be at the top of my game, especially when I’m always assessing my speech to try to use simplified vocabulary. Other than ending with a dehydration headache, it went quite well. The exercises, activities, conversation groups intersected the presentations (most with bilingual PowerPoint slides), and used to strategically develop key points. There were some encouraging words, and even an email after class from a student. So, it seems I was able to get them interested in studying the Old Testament and be willing to engage learning in “out of the box” ways.

My main concern is for one student who is an immigrant with an Iranian background. He is fluent in Swedish, but not in English. He can engage the reading, writing and taking exams purely in Swedish, but obviously the classroom time is not helpful. Please pray that I can figure out some creative solution to support his learning beyond the book. I’ll be following up with him tomorrow.

However, first, I’ll be off to my Swedish tutoring. Lennart is helping me translate the methods summary handouts to be bilingual. With students who aren’t comfortable in English, this is so important!

With blessings,

Beth

The end of the summer always seems to go so fast. The sun is setting earlier now, at 8:30! It seems like last week, it set at 9:30! This gives me a slight sense of dread for the dark (and colder) winters. However, I try to reframe it and remember all the beautiful, long summer days that I’ve enjoyed.

Anya had a last hurrah for the summer and went with a friend to the main amusement park in our area in Stockholm. It is a beautiful location on an island. She had a grand time, and brought back some treats from Stockholm.

Anya first found Miracle Whip (yes, I grew up in the Midwest) at the American store in Stockholm and surprised me for my birthday earlier in the summer. I asked her to pick up another bottle on this trip, not knowing how much it cost. At $9.82 for 12 ounces, I think I’ll switch to mayo! Anya loves bubble tea, so she now has tapioca to try to make her own.

While she was away in Stockholm, I worked at home and went to the gym. I bought a book (Kindle version) that I can’t find in a local library, which I started to read on the exercise bike.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos is calling for not only seeing the validity of other ways of knowing beyond scientific empiricism, but also recognizing that the diverse ways of knowing are a critical asset to integrate with “Western” ways of knowing to more adequately address the challenges of today. He is insightful and provocative in a constructive way. If you have 24 minutes to hear some main points, here’s a link to a YouTube presentation of his from 2012, Spaces of Transformation: Epistemologies of the South.

I’m integrating his viewpoints to challenge the Swedish perspective that biblical studies must be “scientific” in order to be a valid academic discipline. This is “textbook” Modernity, which privileges a historical analysis and dismisses any faith perspective and other “non-rational” approaches. However, as supposedly objective researchers (this is a fallacy) of historical texts in a scientist ethos, there is no ethical dimension to interpretation.

I contrast, I align myself with Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza on this issue. In her 1987 Society of Biblical Literature Presidential Address, she writes:

“The reconceptualization of biblical studies in rhetorical rather than scientist terms would provide a research framework not only for integrating historical, archaeological, sociological, literary, and theological approaches as perspectival readings of texts but also for raising ethical-political and religious-theological questions as constitutive of the interpretive process.”
(Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “The Ethics of Biblical Interpretation: Decentering Biblical Scholarship,” Journal of Biblical Literature 104 (1988): 13.)

That was 40 years ago. So, at the University of Lund next month, I will make a presentation that challenges the exegetical theology approach in Sweden, saying that the international conversation (both Western and Global) has moved a scientist ethos, and ethically, we must too. Furthermore, we would be foolish to limit ourselves from considering other wisdom just because it is not within our established ways of knowing. (I also challenge the perspective that simply using established methodology can determine knowledge, drawing from Naomi Oreskes’ criteria of “consensus,” which most theologians would agree is rare in our disciplines.)

This paper was my major focus yesterday, but I also had a character reference request from one of my former students at Maasai Girls School, the first Maasai woman medical doctor. She needed another reference for an application to a surgical program, in addition to her current supervisor. We have kept in touch over the years. She even traveled with me and my church group last summer for 5 days, as well as our many shorter times together during previous visits. So, I felt I could give an accurate character appraisal. I think she is an amazing young woman, who has wisely and respectfully navigated the transition from a very traditional context (her father doesn’t even speak Kiswahili) to thriving in a modern, urban context. As a teacher, there are some students that you feel privileged to have taught; she is one!

On Friday, Anya was excited to pick up a package at our local grocery store’s mail desk. She bought a used knitting machine (from northern Ireland) on eBay. She had to try it out, which was a bit of distraction from her summer project for the International Baccalaureate program, her extended essay.

With blessings,

Beth

Things are rolling now. Monday started with time in the office, but in the afternoon, I went to the Nordic African Institute Library and checked out 5 books on African knowledge systems. This was the first day the library was open. (I’m working on a paper on multi-dimentional exegesis.)

On the way back, I walked my bike through the big botanical garden (there are two in Uppsala).

On Tuesday, most of the Johannelund employees went to a Lutheran convent for a workshop. This was my second time, and I actually gave my summer report in mostly Swedish. It was a shorter summary than if I did it in English, but I got my point across, clarifying that I still speak better than my audio-comprehension.

The sisters provide some great hospitality and food. They grow the fruits and vegetables.

Our last session was a short worship service in the church.

I appreciate diversity in worship, but when the native Swedes had a hard time following the chanting, I decided to give up.

After a fika, we had a group photo and headed home.

I was tired from a full day of listening to Swedish, but this is getting back to work here.

Wednesday was a full day of faculty meetings–with all but one in Swedish. These are more frustrating, because these are issues that I would really like to track carefully, and I can’t.

It has been a whole year here. Sometimes I wonder if my audio-comprehension is much better, or perhaps it is just that my frustration is greater.

The highlight of the day was getting approval for a proposal I initiated in developing an award for excellence in exegetical theology (OT and NT biblical interpretation). Awards are not part of the culture of this social democracy, but I stated that it was important for students who are applying to international programs in order to help demonstrate their capacity for graduate study. My NT colleague stated that we currently have 5 alumni in the UK at places like Oxford and Edinburgh (and then he whispered to me that they were all biblical studies students!).

The award was approved, and my NT colleague (the second reader) and I both agreed (previously) that my OT student clearly deserved the award (and it was the only woman in the bunch, and she juggled her studies as a a mother of three and half-time teacher of Swedish to refugees). Now, I want to help her find a master’s program in OT, as she loves studying the Hebrew Bible and is more gifted in her bachelors thesis than I think I was writing at a master’s level (as well as being a well-grounded woman of faith). However, she needs to study via distance, as she lived up by the Arctic Circle, where her husband is a pastor. Oh, I wish somehow Fuller’s MAT (a distance program) would work for her, and I showed it to her, but she’ll probably end up in a reading program that is more affordable here in Sweden.

Off to close the day with a Swedish lesson on Duolingo, and get a good night’s sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s full day of meetings in Swedish.

With blessings,

Beth

I started back–officially–to work on Wednesday this week. However, I’ve been plugging away at a moderate pace for much of the time since my guests left. I’m not very good at keeping strict boundaries, but basically, I know it is going to be a busy 10 weeks, followed by a lighter 10. So, I want to be prepared for a good start, and I can balance out a bit in November and December. The good news is that it is meaningful work, and I get to learn quite a bit along the way.

The other main parts of life have been:

• Swedish language learning, with conversation partners in addition to my personal language study;
• Hitting the gym (though I’m also reading for new course preparation on the exercise bike);
• One more round of editing my manuscript. I have the layout with final (probably) pagination, so I can go through and fill in the “see page XXX” with “see page 134” and it will point the two readers (who are crazy enough to read the book) to the right page. I hired Anya to help with some indexing tasks too.

I don’t expect many readers to slog through the book. However, the book is in a series, Bible and Theology in Africa, which means that some libraries may purchase it. A few researchers may find parts interesting, such as when I read parts of others’ dissertations for my research, and on a few occasions the entire book. For most people, reading the executive summary and perhaps part of the final chapter will be sufficient. I have told my Maasai informants that I’m going to dedicate all of my royalties to education for Maasai students. I feel this is a great way to honor their contribution. The royalties won’t be much, but I’ll continue to support Maasai students regardless.

I used to think it was strange to put in so much effort for such little probable readership, but then someone explained it to me as being not the destination but the journey. The dissertation is primarily for my development–which definitely happened. The publishing for me is icing on the cake.

On Friday, it was a perfect day, warm in the mid-70’s with a breeze. There were few clouds. In the afternoon, I had some textbook reading time in the hammock, but I also opened my windows next to my computer desk while I reviewed the manuscript edits. The two glass panes are quite large. When they are both open, there is a space about 5.5 feet wide by 4 feet high of nothingness right next to my desk. The breeze was idyllic, for sitting there in a short-sleeved shirt, with a row of trees just a bit beyond the window.

With blessings,

Beth

The beginning of August marks 1 year in Sweden. How does one evaluate a year?

Anya: As a parent, one key aspect is the well-being of one’s offspring. Anya has thrived, but not without reasonable and typical challenges. She has matured and become more independent in many ways. She is looking forward to going back to school and resuming pole vaulting this month.

Professionally: The major challenge is being limited in Swedish, but generally, things seem reasonably effective in the classroom. The language issues are somewhat compensated by collaborative classroom learning, growing bi-lingual PowerPoints, and just that the students know that I deeply care for them. There were some good classroom moments, to balance out the perpetual language limitations and challenges. More on language below.

There were some good opportunities for professional development, including trips with speaking or presentations outside of Sweden in Norway, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and USA. There were also four academic conferences attended (with one paper given) in Sweden (three completely in English) and a couple Swedish Evangelical Mission conferences with a bit of speaking. The year includes 3 papers and a dissertation in the final stages of submission for publication.

Overall: I am right now in quite a good spot with good contentment, meaningful work, cherished colleagues and others friends for a growing sense of community, a sense that I can contribute to make a difference, and good health with regular exercise.

The main challenge is the Swedish. I dreamed last night that I was back in my Swedish course at Uppsala University, and I had shown up in my pajamas. It doesn’t take too much to interpret my sense of humiliation in that course! Ugh.

I did an online vocabulary test this week. I have the equivalent of an 8-year-old vocabulary. However, my speaking fluency would be less.

My professional reading and writing is still overwhelmingly English. So, it will be a slower on-ramp to fluency.

I also love the summers in Uppsala. There is a mellow pace with a lot of people gone, and the average high is 73 degrees in July. It is lovely. I can sit in the hammock and read at least for part of most of the days. Recently it was a bit rainy, so more indoor reading. And the last book I read, one for fun on my vacation time. (I read several work-related books on my vacation time too.)

Thanks to you for all the prayers and encouragement over the past year. I still need the prayers on the language learning. I’m sure other things will be challenging as well. But, I do see why I’m here, and see the contribution I can make as part of an educational ministry.

Prayer request: On Wednesday, my mother fell down the stairs while bringing laundry up from the basement. She broke an ankle and is still hospitalized. Other doctors are still figuring out the best plan for treatment for her recurring cancer for when she is able to begin treatments. Please keep her in your prayers.

With blessings,

Beth