Author: Velkommen

On Saturday, I submitted my hopefully final draft of my PhD dissertation to my adviser. It has a total of 99, 130 words which can be included in the word count to meet the requirement of 100,000 words (+/- 10%). There are also 44 pages of appendices. (My blog has a total of only 97,737 prior to this post, which were all from 2015. Quite a prolific year!)

The push at the end was hard-won. It isn’t perfect, as it would never be perfect, but it was fine to send to my adviser. I still have work to do this week while he reads it and compiles a list of edits and recommended changes. I’ll be working more on citation checks.

After I finally submit, there will be some preparations for the defense, including reading quite a bit of the works of the defense committee members. However, my focus will turn to learning Swedish for teaching this fall in Sweden. I’ll also get out my Christmas cards, which were delayed from dissertation crunch preparations.

It’s been a while since my last post. Yes, I’ve been a bit busy. So, here are some of the breaks I took from writing.

Other noteworthy events, especially because they revolve around Anya!

(I stayed home and took a nap and savored the gift of the Sabbath.)

Blessings for 2016,

Beth

My apologies that my blog is being neglected. I’m on the last mile of this four-year marathon to a PhD. I need to get completed text to my adviser on January 1! Aaargh!

While he is reading the 100,000 words (plus or minus 10%), I’ll be doing more citation checks, formatting, and proofing. So, I hope to emerge on January 15 in a state of completion. The dissertation won’t be perfect, but it will be strong and completed!

I cherish your prayers for these next three weeks.

With blessings,

Beth

Anya continues to be busy with her classes, including 3 AP courses. Her AP World History course project with a collection of short essays was selected by her class as the best researched. She thought that no one took the time to read them, so somehow her essays looked impressive!

After school is gymnastics. She’s has less than one month of gymnastics experience but had a good experience at the first meet on Thursday at Newport High School. The other young women are very kind and encouraging of beginners. She was able to see two friends from elementary through middle school and her past recreational soccer league who are doing gymnastics at Newport.

After gymnastics is homework, with drivers ed on Monday and Saturdays. We fit driving time in here and there.

I have been a busy beaver with my dissertation writing. I MUST get the writing finished by the end of the month! I really need to defend in the first week of June (in Norway), so with an estimated 5 months delay (the 3 “opponents” get 3 months to read it), it makes a pretty tight window for Knut to review and my final revisions. If you have room for an extra prayer or two, please put this in your prayers.

I did take a couple study breaks. I took Jean and Marv out to dim sum to thank them for all their support with proofing and filling in gaps with Anya care. Our conversation also helped me clarify some issues as I was able to talk through things with people who are informed about this project. Marv has proofed all of the approximate 78,000 words. This is such a HUGE blessing.

I also met Pam and Charlie for “fika” which is a Swedish tradition for coffee and pastry (tea for me). Pam and Charlie were both professors at Fuller Seminary, but I was fortunate to have mentoring in Hebrew from Pam and theological anthropology from Charlie, and both have provided professional and academic guidance. They continue to provide great encouragement, as they listened to the current phase of this PhD journey. They both have be PhD advisers for others, so they know this journey better than I do and from both sides. I wouldn’t be on this journey without them, so I am so grateful for their investment in me.

In the midst of the grey, rainy overcast of the Pacific Northwest, I have a bit of spring. My orchid is is bloom. I’ve never had orchid rebloom! I feel so Nordic, as it seems that most of the homes in Norway have an orchid in the window!

So, off to more revisions!

With blessings,

Beth

Have you heard the saying that “Normal is just a setting on the dryer”?

Well, this week was “normal.” This means that for Anya it was full of school, gymnastics practice, drivers’ ed, and not much else. We did sneak in a movie at home last weekend with Anya’s friend, Annaliese. And on Saturday evening, we joined the Tanzanian Mission Team for a Christmas party. It was a great time of wonderful food and sweet fellowship. The highlight is the white elephant gift exchange. Anya was pleased with the outcome!

Her ingenious mind was seen when she negotiated with one of the youth, Alex, to get his second pare of identical Grinch boxers in exchange for the pick of all the available gifts. Pretty good strategy!

I’m working on PhD dissertation writing still. I made almost all of Knut’s suggestions for revisions that I could at this time. One sub-section will take more effort. However, I completed my textual criticism of all my focal passages. This means looking at the issues that arise from the variant readings to see which ones are significant for interpreting the passage. Take a look at a sample page from the Biblical Hebraica Stuttgartensia, which is the standard version of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

The variant readings are listed in the bottom paragraph. Its a bit of decoding and then evaluating if the different texts are significant for meaning. Nothing really exciting seen in my texts, though there are some obvious harmonizing of the Deuteronomy 5 version of the Ten Commandments with the Exodus 20 version. The most interesting difference (the theological rationale for the Sabbath) isn’t part of my discussion.

Did you know that these two books have two different rationales for the Sabbath? Compare Exod 20:11 (ESV)

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And Deut 5:15 (ESV)

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

The good news is that we are given the gift of the Sabbath. Are you enjoying the gift? I love to take a long walk on Sunday morning before church. Here are pictures from this last walk.

With blessings,

Beth

 

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

My friend, Scott, gave me the terminology “strategic procrastination” for sometimes putting aside the priority for a bit while other things–but good things–are accomplished. Yes, there was some strategic procrastination this week, but I got stuck in my argumentation a bit. I had to step back and think through my approach. I finally figured it out and was able to progress, but then it was time to prepare for the Tanzania mission team youth movie night at our home.

I forgot to get a picture of us all making Chinese dumplings, jiao zi, or boiled “pot stickers” like my friend, Ruth, from Beijing taught me. However, the preparation took longer, because I had to snake the kitchen sink drain.

I do have a picture of the sweatshirts that I screen printed for Anya’s soccer team, which then each rubber banded their item for tie dying. Interesting that a uniform look can be individualized–and have fun doing it! A post-modern touch. It isn’t the most flattering picture of Anya, but she wouldn’t let me take her picture at other times.

Thursday night was her last home game for this season. Anya played well and was excited with all the events for the seniors night. It was great that the varsity won their last home game.

This team has a combined GPA of 3.801! Amazingly, this is the fourth place! (The boys tennis team is #1 with 3.922 GPA!)

In contrast, I heard that the incoming class at Trinity is really struggling with academics this year. While I miss teaching and sparking interest and effort in all students, I realized this week that I see how God has opened a window for me to move on. I was informed that the administration is proposing a change of the mission statement. The proposal removes “biblically-centered education” and “Jesus Christ” from “serves Jesus Christ in church and society.” It would be difficult to keep on with this move to secularization.

On Saturday, Anya asked me to help her get her room reconfigured. A couple years ago, I lofted her bed. Now, she was eager for a change to have more room between her mattress and the ceiling. So, now she’s got another place to lounge (though, while I’m writing this, she’s doing her AP World History reading and notes right now–so she isn’t lounging).

On Sunday, Anya was able to go to a Seattle Sounders soccer game. Besides being a fun time with her friend, Amanda, the Sounders won and have cemented a place in the playoffs!

While she was out, I was invited to a movie, The Martian, with friends because Kathi is in town from Asia! How great to see her! What a gift! And thanks to Richard, who gave me a gift by paying for my ticket!

I received two other gifts today.

I asked my former boss, Pastor Jim, if he had a specific commentary I could borrow. He has a vast library and has generously passed on many books. He didn’t have the one I asked for, so I went to the closest Christian college to buy borrowing privileges. Then, Pastor Jim buys me a copy! How thoughtful!

The page with all the notes in red are the gift of Marv’s words. I couldn’t imagine this journey without Marv’s gracious critique and proofreading. He is my grammar guru! I have heard it said that “no one writes a book alone.” Well, that is especially true in my case. It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a community to write a book. But, you can see, I have lots to do to strengthen my writing. Pray that this week is especially productive.

Off to add to my 28-day streak in Swedish learning on Duolingo.com!

Perhaps you are like me and have been blessed with growing up with many Bible stories. Unfortunately, sometimes, we are so familiar with them, that we miss reflecting more deeply upon them. Well this week, I’ve been immersed in Exodus 32-34. One of my dissertation texts is Exod 34:1-9, especially verses 6-7. This is where God passes by Moses, shielding him in the cleft of a rock, and proclaiming his name.

⁶ And [the LORD] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

⁸ Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. (ESV)

The greater context is that this is just after the golden calf idolatry, which is after God speaking directly to all the people for the giving of the Ten Commandments. Then all the people say, “We will do what you’ve commanded!” With no other gods being the crux of how to live in relationship with God and be blessed for thousands of generations, they really messed up!

In the midst of such a momentous failure—and with some advocacy from Moses—God forgives. God’s love carries us through and restores us. This is an amazing reconciliation story. I pray it encourages you as it has encouraged me.

I have needed some encouragement. I’m in the doldrums of writing. While I enjoy the reading and the journey, it seems like the writing is not progressing enough. It can be discouraging. So, I dig into the text and plod along.

I did buy borrowing privileges from Northwest University in Kirkland. It is the closest library with a good collection of commentaries (actually better than Trinity’s). I worked there for several hours on Friday at a table with wonderful sunlight streaming in.

I borrowed some books to take home. I wanted to scan a few pages to mark up the text with notes. However, after upgrading my computer to Windows 10, my scanner doesn’t work. So, after a couple hours of my attempts at uninstalling, downloading, and installing new drivers and scan doctors, as well as reading through support threads of things to try, I was able to secure help from a support tech. It took over 1.5 hours of direct control of my computer to try everything that I had done to finally figure out a functioning work-around. At least I can scan now!

Anya enjoyed a team dinner on Wednesday night. The T-shirts and sweatshirts I screen printed last weekend were then rubber-banded for tie-dying at the dinner. With all the rubberbands, it ended up to be a night of shooting rubber bands at each other!

Two soccer games, a pre-ACT test, a football game with friends at another high school, a prom with a group of young ladies at another high school (with sophomores dressed in Seattle grunge), piano practice, and barista training for the church espresso stand tomorrow morning fills in the gaps between school, homework, and soccer practice.

(Sorry, Kathi, not enough pictures this week!)