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