Grandparents, Kevin, and a few Theological Woes

Tuesday October 27th 2009 10:30am

So, it appears as though the updates may become more weekly expidentures, though we will see what happens as we hopefully move towards a new laptop from Global Ministries.

Wednesday October 21

Wednesday was a very boring day. Nothing much happened at work, though I finished drafting a letter to regions and conferences in the United States informing them of the situation in Honduras, letting them know how they have already helped, and informing them of ways that they could continue to help.

I worked on my lesson plan for Saturday a little bit, but not very much.

The rest of the day passed without anything of note.


Thursday October 22

Thursday was a very fun day. I worked hard on finishing my lesson plan and translating it. When I finished, Patty helped me with my translation. Marisela and I continued working on letters and information to send out in hopes of finding more groups.

The real fun Thursday was after I work, when I finally had the opportunity to call both sets of grandparents. I spent a good deal of time on the phone with grandma and then with meemaw and grandad. It was great hearing from them and catching up.

Afterwards, I was able to relax and watch some thursday night television. Around 9:00pm, Freddy called and invited me over to watch Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I went over and watched the episode with Cente, Dario, Sadoc, and Freddy. It was a lot of fun.


Friday October 23

Friday began at 5:00am, when Freddy, Freddy, Elmer, and I drove to Tallanga to help catch the Tilapia. We stopped for breakfast along the way, and didn´t arrive until close to 8:00am. We immediately headed over to the pond, unraveled a huge net that spanned the width of the water, and walked the length of the pond holding the net, catching close to every fish in the pond.

Catching the fish was easy. Getting them out of the net was hard. Very hard. Especially if you aren´t used to grabbing Tilapia. If you aren´t, you may or may not end up with many many cuts on your hand as you attempt to remove scores of fish from a net.

After literally an hour and a half, the of five of us, Oscar (the man who runs the program in Tallanga), his helper, Elmer, Alfreddy (not Freddy my boss) and I were finally done.

We weighed the fish, and put them back. I couldn´t believe it. I thought that we were harvesting the fish to take them to the market, but it turns out that the program had just recieved a new net as a gift, and Oscar wanted to try it out.

The other net that they have catches roughly 50 fish, which is exactly how many they needed to do a proper measurement.

We ate some of the fish for lunch, and then I was ready to go. No one else was. We sat around and talked for the next three hours, which was very frustrating for me. I was tired, I was wet, I was hungry, and I couldn´t understand the fast talk and slang.

I didn´t get back to my apartment until close to 5:30, and I took a quick nap for about an hour. At 6:30, I woke up and made a quick dinner. At 7:00, Freddy picked me up for a concert! Cente had invited us to the youth orchestra´s performance that Friday, and Freddy, Yasmine, and I all went.

I loved it. It was wonderful to hear beautiful music ranging from Beethoven to Pirates of the Carribbean. It was a lot of fun to go out, and I felt very cultured. After the concert, the three of us met up with Cente and a few of his friends at a local restaurant that reminded me of Buffalo Wild Wings. It was a sports bar known for its Buffalo Wings, which were in fact very good. I had already eaten dinner, but after trying one of Yasmine´s spicy wings, I decided to order six for myself.

We didn´t get back until close to midnight, and I was very tired. I went to sleep right away, and knew that the morning would come soon.


Saturday 24th

The morning did come soon, and I met Louis Felipe at 8 at Plaza. This time, we didn´t take the busses to get to work, but rather his girlfriend drove us. That´s right, his girlfriend! Are you surprised that he has one? Because I am. I feel like after spending every Saturday with someone for the past two months, you might mention something like..."I´ve been dating someone for the last five years"

At any rate, she was very courteous, and she and Louis Felipe were obviously very happy with one another.

The classes went well, and I had the students break up into groups and make up a skit over some of the stuff we have been talking about. It was a good activity, and much to my surprise, everyone participated, and everyone laughed. I only wish that I could have understood what they were saying a little bit better.

After the skits were done, I went back to my apartment, and slept for most of the rest of the day. I woke up for a little bit for dinner, and some reading, but I was very exhausted from the long day before.


Sunday October 25th

Sunday was the day I decided to stop going to Freddy´s church.

I was picked up right on time, headed down to the church, just like always, and much to my dread, found out that the hour and a half long Sunday School lesson was over the book of Job this week.

For those of you who may not know, I took a class in Bethany that was an excegetical study of Job, where we literally reviewed every single word in the book. We learned about its ancient contexts, allusions, parallels, language used, theologies behind the book, different interpretations, and almost everything else you could ever want to know about the book of Job.

I was not looking forward to this church´s interpretation.

The first, glaring difference between my own theological views and those of the congregation was in the "Understanding for the Week" section, where the lesson began by saying...

"We hope to get out of this lesson, the idea that if we always knew why we were suffering, our faith wouldn´t be tested, and we wouldn´t grow."

Not questioning things, and simply accepting them is very very difficult for me to do. Especially within the realm of religion and my relationship with God. I personally believe the absolute opposite from that statement, and would testify, that my faith has grown most when questioned, doubted, and examined.

Continuing on, the first part of the lesson focused only on the first two and a half chapters of Job, where Job loses his possessions, but not his family. Everyone in attendance at Sunday School was very happy to know that Job never cursed God. (Which by the way only last for another half of a chapter or so before Job curses the day he was born, God, and his "friends")

We then split up into groups where we discussed some of the other parts of the book, and my group focused on why God would allow the devil to attack Job. (The real word for "devil" is ha-Satan, which is roughly like a heavenly prosecutor, which is a common figure in the Ancient Near East, and is nothing like the modern concepts of what a "devil" is. Ha-Satan is actually portrayed as a specific angel with a specific job)

A latecomer came to our group, someone who was a little bit older, and often led prayers and other parts of worship. He sat down, and immediately asked "Why...why would God allow Job to be attacked?" A ray of hope! We were questioning! We would inevitably look at this and-

"You. You studied religion, what is the name of the theology behind God allowing the Devil to attack Job?"

He then made a tick-tock noise by clacking his tounge.

I said that it was called confusing. He thought I meant that I was confused, told me not to be, rephrased the question, and then restarted his tounge clock, timing me on when I would be able to give the right answer. With eaching tick and passing tock, my decision to leave the church was becoming clearer and clearer. When the "EEEHHHHHHHH" noise, which I can only assume was a buzzer telling me that time was up, went off, my decision was pretty final.

He then went on to lecture the group on some bull crap theology about how God needs us to suffer so that we may be closer to God. When we don´t suffer, we don´t praise God enough, so God wants us to suffer to be closer to God.

I couldn´t believe what I was hearing. Why would anyone believe in that kind of God???? It is the same logic behind parents who poison their children so that the kids have to stay home so the parents can take care of them. When they are found out...they go to prison! Why would God doing the same thing be called love?

I got up, asked where the bathroom was, and left the Sunday School room. I was very mad. Mad at the man for trying to humiliate me infront of the class, but more mad that the pure drivel and lies that he spat out was devoured as parcels of truth, and "good insight".

Sorry, I´m still a little bothered by it.

I left and walked around outside of the church for a while, allowing my nerves to calm before going back inside. The rest of the service was alright, and the people for the most part are very open and welcoming, I just have very very fundamentally different theological views, and simply cannot be a part of that church community any longer.

I expect that I will probably explore a few other churches, though I´m told that I will in all likelihood not find anything close to the kind of spiritual development that I am looking for.

When I got back to my apartment, I read one of Jon Rumburg´s sermons before sitting down to watch some football. I am amazed at how well the Bengals are doing, and saddened that I cannot be around to watch more of their games.

I spent the rest of my day watching football before making myself a lunchmeat sandwich for dinner.


Monday October 26th

Monday was another very fun day. I took my time and although the sun was streaming through my windows, I was able to sleep until close to 10am, which is easily the latest I´ve slept since arriving here.

I took my time waking up, and watched some TV while enjoying some breakfast. I did my laundry after breakfast, and when I got back down to my apartment, I had a missed call from Marisela. Kevin (the GMI before me) was in town, and wanted to visit. I had met Kevin in Indianapolis a few times for various traning seminars, and also for the General Assembly. He is very smart and a lot of fun.

I ate a quick lunch and then met Marisela and Kevin at Plaza for some ice cream. Marisela´s daughter was there too, and the four of us watched a movie after the ice cream. We watched "The Proposal" which is a recent release here. It was pretty funny, and we all enjoyed that the dog´s name was Kevin.

After the movie, we went back to my apartment for a little bit before heading out for dinner. We walked to a local chicken place, and had a delicious meal of fried chicken and guacamole. Kevin and I caught up a little bit, and he gave me some advice for work, and for travel in the country. He will be here for the rest of the week, so we should get some more time to hang out together.

When dinner had concluded, I went back to my apartment and made a few quick phone calls before heading to bed.