Well.....it is about time for an update...
Hey everyone, it has been a while since I have sent an update here. Lots of things has been going on:
1. Church stuff
I am regularly attending the youth group here. If you have facebook, you probably would have noticed the pictures that are starting to pop up in the group named Brillez. A group in facebook helps keep the youth in touch with what is going on, share updates, etc. With all that in mind, please pray for me I feel a bit uneasiness at times because of age difference that I have with the youth and not to mention language barriers. It is very uncomfortable. But I know I need to step out of my comfort zones. I know there is not just me who is uncomfortable at times, I think the feeling is reciprocated with the youth are too. I remember I said "hi, what is your name?" in French to one of the youth, he panicked saying "Sorry, I don't speak in English" in French. Please pray that God will give me strenth to step out of my comfort zones daily and that I will be able to fit in better with the youth group.
Speaking of youth stuff, yesterday I was attending the youth group, and there was a big ad for one of the Quebec Bible schools. The funny thing was that one of their pictures is actually from my school! I pointed it out to a student amassador, and she said "o.....we must have googled that picture". I thought that was funny.
2. I thought I said....
Alright a week ago I was at Boston Pizza and I was able to order in French! yay! I had asked for Green tea, but somehow the waitress gave me Earl Grey instead. According to the people who I was with, I said it correctly, but somehow it was mixed up. O well, I didn't mind because I liked Earl Grey as well.
3. Dreams.....
I had a dream last week, and it was in French! yay! The situation was that I was in the Rez at my school and I was writing a letter in French to the Residence Director. Then I ran up to random people in rez saying désolé (formal way of apologizing). It was a very strange dream.
Today's updates
Hey everyone,
Last night, I got a chance to attend a youth leaders' meeting. It was across the river, and in another town called Levis. The meeting was pretty cool, I could pick out a few phrases that people were using, and from the context, it seems just like any regular board meeting that I have attended at my home church.
To get across the river, I took a ferry. Unfortunately, the scenic pictures were all burry, but I did manage to get this picture:
Today after class, I attended an activity with Laval. Basically, we swapped contact info with Francophone who want to help us with our French, and in return we will help them with their English. It was pretty neat, got to meet lots of people.
...One More Thing.
After getting some people to read it, I have decided to post it as it is, and let you decide whether it is controversial or not. Here is the post:
Hey everyone,
My past week was pretty cool. At Laval, I learned a lot of French. And I got to spend some time with the missionary friends that are in my class. I am starting to build relationships with some people at Laval again. Yay!
This past Friday and Saturday I attended a conference on how the Church must respond to homosexuality. The presentation was mostly done by Exodus Global Alliance, you can check out their website
here. Anyhow there were a few overall themes in this conference. 1. These people need Jesus. 2. We need to learn how to build bridges and connect with them on their level 3. The Church must understand steps 1 & 2. In addition, the speakers point out that there is an alarming statistic about how people in the church are apathetic on this issue. Sometimes I would wonder about just how much we would just like to push uncomfortable topics under the rug and not realize how much we will regret not doing anything, when the issue comes back again. It is unfortunately because we just don't talk about such issues or go into depth with the topics like homosexuality, or frankly anything that has to do with sex. It just boggles my mind that we don't talk about God's gift to married couples--one male and one female. We have no problems addressing the boundaries of this issue and drill the word "no" into peoples' heads. But we feel embarrassed and frankly uncomfortable when people start asking questions or talking about such issues outside the service. You may even feel a little uncomfortable reading this in my blog. However, if the Church doesn't really address or confront these issues, then where are all the people going to go for answers? I was reading
Barbara Nicolosi's blog and this is the quote on the main page, it is from a 1930s theater critic: "Theatres are the new Church of the Masses--where people sit huddled in the dark listening to people in the light tell them what it is to be human." It is quite applicable in today's society when you replace the word "theatre" with the word "media". I know I am ranting now, but it is unfortunately very true. If we don’t answer the question to these issues, then people are going elsewhere to find answers. One of the speakers' closing remarks in conference were "we need to learn how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations." As an onSiter, I find those words quite hard because it is difficult to react positively to change and I am currently experiencing what it is like to be uncomfortable. It is not always a pleasant experience, but I know that God is teaching me more about Him and more about His people while being completely uneasy living in a very different culture with different value systems than what I am accustomed to. I am not saying that I am a perfect embodiment of being comfortable in uncomfortable situations –far from it. But, in order for positive changes to happen our lives and have a positive influence on the people around us, we must face the uncomfortable situations.
One little update for today, Come back tomorrow.
Hi everyone,
Today, I had an interesting experience with trying to speak in French, I was telling a friend that I gave a birthday card to my sister. But apparently, I stressed a vowel or 2 because she miss interpreted and thought that I was giving a birthday card to my girlfriend. (BTW I currently do not have girlfriend and will NOT for the remainder of my onSite). My everyday trial and error in French. O well, at least I tried telling her that I gave a card to my sister in French.
I was going to post a longer post tonight, but due to the fact that I thought it was a little controversial (yeah I know that is kind of weird on a onSiter blog), I will post it up tomorrow after some people read over it. You'll see what I mean.
The Past Week.
A couple of things here:
1. The amount of French that I can speak and that I can understand grows everyday. Praise God!
2. I met with Matt and he said that maybe in the last month or so, I will relocate to another place as far as Montreal to get a get a feel for the diversity of the ministries that are in Quebec. However, it is all still up in the air, so please pray that I will know what I am doing after I finish Laval.
Sunday was pretty eventful because I got a chance to share a meal with the church that I am with. (For those who are curious, I attend Église Évangélique du Berger; it is one of the three Alliance churches in Quebec City.) It was a "Barbeque". By barbeque, I mean that we had chips and corn on the cob. It was a good experience for me because I got to connect with some of the church people here and for the most part like anywhere else, I tried speaking in French. It was different for me because I am usually accustomed to attending Barbeque with some kind of meat involved. Nevertheless, I thought it was cool and the corn here seems to taste better than in Alberta.
As part of my ministry opportunities here, I have to interview some pastors about their ministry, what God is teaching, advice for an intern, etc. I got a chance to sit down with one of the pastors at du Berger today. After we talked for about 2 hrs, I came home and wrote down everything that I could remember. One of the questions that I had for him was: "how do you adapt to a different culture?" He quoted Arnold Cook (Former CMA President) "Wherever you are...be all there". Which meant that in order to adapt a different culture the quickest, attitude and actions must conform to the new culture. So what the pastor did was that he would speak English only at home, and whenever he encounters a Francophone, he would speak French to them. It was a good reminder to me and anyone else who is doing cross-cultural work.
Random things
The picture that you see belowis a ring-ish kind of shape. It is also broken, because it is supposed to be in my mouth. This bracket in my braces broke a couple of weeks ago. Today, I got it out because it felt uncomfortable. I hope that this doesn't really affect my teeth.
Past couple of days...
Alright, Yesterday was my first day back at Laval. When I was in class, I noticed something different. I could understand around 60% of what the teacher was saying! This was a hugh improvement compared to the first time back in July where I couldn't really understand anything the teacher said the first few weeks. I found my pronunciation was improving, but I still needed to practice a lot with the words. I also had a conversation that was sort of French mixed with English with Kristi (CTS student) and some other people that I met randomly. Apparently, one of the phrases that I use a lot is pronounced differently in Quebec French. The phrase is je ne comprends pas. (I don't understand). I was taught to pronounce the "ne" but apparently, my new teacher says that we don't actually pronounce it here in Quebec French. Now I have to make a habit of not saying "ne" when I am using that sentence.
Today, I had a chance to meet some missionary couples who were in the class with me this semester. It is pretty neat, we have a lot of baptist missionaries who are going to Africa sometime in the future. Laval had some kind of Free lunch thingy today. It consisted of hot dogs and juice. I am not exactly sure if it is a culture thing when compared to having hot dogs and corn on the cob. In the culture here, sharing a meal with other people eating hot dogs and corn is very important way of connecting with each other and building relationships. It was neat talking with the missionary people, we encouraged each other and now I know more people going to Africa.
Anyhow, I will meet with Matt (one of my mentors) sometime this week. I will also hopefully set up a time to meet with one of the local pastors here so that we can sit down and talk. I am preparing a list of ministry questions to ask him. I have also finished a book that I had to read for my history class that I am taking for onSite.
Another Test via email
Hi everyone,
OK this is another test with emailing to my blog post.
I attached a picture... let's see if it works.
The picture is from my connecting flight from Montreal to Quebec City.
OK I used another method of email, because this one supports picture attachments. However, I cannot use this way from my phone. It is cool though.
Re: 3rd test
OK.
I tried another test with the cell. Pictures don't work, but hey at least I can send Text over via my cell and correct it later. In addition, no Telus images either.
One thing is that all my posts now seemed to be centered.
UPDATE: Fixed that. Still no picture though. Apparently, pictures aren't supported in the method that i have used.
3rd test
Hi i am blogging from my cell
Ok...
Well, If you came to my journal a couple of minutes ago, you would have seen Telus labeled everywhere. That was because I tried blogging from my phone. Text msgs worked...sortof...labeled TELUS everywhere... pictures don't. That is what I found out.
THis week's updates...
hello everyone,
I know i haven't been blogging for a bit. So here are some updates:
1. I got a chance to sit down with Matt on Wednesday to discuss in more detail about my ministry opportunities and we also talked about how I will achieve my professional and personal goals for this internship. He is going to setup a meeting with the people who do a street ministry in Old Quebec. What they do is pass out sandwiches to the homeless and destitute. I have also started to write down my testimony in French to present to the youth group before I leave. Now this is not a 6 min presentation, it is 20mins! In French! So please pray that I will present well. On Fridays now, I will be regularly attending the youth group and trying to develop closer relationships with the people there. In addition, I have been exploring Old Quebec to understand the culture better and to also use what I know in a project that Matt wanted me to do. It is like a scavenger hunt in Old Quebec.
2. I will be heading back to Laval on Monday! How exciting more French!
3. I made some more minor changes to the site. The dates are now in French if you have not noticed. Finally, I am blogging from my Hotmail account and I just wanted to test if this email blogging tool works.
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