Sunday, October 31, 2010

Still Sleepy, Still Know That It's Not My Strength

  I am very sleepy. And now on to more important things than my complaining...........

  I would like to write that there's is no way at all that I would have been able to last throughout this past week on my own strength. God definitely was working.........and seriously, like no way at all in a thousand years. It's been that busy and energy consuming. But it has been worth every ounce of strength..that was not my own.

  Yesterday morning I helped Carmen, from Ecuador, study for her citizenship test. I was also able to talk to two other people who are also trying to pass the (absolutely ridiculous) test. The supervisor who was there to answer questions, hand out materials and the likes, had also (recently maybe?) been naturalized. Let me just say, that after hearing all of their stories and the stories of others who had been through the citizenship class, that the process for becoming a citizen is even more corrupt, unfair, and unpredictable than all my preconceived notions had even imagined. (on a side note: I would like to please ask that nobody contend with me on this. I know we all have our "opinions", but I would really rather not have to feel depressed, annoyed and frustrated after having to read the before mentioned "opinions". Especially after talking to people who have actually been through or are currently going through this process.) But anyway. Carmen and I exchanged phone numbers and she will call me after she takes the test to tell me whether or not she passed. Please be praying that she does, she is the sweetest woman and knows more than I do about the process of government in this country, but that does not guarantee her citizenship.

  In the next room was a computer class, and Kalsang (who I mentioned before, but spelled her name wrong) was there!. I talked to her for a little bit. And the day before when we had been talking in the Bible class, I found out that she didn't know what a Bible was. She had never seen one, or heard of one. She thought that the stories that were being told in the class were true, but she didn't know where they came from. I gave her a New Testament and showed here the different stories that she knew and that they had all come from this book. She was really excited about it, she didn't have any books in English to practice reading and she had no idea that all that she had been learning came from this one book. (the reason for this being linguistic. Her English is still coming along.) I wrote my e-mail address on the inside of it for her so that we could stay in contact. Please be praying for her as well.

 Well I have to go now, but everyone, please continue to pray for what is happening here and I will give more happenings and stories later.

3 comments:

Matthew said...

Glad you are having such a good time, even though tiring... Hopefully you get to have that coffee sooner rather than later!!

Hope you have another great day!!

Joshua Goodling said...

Thanks for the update! And thanks also for making a difference in these people's lives!! I'm still praying.

Tim said...

Sounds like you did well. I know what you mean about the citizenship. I have a co-worker that passed it last year. I helped her study some and it is a lot of information that many actual Americans that grew up here and had history at school do not know! I'll be praying for her.