My advisor and I met this week to discuss where my research and education are headed over the next year and a half. The NMR study we did on the Chicago samples has led to some interesting questions regarding the physical and chemical controls of phosphate levels in the streams. The plan is to continue investigating those controls and their influence on sediment composition. My advisor wants me to get the education that I desire and will do what he can to help me get there. What a guy, huh? Nonetheless, nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (NMR) is not an investigatory method that I'll be using any longer.
I'm taking three classes this semester: soil microbiology, surface water chemistry, and physical inorganic chemistry. The later has already taken quite a bit of time, but it's nice to be thoroughly challenged by the material. A friend has taken the class before and has been a big help, encouraging me and so forth. Pray for me, please - I've given myself over to extensive anxiety and fear regarding my ability to get through this semester (work load, material, extra stuff). Also, please pray for how I'm managing my time, as I'm involved with a few extra activities that are quite important, as well as keeping the blessing of the Sabbath.
Today was my second week back at church: A missionary family visited us from Mongolia. This was really exciting, as I would love to live and work among another culture, while supporting the church! One insight that I would share is what they have learned about church planting: they can bring in a ton of people to "christian-activities" or get numerous "committments for Christ" just by financially supporting the national church, rather than the local church raising their own funds. It's kind of like Bush's trickle down policy - the pastors start getting paid by missionaries from the West and in turn they start to spend dollars on things that are not Biblical, expressing tremendous greed. Their policy is to create worshipers of God, rather than money, and this has cut into their "numbers", purifying those who are committed to the Jesus and following him through thick or thin. So, when you and I hear about missionaries funnelling money into overseas missions, we must be careful to judge how that money is spent. The missionary who spoke said that when looking critically at missions agencies support of overseas work there are two questions to ask: What percent or how many nationals do they support through Western committed dollars? and, how many years are they required to spend learning the language? Language and culture can not be considered apart from each other. And, if one is to effectively reach a people group they must know the culture. Good advice!
