Holy whirling wind, Batman!

The 100+ degree temperatures that have been blasting southern France for the past few weeks have finally subsided and have in turn been replaced by some pretty impressive and consistant windstorms. I've been told that this is pretty normal for Marseille throughout the fall and the winter.

I've had lots of downtime since Olivia started back at her job. Lots of reading and napping. While I was in Paris I somehow managed to get bitten by a tick, and, not realizing that it was there, I accidentally scratched it off, leaving the head entrenched in my thigh. About a week later a red spot showed up where the tick had bitten me (don't worry, I'm not going to post any pictures of it) and it continued to get bigger, so I went to go see a doctor. He put me on some antibiotics, which seem to be working since the spot has disappeared, but the medicine makes me really drowsy, thus the inordinate amount of napping that I've been doing lately. Contrary to popular belief, I'm really not lazy in the "I like to do nothing" sense of the word. True, my class schedule this past year seems to indicate otherwise, but I really do like working when the work is fulfilling and engaging.

This laziness has really been affecting me these past few days and I've been itching for just that sort of engaging and fulfilling work. Thus it is that this morning I started learning the Hebrew alphabet (or "aleph-bet"). I thought that I was going to be taking New Testament Greek this year, but it turns out that you don't start that until the second year at the seminary. I really want to learn Greek, so I was bummed when I found out that I'd be taking Hebrew, but now that I've started studying it I've found that it's actually really interesting. It's a challenge since it's so completely different from English, but that's part of the fun. I'm especially intrigued by the fact that there are no actual vowel characters, but rather vowel markings, which consist of little dots and symbols below the consonants. It's also just really fun to write. I need to buy a calligraphy pen.

On wednesday we hosted a young adult Bible study at Olivia's place. Olivia cooked and I prepared the study. One of the guys at the study, Victor, described the difference between the french and the americain mindset as applied to Bible study well. He said, "The thing I like about Bible studies in France is that the most important question is not 'what are we studying?', but rather, 'what should I bring for the meal?'. We set the start time for 7:30, everyone showed up at 8:30, we started eating at 9:30, and we started the study at 10:30. Now, in a way I think this is a good thing. The gospel is very much about community and the dinner table is a central hub for community in the Bible. The French have the community thing down. The area that I'm excited to see some growth in is in their study methods. My study was an introduction to worldview apologetics. We discussed some of the most common criticisms leveled against Christianity and then we discussed what a worldview is and how everyone has basic philosophical presuppositions that determine what they believe about life and religion.

The study went well and generated some good discussion, but afterwards Olivia told me that that's not normally how they do study at all and she thought that the subject was much too advanced for some people there. It seems to me that her idea of study is more what I'd call 'share time', where whoever is leading the study chooses a verse that speaks to their life at that moment and then draws from it some general religious principals or analogies. Now, trying not to be too much of a stuffy-kill everyone's fun-reformed-presbyterian, that kind of study just doesn't satisfy me. Where's the beef? I'm looking for some hearty 'put it in context' exegesis and a side order of meaningful dialogue on important issues, can I get an AMEN! Yes, all that should lead to practical life application, but Christianity has so much more to offer, both philosophically and practically, than what we can get from share time. So I'm stuck with the dilemma of trying to figure out how to communicate my thoughts on the subject without stepping on any toes or coming off as a pushy 'my way or the highway' american.

Like I said, I've been doing a lot of reading lately. I finished the Le Compte de Monte Cristo a few days ago, and it is without a doubt the most entertaining novel I've ever read. I also just finished Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and although there are some things in there that are questionable, there are even more great insights that have given me things to think about. Right now I'm in the middle of Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live? and I just started on a novel by Neil Stephenson entitled Quicksilver (thanks for the recommendation, Sam, if you're reading this). I'm going to try to start posting more often about what I'm reading 1) to give me something to post about, 2) to help me analyze and remember what I'm reading, and 3) to hopefully generate some discussion in the comment section (other than the standard fare of "why don't you post more often, you cheese sniffing, baguette toting, couldn't-write-a-limerick-to-save-your-life frenchie?").

A bientot