We finally finished our paperwork for the Canada Revenue Agency. If you haven’t read the details, check out our previous post, The Canada Revenue Agency.
The bad news is that it cost us about CA$120 (US$100/MX$1,100), numerous phone calls and a whole lotta time. The good news is that we got a lot of help from our friends – thanks especially to the Urquharts and Howers! I also talked to Michael at the CRA office, and he was very helpful.
The we’ll-see-if-it’s-good-or-bad news is that this may only be the first step. We may be asked for more paperwork, and more clarification in the weeks ahead. So for now we’re holding our breath hoping we’ll get a nice little letter that says
It doesn't usually rain during dry season. But much to everyone's surprise, it's rained actually a few times since we've been in Cuernavaca.
But today beat all – not only a downpour, but hail. When we went outside, we could see our breath – it was that cold. I just had to take some video of our yard…
When Amanda over at following an unknown path put up the fourth post in her series “thru my windows”, I finally realized what a great idea it was. So in shameless imitation, I’m going to start a similar series here, to show you what we see through our windows. Her title is better, but I didn’t want to steal everything. 🙂
So I’m starting with the view from my language school classrooms. Actually, there are many buildings and our classrooms change from week to week, so this is the view from this past week. I’m keeping the pictures fairly small (and low quality) so they don’t take forever to load – just click on them to see a larger and better version in our Photo Gallery.
Classroom 1-207
We’re on the second floor, looking out over parts of the school. On the bottom you can see just a corner of an area (on the right) where there are tables and benches. The students (Mexican mostly, since this is a Mexican University) meet with their books and iPods and laptops.
Classroom 7-303
This is on the third floor. You can see the railing of the walkway out the top window, and the school logo to the right. All the buildings are numbered – you can see the “5” across the way.
The bottom window looks out toward the mountains. I’m not sure if that building out the window is on the school campus or not.
My conversation class is outside, so there were no windows to look out of. 🙂
Are you learning Spanish too? Cool. I just wanted to stop by and share some of the resources that I’ve been using so far. Maybe you’ll find one of them helpful…
First of all, here’s something I really think every Spanish student should own. I’ve used a few different Spanish/English translators over the past few years, but nothing else even comes close to comparing with the Merriam-Webster Spanish-English Dictionary. Here are some of the reasons I’ve found it so useful:
It’s got lots of words.
Millions of translations, which means a lot of words other translators don’t have.
If you misspell or enter a word phonetically, it will find the correct word.
It has definitions for words that are used differently in certain countries, such as Spain, Venezuela and Mexico.
It includes a grammar guide.
You can add words you´re learning to a word list, then study the word list or use it in several games (there are 7 different games), which can teach you gender, definitions and spelling.
This is my favourite. The DBE-1470 includes the conjugations of each verb. Not just the present tense, but also imperfect, preterite, future, conditional, present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, present perfect, pluperfect, preterite anterior, future perfect, conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, perfect subjunctive, present progressive, imperative, and more (oh yes, there are more!)
It has a couple of thousand phrases (not including basic verb conjugation), which show up in the definitions or you can browse by category.
There are other features like a calculator, converter, world time clock, phone list, and currency converter.
I also bought the download kit, which means I can download books from the internet and include them in there too. Now I have something to read while I’m waiting for…whatever.
I found a case to put on my belt that fits perfectly (here it is – a Roots case for PDA/Blackberry), so it’s now a part of my body. Well, I take it off when I shower.
Now most of the time I use the electronic translator instead of the paper dictionary, because it’s faster and usually has all the information I need. But if I want to check another source I use the excellent Collins Spanish Dictionary Plus Grammar. Actually, I think there’s a new edition out now, but I haven’t seen it.
There are lots of other resources out there, but those are the ones I’ve used the most so far. One other one that I’ve used a little, and I’m sure I’ll use more of as time goes by, is the Spanish Verb Manual, by Alfredo González Hermoso. It’s a small book containing 5000 verbs (yes, that’s right), with conjugations, regional and idiomatic use, and an overview of Spanish grammar. Thanks to Greg and Shelli for recommending this one (see their site for other recommendations).
What about resources on the net? I’ve had trouble finding a good dictionary, but I eventually found this Spanish/English dictionary which does the job. If you want to listen to the language, try a Spanish learning podcast. I’ve been listening to Finally Learn Spanish, the rss feed is www.edufone.com/rss.xml. Also, here’s a free sophisticated flash card program you can download. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks interesting. You can enter your own information, or they have a whole page of lessons you can choose from (languages, geography, math, etc). Finally, don’t forget the Spanish words of the day (bookmark the page and check it everyday to expand your vocabulary).
Are you learning Spanish? What resources have you found helpful?
Pollution and Mexico City. The two seem to go together in a lot of people’s minds. We were first in Mexico City in 1993. The government was trying hard to control the smog in new ways.
It had gotten to the point where children coloured the sky brown or gray instead of blue. Birds actually fell out of the sky. During emergencies, cars were supposed to stay off the streets and people were urged to stay indoors.
The good news is, it seems to be getting a little better. You can actually see blue sky overhead. A couple of times each month you can even see the snow-capped volcanoes. Where we they the last few decades? Mexico City is no longer in the top 10 most polluted list (I think Linfen City in China wins the #1 place).
So what happened? Well, there are a lot of factors. Strict government regulations over the last few years are a piece in the puzzle. But a big part of it may just be that newer cars are cleaner.
In Mexico City, there are certain days you can’t drive your car (depending on your license plate number). The idea was to lessen the number of cars on the road, and increase car pooling and use of the (excellent) public transportation. But we were told that the plan kind of backfired – many people simply went out and bought another vehicle, so they could keep driving!
Now some researchers are concerned about another trend – the trend toward vehicles with worse emissions. It may just be that the improvement won’t last long. But there are so many factors – forest fires, wind direction – we’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, we can breath a little easier next time we visit the big city.
“He served God for 40 years on the mission field, even though he never saw a single convert in his lifetime.”
How many of us have heard an illustration like this in a sermon or a Bible study? What comes to your mind when you hear it? Of course the main point is supposed to be that we should be obedient to God, no matter what the circumstances – whether we can see “visible results” or not.
But what else comes to your mind? Maybe, “I could never do that”. Or (let’s be honest) “What in the world was this guy doing wrong?!” Or maybe we wonder about what Jesus told his disciples about “shaking the dust of their feet” when they a city would not receive them (ie Mat 10:14)?
In summary, we’re trying to figure out what’s most important, particularly when it comes to serving the Lord. Part 1 concluded that results, though very important, were not the most important things to consider. So what about obedience? Faithfully serving the Lord? Is that the most important thing?
It’s all very well to use the word “faithfulness”, but when we start talking about “doing” people get their backs up. What comes to mind is some legalistic pressure to perform – to look good – the idea that “working harder” somehow makes us more acceptable to God. And yet the Bible teaches we can never make ourselves acceptable enough to be forgiven. Peter recognized this when he urged the church not to force Gentile believers to keep Moses’ Law: “Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Act 15:10) Even the Jews couldn’t successfully “do” all the right things.
At the same time, we all know we ought to be “doing” something. We’ve been told that the Bible isn’t a rule book, but even so it sure has a lot of commands to it. I open to a random page, and Paul is telling us to avoid lust, to stop stealing, to work with our hands, to avoid filthy language, not to fight, be kind to others, avoid immorality and rude jokes…surely the Bible is packed with things we should or shouldn’t do.
As Christian songwriter/singer Keith Green famously pointed out, the difference between the sheep and the goats (in Matthew 25) “is what they did and didn’t do“. So in some way our works are important.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven,” Jesus said (Mat 5:16). We quoted this in our “results” article. We aren’t to flaunt our good works (Mat 6:2,5,16), but as we serve the Lord people will see – and that’s a good thing. This isn’t even invisible “spiritual” works, but tangible things people notice.
Jesus praised people who did good things. Think about the poor widow, who gave 2 coins at the temple. Would the money be used wisely? I don’t know. But Jesus praised her sacrificial gift to God (Mar 12:43-44).
2Cor 9:6-15 carries on with the giving theme. Give generously (that’s “doing”), and God will give you all you need. All you need for what? All you need for more good works (vs 8)!
But can’t works be overemphasized? Of course. For example, we know we’re not saved by works. We can only be saved when we reach the 100% perfect mark – and that’s not possible.
When we start thinking works are the most important thing, we start thinking that more works make us more important. That leads to legalism (adding to God’s law to show we’re even better), overwork, burnout, pride. We may emphasize outward, visible works. We may ignore the fact that our strategy is bad, and plow blindly ahead just because we need to “do more”. The only thing that matters, we may start to think, is being “busy” (in God’s work, of course). In the end, we have no time for God Himself.
And what if we can’t do “enough”? Maybe we’ve become sick, or we have to leave a successful ministry for whatever reason. We’re growing older and can’t do what we once did. We no longer have the influence we once had. Now we’re in despair. We’re depressed because we feel useless.
“Doing” is important, but it’s not the most important thing. So how does doing fit in with results?
I think that poor results are a red flag – a reason to look closer at what we’re doing. Maybe we need to change our strategy, or, like the disciples mentioned at the beginning, simply move on.
Yes, it’s important to be faithful to what God calls us to do, even if we don’t see visible results. If we look carefully and honestly at what we’re doing, and it’s what God wants us to be doing, we should keep on. Obedience is very important.
But if we’re having trouble in the “doing” department, that may also be a warning – a red flag telling us that something even more important is out of whack. But that’s a discussion for the next article.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Cor 15:58)
“He served God for 40 years on the mission field, even though he never saw a single convert in his lifetime.”