Won't someone stop this train?

There are train tracks right next to our campus and I swear to you a train rolls by every 30 minutes. Chances are one is about to pass by as I write this. The horn blasts as the train rattles on past. It doesn't matter what hour it is either. 3 o'clock in the morning? No problem. Horns blasting. Of course it isn't as loud or as long as during the day, but they still blow their horn.

SBS is going to be the most stressful thing I ever do in my life besides get married. We have to do so many things with each book and, depending on the book, we have to do more or less with the historical background and culture stuff. It's really awesome though because we are training ourselves to read it as it is, a book. It was not originally written with verse and chapter numbers. The books were not named what we know them as today. First and Seconds were just one giant book or letter. During SBS we get to rename every book as to what we think the title should be, or mostly a title for us to remember the book by. We also have to title each paragraph and then split up paragraphs into different segments and split up segments into different sections and split up sections into different divisions. We get to map out every single book many different ways. I really am going to read every book at LEAST 5 times. I swear I've read Titus 148 times in the last two days. When I am done here my Bible will look like a clown sneezed on every page. I am beginning to notice sentence structures even as I write this blog. There's a time element, there's a simile, there's a connective, a mood word. And so on, and so forth. Those are just a taste of the things I am required to look for and mark somehow in my Bible.

We finished our first book, Philemon. It is only 25 verses long, but what a huge message! First of all, it's Paul's plea for Onesimus (Philemon's former slave who ran away and maybe stole from him). Paul meets Onesimus while he is most likely in house arrest because people can visit him and come and go freely. Onesimus gets saved and most likely either tells Paul his story, or Paul knows because he's friends with Philemon. Anyway, in the time this book was written it was a good thing to be a slave in Rome. Everyone wanted to be slaves. Why you ask? Because if you were a slave you had rights, you had to be treated a certain way, you had shelter, food, money, and a purpose in life. All these things provided for you. 80% of the population then were slaves. Too many times our American history taints our opinion on slavery. We see it as a horrible thing no one ever should be forced into only because our country did a horrible thing a few hundred years ago. But thousands of years ago things were different. Anyway, Paul writes a letter to Philemon and appeals for Onesimus. He says he could command Philemon to take Onesimus back as his equal, but instead he appeals. Paul hopes and trusts Philemon will listen to the Lord and make the right decision. In those days if your slave ran away or stole something the punishment was death, so Philemon had the right to kill Onesimus when he came back to him, but Onesimus had changed. Paul calls him his child, and tells Philemon to welcome Onesimus and he would welcome Paul. It's a wonderful book of forgiveness and equality. Even though Onesimus was a slave, Paul tells Philemon to treat him as a brother, an equal, because Onesimus was once useless, but now he is useful which implies he knows Jesus, and Paul said he'd pay for anything Onesimus owes Philemon which also implies that he may have stolen something. Also, the letter itself is written to the church but during it Paul only writes to Philemon and this is so that the church can hold Philemon accountable to what Paul is asking him to do, so the book is also about community and accountability.

Whew! And just think. That book was only 25 verses long! What's going to happen when Genesis comes along, or Psalms for that matter?

We finished our second book also. That's two down, 64 to go! Oh yeah.

Today me and some of the girls and guys will be taking the train to Pune. This I am excited for as there is ample shopping in Pune. We also may get to see a movie! Granted the movies in theaters here will be movies I probably already own back home. The U.S. is even 6 months ahead of England when it comes to movies released in theaters or DVD. One of the staff here last night was telling me he cannot wait for Wall-E to come in the theaters and I informed him I had already seen it three times.

After these first three weeks of just the seminar laying the foundation to the rest of the nine months I won't have any time for anything but maybe to eat and sleep for a few hours here and there. I will literally wake up, study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, study, sleep, and do that whole routine all over again.

My wet hair takes almost all day to dry here. It doesn't seem like the air is that humid here, but apparently it is. My hair is the same as after I took my freezing cold bucket shower 1 hour ago! Sometimes we don't have water and sometimes we don't have electricity. Things are never certain here. Nothing is constant except that we must be in class on time or else we're in trouble.

Last night a handful of us were invited to one of the major leader's house. She lives a few houses down from campus and we had coffee! My first real coffee since I've been in India. All we drink all day long is chai, chai, chai, chai. Don't get me wrong, I love the Indian chai, but it's nice to have coffee once in awhile. This woman was so funny and I can see her becoming like an Indian mother to me while I am here. She is beautiful and has a huge heart.

Sorry I haven't put up any pictures yet, I haven't felt comfortable enough with people to take any yet, but I'll for sure take a lot this weekend in Pune. If I remember... I desperately need a backpack. I didn't even think to bring one. I only brought my huge one. That doesn't work for day trips to other cities! Perhaps I'll buy one in Pune.

Well it is time for me to see if my clothes are finally dry after hanging for 3 days! It'll be nice to get these Indian clothes because they will dry a lot faster than a t-shirt or jeans. I don't even want to think about washing my jeans. It would almost be easier to send them home, have my mom wash them and dry them, and send them back. I should do an experiment. Wash one pair of jeans here and hang them up the day I send another pair home for washing and sending back, then we'll see if it arrives before my other jeans dry.