Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Kym Hamer Got Lost in UK English

Lady in RedImage by Gustavo (lu7frb) via Flickr

 I recently joined SeededBuzz so I can help the blog along.
Digging around, I found Kym Hamer's writing, specifically Lost in Translation. She's from Australia, and speaks "Australian English," important to what I'll quote here, and has a crisp writing style.
Here's something new to me, from Lost in Translation:

"... when the English say 'It was quite good', what they mean is 'I was mildly disappointed'."

As a speaker of American English, I wish I'd known that when I lived in Switzerland and went around with  British friends! Now I'm trying to remember when, or if, anyone told me I did something that was "quite good" - and I was thrilled!


Bye for now: G'day, Gidday. Have a good day!


(c) 2011 Opinari and Jean Purcell {OWN} Quote with attribution.
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Sunday, March 27, 2011

ABCs of Education

Over the past four decades, the per-student cost of running our K-12 schools has more than doubled, while our student achievement has remained virtually flat. Bill Gates, Washington Post newspaper, February 28, 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Update: Not too late to help Japan's Most Vulnerable


Commentary
Jean Purcell


Over a week ago, the cataclysmic breadth of the day brought focus to finding and helping survivors in Japan as quickly as possible. Earthquake. Tsunami. Desperate struggles to survive. Loss and grief. Fires. Complete destruction. Food shortages. Water shortages. Electricity shortages. Hunger. Thirst. Homelessness...Freezing cold and snow. Nuclear reactor failure threats in multiples.  Concerns immediately pushed efforts toward  ongoing hunger and onset of illnesses in the wake of extreme situations. Hundreds of thousands had lost the basic provisions of life. 

Today, hundreds of thousands of people of Japan are still in serious need. As mentioned in a blog post here on March 17, a long list of disasters and tragedies overwhelmed Japan on that jarring day:

More than half a million people are affected and in need of on-going assistance. Let's remember them, try to remain informed, learn what organizations in our own nation are doing, and how we can help. Some can go. All can do something, especially those who have an abundance of the essentials and non-essentials for survival.
Those who can do something should do something.


(c) 2011 Opinari and Jean Purcell
{OWN} posts may be quoted with attribution: (date of post, URL address of blog, post title) 
Opinari Writing Network posts may be quoted with attribution: (date of post, URL address of blog, post title) 

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Prayer

Gravitation keeps the planets in orbit around ...Image via Wikipedia
Dear Lord

Draw us to You as the sun draws the orbiting planets to its warmth and light, needed by all. 


The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand....The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore (Psalm 121: 5, 8).


(c) 2011 Opinari and Jean Purcell

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Japanese Caught Near Nuclear Plant Need Compassion of Habakkuk and Jeremiah Now

The figure of Jeremiah on the Sistine Chapel c...Image via Wikipedia
The figure of Jeremiah on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo.
Commentary
Jean Purcell

Compassionate American aid workers in Japan remain set up to help in the  nuclear area affected by a recent storm. People in the area have been told to evacuate, but they have no help on their own to do so. The helping groups are staying there, too, to do what they can to help, with supplies running out. "We will stay," they say. Their outcome is now linked with the lives of those they went to help.

A spokesman with the group reported that the patient Japanese there are losing patience. The Japanese government has been slow to send help to places  overflowing with homeless and hungry people. An American carrier is in view from where they are, yet no help comes from there either. Food supplies are draining fast. "We have been to 87 disasters over many years around the world," he told Greta van Susteren on Fox News. "This is the worst we've seen." He said that tempers are beginning to flare, with the first fight where the aid worker is today. The workers there will not leave until the people they went to help can leave. 

Habakkuk wrote of the time when every supply might fail. He said to the Lord that he would continue to trust in the Lord. 

Jeremiah went to help repair a broken down wall of protection around Jerusalem, destroyed by war and disasters that go with war. He gave of himself to go and help. He left the comforts of a palace, where he served a king.

The most desperate people near sites like Japan's Fukushima nuclear plan need people of hope and faith, able to cope and persevere in disaster response, and willing to seek help for them until the end or until evacuation, whichever might come first. Without food or potable water, they cannot survive for long. Many family members became separated and remain out of touch, not knowing who is still alive, who is in hospital, and who died. In recent days, help is coming to many, though not all, and very slowly. The magnitude of the numbers of people requires a magnitude of response from many, many people and places and resources.

Will governments fear law suits if they send workers in, or does the help depend, primarily, on the humanitarian and Christian workers staying there? Will governments at least send food and other essential supplies by ship or trucks, and let the "contaminated" meet them and take the supplies the rest of the way? What is the answer?

When the worker signed off on Greta van Susteren's program tonight, he said, "We need help." He repeated it more than once. There was no reassurance to give him that help. At the end, he said, "Pray for us." There was no indication that would happen, either. It seemed that Ms. Susteren was overwhelmed.


The news today reported that  over 500,000--half a million--Japanese are now waiting across Japan, for places to stay, even the simplest accommodation. Those who can do something must do something with the strength and broken hearts for this need.


Earthquake. Tsunami. Loss and grief. Fires. Complete destruction. Food shortages. Water shortages. Electricity shortages. Hunger. Thirst. Homelessness...Freezing cold and snow. Nuclear disasters in multiples. Such a mass of tragedy does remind of the man, Job, who faced disaster after disaster. Through medic today, the Japan disasters are before our eyes anywhere in the world and before the faces, directly ...in fact. in the faces...of the people most in need near the reactors along the nuclear coast of Japan.
(c) 2011, Opinari and Jean Purcell
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Lent History, Facts, and Contemplation

**"Our Lamb has conquered. Let us Follow Him."





Re-posted - second week of Lent, 2012.
First posted during the First Week of Lent, 2011. Bookmark if you wish to return to review thoughts and facts here.


  All churches that have a continuous history extending before 1500 observe Lent.
-Loretta Sword, Pueblo Chieftan


"Some people give up things during Lent. Others choose to develop a new habit, such as daily Bible verse, or reading, or a devoted time for prayer, and so forth."

Lent through History

1. Lent through history has been recorded differently. Some say it began in the first century (see list below), while others say it began in 325 A. D. (Anno Domini [Latiin], "Year of the Lord") as part of the Council of Nicea (hence, Nicene Creed). 
2. When Lent began, it was a 40-hour period of preparation, in keeping with the three days between Jesus' bodily death and bodily resurrection and appearance to His followers.
3. Third century, Lent became a six-day period called Holy Week. Holy Week extended to more than one month, 36 days, which are one-tenth, a tithe, of the 365 days of a year. 
4. Eighth century, reign of Charlemagne, saw four days added, making Lent 40 days. Added days included Ash Wednesday (repentance) plus three days leading up to the First Sunday of Lent. 
5. The Sundays of Lent are excluded from the 40-days counted for Lent, "for they are the Lord's Day, which includes a celebration of the resurrection..."*

Lent is a preparation.
Lent is set aside to help believers in Jesus Christ, Redeemer of the world, as they
prepare, worldwide, to rejoice in worship, remembering 
the Resurrection of Jesus, bodily, on the third day after His bodily death
on the Cross of crucifixion.

Facts of Contemplation during Lent

 We repent of our sins. 
Daily we are sorry for our sins. 
During Lent, as at any time, we make a special renewal of thanks to God
for relieving us of the burden of sin. 
Jesus began His public teaching saying, "Repent"; we search our hearts regarding 
hidden sin, known and deliberate sin, against God in the 
things we do, say, or think that our true lives as
children of God. 


We contemplate the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ.  
We daily receive forgiveness from God as we confess and repent, desiring to keep ourselves
open to the Life and Light of God. During Lent we continue to
rejoice over the Lamb of God, "slain for the sins of the world." 


"...so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.
To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time,
apart from sin, for salvation (Hebrews 9:28-NKJV).
We joyfully, and with amazement, contemplate the Gift that God
gave the world:
His only begotten Son.


"For God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through Him 
might be saved" (John 3: 16, 17-NKJV).
We contemplate forgiveness, acceptance, 
and Eternal Life, through Christ

We strengthen our devotion, by faith (Acts 15:9).


We rejoice in Christ's Resurrection
and pray (John 17:17; 1 Tim. 4:5). 

We share.
We rejoice over the Resurrection of Jesus. In Him, we have love, hope, faith, fellowship, and service,
with the help of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
 
We rejoice in salvation, which we have by faith in Christ, the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 13).
We rejoice that in Christ we overcome whatever is against God: 
"Yet the devil's power and success are
limited. Christ has a chosen remnant, redeemed by his blood, 
recorded in his book, sealed by his Spirit; and though the devil and antichrist may overcome the body, and take away the natural life, they cannot conquer the soul, 
nor prevail with true believers to forsake their Saviour, and join his enemies. 
Perseverance in the faith of the gospel and true worship of God, in this great hour of trial 
and temptation, which would deceive all but the elect, is the character of those 
registered in the book of life. This powerful motive and encouragement to constancy, is the great design of the whole Revelation."
(from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the book of Revelation, chapter 13)

Sources
*Lent through history

**"Our Lamb Has Conquered"- the seal of the Moravian Church (photo),
Agnus Dei [Latin], meaning "Lamb of God."

(c) 2011-Opinari and Jean Purcell
Opinari [Latin]-think, reason, believe
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