Preon(g) Yesoos sralang ne(k)!
The first sentence I coined after my first Khmer class last week (that's the language from Cambodia). Indeed, I'm now tackling this unique language, and it seems a bit overwhelming at the moment. The languages I've known so far all work with the latin alphabet. But not Khmer. Above is a transliteration of a very old sentence... using our alphabet. But the Khmer alphabet has 33 consonants, 23 vowels, each consonant has a leg-form (sorta like our upper/lower caps... but used differently), and the vowels are placed around the consonants. Letters are shaped so different from latin ones! Very artistic.
So far, I've memorized the first 24 consonants, and hope to have them all tackled by the end of this week. Gloria has taught me the song "eagles wings" in Khmer (which transliterates from Khmer as "sla(p) untree"), and I'm getting used to the different sounds of the language. Me/I/my is pronounced "khnyom"; think of how often we'd have to say that in our often egotistical North America...
So that's quite the challenge. Plus, starting up piano lessons with Sandra again, so I can learn how to teach what I know, and maybe joining some dance practices with the youth as well, at least for a few months... This is a year of new beginnings!
Speaking of "new" again, that was one of the themes of our awesome Mid-winter Meltdown conference we just had at our church this weekend. Tracy Stewart came from South Carolina as our guest speaker, and it was sooooo good. I could write down everything she said here from my notes, but I'll just recommend for you to order the tapes. It was a mentality shifting word, and I know God touched many people's lives through it! It was so cool too, cause, being a lead worshipper, music and praise and worship mean alot to me. I was so excited this weekend to have two of our own house-written songs as the theme songs for the weekend. "Prepare to be Amazed" was the bomb!
Frances Coker, our youth leader, woke up at 3 am Thursday night and heard a song in her head, full orchestra, everything. She wrote it out on paper, and, in the morning, played it for those who were at the morning prayer on Friday at the church (we're having all morning prayer every day of the week for this month). They liked it. Then, she played it for Sandra, and she liked it too. I was leading the music team on Saturday night, for the conference kick-off, and when Sandra told me about the song, I asked her to teach it to me so we could try to do it on Saturday night.
When I heard the song, I liked it, but wasn't too sure about it. It sounded different from what I'm used to playing, but I thought we'd give it a try. That is, until the team started playing it together. Suddenly it went from almost sounding a bit cheesy to becoming a majestic, praiseful, lifting-up-the-mighty-name-of-our- awesome-Lord kinda song. Needless to say, it was beautiful, and add several hundred people singing it out passionately to God, and it sounded like something straight from heaven. And the coolest part is that it was written in 5 minutes, with God literally downloading it into Frances' mind. Love it!
With all these new things happening, new songs, new focus, new miracles, I'm really excited for what God has in store for this year. It's gonna be good. God is touching the lives of people all around me, in my life group, in our church, at work, and, I believe, even in my family. We just can't always see it right away, but it doesn't mean it's not happening.
Anyway, just so you know, today's blog title means: Jesus loves you. That doesn't mean that those who know Him and trust in Him will never have trouble... quite the opposite. Rather, He says we'll never have to go through it alone - and the blessing in the end, after having gone through it, keeping our faith in Jesus, is more than we can imagine!
Preon(g) protiempo ne(k)!
So far, I've memorized the first 24 consonants, and hope to have them all tackled by the end of this week. Gloria has taught me the song "eagles wings" in Khmer (which transliterates from Khmer as "sla(p) untree"), and I'm getting used to the different sounds of the language. Me/I/my is pronounced "khnyom"; think of how often we'd have to say that in our often egotistical North America...
So that's quite the challenge. Plus, starting up piano lessons with Sandra again, so I can learn how to teach what I know, and maybe joining some dance practices with the youth as well, at least for a few months... This is a year of new beginnings!
Speaking of "new" again, that was one of the themes of our awesome Mid-winter Meltdown conference we just had at our church this weekend. Tracy Stewart came from South Carolina as our guest speaker, and it was sooooo good. I could write down everything she said here from my notes, but I'll just recommend for you to order the tapes. It was a mentality shifting word, and I know God touched many people's lives through it! It was so cool too, cause, being a lead worshipper, music and praise and worship mean alot to me. I was so excited this weekend to have two of our own house-written songs as the theme songs for the weekend. "Prepare to be Amazed" was the bomb!
Frances Coker, our youth leader, woke up at 3 am Thursday night and heard a song in her head, full orchestra, everything. She wrote it out on paper, and, in the morning, played it for those who were at the morning prayer on Friday at the church (we're having all morning prayer every day of the week for this month). They liked it. Then, she played it for Sandra, and she liked it too. I was leading the music team on Saturday night, for the conference kick-off, and when Sandra told me about the song, I asked her to teach it to me so we could try to do it on Saturday night.
When I heard the song, I liked it, but wasn't too sure about it. It sounded different from what I'm used to playing, but I thought we'd give it a try. That is, until the team started playing it together. Suddenly it went from almost sounding a bit cheesy to becoming a majestic, praiseful, lifting-up-the-mighty-name-of-our- awesome-Lord kinda song. Needless to say, it was beautiful, and add several hundred people singing it out passionately to God, and it sounded like something straight from heaven. And the coolest part is that it was written in 5 minutes, with God literally downloading it into Frances' mind. Love it!
With all these new things happening, new songs, new focus, new miracles, I'm really excited for what God has in store for this year. It's gonna be good. God is touching the lives of people all around me, in my life group, in our church, at work, and, I believe, even in my family. We just can't always see it right away, but it doesn't mean it's not happening.
Anyway, just so you know, today's blog title means: Jesus loves you. That doesn't mean that those who know Him and trust in Him will never have trouble... quite the opposite. Rather, He says we'll never have to go through it alone - and the blessing in the end, after having gone through it, keeping our faith in Jesus, is more than we can imagine!
Preon(g) protiempo ne(k)!
posted by Noemie at 11:49 AM
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