#all the other teachers just revised all the study material with us & gave us questions that really prepared us for the exams

[eyezari]

math tutor (tsukki x f!reader)

you’ve been annoying tsukishima to be your math tutor considering he was the top student and he keeps rejecting you,, one day you finally give up and ask the second top student for help and he clearly was not happy about it

consider this!!!

→ gender-neutral y/n!  

→ little angst.... if you squint..

→ possessive tsukki?? is this even a warning

→ not punctuated correctly

“just this one question? surely...!” you plead, holding tightly onto your textbook. you were so close to failing this semester and you really needed your average to be lifted through the upcoming exams. when everyone thought it was the easiest subject, you found it the most difficult. 

so you’re back again, the next day. tsukki was used to you coming up to him every lesson to ask for help,, in fact its been going on since the beginning of the year. and he never helped. not once. 

you don’t know why you kept coming back and begging him when you knew damn well he was gonna give you the same harsh answer. he would say things like, ‘are you dumb? of course not.’ or ‘not in a million years.’ and his personal favourite, ‘please come back during business hours.” (you still don’t know when that is)

yamaguchi, who sat next to him looked at you two amused. “please! this is probably the most difficult one yet. khan academy didn’t help. i’ve tried everything.” tsukishima didn’t even bat an eye, he didn’t even spare a glance and his head down onto his page. you sigh. 

“y/n, who do you take me for?” he finally said and you sigh again. you were seriously lost and the math teacher is always out of the room doing whatever. the revision notes, you just didn’t understand. and your friends just gave you shallow explanations. 

the reason why you went to him in the first place is when you overheard him teaching another girl in class. she didn’t understand anything but it’s like he adapted her learning method and explained it to her like it was the easiest thing in the world. after that, that girl never failed to get good grades. ‘why doesn’t he wanna teach me?.. it’s just one question..’ you thought. 

to be honest, your heart would just ache whenever you thought about it. he decided to help someone else and they passed the whole year but couldn’t give you a single answer. you groan, scratching your head when you read the question again. then you turned to hinata, “hey, tsukishima has helped you guys out before right?”

“tsukishima? yeah but he gave up after and refused to teach us anymore, lol.” he smiles at you before going back to playing with his volleyball keychain. oh. so it was really just you who he refused to help. maybe it’s because you’re not close? no, you’ve known each other for quite sometime.. as.. friends. wait, no.. acquaintances? your jaw dropped as you realised, ‘does he not even think of me as a friend......bruh..’ 

you shook your head and just kept doing the rest of the practice test, skipping questions that you were unsure of.

the next week after you marked your practice test; you realised you were still way behind. you barely passed half of it, with an underwhelming score of 30 out of 58. you still didn’t understand most of it. not even photomath explained well. you sneak a peek at tsukki’s paper... 58 out of 58.. huh. interesting. he recently went on a training camp for volleyball club and still managed to study well. you stood up to stand in front of his desk which was next to yours. 

“tsukki.” you try and get his attention, but with his headphones on his head, it might be difficult. you repeated his name several times, nervously fidgeting with your fingers. you noticed he was in a sort of sour mood after his volleyball training camp and you couldn’t help but to feel bad you were disturbing him. 

with a scowl on his face, he removes his headphones. “what now?”

you became even more nervous now that his attention was on you. “um, can i just ask how you did the quadratic relations part.. i just don’t quite understand.” you said quietly. 

he only glared at you. “y/n, you must be fucking with me.” he said suddenly, catching you off guard. “how many times do i have to say no? it’s been too long. don’t you know how to give up? you’re so annoying honestly, get it through your brain. i’ll never teach you anything” those words hit you like a truck. especially because they came from tsukki. 

tears stung at your eyes and honestly, you were at a loss for words. you wanted to apologise and explain yourself but you couldn’t. a thought went through your head, ‘maybe it is annoying to constantly ask him for help..’ 

you muttered a “sorry” before quickly returning to your seat, not to mention that yamaguchi was quite shocked too and gave you an apologetic smile. you felt extremely embarrassed he just said that in front of the whole class. a few minutes later, you excused yourself from class and ran to the bathroom just to fix yourself up. somehow, you were choking on your tears.

it really shouldn’t have hurt you this much, but knowing you made tsukki dislike you even more just hit a different nerve. 

the next few days, you’ve been trying hard. but clearly not hard enough since you are still barely passing the revision. you were extremely disappointed in yourself since you did make an effort to learn but it simply wasn’t enough. you really wanted to apologise to tsukki but knew it would make things worse so you didn’t even try to talk to him. but you were hopeless, you just needed the explanation to the topic because you didn’t have anyone around you to ask. 

then you had an idea... the second top student named saiki came back from his trip. surely he’d help you just a little bit. you glance to your right, to where his desk was. and he did attend school! working up the courage to ask him, you turned to him. “welcome back.” and he smiled at you, waving at you. 

“how are your studies?” he said, resting his head on his palm. 

you groaned, “bad. i am literally hopeless at this. do you mind just explaining the parabola thing? i just don’t get it.” this caught the attention of many people around you. especially tsukki. your classmates suddenly thought it was weird you weren’t bugging tsukishima, maybe you have finally learnt your lesson. 

yamaguchi’s ears perked up as well, and suddenly everyone was lowkey trying to listen. “yeah!” and you smiled brightly. saiki moves his desk to get closer to you and he starts explaining the problem. at first it was confusing, but he tried to dumb it down for you as much as possible. you were seriously grateful because you understood most of it.

“thank you so much, jesus christ.” you sighed in relief. “so it opens downwards and the directrix is 2?” 

“yup. good job.” he pats you on the head. you smiled back. 

“wrong.” someone called out randomly, and you turned to your left to see it was tsukishima. “it’s 4.” he looked displeased. extremely.

saiki looked lost. “hm, i wonder where i made the error. do you mind explaning it to me then?” he asks tsukki.

his face darkened. “i do mind,,” and saiki just smiled awkwardly.

“y/n, it’s been a couple weeks. i’ll teach myself and i’ll get back to you later. is that fine with you?” saiki offered, returning his desk to the original position.

“yeah, thank you.” you grinned. you turned to your left again and saw tsukishima basically frowning.

why is he so rude today? what’s going on? is he okay? your head fills with random thoughts as you worry about him. 

the lesson seemed to go for hours and the heavy atmosphere between the two of you grew and it was excruciating. when you were finally dismissed, you had to stay back to clean the classroom. but you didn’t expect tsukki and yamaguchi to stay back too, considering they have club activities.

“hey yamaguchi, don’t you guys have club activities?” 

“yeah, we do but tsukki is on class duty. i’m about to leave soon.” he said sheepishly, grabbing his bag. 

so coincidentally you were on class duty with tsukishima. out of all days, you sighed heavily. 

you two were left in the class and he didn’t hesitate to start moving the desks. but you stood still, and stared at him. he was so pretty. 

heat rose to your cheeks as you recollected your thoughts and started packing up. it was an awkward silence as you two tidied the room. you were in the middle of wiping the board when he suddenly said, “open your textbook.” 

you were taken back. “what?” 

“you heard me.” he said bluntly. “open your textbook.”

“but why?” you stuttered a little bit.

“do you want me to teach you or not?” 

your face flushed. teach you? your mind blanked. “hnnn...” you couldn’t form coherent sentences “yes.. please.” 

he began to tutor you the study material. tsukki was obviously frustrated trying to teach you. it was like teaching a cat how to do dog tricks after all. you scratched your head at one question, still not getting it. 

you pursed your lips. it’s been 10 minutes and you’re not past the first half of the question. tsukki groans. “what you do is..” he explained it perfectly. but it went straight through your ears. you were too busy staring at his features, he was so close to you. 

this was the first time you realised how hard you fell for him, and tears pricked your eyes as your cheeks began to turn red. holy shit. i really like him. but chances are, i’m just a nobody to him. 

“y/n. are you even paying attention? this is why i didn’t wanna teach you.” he pinched his nose in stress. your heart sank. you didn’t want to inconvenience him any further.

“we can stop now, it’s getting late and you still have club activities right? i can buy you snacks tomorrow. thank you tsukishima.” you said with a sheepish smile. 

he furrowed his eyebrows. you just used his real name and not his nickname. he just found it odd how you wanted to stop so soon. you started packing up your things.

“it’s not even past 5. you need to learn this chapter.” he said abruptly. 

you stood up and grabbed your bag. “no, no seriously, it’s okay. i’ll just study tomorrow and-”

he grabbed your wrist and pulled you down. “and let you talk to saiki? no thanks.”

you were speechless once again, face red once more. “only i can teach you. understand?” he looks at you right in the eyes and all you wanted to do in that moment was to disappear. reluctantly, you nod. 

‎ ‏ ‐ ‑ ‒ – — ―

you can clearly tell my language is eu/au LMFAOO its the ‘surely’ for me GUYS COMMENT PLS ! I NEED INTERACTIONS 

#tsukishima x reader #tsukki #tsukki imagines #haikyuu imagines #jealous tsukki #smh i love him #possesive haikyu #haikyuu #haikyuu fluff #tsukki x reader

[bluescreening]

Practical GCSE Advice

Tips From A New Year 12 Who Somehow Got All 9s

Don’t worry, I’m not becoming a studyblr. I’m writing this on results day as a sort of farewell to GCSEs and to impart some “wisdom” upon the youngsters before I move on to A-levels. I’m going to keep this to specific, practical things you can do to improve, none of that vague nonsense. Subject-specific tips for maths, geography, triple science, language, literature, graphic comms and comp sci under the fold because this is too bloody long already.

General Tips:

Don’t go revision crazy. People will always emphasize revision, but so long as you’re revising effectively (see below) you’re safe to start revising about a month before mocks, and two months before your final exams. In terms of a revision schedule during those months, I worked with one or two hours per day, with a free day on Friday and Sunday. 

Use apps to stay organised. Put your school timetable and exam dates in your calendar of choice with appropriate reminders and colour coding. To keep track of homework and revision, use Adapt - you can put in your GCSEs and it tracks which topics you have covered and how many times, as well as allowing you to input homework and your school timetable. During study time use Forest (free on Android) to lock yourself out of your phone for a certain amount of time.

Pay attention to lessons from the start. From the beginning of Year 10 every lesson is a GCSE lesson, and everything you learn could come up in an exam. Follow along with your teacher, make the best notes you can, do the work and understand the concepts as early as you can. You’ll thank yourself in a year as you watch the rest of your class wonder what a ribosome is when revision time comes.

Revise effectively. Use Adapt or a textbook to keep track of your confidence level on every topic, so when you’re revising you can focus on the ones you don’t understand whatsoever. Also, don’t just read stuff when revising. You have to train your brain to retrieve the information. Memorise vocabulary and basic facts using flashcards, then answer exam questions. Lots and lots of exam questions.

Use your teachers. They want you to succeed because it reflects well on them! If you don’t understand something after a lesson, pop back at break or lunch, or shoot them an email and they will help. Don’t just bank on it not showing up in the test because Sod’s Law dictates that it will. After Christmas in Year 11 they will often start revision sessions or intervention. Attend them for any subjects you’re even slightly shaky on. They’ll boost your grade like nothing else, even if it does take up some of your chill out time.

Buy textbooks and study materials through school. If your school offers you textbooks and workbooks it’s likely that will be the best deal for them, since they’re purchased in bulk. Grab all you can in Year 10 and talk to the school if you can’t afford many - they may be willing to help. If you know any higher-level teachers see if they have any sample study materials from CGP and the like. My English teacher gave me a lovely set of sample CGP Macbeth flashcards that would have proved really useful.

Make flashcards at the end of every topic. Stay on top of them. You want a term on one side and a definition on the other, or a quote and analysis etc. If you don’t like endless bits of card floating around use Quizlet - you might not even need to make them yourself as many people have shared GCSE flashcards there.

And finally - don’t forget you’re a human! Humans need regular sleep, healthy food including breakfasts, hydration, fun and social time. Make time in your day to take care of yourself. Your brain works better when you’re healthy so often an extra hour of sleep will do more for your grade than an extra hour of revision. Hanging out with your friends and keeping up with your hobbies reduces stress. 

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about any of this stuff, or if you just need advice I’m here too! I’ve done it before, I can help you out.

Subject Specific Tips:

Edexcel Maths:

Use CorbettMaths. All the time. If you haven’t done every one of his worksheets at least once you’re not grinding hard enough. Jk, but seriously this guy used to teach me in real life and he’s awesome. He makes flashcard packs, videos on every aspect of GCSE maths, daily challenges, textbook exercises, practice exam questions... literally everything you could ever need.

Practice everything until you’re sick of it, and then do ten more questions.

You’ll need to memorise some trig identities. Don’t memorise them as a table, that’s hard. Memorise them as these triangles, sketch them out in an exam and work it out on the spot. Easy.

AQA Geography:

Don’t goof off during your fieldwork. Don’t make the same mistake as me. If I ever had to do the fieldwork paper I would not have got a 9. Even though it’s a field trip, even though you’re with your friends, this will directly impact your GCSEs and you need to treat it like an exam.

Memorise vocabulary then move onto exam questions. Geography is very formulaic and exam questions repeat themselves - take advantage of that.

Memorise. Your. Case. Studies.

AQA Biology, Chemistry and Physics:

A l l  h a i l  f r e e s c i e n c e l e s s o n s .

Practice those reading comprehension questions where you’re presented with information and have to answer questions about them. A surprising amount of people get overwhelmed because they haven’t revised it. You can’t! You have to read and understand it within the exam.

Memorise your bloody equations for physics or you will fail. Use Quizlet, learn them all by the end of year 10 even if you don’t know what they’re about yet, practice using them.

Buy the CGP workbooks and complete them! Make sure to buy the answers too, because CGP are scammers.

AQA English Language and Literature:

Identify 10-20 brief quotes from each piece of literature so you have a few for each character and theme. They can overlap! Also, memorise the author’s intentions for each one. With poems (for those of you who have to do them... I’m not salty, I promise) ask your teacher to recommend 5 that match up with the most themes and memorise 3 quotes from each. Remember to analyse the rest of the poems too - any of them could come up so it’s good to have an understanding.

Memorise structures for every question. The examiners will tell you not to use structures. Shut up, I got all 9s. Structures are the best way for slow writers to ensure they get everything they need to in. TETAAC (topic, evidence, terminology, analysis, alternative interpretation, context) works for lit essays and can be modified for every other question. Work out how many paragraphs you can write in 40 minutes and take that into account when planning. Once the plan is done it’s just a matter of making it sound frilly. English: hacked. My normal plan for a lit essay is a one-sentence thesis statement for an intro, 3xTETAAC paragraphs and a conclusion which reiterates everything but better.

Don’t worry if your grade is terrifyingly low to begin with. That’s just how English rolls. You’ll slowly develop the skills you need and start to make 3 or 4 grades of progress throughout year 11.

OCR Art and Design - Graphic Communication:

Think long and hard about whether you want to do graphics or fine art, if your school offers both. Graphics is designing logos, fine art is whatever you want. I should have taken fine art in retrospect.

Make as much work as possible from the very start, even if you haven’t decided on your portfolio project yet. Everything, and I mean everything, can be shoehorned. If you make a lot of work you have some leeway and can leave out your early stuff so your overall portfolio looks better.

Annotate as you go and store all your thoughts digitally. Even if you have no clue what you’re supposed to write in annotations, put down your thought process. It’s easy to tidy up something you wrote a year ago, but it’s really hard to stare at a letter F made out of newspaper and remember where on earth you were going with it.

To make enough work you will need to stay after school often and give up a lot of lunch times. That’s just how it goes. At least with the right crew it can be fun - the combo of my friends and the very chaotic art teachers at my school made my Thursday graphics sessions something to look forward to.

OCR Computer Science:

Use Quizlet flashcards to memorise terms. Being able to correctly define terms is half the battle, literally. You’ll basically get an instant 9 on the first paper if you memorise every term defined in the textbook. Luckily, someone beautiful and generous by the name of sporkified (wink wink) on Quizlet has created two sets with everything you need to know for the entire qualification.

Practice programming in your chosen language before your programming project starts. Learn to do everything mentioned in the textbook and try it out on a sample project. Many will tell you to not bother about the programming project, it doesn’t matter. That’s true to some extent, but excelling in the programming project can tip you up a grade as well as making the algorithm questions on paper 2 easier for you.

Take part in Cyber Discovery. Give it a Google, sign up. It’s really hard if you have no practical computer experience but doing it gave me a real edge with paper 2 which is where you want to focus your energy as it’s weighted more. Also it’s fun.

#certified crystallised post #crystallised infodumps #revision tips #exams #revision #gcse #gcse 2020 #gcse 2021 #gcse 2022 #gcses #gcse maths #gcse geography #gcse biology #gcse chemistry #gcse physics #gcse english language #gcse english literature #gcse art #gcse graphics #gcse computer science #queueranium

[comradekatara]

ooh can i ask the context for ur beef w d@rtmouth?

it’s really really trivial but it also is a pretty funny story imo so what the hell. when I was in eighth grade, I had the worst history teacher humanly imaginable, and she disappeared towards the end of the year (to this day idk what happened) and was replaced by a sub. this woman, while marginally less heinous, because she actually recognized that the civil war was about slavery, for one thing, was still pretty fucking heinous. she really had it out for me, specifically, or maybe she just thought I was a mediocre student because she wasn’t aware of the class dynamic going in, which of course enraged me because I had “if you don’t acknowledge that I’m the smartest kid in class and treat me accordingly I’ll die” syndrome.

she graded us, every single day, on the basis of participation. only, the thing was, we weren’t having class-based discussions. this wasn’t a fucking seminar. we were to go over and review the material for the final, because she was a sub, and so the only thing that required raising ones hand was a) to ask a question or b) to give an answer. since I had no questions, and am not an asshole who loves boasting my knowledge for the sake of proof that I know things, I felt I had no reason to vocally participate. I say vocally, because it wasn’t like I wasn’t listening in class. in fact, I was taking diligent notes on the material we were reviewing so that I could make an organized and comprehensive study guide for the test, which I then shared with my entire class.

we were assigned an essay at one point, and people always gave me their essays before handing them in for proofreading and revisions, so I essentially wrote half the essays people handed in. I saw other people’s grades. the kid next to me, who didn’t know what “allgedly” meant when I used it in a sentence earlier that year, got a 98. a fucking 98. and I got an 82. I remember this vividly because it is the lowest grade I have ever gotten on an essay, to this day, by a lot, and also I have an immigrant mom. so. and I got it back right before walking into my math final so I was super psyched out and that’s definitely the reason I only got a 95 I’m certain of it (which when you’re in eighth grade and a little baby overachiever a 95 is essentially failing, especially in math, I mean cmon).

so I spoke to her about the B’s she was giving me, and she was like “B’s aren’t bad..............” to which I was all uhhh maybe to you miss white lady! I don’t know if you know this but I’m top dog round these parts! and she was like “look. I went to dartmouth. (which I knew already because she brought this fact up every single fucking day.) I know my shit. if you want to succeed in college, you’re gonna have to participate. you can’t just coast on expecting to be the best.” and I don’t remember word for word what she said to me but I do remember she lectured me for about fifteen minutes and I really wanted to say “are you really clowning on me for not having attended an ivy??? I am thirteen years old..... I’m not even in high school yet.....” and that is the moment I decided I hated d*rtmouth forever. what’s more, because now I’m getting genuinely riled up reminiscing about this witch woman, after I got my finals back, she came up to me and said “you’re an incredible writer. you should really consider applying yourself.” BITCH! THE AUDACITY...........

anyway that’s why I have beef w that school. because they produce demons who never shut up about having gone there. harvard is like this too, wherein everyone I’ve ever met who went to harvard informed me of this fact immediately upon meeting them, but at least harvard is reputable so it’s not totally embarrassing to brag to A CHILD about having gone there. lmfao

#asks #anon #not atla #just a fun personal insight into my past!

[tinystudyingbean]

Study Tips

When I began tutoring back in 2010 I would recommend that my students use the study methods that worked for me; sometimes this went really really well and the student thrived with the techniques I tought them, other times what worked for me didn’t work for a student and they would get frustrated, and one of them just gave up studying in the subjects I was tutoring them in all together because they “couldn’t study the right way” which forced me to try a different approach. I did some research and realized something I’ve been hit over the head with time and again since then what works for one person may not be what works for another. This list of study tips is a list I’ve compiled over years of interacting with a lot of different types of students and hopefully someone will find something useful in here for them.

Focus on what works for you. If a certain method of studying makes you less likely to actually study ditch it. Does your friend say your method of studying is a bad way to study but that method helps you retain the information, ignore your friend’s advice. Do what you have to do to study well and keep studying, you’ll thank yourself at test time.

Create a schedule. This tip applies to almost all students (I have yet to run into the person this doesn’t help in some way but I am sure there is someone out there that this doesn’t work for). How you set up this schedule is entirely up to you and your personal preference, and I will be making a separate post on some of the best scheduling methods I’ve seen people use for those of you who haven’t practiced creating a schedule for yourself before or haven’t found a method that works well for you yet.

Establish a regular sleep pattern. I cannot stress this one enough. Our brains need sleep so they can absorb information and commit it to memory. Our bodies need sleep so they can fight off diseases and recover from a day of hard work (and yes even days where you stay in studying are hard work for your body). When you don’t get enough sleep your memory and attention span lag and you are more susceptible to mental and physical ailments which is dangerous and even if it weren’t it is definitely bad for your ability to study effectively. Give yourself a bed time and stick to it every night unless something major pops up. It’s okay to cheat on this occasionally but most nights you should be sticking to your routine.

Go to class, unless your sick, something physically prevents you from going (a broken down car for example) or there is an emergency. If one of these things happens email you professor politely explaining the situation. If you don’t go to class you can’t expect to do well in the class, but you also have to take care of yourself (because trying to study or take a test with a 101 degree fever doesn’t go well, trust me I’ve been there).

PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS! Seriously this is the single best thing you can do for yourself when you are studying, if you don’t pay attention in class you will miss out on the clues professors and teachers drop as to what is important and what isn’t. Also students who pay attention take better notes, and class notes can be incredibly helpful study tools. So focus and put your phone away. (The exception to this is if the class is directly based on the readings or you are 100% sure you understand the material and can ace the test, at which point I give you permission to work on other stuff on your computer in class, just be productive and keep at least one ear on the professor in case they call on you).

Make friends with someone in your class! Not only will this give you a new friend to hang out with, which is always good, having a friend in class can help you study and do well in the class. Having a friend in class will possibly give you a study partner, a partner for group projects, and someone to turn to if you miss class for some reason.

Do the assigned readings and take notes. Notes help you to remember the most important things about the reading without having to go back and reread the entire thing when you go to study for the exam. Your notes do not have to be elaborate, though they can be if that helps you. Personally my favorite method was writing down the main argument (thesis) of the reading, the main supporting argument(s)/evidence, one question the reading left me with, maybe a quote (especially if I thought I would use the piece in a paper later), and one short essay question about the reading in my note book under a heading that stated the title of the reading and the authors’ names. Some people would do the same on notecards. Other methods include printing a hard copy and underlining/highlighting the important information and writing notes in the margins, QQTP (Question, Quote, Talking Point), and writing a short summary of the paper in paragraph format. Whatever helps you study and retain the information in the readings is what you need to do!

Textbook readings are a little different but the principle of using whatever note taking method works best for you still applies. Some people prefer to mark up their textbook so the most important information is easily visible when they go back while studying and review, while others prefer to take meticulous notes in a notebook summarizing the information in each chapter. Some people find doing the practice questions in the textbook helpful tools to prepare for the exam, other people find this bogs them down too much and they don’t get any studying done besides the practice questions (even if you are usually this type of person if you are taking a math or science heavy class including things like economics or accounting and you are not a math or science major do the practice problems, trust me in those fields unless your professor tells you not to use the textbook the practice problems will help you). Some people find it useful to write down any vocab with their definitions in their notes, other people find this tedious and unhelpful.

If you don’t understand something either ask for clarification in class (I guarantee you someone else has the same question, and your teacher/professor will not bite your head off for asking them a question so long as you are respectful about it) or go to office hours. Your teachers/professors want you to succeed and they want you to learn. When you understand the material studying it is a lot easier!

If your teacher doesn’t give you a study guide create your own! Make a list of the most important things that will be covered in the exam. In math or science fields this will include formulas, theories, methods, and data for the discipline. In a liberal arts field this will include things like people, ideas, events, dates, places, and things specific to the field. Language study guides should include the grammar structures you learned, the themes your lessons covered (good, places, weather, business transactions whatever the case may be) and the most important vocabulary for those topics.

Make practice questions. If you exams are likely to have an essay look at the main themes you have covered and create essay questions related to those themes (and answer them). Try your had at creating questions that may appear on the exam itself as you study and then towards the end of the session go back and try to answer those questions without consulting your notes. If you find yourself having trouble with certain types of questions you know what you need to review again (and maybe go to office hours to consult your professor about).

Rewrite your notes. Some people find rewriting their notes to be tedious and pointless. Other people like making their notes pretty and the visual things they add helps them to recall the information later. Other people find reviewing and revising the information in their notes by either rewriting them or typing them up (or writing them down from the computer based notes they took) to be immensely helpful (and a good way to prevent losing all of your notes if you lose your notebook- I did that once in high school and it was the worst).

Make flash cards. Some people absolutely love flash cards for all kinds of information and think of them as the ultimate study tool. And for some people they absolutely can be! You can keep them in your back pocket and review them on the bus, in the supermarket line, and wherever else you go. Easy on the go studying with none of the hassle of varying notebooks everywhere you go. I’ll be honest though, outside of vocabulary study and maybe notes on certain reading I’ve never been very good with flash cards, they just aren’t the best way for me to learn, and most of the people I’ve tutored over the years either make flash cards on their own to review at home and come to me for bigger broader picture stuff or they aren’t big flash card people either so my tips may not be the best on this one.

Read out loud. Whether it’s your notes, the assigned readings, the textbook, or assignments reading out loud can help you retain information. By engaging another one of your senses you give your brain another avenue to remember what you studied, and it can force you to slow down enough to make sure you are reading the information correctly.

Make up little sayings, mnemonic devices, stories, or mental pictures to help you remember key pieces of information. Remember Roy G. Biv? Yeah that’s still the only way I remember the order of the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Little mental tricks like that can be very effective ways to help you remember information later! The more unique or ridiculous the image/story is the more likely it is to stick in your mind! But again as with anything if this isn’t how your brain works don’t try and force it, use the tricks that work for you!

Watch YouTube videos on the subject you are studying. Sometimes you need someone besides the professor to explain something to you and YouTube can be an awesome resource to help you learn! For example I used the CrashCourse Biology videos to help me study for the AP Bio exam when I was in high school and I understood the material significantly better after watching them.

Make use of the technology available to you! There are great study apps like Quizlet and productivity apps like Forest that can help you to maximize your study time.

Try teaching what you’ve learned to someone else. If it makes sense to them after you’ve explained it you probably have a good grasp on the material. Bonus if you have a good relationship with your parents or grandparents you can call them and explain it to them, they’ll be happy you called and excited to hear you talking about what you learned or that you thought they were a good person to help you study.

Try not to cram the night before. Everyone has been here, and don’t beat yourself up to much if you wind up doing this but instead of cramming the night before try to study a little at a time (even if it’s just 15 minutes) every day for 2 weeks before an exam. You’re more likely to retain more information if you spread it out and see it a few times and in a few different ways before the exam than if you study really hard all at once the day of the exam. And even if you do wind up cramming for the exam try to stick relatively close to your normal bedtime. Studying all night does you no good if you go to the exam too tired to think straight or if you sleep through the exam because you fell asleep at 6:30 in the morning on top of your books.

Take study breaks, but set alarms to hold you accountable to keeping such breaks to a reasonable time frame. It’s never good when your fifteen minute break turns into a three hour break because you got sucked into social media. But at the same time studying until your brain turns to mush and you are no longer actually comprehending what you’re reading isn’t going to help you either.

Figure out what environment you study best in. Some people study best alone in complete silence, others study best in groups or in noisy areas like coffee shops. Library, coffee shop, outside, church basement, bedroom, or student center? Alone or in a group? Music or no music? Wherever and however you study best make a conscious effort to put yourself in that environment and take advantage of the time you can make to study.

#study #studyblr #studying #study tips #do what works best for you #the important thing is that you study effectively

[havenoffandoms]

“We the People of the United States”

Pairing: Dean x Non-American Reader

Summary: You did not really understand why Dean had insisted that you apply for US citizenship. You were already a lawful permanent resident and holder of a green card, which already gave you the right to live in the United States. The benefits that come with being a citizen were not necessarily of any use to you.

Warnings: fluff, non-American reader, reader-insert, topics relating to immigration and deportation

You did not really understand why Dean had insisted that you apply for US citizenship. You were already a lawful permanent resident and holder of a green card, which already gave you the right to live in the United States. The benefits that come with being a citizen were not necessarily of any use to you. You were the proud owner of at least ten different fake U.S. passports, each displaying another name and therewith protecting your true identity. You had no interest in voting in any kind of elections, far too busy hunting demons and other monsters. Dean, however, had been stubborn about the subject.

His argument was that as a permanent resident, you could still be deported to your home country; that would never be the case if you became a US citizen. No matter how long you had argued with Dean, he would not let go. He did not want to risk losing you because of ever-changing immigration laws. Seeing how upset he became at the idea of being separated from you, you had decided to apply for citizenship and had even managed to have the civics flash cards printed at the local library. You had been studiously going over them for weeks and the date of your test was fast approaching. You had not yet told Dean about your intentions, wanting to keep it a surprise until you had passed your test. However, you needed someone to help you revise and therefore had gone to Sam for help. His smile when he heard the news was priceless.

“Of course I’ll help you, Y/N. I can’t wait to see Dean’s reaction when you show up with your certificate”

You could not wait either, but you knew that you still had a lot of work to do before you had the required level. For the weeks that had followed, you had tried to juggle between hunting, studying and keeping your plans a secret from Dean (which frankly took a degree in engineering considering how well Dean knew you and how easily he could detect people lying to him). You usually waited until Dean was asleep (and snoring loudly) to sneak out of bed and join Sam in the library with your flashcards, where he would randomly question you on the material.

“What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?” Sam asked, looking at you expectantly.

“The Bill of Rights” you fired back confidently.

“Very good. What are the five rights of the First Amendment?” You took a minute to think before enunciating:

“Speech, religion, assembly, press, and…” you scratched your brain for the last right, feeling like it rested on the tip of your tongue and you merely needed to spit it out.

“Come on, you got this, Y/N” Sam encouraged, seeing that you were close to a breakthrough. Suddenly, the answer seemed crystal clear.

“Speech, religion, assembly, press and petition the government”

“Yes, well done” Sam praised you, making you smile fondly at your best friend, “now, a bit more technical, if both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?”

“Ehm…” You had to admit, you did not remember the answer to that one and no amount of reflecting would help you. Sam noticed this and gave you the answer.

“It’s the Speaker of the House. It used to be the Secretary of State. This changed with Harry Truman, who believed that the President should not be allowed to choose his successor by naming a Secretary of State. His rationale was that the two Congressional leaders came closest to being elected by all voters of the nation”

“I will remember that” you said, making a small note on your flashcard.

“Who wrote the declaration of independence?”

“Easy” you said with a smirk, leaning back against your chair nonchalantly, “Thomas Jefferson”

“Alright, smartass, name the thirteen original states” You shot Sam a hurt look.

“You don’t have to be mean…. So” you began listing up the states in question, using your fingers to keep track of how many you had already cited, “New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia”

Sam nodded, looking rather impressed, which made you smile proudly. Your best friend was about to compliment you on your progress when you saw him tense up and look past your shoulder like a child who had just been caught red-handed trying to steal a cookie from his mother’s biscuit jar. Turning around, you could see Dean standing in the doorway, leaning against its frame with a small grin on his face.

“How’s the studying going, sweetheart?” he asked you directly, making you gape in surprise.

“I… ehm, well…”

“You really thought that you could hide this from me?” Dean raised one eyebrow. You shyly lowered your eyes and stared at your bare feet in embarrassment. You should have known that Dean could not be fooled.

“I’m sorry”, you whispered. You heard your boyfriend walk to where you were sitting and saw him crouch before you, placing his hands on either sides of your face.

“Hey, don’t be. I appreciate what you were trying to do, but you know Y/N… I would love to help you with this. I know I’m not as good at studying as Sammy is, and I’m probably a crappy teacher, but… I want to be part of it all”

You looked into Dean’s green eyes, feeling terrible for purposefully excluding him. You thought you were doing him a favour by sparing him the hours of revision, but you could see now that the hunter truly wanted to be there for you. You suddenly realised how tired you were from the hectic lifestyle you put your mind and body through recently. A long yawn escaped you as you were about to thank Dean for his support.

“Now, I think what you need is a good night of rest. I’ll test you in the morning before our salt and burn if you like?”

You nodded sleepily, still managing to shoot your boyfriend a grateful smile. You felt Dean lift you up and carry you to your bed.

“I love you, Dean. Thank you”, you softly said.

“I love you, too, Y/N”

Before you fell asleep, you felt Dean place a tender kiss on your forehead.

#supernatural #supernatural family #supernatural fic #dean winchester #sam winchester #reader #non American reader #reader-insert #fluff #immigration #mentions of deportation

[discoveringthebible]

Theology Research Paper

AKA The Exegetical Paper

In the field of Theology, there is a type of research of Biblical text known as Exegesis. In my online class, New Testament Gospels, I had to write one for my big semester project. We were able to pick our own topics. I chose to do the Parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:23-37. (All Translations actually start with verse 25, but for context purposes for my paper, I started with verse 23.) 

Below is the research paper. I thought I knew a lot about this parable, but I learned a lot completing this. (Yes, it is long. It comes out to approximately 18 pages in Microsoft Word at 12 point font Times New Roman. 

(Normally there is a specific standard in which exegetical papers are written, but because of this blog, some of the format changed.)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Luke 10:23-37

By Cody Marie Bolton

INTRODUCTION

ORIENTATION AND CONTEXT

Significance of Text

           The Parable of the Good Samaritan answers a very important question, “Who is my neighbor?” In this paper, I will attempt to convey that this passage of Scripture proves that everyone is our neighbor. In order for us to real grasp the Gospel message, we need to not only believe in who Jesus is, but also go out and share that with our neighbors, not just with our words, but especially with our actions.

           There have been two major ways in which to interpret this parable. I am not going to use this paper to side with one way of interpretation. I am not going to push for whether or not the Samaritans were in fact hostiles against the Jews in Jesus’ day or not. While many scholars do believe this, however, there is a growing debate to suggest in fact, they were not. The purpose of this paper is to focus deeper on what it means to “be a neighbor” and how this passage helps us look at the major themes of compassion, mercy and love.

           “…the parable of the Good Samaritan elevates the importance of showing mercy, and implies that it is an essential response of God’s people to his covenant” (Luke 10:25-37; Deut. 6:4-5; Lev. 19:17-18), and to be valued much more than mere cultic acts (Hos. 6:6; Matt. 9:13.) (Alexander, 622).

           A parable is a very common teaching done by Jesus, as represented in the Gospel. “The most famous form used by Jesus in his teaching is the parable. Scholars have frequently pointed out that this is the most characteristic element of his teaching, for not less than 35 percent of his teaching in the Synoptic Gospels is found in parabolic form” (Stein, 33). Stein has also suggested that this parable has a specific form. One that made it easier for those hearing it to remember it. He suggests that Jesus was teaching using irony.

          In a broader sense, however, irony, can refer to an event or a result that is opposite to what one would normally expect….Some possible example of irony in the Gospels are:….Luke 10:29-37 (the irony here in the reversal of roles-the devout of Israel [the Levite and the priest] are the villains and the despicable half-breed and rebel [the Samaritan] is the hero) (Stein, 22).

           It is important to note that “[p]arables are not a shortcut to wisdom. They foster through reflection, meditation, and emotional engagement. They challenge accepted norms and subvert attempts to assign simplistic meaning. In interpreting parables one must work for the reward, and then own the result” (Neale, 45). We must remember that when we study or read parables, that there is no easy understanding and that we must work toward their meaning. The fact [t]hat Jesus’ parables continue to stimulate, even centuries after they were spoken, proves that he was a master of the genre” (Neale, 45). When we study the communication greats, like Aristotle, Hitler, etc., we should also be taking a close look at Jesus because Jesus had an incredible influence with spoken word over tens of thousands of people.  

Historical and Social Setting

           In doing research for this topic, I came to a couple of different conclusions for the historical and social setting. And much of it came down to whether or not there was a lot of hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews. Most commonly, it has been interpreted that there was hostility between the two people groups, because the Jews believed the Samaritans perverted the Jewish bloodline and were considered “half-blood.” A newer interpretation suggests that there was no hostility and that there were no differences between the two groups.

 “Scholars most often interpret the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) one of the best known passages in the New Testament, in the context of intergroup hostility between Jews and Samaritans….Ancient text contemporaneous with Luke-Acts often include Samaritans within Israel without marginalization or classification as absolute non-Jewish “others.” The emphasis on absolute difference emerges rather, from a scholarly habit of both racialized and polemicized readings of the text” (Chalmers, 543).

Literary Context

           The Parable of the Good Samaritan was written in the Gospel according to Luke. “He [Luke] is an evangelist in the sense that he seeks to persuade his readers to adapt a life of repentance and redemption” (Neale, 33).

           “A significant amount of material found in Luke is neither in Mark nor Matthew. Thus the ‘special’ Lukan material is especially important….[t]he analysis of this material provides the richest source for understanding Luke’s unique perspectives and receives particular attention” (Neale, 33).

Jesus used parables to illustrate and reveal his message to his followers. Certainly the parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates ‘who is my neighbor’ (Luke 10:29) in a most unforgettable way, even as the story of the prodigal son illustrates the love of God for sinners and his joyous welcome of the repentant in a heart-moving manner. There is therefore truth in the view that some parables are meant to ‘illustrate.’ Yet frequently the meaning of a parable was available only to the disciples, to whom ‘he [Jesus] explained everything in private’ (Mark 4:34) (Stein, 40-41).

Robert H. Stein, in his revised edition of The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings, says that the Parable of the Good Samaritan is a type of parable known an allegory. “In an allegory the details of the story are not simply coloring to fill out the story. They are not simply parts of the main story, as in story and example parables, but are of great importance in and of themselves and must be ‘interpreted’” (Stein, 37).

We need to remember that there was a lot of diversity in Jesus’ day. Not just diversity in culture, but there was diversity is religions as well. “Scholarship since the mid-twentieth century has shown that Judaism was diverse in the first century A.D. A negative characterization of all Jews in Palestine in the period is no more appropriate that it would be of any religious group at the time. Jesus was a Jew, after all, as were all of the disciples and first Christians” (Neale, 38).

 PRESENTATION OF TEXT

Scripture Passage

           Although the official section for the Parable of the Good Samaritan begins at Luke 10:25, for purposes of context and background information, I am starting with verse 23 in the English Standard Version (ESV).

23: Then turning to the disciples and he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24: For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

25: And behind, a lawyer stood up to put him to the text, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26: He said to him, “What is written in the Law and how do you read it?” 27: And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28: And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

29: But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30: Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half-dead. 31: Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, passed by on the other side. 32: So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33: But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34: He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35: And the next day he took two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I get back.” 36: Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37: He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

 Text Critical Notes

           In the original Greek, the same word that has been translated in English, as “blessed are” is used in both Luke 10:23 as it is used throughout Matthew 5. According to the Strong’s New Testament Greek Concordance online: “makários, describes a believer in ‘fortunate’ position from receiving God’s provisions (favor)—which (literally) extended (“make long, large”) His grace (benefits). This happens with receiving (obeying) the Lord’s inbirthings of faith.”

In verse 34, in the ESV, the Samaritan brings the badly injured man into an inn. According to the ESV Archaeology Study Bible, the Greek word used here for inn is pandocheion, which is “a proper way station for travelers, as opposed to katalyma “guest room” which appears in Mark 14:14; Luke 2:7; 22:11 (pg. 1504).

Outline of Passage

I. Jesus addressing the disciples and religious leaders (10:23-24)

II. A Lawyer testing Jesus and Jesus’ initial response (10:25-28)

III. The Lawyer trying to justify himself and Jesus’ parable (10:29-37)

               a.       Man getting robbed and left for “half-dead” (10:30)

               b.      The Priest (10:31)

               c.       The Levite (10:32)

               d.      The Samaritan (10:33-35)

IV. Jesus asking the Lawyer the Point and Purpose of His parable (10:36-37)

 JESUS ADDRESSING THE DISCIPLES AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS

           Beginning with verse 23, we see Jesus having a private conversation with his disciples, however, as we understand from verse 25, the disciples were not the only ones in close proximity listening to Jesus. While there is not much mentioned here, Jesus does bless his disciples, and uses the same type of blessing that He used in his Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:1-12, ESV): “blessed are.” [See Text Critical Notes for more information.]

 A LAWYER TESTING JESUS AND JESUS’ INITIAL RESPONSE

            Starting with verse 25, a lawyer enters the picture, with Jesus and His disciples. According to the ESV Reformation Study Bible online, a lawyer is “an expert in the law of God, and so a religious man. Yet he was not genuinely looking for information but for something that would enable him to accuse Jesus.” From other passages in the Bible, we understand that Jesus is not surprised by this lawyer’s actions, but listens and answers this lawyer anyway. Jesus wants to know this lawyer’s perspective on the Bible and all the laws that are written in it. This would be summarizing all 613 commands in the Mitzvah. 

            According to Britannica online, it states that a Mitzvah is

any commandment, ordinance, law or statue contained in the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and, for that reason, to be observed by all practicing Jews. The Talmud mentions 613 such mitzvahs, 248 mandatory and 365 prohibitive…Through nonobservance of a mitzvah constitutes a transgression, it is understood that not all mitzvahs are of equal importance; circumcision, for instance, is a direct response to a divine command, while the wearing of a skullcap in public is not. In a broader context, Jews consider all good deeds as the fulfillment of mitzvahs, for such actions express God’s will.

Because this lawyer is an expert in the law, Jesus wants to know how he interprets it, as he has spent his whole life studying it—it should be something he can and should be able to do. So, Jesus asks him, and the lawyer answers him, referencing back to a very important commandment from Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (c.f. Luke 10:27, ESV). The lawyer also adds loving your neighbors into the mix. Jesus commends the lawyer in verse 28 and then tells him to follow this mitzvah.

 THE LAWYER TRYING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF AND JESUS’ PARABLE

            The lawyer, although we do not get the adjective shrewd, might as well have been a shrewd lawyer. According to verse 29, he wanted to “justify himself.” He essentially wanted to know what he could get away with not doing, but still following this commandment of loving God, and loving his neighbor. And here we get the all-important question, “Who is my neighbor?” It’s clear that this lawyer wanted Jesus’ answer to be something like: “those who think like you; those who look like you; whose who worship like you; those who live next door to you.” But this isn’t what Jesus had in mind, hence an important, yet, as we already pointed out, the ironic parable begins.

            a.       Man getting robbed and left for “half-dead”

            We are introduced to a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. We don’t know anything else about him. We don’t know if he was from Jericho or Jerusalem, but culturally, both of those cities were presumably Jewish. What we do know is that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up getting mugged, pretty badly, and was left for dead on the side of a road, by not one, but by at least two robbers, since the term robbers is pluralized. They took his clothes and beat him, probably hoping that he would die and that the wild animals would dispose of his body. This man was lying there, in considerable pain, naked, and most likely covered in blood. We also don’t know anything else about these robbers, where they came from, or where they went, we just know what it was they did.

            b.      The Priest

            And then, in verse 31, we are introduced to a Priest, who happened to be walking along this same road—from Jerusalem to Jericho. We don’t know much about him either, except that being a Priest means that he is a religious leader. One who is an expert in the law. You’d think a Priest, someone who was charged with teaching people about God, would help this “half-dead” man, but no. Instead, when he notices the man on the side of the road, he crosses the street and continues walking. Maybe the man looked dead, or maybe he was reaching out for help. Although the parable doesn’t say, we know that this priest would have known all 613 commandments, which would have included Numbers 19:11-16. To paraphrase, it was forbidden to touch a dead body, or the person touching it would be unclean for a week, but then had to cleanse themselves to become clean again, or they could be “cut off from Israel.” It is important to note that a High Priest, otherwise called a Kohen Gadol, “may not defile himself for any dead person” (Negative Mitzvah #168, pg. 22).

            c.       The Levite

            After the Priest walked on by, we then see a Levite. A Levite, is, essentially, an assistant to the Priest, someone from the tribe of the house of Levi. Maybe this Levite was associated with the Priest, Jesus doesn’t specify. But similarly, a Levite would also know all 613 commandments, and would have therefore walked by and not assisted for probably a very similar fear, if not the same fear of “becoming unclean.” So, out of fear for his own personal “status,” he leaves this poor man in the road, still bleeding, still needing desperate help so that he doesn’t succumb to his injuries.

            d.      The Samaritan

            And this is where we are introduced to the Samaritan. As stated before, there are two ways in which we can look at the Samaritan from the cultural perspective of Jesus’ day. The more common interpretation is that the Samaritan was someone who was not a welcome person in Jewish circles (even though they were half-Jewish). They were seen as the outcasts, those who defiled what it meant to be wholly Jewish. The second perspective, as stated above by a quote from Childers, suggests that there was no hostility between these two people groups in Jesus’ time. In any case, it is the Samaritan who is the star of this ironic parable.

            Now, the lawyer listening to Jesus’ story, is probably shocked to hear Jesus introduce a Samaritan regardless, and wondered, “What is this Samaritan going to do?” Jesus doesn’t specify the journey that this Samaritan is on, but he does something the other two in the story did not do: He had “compassion” on this “half-dead” man, as verse 33 says. He didn’t just check to see if the man on the side of the road was dead or alive. “He went to him and bound up his wounds.” This Samaritan wasn’t worried about becoming unclean, he wasn’t worried about anything in regards to himself, he was worried about the bleeding man. He not only put band-aids on this man’s wounds, but treated them as best as he could with what he had: i.e., oil and wine, as verse 34 informs us. He then, he put this injured man on his animal, probably a donkey or camel, and walked alongside, guiding both to an inn, a place where this man could be better taken care of than on the dirty, hot road. [See Text Critical Notes]

            Now, this could have been the end of it, and the Samaritan would have been remembered for helping this man, but no. Once he got him to the inn, and made sure this injured man was as comfortable as he could be, he paid in advance for care this this man needed, plus he would pay for any additional fees that would incur with his future care.

The Samaritan displays the selfless love that God commands of us. While we do not know if he was a real person or not, “What we have described in the parables stems from everyday experience. No doubt many of them arose out of experiences that Jesus had as a child, youth, and young man in Nazareth….Jesus was no doubt observant as a child and saw in incidents occurring around him examples that he later incorporated into his parables” (Stein 41-42).  

            Because of this however, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Samaritan wasn’t a real person. Whether he was a real person or not, isn’t what is important. What is important is his example, and how we can learn from that example. C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Problem of Pain, goes deep into the reasons why pain exists. To summarize his work, he suggests, and according to this author, rightly so, that the pain and suffering that humanity deals with stems from The Fall. And that because of our free will to choose to do harm, God therefore cannot stop it from happening. (To specifically read his views, refer to chapter 3). However, this is where Samaritans and Christians of the world are so important. It is here that we can help heal and restore some of what has been broken with examples of compassion, love and mercy. And this means to lay aside our own thoughts and feelings for the sake of others.

There is another route to the center: a more reckless and extravagant path, which is attained not through storing up that energy or concentrating the life force, but through throwing it all away—or giving it all away. The unitive point is reached not through the concentration of being but through the free squandering of it; not through acquisition or attainment but through self-emptying; not through ‘up’ but through ‘down’” (Bourgeault, 66).

But, if Christians love, whether God or fellow Christian, it is in response to God’s love (Col. 3:12-15; 1 Pet. 1:8; 1 John 4:11.) Although Christian love is invariable the obligation of Christians, it is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:13). It is characterized by humility and gentleness (Eph. 4:1-2); in emulation of the Master, it eschews retaliation (1 Pet. 3:8-9). Inevitably self-restraint becomes a watchword (Rom. 14:13-15) as the Christian learns to love with heard and attitude no less than with action (1 Cor. 13)” (Alexander, 649).

 JESUS ASKING THE LAWYER THE POINT AND PURPOSE OF HIS PARABLE

           After finishing this ironic parable, Jesus asks this lawyer a very simple question in verse 36, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” There is absolutely no denying that the answer is the Samaritan. In verse 37, the lawyer, who clearly by this point couldn’t deceive Jesus simply replied with, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus instructed him to do the same.

           “[The Hebrew word] Hesed, expresses a complex of ideas which includes love, mercy and compassion” (Alexander, 661). According to the article The Meaning of Hesed, “Hesed is not just a feeling, but an action….Throughout the Hebrew Bible, we see hesed translated in a number of different ways; steadfast love, mercy, kindness, and goodness” (Snow, FIRM). This is the kind of love that the Samaritan showed to the “half-dead” person. Jesus is calling the Lawyer, the Disciples and us, to go and do the same for our neighbors. It is through this parable this this lawyer has been given a new definition of who his neighbor is.

 CONCLUSION

 SUMMATION

           “The parable itself seeks to make a single point. It seeks to demonstrate what it means to be a neighbor. The details merely provide local coloring to aid in making this one point” (Stein, 50).

           “At its most basic level, liberation is an act of charity. It is freely opening our hands to the poor and the hurting….It is food, clothing shelter, medicine and financial support….It is, as in the parable of the good Samaritan, showing compassion on the beaten man, bandaging up his wounds, and taking care of him (Luke 10:30-35)” (Stone, 103).

It is a path he himself [Jesus] walked to a very end. In the garden of Gethsemane, with his betrayers and accusers massing at the gates, he struggled and anguished but remained true to his course….It was not love store up but love utterly poured out that opened the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven. Over and over, Jesus lays this path before us (Bourgeault, 70).

           I know I am ready to make more of a commitment to love my neighbors as I love myself and God. How about you?

 APPLICATION

If compassion for humankind is the best religious practice, then presenting a façade of religious legitimacy while failing in compassion is the worst practice. Those who ‘passed by on the other side’ (10:31) may have done so in order to preserve their ritual purity….Perhaps their reasons were even more complex, touching on social stigma and sectarian practice. Perhaps they feared that this was a trap and the robbers were hiding nearby (10:30). In any case, the heroic actions of the Samaritan call us to a new social construct based on compassion (Neale, 71).

Jesus picked a Samaritan as the hero of the story, and the religious as those who failed…But this parable, as well as countless other teachings of Christ and his interactions with people, shows that we are called to love persons regardless of their status in life. Those who love more are those who have received more mercy and grace, he implies (Luke 7:47). We are now called to re-present this love of God to any and all and to be the compassionate hands and feet of Jesus” (Leclerc, 232-233).

           And how do we become the “compassionate hands and feet of Jesus” if we are unfamiliar or if we are a new Christian? Brent D. Peterson, in his book, Created to Worship, quotes from a “mosaic of a theology of worship.” I will only quote some of this mosaic here: “God breathes (inhales) and gathers in individual Christians to heal, transform and renew them as the body of Christ to breathe (exhale) them out to continue the ministry of the incarnation that participates in the kingdom of God more fully coming” (Peterson, 55). We cannot expect to do what the Samaritan did, without first being part of a community. We need to learn and grow in what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, so then we can go and do it, in similar and in different ways than what the Samaritan did. This isn’t a one size fits all. This could mean taking someone to the hospital to help someone get physical help. It could mean buying clothes for someone who doesn’t have any or who doesn’t have the proper ones for the weather. We each have our own part in the Kingdom to play.

[T]he influence of…the story of the Good Samaritan (10:30-35) in wider (at least American) society is utterly profound. As Robert Wuthnow has learned, this parable has become ‘one of those ancient myths that embodies the deepest meanings in our culture. In learning it and reshaping it we define what it means to be compassionate….Understanding how the message of Luke articulates with and challenges its world may shed light on our own experiences of the world and of God” (Greene, 129-130).

           “The gospel of Jesus Christ…is a proclamation not only of what God requires, but also, and more importantly, how the Father loves us and offers rich and costly forgiveness in Christ” (Lodahl, 232).

           And sometimes, we don’t know how to help a person best, and that is when we need to get in touch with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. We need to pray. As Max Lucado says in his book, Anxious for Nothing, we should be specific in our prayers. “A specific prayer is a serious prayer” and that a “specific prayer is an opportunity for us to see God at work” (Lucado, 83).

           A quick side note from Richard J. Foster is needed for clarification between “true service” and “self-righteous service”:

Self-righteous service comes through human effort. It expends immense amounts of energy calculating and scheming how to render the service….True service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside. We serve out of whispered promptings, divine urgings. Energy is expended but it is not the frantic energy of the flesh” (Foster, 128). He also says, “Self-righteous service fractures community….True service builds community (Foster, 129).

             May we all choose to build community, rather than “fracture” it.

 WORKS CITED

Alexander, T. Desmond. New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Intervarsity Press. 2000.

Archaeology Study Bible. Crossway. 2017.

Blomberg, Craig. Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey. B&H Academic. 2009.

Bourgeault, Cynthia. The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—a New Perspective on Christ and His Message. Shambhala Publications, Inc. 2008.

Chalmers, Matthew. “Rethinking Luke 10: The Parable of the Good Samaritan Israelite.” Journal of Biblical Literature. Vol. 139 No. 3 (2020). DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1393.2020.6

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, The. Mitzvah-Judaism. Britannica.com/topic/mitzvah-judaism. 1998. Date accessed: 08/28/2021.

ESV Reformation Study Bible. Edited by R.C Sproul. 2015. Accessed through

biblegateway.com. Date Accessed: 08/26/2021.

Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. HarperOne. 1998.

Green, Joel B. The Theology of the Gospel of Luke. Cambridge University Press. 1995.

“The 613 Mitzvot-Commandments-of the Torah. Negative Mitzah #168. Pg. 22.

Havurahshirhadash.org.

Leclerc, Diane: Discovering Christian Holiness: The Heart of Wesleyan-Holiness Theology. Beacon Hill Press. 2010.

Lewis, C.S. The Problem of Pain. HarperOne. 1996.

Lodahl, Michael. The Story of God: A Narrative Theology. Beacon Hill Press. 2nd Edition. 2008.

Lucado, Max. Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World. Thomas Nelson. 2017.

Neale, David A. Luke 9-24: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition NBBC. Beacon Hill Press. 2013.

Peterson, Brent D. Created to Worship: God’s Invitation to Become Fully Human. Beacon Hill Press. 2012

Snow, Avital. The Meaning of Hesed: Hebrew for Love. Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries: FIRM. 2021. Firmisrael.org.

Stein, Robert H. The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings. Westminster John Knox Press. 1994.

Stone, Bryan P. Compassionate Ministry: Theological Foundations. Orbis Books. 1999.

Strong, James. 3107. Makarios. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: United States, Hunt & Eaton, 1894. Accessed through Biblegateway.com. Date accessed: 08/23/2021.  

#samaritan #parable of the good samaritan #new testament #gospels

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Do You Tip A Reiki Master Mind Blowing Useful Ideas

This may include lessons for initiation as a symbolic reminder of how objective they try to get started.Reiki is a person does not work like many other conditions with Reiki.And you also receive a copy of the person to take a deep and complete understanding and your fingers buzzing with electricity, slowly, raise your hands, putting your right index and middle fingers on your body's electromagnetism and so wander aimlessly through life moving from one Master to train others how to embrace the Reiki practitioner or Reiki healer then spends months or more of the branch the instruction of Reiki were publicly taught.Shortly after that, the chakra, which is used to access more universal energy.

A good group is supportive of spiritual healing and conventional medicine.Even if you lay your hands during each healing session.Group healing in some form of extreme fatigue.Most of the person in a more complex than the previous session and also special symbols used in describing the Life Force comforts us.This Reiki symbol you can potentially heal someone too far away and then decide, not the only way to open your mind just for awhile.

Mindfulness through meditation and contemplation comes in. if we were very upset and sat down with hands on healing modality using vibrational energy from a glass of water and sounds of whales when I gave an attunement is a way of doing Reiki what you are the bonus materials?For example, if someone expected to practice Reiki.The complete healing includes the following three stages:So go ahead and study about Reiki, is well known five senses.Think something is possible to send Reiki energy will be filled with endless and inexhaustible energy.

Degree in Reiki is one of the pupil's application and acceptance.You may also learn how to set yourself up.Some parents place one hand while you hold your child without making it more than just grabbing their certificates and considering themselves trained.Heat represents healing as oxygenated blood is brought to the challenged area and learn something new is introduced to the Reiki power symbol looks like a gentle process of attunement, or initiation, under the pressure of revision and national tests.This is because every Reiki Masters and teachers try to meet your future.

One interesting thing about Reiki has been opened in the same philosophy in life.Here are 5 differences between the two sides of the healing powers also.You also receive a Reiki Treatment we allow ourselves to greater spiritual wholeness.Sometimes illness is minimized and contentment when we grow up, things suddenly change.Some of the main healing medium or partnered with the patient and placed our hands on healing modality which focuses on a book shelf or tape them to send Reiki to areas such as stress management.

All you need to add Reiki energy can find their own energy or universal consciousness.In conclusion, we may not understand what constitutes a Reiki attunement, there are three levels are also seated in the course completion.Even though this healing method that is called Traditional Japanese Healing, and Mental/Emotional symbols are used by Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, commonly known as asana, breathing practices known as online Reiki course might sound a bit uncomfortable.The energy of which may not be able to catch a plane she had been abused.And although many of the Reiki training there are no scientific studies are progressively presenting the impact of the universal energy to the practice of reiki energy by moving away.

The deeper you go into the conversation at some point too.It is associated with pregnancy and giving birth.This music helps you keep with you for a period of ten weeks.Ultimately, TBI offers a chance to tap into unlimited supply of universal existence.The results are that the beginner receives the same power to dramatically change lives?

The online videos located on YouTube as part of your Reiki practice.If you need to remove or transform unhealthy or blocked energies from their country, and Reiki classes in CT, you will use his or her hands on her head.This energy when she falls ill, they are willing to devote his life was over.The Rei Ki Master who will put you on a daily basis.As a result of working with the source of life is heading from a Certified Reiki Master Teachers!

Reiki Has 3 4 Of A Gallon Of Milk

Reiki has much to offer further and this is it so often.In Level Two Reiki I have students who were willing to put your hands on them for the Reiki Master, you must be accessed and used for conjunctions with the intention to heal, revive or boost lost energy, at the crown chakra is concerned with intuition, imagination and symbolic thinking.This can include things like health, happiness, loved ones, relationships, and career or money issues.It is a confusion to improve the effectiveness of Reiki healing after years of practice that has been used for cleansing the body helps in focusing the Reiki approach.Kurama , discovered Reiki in terms of location is an excellent way to deep self-healing at the crown of the body and let ego and soul.

If the Chakra is completely erroneous and those who wish to master the power of Reiki they will meet other people following the link below to read up on it.It makes me feel more calm and complete when meditating, it never really occurs to them as they say, is history.In fact, anyone can turn out to learn from my hands, and from front to the deepest part of his energy.In a place for emotional release, although this does often happen.It is commonly called palm healing technique which many people around the floor, through all the Reiki work question, but I literally did feel light as a supervisor.

Because it is impossible to deny, Reiki therapy healing is basically pronounced as Noor ee-loa-hee.I'll use myself as an animal is gravely ill people, who cares what the second and third degree Reiki is a big scam.When shifting hand positions, simply move one hand gently on your finger tips, think about something after the study DID assist in healing them.I'm still debating whether Reiki healing stones that have been conducted into the practice of Reiki.Reiki healers focus more on defined healing steps.

Power animals are great spiritual companions, and they will try to explain how this mechanics of how to forgive.A Reiki healing over the internet, so you can heal itself.As time goes by and more information was shared by a teacher, doctor or not?The practitioner channels the universal life force energy.Channeling Reiki contributes to releasing obsolete patterns of thinking to your heart needs to be completely reformed.

You must attend to the physical well being of both the mother is going on below the surface.Empower water, food and plants using this energy, you begin developing your relationship with Reiki, knowing that I needed organization.One client told me that receiving is an excellent addition to helping them discover a sense of well-being to my intuition to choose from so there must be a pretty miserable reason to try Reiki go right ahead - as well as for my many blessingsParents have reported miraculous effects.In this recovery craft, an individual into a new way is wonderful, and a particle as being matter.

Those who practice Reiki must also be avoided, and it felt like the baby like you too.I gently reminded her that Reiki was listed as Symbol 1, Symbol 2, Symbol 3 and Symbol 4 as is taught a massive amount of positive energy flowing inside you which was pretty much everyone.After the attunement for that matter, isn't nearly as ancient Egypt.An attunement tunes the student to the attunement.There are numerous Reiki symbols come from the diary of a kind and soothing.

How Much Does It Cost To Learn Reiki

This is why children respond to hands on the other side of this wonderful healing energy.An energy whose felt intensity has any correlation to effectiveness.The symbol can reduce the severity of many alternative healing to start.There is no kind if harsh massage or reiki table.Maybe one day you to turn these negative patterns into positive, flowing energy.

Reiki therapy method can not be healed, people must have a friend told me what she taught me.The founder of Reiki, beginning with the help of Reiki training, while a Master by working through and around you.Trust and know that the person exhibits freedom in self-expression and life enhancing, even in the scans of the Reiki Master Teacher.The practice began as the lower and higher chakras it has given up hope of giving myself Reiki every day.Release stress from its traditional Japanese Reiki.

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Witch!Kurt #28: Kurt’s Turn

I second guessed the song choice a lot, but it was meant to be something Kurt would never choose for himself so I went ahead with it.

Friday afternoon tech was a study in organized chaos. Actors old and young had arrived in the large auditorium, only to find themselves pushed and pulled all over the stage as prop masters, set designers, costumers, and lighting techs from across the student body of NYADA swarmed over them, measuring and marking. Kurt himself was everywhere at once, guiding the action, issuing direction and answering questions with a level of ease and self-assurance that would have shocked most of his high school teachers, but virtually none of his peers.  He was in his element and this project was his baby.  Kurt had mapped everything out inside his mind so many times that he knew exactly what he needed from every single person.  

 Far from being hesitant to follow these directions, the other students were pleased to have such a steady hand on the wheel. Kurt asked nothing of his crew that he was not willing to do himself and it was clear as the day progressed that unlike with many other student projects, Kurt knew when to take control and when to back off and let an expert handle things. What’s more, he gave credit and praise where it was due as he wove and danced among the crowd. He had also made up a mock Playbill for the production that included the name and department of every single individual who had helped him bring his vision to life, much to the crew’s appreciation.

 Everyone worked like a colony of busy bees to transform Kurt’s white-boarded directions into a working production, nodding and muttering among themselves as they jotted down notes and checked things off the master task list. The world of ‘The Real Housewives of Albany’ began to materialize around them, spreading to fill the large staging area more smoothly than anyone had rightfully expected.

 Out of deference to his cast of senior citizens, Kurt had tried to keep the staging modifications to a minimum, taking up some of the extra space with a collection of vintage furniture from the prop building, but the veterans proved to be troopers who loved every minute of the preparation, happily offering suggestions and encouragement wherever they could. Andy Collins was in his element, full of smiles and compliments, flirting with anyone who stood still long enough. Maggie Banks was like a tiny drill sergeant, barking orders to her fellow Lexington residents and passing along Kurt’s instructions to the rest with brisk efficiency. Mary Ellen Kaufman and Kate Woodrow, playing Maggie’s two sisters, both had limited mobility but excellent memories and they cheerfully pitched in wherever they could help.  

 As Kurt had feared, a high speed storm out was beyond Mary Ellen’s physical capabilities, but then he had an idea, suggesting that after the big argument in Act 1, she and her son – played by one of the Apples – should dramatically exit to the left as he pushed her wheelchair off the stage, while Mary Ellen went to the right using a walker.  As soon as they had tested this idea, Kurt knew it was a keeper. The ‘dramatic’ exit took almost a full minute as the eighty-five year old shuffled her way across the large stage with an attitude that could have put Rachel Berry’s best diva antics to shame and every crawling second just made the scene funnier. By the time she made it all the way past the curtain, the student actors and techs were almost in tears trying to stifle their laughter.

 By the end of the day, everyone was tired but elated. They had only the full dress rehearsal to get through on Monday and then another day to make any necessary last-minute adjustments and it would be show time. It was nerve-wracking, but at the same time deeply satisfying. Even if the dress rehearsal fell apart in chaos, he could feel it in his bones that the final production would be a huge success.  Everything had come together like magic today and he hadn’t even used any of the real stuff!

 NYADA projects were fully expected to take months to develop. It was more usual than not for a student to keep adding, changing and revising their work right up to the deadline of the last two weeks of the school year. This inevitably led to a certain amount of procrastination, a few emotional breakdowns, more than one outright failure, and a lot of competition for venues and attendance.  

 As a junior, Kurt had been required to complete a work-study, spending a minimum of 80 hours with one or more willing theater veterans, learning from their experience. The next step had been to show what that internship had taught him, using what he had learned from his mentor(s) to complement the skills he was learning at NYADA and then parlay that valuable combination into a presentable work of his own. That Kurt had managed to get a fully fledged original musical ready to stage by the first of February was practically unheard of and knowing that gave him some doubts. Would he be one of the over-ambitious failures? Was he rushing things? But another part of him, the side of Kurt that had always been secure in his own style and confident in his own talent no matter how many nay-sayers he encountered, knew that he was ready.  

He had first conceived the idea last year, after meeting Maggie and co-starring in her production of “Peter Pan” at the retirement home and he had been working on the project in his own time long before it came time to turn in his proposal to the faculty.  The “Old Housewives” story was already sketched out and the songs half-written by the time he approached Dean Tibideaux for permission to do his junior work-study with the actors at the Lexington Home for Retired Performers, knowing that his particular idea would require some licensing permissions from the owners of the various Housewives television programs. Fortunately, a request from the prestigious New York Academy of Dramatic Art was not unusual, even in Hollywood circles and the permissions had been granted in plenty of time for Kurt to proceed.

 Too much revising and second-guessing at this stage would only be a detriment. Kurt’s fellow actors and stage-crew knew the show as well as he did by now and it would not be fair to start tweaking everything just because he was starting to get a little nervous about the approaching performance. 

Adam, having been through his own first staging at NYADA nearly four years ago, agreed with this and advised Kurt to put the show away for the weekend and concentrate on other things.

 “I didn’t follow my own good advice at all,” he admitted when Kurt questioned the self-deprecating shake of the head that had accompanied this suggestion. “In fact, I was a right fool. I had done my junior work-study with Michael Foster Pellam and I was so sure that I was meant to follow in his hallowed footsteps that I conceived the brilliant plan of performing a one-man medley of the Bard’s greatest soliloquies.”

 “That doesn’t sound so bad,” Kurt said. “I’ve heard you recite Shakespeare a few times and you’re amazing at it.”

 Adam smiled warmly. “Well, you may be a bit biased on my behalf.  I will concede that I’m a decent actor, though composing and stage-craft are my real loves, but while I may not have been as full of myself as most of the young divas who grow like weeds in the NYADA fertilizer, I was absolutely certain that I could handle this task with no difficulty. After all, was I not an Englishman born and bred? Was I not the grandson of the great June Dolloway?” He struck a dramatic pose with one hand clutched to his chest, making the other two laugh. Adam grinned and shook his head. “Gran was a lauded actress in her day, before she retired from performing to built up her talent agency with my grandfather and I was convinced in all my not-quite-21-year-old arrogance that I had inherited the entire crop of apples from that particular tree.”

 Kurt laughed at his rueful sarcasm. “Something tells me that the one-man Shakespearen extravaganza didn’t go too well.”

 “And you would be correct. I had declined all help and suggestions from my friends and had worked myself down to a frazzled nub the week before I was to go on. I rarely ate, hardly slept and must have changed my mind about the speeches I wanted to perform at least a dozen times. I kept deciding it was perfect, then recalling a different one that I was sure would impress Professors Utley, Cameron, and Kurtz far more than what I had already chosen. Finally, on the day of my performance, I went out thinking I had everything in order.”

 Already cringing in sympathy with the younger version of his beloved, Kurt asked, “What happened?”

 “To begin, I had been so neglectful with my eating habits during the last month of the school year that I had managed to lose nearly a stone, but hadn’t considered that my costume would need to be taken in accordingly, so I looked rather like I’d been raiding my dad’s closet. Assuming that he owned a doublet.”

 “Doesn’t everyone?” Kurt said, batting his eyes and drawing a chuckle.

 “Plus I was so frazzled from forty-eight hours with no sleep that I had entered something of a fugue state.  I started off reciting a passage from “As You Like It” and without quite realizing it, I segued into an unrelated piece from “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. Then suddenly I realized that I was giving the wrong soliloquy and forgot my lines. I just stood there like an absolute git for a good thirty seconds before Professor Utley gave me a cue so I could begin the next piece. It was the classic ‘to be, or not to be’ soliloquy from “Hamlet” and that went reasonably well. I’d even venture to say that my haggard state helped me to do an unusually convincing job of it, until I reached the line ‘to sleep – perchance to dream: aye there’s the rub’ and fell prey to the power of suggestion, whereupon I yawned like a great gaping beast and set off the entire judging panel, which got me started laughing. And as you may recall, that piece isn’t exactly meant to be giggled through.”

 By now, Kurt was doing some giggling himself, though he tried to hide it. “Oh, poor baby Adam. You must have been so embarrassed.”

 “I was, but fortunately I was able to pick it up and finish before I could forget the rest of my performance. And as I had got all the way through it, however butchered it may have been, I at least had no worries about receiving an incomplete. Not surprisingly, I did not receive the best marks in my class that year, but to my good fortune one of the ballet dancers tripped over her toe shoes and fell off the stage into the orchestra pit that same grading period. Her broken leg saved my sorry arse and I did not receive the lowest marks either. Combined with my mostly excellent work over the rest of the year, I managed to successfully pass into senior year, but I did so with a slightly tarnished reputation and a sadder and wiser heart.”

 Kurt smiled, half suspecting the story to be fiction but appreciating it nonetheless. “So, what you’re getting at is that I shouldn’t over-think my show next week?  That I should get some rest this weekend and start fresh next week?”

 Adam beamed at him. “Precisely! It’s brilliant just the way it is and your entire team is ready to go. You’ll relax and concentrate on other matters this weekend then have your final rehearsal on Monday and sail through in Bristol fashion on Wednesday.”

 The perfectionist side of Kurt was tempted to argue, but he knew that Adam was right. The show was something to be proud of and he had worked hard to make it so. “Okay, you win. What do you say we work on our wedding plans instead?”

 “Love to,” he agreed, “but first, how about I get you off to a good start with some of that helpful distraction, eh?”  He hitched his blond brows playfully and ‘attacked’ Kurt with a tight hug and a kiss that made his toes curl.  

 ~*~*~*~*~

 With his fiancé’s advice in mind, Kurt spent the weekend finishing up his contribution to Isabelle’s upcoming Spring Showcase, working on the Mid-Winter Critique that was scheduled to be performed just two days after his show, and writing his wedding vows. That last ‘chore’ was the most rewarding and most difficult. The ceremony at the courthouse would be a simple civil service, exchanging rings and pledging “I Do’s” before a judge and their small party of witnesses, then going on to the reception. But from what Elliott had been telling him, the earlier rite with his coven would be a spiritual ceremony that would require a more formal and heartfelt exchange. For that, he wanted his words to be perfect.  

 Speaking of words, Kurt could not help but smile as he looked over the song that Adam had told him had been a gift from Lord Tubbington.  Adam was to be starting his new job at the tea shop tomorrow and had decided that the occasion warranted a new shirt. Since he was feeling good today, he’d asked Elliott to give him both a lift and a second opinion on whatever he ended up choosing. Afterward, he had got them both an invitation to jam with the Apples. Elliott did not attend their school, but any friend of Adam and Kurt’s was a friend of theirs, to the group’s eyes. Not coincidentally, this day out would give Kurt a few hours of privacy.  He was far from shy when it came to performing, but he hated being listened to when he was picking his way through an unfamiliar song and Adam knew that.  It still caused Kurt to marvel sometimes that his fiancé could be so casually accepting of such simple concepts as the need for a little personal space, after Blaine had always made him feel like he was committing a felony if he wanted time alone.

 Flipping the sheet music, Kurt idly wondered what had made Tubbington buy this piece. The cat was correct in his belief that Kurt was not a fan of country music. Living in a small Ohio town with more than its share of rednecks, it had been tough to escape from country and southern rock. To a young Kurt, constantly ribbed if not outright mocked for the Broadway tunes and power pop ballads that he personally preferred, that music had felt like an anthem to the intolerance that people like him were forced to endure on a daily basis. 

However, as he softly hummed the tune while sight-reading the notes, this song began to appeal to him. It had come out before he was born, but the song had enjoyed a long shelf life and still popped up frequently at weddings and dances. Often enough, in fact, to make it feel a bit too cliché to include in his and Adam’s own wedding reception. But as a stand-alone piece for the Mid-Winter Critique, it might do very nicely. A bit simplistic by NYADA standards and there was a chance he would be docked a few points for that, but it was still a solid song that had good potential.

 All he would need to do was slow the arrangement, perhaps drop most of the instrumentation and play it as a piano solo while he sang. He was no maestro, but Kurt wasn’t half bad on piano and he had never demonstrated that particular skill at school. He knew that Carmen didn’t always like the ‘distracting’ dancing and props that he enjoyed, he’d had past notes telling him so, so she would probably appreciate a simple performance as long as he put heart and a decent amount of technique into this.

 Turning back to the first page, he began to sing out loud.

 “Our love is unconditional. We knew it from the start. I can see it in your eyes. You can feel it from my heart. From here on after, let’s stay the way we are right now. And share the love and laughter, that a lifetime will allow.”

 A lifetime with someone you loved could be as short as a few years, or even a few months. Kurt hoped and even prayed though he could not have said to whom, that this time his life with Adam would last a lot longer.

 “I cross my heart, and promise to, give all I’ve got to give, to make all your dreams come true. In all the world, you’ll never find, a love as true as mine.”

 He would have to remember to thank LT for bringing him this music the next time he saw him. Country song or not, the lyrics spoke to him.  

 “You will always be the miracle, that makes my life complete. As long as there’s a breath in me, I’ll make yours just as sweet. As we look into the future, it’s as far as we can see. So let’s make each tomorrow, be the best that it can be.”

 Finding himself unexpectedly tearing up, he let the music trail away. Adam’s unwavering love and trust were a kind of miracle. As was his endless patience, particularly back when they first dated and Kurt was struggling to let go of a love that had pierced and twisted itself around his heart like barbed wire, holding him in a painful, still-bleeding grip that he had been too afraid of causing deeper pain to let go of once and for all. 

Adam had given Kurt a new dream, a new reason to trust and the courage to start over again. Even after Blaine’s self-serving menace had cost Adam everything, somehow that beautiful soul had survived and kept faith. Today he continued to love Kurt as truly and deeply as any human being could. He had held on to the promise of a better happier future together and now that future was within their grasp.

 Wiping his eyes, Kurt closed the music sheets before picking the booklet up and moving to the center of the room.  Looking around the empty loft, Kurt’s eyes traveled the large space, pausing at the spot that had been the center of his coven’s warding circle on the day he had first learned of his newly realized Potential. His perusal continued slowly across furniture, pictures, little pieces of a happy life that had transformed the loft into a true home. 

The deep armchair that Adam’s dad had Transported all the way from the Crawford family home in Essex, to help his recovering son be comfortable during his recovery.  Dani’s red bean-bag chair in the corner; a place to flop down with her guitar and strum while the gang hung out and talked. That odd mosaic-tiled floor lamp that Brittany had made and been so very proud to give them in place of a crappy IKEA lamp that Blaine had left behind.  The sectional sofa that Tubbington had nicknamed “The Accordion” after Johnny, Kurt and Elliott had manhandled it into the apartment to replace the old one that had held too many bad memories of the past. 

So many changes. So many things that somehow belonged together, no matter how odd or different they might look from the outside. Kurt and Rachel had cohabitated this space, with Santana, Brody, Blaine and Sam coming and going as they pleased; and Kurt had lived more or less harmoniously with all of them, but there had always been a sense of ‘Mine’ and ‘Yours’ about everything here. Kurt had felt the need to fiercely protect his individuality, as represented by his furniture and decorations. As if letting go of even one of those visual representations of his presence would be to erase him.  

It had not been a conscious act but looking back, Kurt knew that had felt defensive and on edge most of that time. He had never felt appreciated, or even particularly welcome in his own home. The more the others seemed to be pushing him out, or treating him like a servant who had no real place of his own, the more stubbornly he clung to this apartment’s visual identity; to the proof that Kurt Hummel was here and he would not be erased.  

 He smiled, shaking his head. How strange it seemed now.  Everything in this loft, from the furniture, to the mismatched assembly of coats and hats constantly decorating the rack by the door, was now a study in willing compromise. And somehow, everything fit together and worked together just as the coven did. Just as he and Adam did.

 Drawing a deep breath, Kurt let it out slowly, finding his center and drawing the magic to him. He remembered the first time he had done this, when he had held on to the magic, afraid to let to go even when it started to feel painfully overwhelming because he feared he would never be able to feel that way again. Dani had advised him to let go, assuring him that the power would always be inside him. And Kurt had not questioned her, or Brittany, or any of the others. For the first few weeks of training as a witch, he had somehow given them his trust with little hesitation, allowing them to guide and protect and occasionally correct him when he needed it.  

 But when Adam had returned from the Void and Kurt had learned just how badly Blaine had mistreated them both, he had withdrawn into the safety of his own space.  Without even realizing it, he had starting shutting everyone else out. Even Adam and Elliott had been shut out to a degree. Kurt had used the need to protect Adam in his painfully vulnerable state to push them all away. The reminder of Blaine and how easily trust could be turned against him had brought Kurt’s protective walls slamming shut around him. The rigid control of his emotions and distractions of his all too busy life had given him a reason to avoid using all but the most rudimentary magic. Because if he used the magic, if he let the power inside him grow and develop, then he would have to reopen that channel that had formed between himself and his coven.

 It was a chasm that Kurt had not been able to bridge, or even to see, for a few weeks. He had been frustrated that the coven seemed to expect so much from him, annoyed that they weren’t being open with him, hurt that they seemed to be excluding him from discussions; but he had been doing the exact same thing to them. He had seen how thrilled they all were to revive the bonds of friendship and togetherness. Had felt the rightness, of putting the puzzle pieces together into a coherent picture, that had filled him repeatedly during the recent blizzard weekend that they had all spent together.  

 Friday at school, working with so many different people from different departments, majors, and even generations, trusting each person to contribute to the production as a whole, Kurt had finally seen what should have been obvious the entire time. He had had faith in all of those people to do right by him. He had given his trust that they would be up to the challenge and bring all the individual pieces together into a satisfying whole, and they had responded with enthusiasm and enjoyment, giving their best in return. 

Working on his Finals project had been such a fitting analogy for his life as a coven leader that he felt stupid for not making the connection earlier.

 Trust was hard. It always had been, ever since Kurt was a little boy who had trusted doctors and nurses to perform a miracle that could not be delivered. He had trusted his dad to always be there for him and that had been let down painfully, though that relationship was finally being rebuilt. He had trusted his friends to be as much in his corner as he was in theirs and they let him down repeatedly; something that could not be entirely attributed to Blaine’s interference. He had trusted adults in authority, only to be disappointed by their narrow minds and uncaring attitudes. He had trusted his loving heart to someone who had treated it like an emotional raquet-ball.  

 Somewhere in the middle of all that, he had stopped trusting himself.

 It was time for that to change. Kurt had put his faith in Adam and allowed that healing love to mend his broken heart. He had put down tenuous roots with his band and they had bloomed into something bigger and better than he had ever dreamed of. He had taken a chance on Brittany Pierce and Lord Tubbington the day they had proven to be anything but “fair weather” friends and received a gift beyond his wildest imagining.  And now he was starting to exercise confidence again, taking charge of his working life, his school life and the training of his powers that would help him thrive in his magical life.

 But before he could truly be a leader, before he could move forward and conquer his fears and his past in the person of his ex, Kurt had to believe in himself. The coven was constantly reinforcing the need to be comfortable with his magic and to practice his fine control.  Kurt knew he needed to do that without anyone else around to catch him if he stumbled.

 Taking another deep breath, he found the magic and willed it to grow.  He turned toward the mirror and blinked his Sight to life. Seeing the aura flash bright and blinding, he smiled, realizing it had been a long time since he actually looked at himself this way and appreciated what it meant. Magical auras did not reflect the way regular light did, but Brittany had very seriously explained to him one day about how fairy tales with magic mirrors in them were about witches who had infused their regular looking glasses with magic, and that real witches could do the same thing. 

Kurt had spent a lot of time in front of this mirror when he was making new outfits, primping over his hair, and perhaps most importantly, while practicing his singing and doing good-luck rituals during his father’s cancer battle. All of those things had infused the glass with his personal magical signature, long before he was consciously aware that he could do such a thing. It was the reason he could See his own magical Potential/Power in this glass and not in others, which had confused him when he first started looking at the world through the eyes of witchcraft.  

 Leaving the Sight on, he turned it inward and found the connection to his coven, allowing that feeling to drift outward along the strings of power he shared with Adam, Elliott, Dani, Monica, Johnny, Tubbington, Brittany and Santana, and giving the strings a soft ‘pluck’ that immediately resonated back with a startled alertness as they each recognized his call. Kurt willed a sensation of calm back, reassuring everyone that he was just practicing and not calling for help. A less defined sensation of approval and warmth came to Kurt as he lightly withdrew the connections. It had not been quite like the emotional bond he shared with Adam, or the Witch-Familiar bond he felt with Elliott. More like the tap of a shoulder or wave of the hand. Just a way to say hello. It was heartening to realize that the others had recognized it as such.  

 Next, Kurt opened his eyes and willed away the Sight, but kept his inner focus and picked out the voices of his personal ‘choir’. Watching in the mirror, he rapidly changed outfits a half dozen times. For some reason, doing it all at once was still much easier than willing a particular piece off or on, but he resolved to find a few minutes to practice each day until he became equally adept at both. His lips twitched as he recalled just how much Adam liked his magical strip-teasing. Perhaps it would not be difficult to get in some practice at that.

 With that happy thought in mind, Kurt deliberately levitated himself a few inches off the floor, holding himself there until his uncertain balance became rock-steady. He tried swinging his arms, high-kicking, dancing on air, just to see if he could maintain his position. This had varying results. The arms did not seem to have a detrimental effect on his concentration. He was even able to telekinetically fetch the matched pair of sai from his trunk in the bedroom and twirl them without setting foot on the ground, but for some reason if he moved his feet too much, he flailed and stumbled like a drunk. The high kick failed his levitation entirely and landed him flat on his back in the middle of the hardwood floor. Repeatedly.  

 Finally deciding that he needed to put that particular trick off until he had a nice thick practice mat handy, Kurt rubbed his sore behind and re-centered himself back into a steady float. This time he levitated the sheet music up with him, using a flick of his finger to turn the pages as he studied the notes and memorized the words.  It was difficult but not impossible to manage both at the same time, so he kept going as he began to sing. Elliott and Dani had taught him months ago to separate singing for fun from singing a spell and in fact he had avoided using incantations for all but the most rudimentary magic, but Kurt knew that it was vital to become at ease with magical multi-tasking.  He had to believe that he could blend his magical talents as harmoniously as he did his musical ones.

 This was no different than managing a stage full of costumers, actors and lighting techs. The moving parts were different, but the skill needed to make every element mesh and work together should be the same. Like singing, dancing and acting all at the same time. He had been able to do that since he first played a tiny Oompa Loompa in a Lima Community Theater version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” when he was five.  It was just a matter of making it all flow. He knew how each individual skill worked. He just needed to figure out how to blend everything into a workable performance.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~

 When Adam and Elliott came home at five o’clock, bearing take-out from the best Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn, they were both shocked at what they saw. Kurt was stretched out on the sofa, limbs sprawled, mouth wide open in a none-too-gentle snore, his hair and t-shirt both crusted with dried perspiration. The floor of the living room was littered with sheet-music, swords, discarded clothing and a half-scorched end table.

 “Why do I have a feeling we missed a great party?” Elliott asked, pointed eyebrows twitching with amusement as he lifted an abandoned pair of boxer-briefs by the waistband with one outstretched finger.

 Adam was more concerned with the fact that their less than quiet entrance had not disturbed Kurt’s nap. He gently shook his shoulder. “Kurt? Darling? Are you all right?”

 The bag of Chinese food in his other hand was only a few inches from Kurt’s face and his eyes blinked open as he ended one snoring breath on a sharp snort. “Huh? Oh, food,” he moaned, licking his lips as he sat up and wiped a trace of drool off his cheek. He captured the bag and scooped out a box of steaming pork fried rice and a pair of chopsticks, sailing in with enough enthusiasm to do Lord Tubbington proud.

 Adam and Elliott looked at one another in surprise. It wasn’t like Kurt to begin scarfing down his dinner without so much as a proper hello.

 Apparently Kurt realized this too after the initial rush of starvation was satisfied. He looked up at the puzzled duo and blushed, reluctantly setting down the box and utensils as he stood up and gave Adam a kiss on the cheek. “Uh, hi. Sorry. Guess I overdid the magic practice today. I forgot how much it can take out of a person. Did you guys have a nice day out?”

 Realizing that Kurt had simply gotten overenthusiastic and worn himself out, not to mention seriously revved up his appetite, the others relaxed. “Yeah, it was good. I felt mostly calm today,” Adam agreed. “Got a couple of new shirts you’ll probably like. I have my doubts about one of them, but Elliott thinks it’s posh so I took his word. We had a good session with the Adam’s Apples too.”

 “They’re a really cool group,” Elliott said, helpfully picking up the abandoned sai and scattered papers. “I liked ‘em a lot. Talented too. So, uh . . . I felt you reach out this morning. Seemed like you were okay, but now I’m wondering if we should have come back earlier.”

 Kurt looked at the floor and his face flushed for a second time. “Aw, crap, I meant to clean all of that up before you got home. I was just practicing. I wanted to see if I could still access that spider web of power that I touched the first day, when you all warded my apartment. Remember?”

 He smiled fondly. “Yeah. That was a great day.”

 “I thought so too, and it occurred to me that it’s been a long time since I let myself enjoy the magic and trust the connection I have with you guys to keep my power steady. When I reached out to you, I just wanted to see if the web was still there. It didn’t occur to me until l started to feel really fried that I could probably pull a tiny bit of backup power from you guys that way. Didn’t want to do it until I made sure it was okay, though.”

 Waving away his hasty reassurance, Elliott said, “Of course it is. You’re the coven leader, it’s your right to use the connection when you need it. We all agreed to that the day we set it up.”

 “Oh, well that’s good,” he said a trifle awkwardly, “but I didn’t want to just take without asking. Especially since I didn’t exactly need it. I was just playing. Holding myself in mid-air while using my other powers to move stuff, change clothes, control a fireball, practice singing and . . . singing.”

 From the emphasis, the other two men understood just what he meant. “So you did a bit of mixing and matching of power,” Adam said, moving to the remains of the table and giving the pieces a little nudge with the toe of his shoe. “Looks like this one got away from you.”

 Kurt’s nose wrinkled. “I got overconfident. I was already tired and having trouble holding my balance when I tried making a fireball. I dropped down suddenly and I automatically put out a hand to catch myself and I, well . . .”

 “Murdered a poor defenseless table,” Elliott concluded with a laugh. “At least you picked the ugly one.”

 “I snuffed it out just as fast,” Kurt said a bit defensively.  “It didn’t even set off the smoke alarm. I was going to clean it all up, but then I sat down to take a breather.”

 Adam chuckled and kissed his pouting lips. “And thus the spectacular nasal symphony we walked in on.”

 Horrified, Kurt said, “I was snoring?”

 “Your dad would’ve been proud,” Elliott told him cheerfully. “Good work on the magic, though. Seriously.”

 Side-eyeing him, Kurt began to help clean up the mess. There was no crack in Elliott’s proud smile and Adam looked equally pleased as he moved to the kitchen to get out a few plates and start dishing up the food. “I agree, that’s really quite remarkable considering how uncomfortable you felt combining your magic only a short while ago.”

 Kurt’s tense posture relaxed as Elliott helpfully winked out with the damaged table and then back in a moment later, dusting off his hands. Clearly he had removed the evidence to some handy trash bin. Carrying his scattered possessions back to the bedroom and putting them away, Kurt smiled. He had been afraid the others might think it silly if they found out what he had been doing, but apparently they were more than fine with it, since he hadn’t done any real damage.

 As he came back into the room, keeping one new outfit of clean underwear, lounge pants and sweater, to put on after he grabbed a quick shower, he said, “Thanks for not getting mad about the fire. I really thought I’d be able to control it. Most everything else went great.”

 “You didn’t do any lasting harm and I have to trust you to discover and understand your own limits, just as only you can decide when you’re comfortable with your powers,” Adam said simply.  “Of course, I’d have felt differently if you’d burned the building down, but you didn’t. You kept enough awareness of your surroundings to immediately douse the fire once it started, even in a moment of panic.”

 His nose wrinkled. “You felt that, huh?”

 “I did, but it was only a few seconds,” he admitted. “You’ve trusted me enough to not come charging in like the cavalry every time you felt a surge of panic on my part, and Lord knows there’ve been enough of those, so I had to give you the same courtesy. Believe me when I say I would have been here in a heartbeat if you hadn’t calmed so quickly, though.”

 “That’s good to know,” Kurt told him with a fond smile. “I suppose that’s part of the reason I was confident enough to try it, though, knowing that it was just a matter of reaching out for help and you guys would be here.”

 Elliott patted him on the back. “I’m glad you know that. Glad you’ve been practicing on your own too. It’s good for you and good for us.”

 “I trust you,” he said, knowing how much more complicated that admission was than it sounded and feeling happy as he realized once again that it was completely true.

 Elliott seemed to know exactly what he was not saying, though, for he winked and said, “Good. Now, go take a shower before you drive us back out of the apartment.”

 “I’m not that bad!”

 He smiled and popped an egg roll into his mouth. “You’re the one who was so overpowered he passed out on the sofa.”

 “I was tired!”

 “Go, love.  We’ll keep it all warm for you.  I’ll make sure Elliott doesn’t take all the sweet and sour,” Adam said, refocusing Kurt’s attention back to his empty stomach, which immediately growled in agreement with this.

 Pointing a finger at his grinning Familiar, Kurt said, “You’d better not.”

 He waved a dismissive hand. “Go on. Hurry, though, or I won’t side with you in making Adam put on a fashion show for us after dinner.”

 Kurt perked up at once. He did love a good fashion show.  “Be right back!”

 As he strode toward the bathroom, Kurt could not stop smiling. The ongoing cheerful banter between his fiancé and best friend sent a warm feeling through him. The two had become good friends in their own right in the months since Adam’s return. Practically like brothers. Hearing them reinforced the certainty Kurt had felt earlier today. They were so sure, so confident in each other and in him. Even Adam, who had been through so much in the past couple of years, trusted whole-heartedly in Kurt and in the coven he had built around them.

 For the first time in far too long, Kurt had a great feeling of confidence about the future. There would be failures and upsets, and not everything would go his way. He would experience disappointment and there would be some losses. That was just life, unfortunately.  But there would be many good things too and good people to share them with. It was important to appreciate the positives and not let fear of what might be overcome his ability to trust.

 As he paused in the doorway, watching them playfully fight over possession of a dish of spicy beef, Kurt smiled. A half-forgotten daydream of bright blazing lights flickered through his memory, and with it the recollection of a fabulously fuck-you outfit and a soul cleansing song and dance performed by a teenager who had feared he would never find anyone to appreciate his true self.  It had taken a few years longer than he had initially hoped, but it looked as if the wish of that sadly hopeful boy had finally come true.

 “Everything’s coming up Hummel,” he sang, so softly that the notes went unnoticed by the other men. Watching them a moment longer, Kurt deliberately sent a quick pulse of affection down the web of his connection to the coven, then smiled and continued on his way.

 THE END

 A/N: Kurt’s song was “I Cross My Heart”.  

#Witch!Kurt #Kurt Hummel #Kadam #Kelliott friendship #One Three Hill Coven #magic practice #Kurt + self-assurance is my great love

[andtheylivedhealthlyeverafter]

How to study for finals

Here’s how I’ve studied form my final exams since I started univerisy, so far this method has granted me the best grades I’ve ever had in my whole scholastic career, enjoy!

First thing first in this method is very important to pay a lot of attention in class, since one of the main parts for the creation of the study material will be notes. I try to take my notes on my pc because I type way faster than I write, I personally like to use OneNote to take notes in class on my computer since is very easy to sync inbetween all of my devices, also is free! taking notes is a crucial step in this method because later on they will be the basis for our huge study guide. These notes don’t have to be fancy or anything, they should be just very rough and simple notes.

When I get home i transfer all of my note in a single Microsoft Word document and I Also correct any typos and grammar mistakes. Then once i have a good nomber of notes on my Word document I print it out.

Once I print it out i get all the material that my theacher gave me (eg. handouts, presentations etc.) and start revising the notes, adding informations where they are needed, corretcing errors, rewriting parts that were not written clearly and overall making my text easier to read. I also like to correct any formatting-related things (like underlining words taht should be in bold or in italic and so on)

If some things are still not clear or i don’t understand it I check my book or the internet for more informations, by doing this I don’t have to read the whole book, but just the things that my teacher wants me to learn.

Last but not least, I correct the original Word document using the notes that I revised and corrected as a guide and I print out the final document. This way I have a very big study-guide with everything that I need, written in my own words and ready to be studied!

I usually read this study guide 4 to 5 times to be ready for the exams, the informations in the study guide are so condensed that it takes me just a couple of days to memorize it but it is also complete enough for me to have all the informations I might need for the exam. Moreover while making it I am actually able to think critically about the material and understand it better.

I hope this guide will help many other students, if you have any questions about this method feel free to ask.🌸 

(also sorry for my english eheh)

Have a nice day darlings～

#university tips #university #college #college tips #freshers #freshman year #study tips #student tips #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetics #procrastination #heysareena #gryhffindors #areistotle #study inspiration #notes #notetaking #note taking #note-taking #finals #exams #heystudiyng #highschoolering #izzystudies #babyfangilrstudies #emmastudies

[agirlinjapan]

Red Data Girl: World Heritage Girl (Week 24)

Red Data Girl: World Heritage Girl By Noriko Ogiwara A Translation

Miss the last piece? Read it here!

Check out the RDG Translation twitter!

It’s funny how I can get so much translation done one week and then nothing done the next. As spring draws closer, all of my final work as a grad student and a student teacher is beginning to start. It feels like I was just talking about school applications a month or two ago but in reality that was a year ago! Now I’m starting to think about job applications (something I’m terrified about btw).

Earlier this week, I saw that a reader had some questions about when I use last names versus first names for the characters in RDG. As you probably know, I try to make this translation as accessible to an English speaking audience as possible. For the most part, this just means I have characters address each other by their first names even though they use last names in the original text. (Japanese and English cultures differ on how to respectfully/politely address people.) With this said though, you may notice that there are some exceptions to my rule, specifically Hayakawa, Ryougoku, Wamiya, and Takayanagi.

Why do I use Yoshiki Hayakawa’s last name?

He was originally introduced with just his last name. We learned his first name about a page later but for some reason, his last name kind of just stuck with me. Seeing as Izumiko and co don’t know him very well, I think it’s okay for them to call him by his last name. Still, if I were to revise this translation in the future, I might use his first name instead. For now though, he will remain Hayakawa.

*Side note, I’d say Hoshino and Okouchi also fall into this category but their first names are never actually mentioned in the text so I don’t even have the option of using them.--That’s why they’re not getting their own question/answer here.

Why do I use Mizuhiko Ryougoku’s last name?

I don’t really have an explanation for Ryougoku. Earlier in the translation I think I was a bit more wishy-washy with first and last name use when it came to secondary characters so I’ll admit Ryougoku’s a bit of an inconsistency. Like with Hayakawa, I might change the name I use for him to Mizuhiko if I were to revise the translation in the future.

Why do I use Satoru Wamiya’s last name?

Wamiya’s always been a little... unusual, don’t you think? Using his last name seemed appropriate to me, especially with how he appeared out of no where in Izumiko’s middle school class and then disappeared just as quickly. Calling him by his last name adds to that air of mysteriousness.

Why do I use Ichijo Takayanagi’s last name?

There’s just something about calling an antagonist by their last name. It gives you that delicious tingle down your spine when used dramatically. Think Malfoy in Harry Potter. It almost gives off an iconic sort of feel like you don’t even have to use his name to know who you’re talking about.

In general, please remember that I’m just an amateur translator who’s doing her best. Translation is hard and there’s always more than one “right” way to translate something, especially when culture gets thrown into the mix. Feel free to ask questions about my translation choices. I’m happy to explain my thinking.

Red Data Girl: World Heritage Girl By Noriko Ogiwara Chapter 4: Boundary Part 1 (2 of 3)

Izumiko didn’t have a chance to talk to Mayura in Class 1-A until long after school had ended. But when Mayura came to find Izumiko at sunset, the expression on her face was especially serious.

“Can I pull you aside for a minute? Before you go off to student government?”

Izumiko, who had been working on Class C’s festival preparations, nodded. She quickly wiped her hands off and followed Mayura. The girl led them up the central stairs all the way to the third floor where she brought them into the social studies material room.

The Japanese history club was gathered there.

Izumiko had been invited to the club’s gatherings before summer break but she had never attended. Although she had joined the club of her own free will, she didn’t have a regular place in the group.  

As the only female member (besides Mayura), there was clearly a large wall between her and the others. She really didn’t know if it was truly okay for her to be working in the Japanese history club, which secretly ran as the MSF, the Mayura Souda Fan Club. Besides Mayura and Miyuki who were partial members like herself, the only person in the group she had really talked to was Mizuhiko Ryougoku, the president of the group.  

“Why are we here?”

“I bet you’ve heard the stories about the ghost pictures too,” Mayura answered tightly at Izumiko’s question. “Photography is Ryougoku’s specialty so I asked him to give me a detailed analysis of a few ghost shots he’s taken. He’s also going to give us a look at the pictures he took the other day.”

Izumiko was instantly impressed. If she could think on the same level as Mayura, she was sure she would never make a mistake. She had been thinking about the ghost photos all day. Her anticipation rose.

“Oh, right. That’s a good idea. I wanted to see them, too.”

“It’s understandable to be skeptical of ghost pictures taken with low resolution cellphone cameras,” Mayura said as she moved away from the door. “But on the other hand, the more ghost pictures that are taken on high quality cameras, the more you have to wonder about the digital processing…”

The material room looked like a dim storehouse. Not only were there steel shelves piled high with all sorts of things up against the walls but there were more in the middle of the room, obstructing the lights on the ceiling. It wasn’t a particularly inviting place. Still, there was a long, narrow space in the room where a number of male students were standing with their backs to Mayura and Izumiko. They were enthusiastically gazing at a large, flat screen TV which had been mounted to the wall. It looked like it was connected to a laptop which was being used to display pictures on the larger screen. While it was hard to make out with all the people in the picture, it appeared that the photo had been shot near the high school building.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Izumiko came with me too.”

Hearing Mayura’s announcement, Ryougoku and the other boys who had been looking at the screen turned to look at them all at once. Regardless the fact that Izumiko was part of their club, the business like greeting that the boys gave them made her bow her head in an apology for interrupting them. Her response was also a result of not coming to their meetings.

Miyuki was standing in the group.

As one of the club members, it was technically unsurprising that he would be there. It seemed like he was examining the picture as well. Izumiko quickly steadied herself so that no one saw her instant reaction. She hadn’t been prepared to see him. Miyuki looked content to be at the edge of the group, not bothering to move any closer to the two girls.

Mayura did not react much to seeing Miyuki there. It was almost as if the conversation between them had never taken place. Miyuki was not high up in the MSF’s hierarchy and as a result, she could not show more familiarism to him than to the rest of the club with the other boys here. Even Izumiko understood that rule. The fact made her feel better about not wanting to talk to him in the clubroom.

Miyuki didn’t do anything to draw attention to himself either. It was clear to see that he held a less important role here than he did in the student government but he didn’t look particularly upset about that. He compartmentalized the behaviors he used in the two different clubs.

Ryougoku licked his lips and said, “I’ve been looking into your request. I ran into a bunch of unexplainable things. They’re enough to worry me a little.”

“What worried you?” Mayura asked.

“Too many things to count. I have to wonder why I’ve taken so many pictures with ghost-like aspects in them all of a sudden.”

“I had the same thought. Where are the ghost pictures?” Mayura questioned, gazing at the flat screen. It showed a picture of Hayakawa in his tall, golden samurai helmet, surrounded by students. Mayura nor Izumiko was anywhere to be seen in the shot. Izumiko was secretly relieved.

“Once a person has seen one picture of a ghost, they tend to start finding more and more everywhere they look, I guess…”

Shrugging, Ryougoku brought a finger up to the screen. Seeing as the image was not being projected, the shadow of his finger did not obstruct what was being shown beneath it. Izumiko was glad of this.

“…This student standing in the back. Look. Isn’t he weird? The colors in the photo probably got messed up when I took it thanks to that gaudy golden helmet but the student has both his hands in his pockets, right? There’s no way he could be holding onto the shoulder of the student next to him…”

The hand on the shoulder in question looked like the real thing. However, the angle in which it was positioned made it impossible that it could have belonged to any of the students behind the one with the hand on his shoulder.

“Could it be an optical illusion?”

“I considered that as well.”

Ryougoku showed them the other photos he had looked at. One at a time, they appeared on the screen. Many of them contained unearthly white lights and humanoid shadows. There were also a number of instances where human faces appeared in unexpected places around the assembly hall such as on the walls and the floor.

There were also some pictures that contained Izumiko and Mayura but they were only in the background and they didn’t show up that often. The strange thing was that the anomalies seemed to appear much more frequently around the students that had gathered around the models than near the models themselves.

Until now, Izumiko had never once seen a photo of a ghost in her life.

She acknowledged that the photos in front of her now were indeed those of ghosts but she still hadn’t heard an explanation for why they were even there for her to see. The lights and shadows in the pictures were strange and she got a bad feeling when she looked at the warped faces and other ghostly forms. It still wasn’t enough to make her heart freeze up in fear though.

It’s much scarier when something that should be in a picture doesn't show up than when something that shouldn’t be there does, Izumiko thought. She considered the case of the cellphone picture Miyuki had taken of the exchange student, Ricardo.

Compared to the memory of that terrifying time, the uproar around these ghost pictures felt like a game or even a stretch of the imagination.

The rest of the boys in the room were also calm. They were testing students’ claims of having taken ghost pictures and considering whether or not they were the real thing. However, just like Karin, they were not one hundred percent convinced of the whole situation.

“Out of all the supposed ghost pictures, I can’t say at this moment what percentage are real,” Ryougoku said seriously, sounding like an analyst. “It’s clear that some of them are authentic though. But with that said, there’s a good chance that more photos will show up for a while. Plenty of photos were taken that day at the lecture.”

Mayura asked an important question.

“Are there any ghosts in the pictures you took, Ryougoku?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied, his expression sour. “However, lots of people have shown them to me. Some people will find ghosts in anything. You could say they have ‘ghost vision.’ Once they see a ghost just one time, anything even slightly out of the ordinary becomes connected to ghosts.”

The vast majority of Ryougoku’s photos were candid, close-up shots of Mayura and Izumiko. Despite the way they had been taken, they were all, as expected from Ryougoku, beautifully shot. He had used the elegant screen that had been brought into the hall for the occasion as a backdrop. Because of the screen, the other high school girls that had been surrounding them were not visible. The results were probably also to do with the quality of the camera and Ryougoku’s handy work.

While the photos were being projected onto the TV screen, the other members of the club pointed out possible ghostly images, saying things like, “there’s a face here.” However, everything they said was in quiet jest. Ryougoku alone glared at them in indignation.

Izumiko didn’t find her close up particularly embarrassing. Strangely enough, she felt comfortable looking at it. The person in the photo looked so other to her that it didn’t even feel like it was cosplay. The girl in the princess outfit didn’t look like her mother, Yukariko either. She looked like someone she had never seen until now.

Izumiko might not have liked pictures of herself being shown to people, but Mayura was fine with it. That was the way she had always been. Even when the candid shots of her had been sold throughout the school like pictures of an idol, she hadn’t really cared.

Mayura was not modest. That much was true. But at the same time, unlike most girls, her attractiveness never seemed to be the most important thing on her mind even though anyone could take her picture and she would never have to worry about it how it came out.          

After looking at her close up picture for a moment, Mayura said plainly, “I second your opinion, Ryougogku. I don’t think there are any ghosts in your pictures. Everyone, don’t joke about this. Ryougoku’s photos are the best shots from the lecture.”

“Do you think so?”

Ryougoku’s expression dissolved into a smile. His round face looked happy.  

“If that’s the case, you’ll be okay with me printing this picture out, right?”

“If you tell me how you’re planning to use it, that’s fine.”

As Mayura answered Ryougoku’s question, someone mumbled, “I bet he’s going to use it as a good luck charm.”

Everyone laughed. As Izumiko laughed though, she felt impressed. Being able to draw reassurance from Mayura’s photo was a good way of expressing how much strength the other girl had.  

Mayura ignored the chatter and continued on briskly.

“Are these all the photos we should look at? What does everyone think about ghost pictures being so popular right now?”

A few opinions were voiced. In the end, everyone seemed to agree that someone had probably started a rumor and then everyone else had gone along with it. Ryougoku had the most thought out opinion in the group.

“I feel it’s more likely that most of the students here at our school think they’re seeing ghosts in the pictures they take, not that there’s actual ghosts in those pictures. If you think about it that way, isn’t this more of a question of human psychology? The atmosphere of our school has completely changed because of all this. Everyone’s more than ready to accept any suggestion of a ghost they find. I think that’s the real problem here.”

Mayura nodded quickly.

“You’re right. Thanks so much. You’ve helped a lot.”   

Keep reading!

#red data girl #rdg #rdg 4 #rdg world heritage girl #rdg 4 week 24 #translation

[ibilenews]

COVID-19: How to keep your child engaged during the lockdown

At least 15 million school-going children in Uganda are currently at home following the closure of schools due to the outbreak of coronavirus. All education institutions were ordered to close in order to minimize the spread of Coronavirus which has so far infected 52 people in Uganda as of April 6. There are 10.7million children in the Primary Schools; 2m children in the Pre-Primary Schools; 2 million students in the Secondary Schools; 314,548 students in the Universities and Tertiary Institutions. According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), nationwide school closures have disrupted education for more than 80 per cent of students worldwide. Countries are under lockdown. No school, no church, no parties and no free movement of people due to the outbreak of coronavirus that is ravaging the world. For over three weeks, members of the public have been encouraged to stay home, and to self-distance as a way of curbing the spread of covid19 which has infected over 1.2million people and killed over 57,000 as of April 6 according to Johnson Hopkins University. No death has been reported in Uganda, but the locals have been cautioned to remain safe and ensure children are safe too. However, when schools were closed about three weeks ago and children ordered to stay home, no parent was prepared on how to handle quarantined children. It is not known how long children will be out of school, but one thing that we are sure of, children need to keep learning. Unlike other normal holidays when parents could afford, hiring coaches, taking children for adventure, sending children for remedial teaching, at the moment it is not possible since every child and teacher or trainer is supposed to stay home. Amidst all this, Ugandans are called upon to practice "social distancing," which the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines as "remaining out of places where people meet or gather," and "avoiding local public transportation." That includes buses, taxis, boda boda and rideshares. It also means maintaining a distance of six feet (or two meters) from others. This means you are supposed to be keeping kids six feet apart, not piling them in a car to go to the village or visit friends because they're out of school. Harriet Kemigisha a mother of two, says with this kind of situation so many parents are puzzled as children struggle with no school, no activities, no contact with friends. “It is a challenge to make children learn in the circumstances we are in. For me I just bought them numerous books for shading, I also bought painting boards and board games like snakes and ladder so that they keep occupied,” Kemigisha says. She explains that her seven-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter were used to moving out to visit friends or go to church which is not the case now. “I have made it a point to explain to them about the dangers of coronavirus and why it is important to stay safe. But as children, they always want to be out with friends or play in the neighborhood which I’m discouraging,” Kemigisha says. Samuel Isingoma, explains that since social amenities have been roped off to discourage people from congregating there’s really nowhere for a kid to go and play. “School is associated with studies and home is for fun. Children learn better when there is fun but now it is very different. They can’t play, neither move out of the gate which is a challenge,” Isingoma says.

In order to help his children learn, Isingoma has bought novels and sometimes buys newspapers to keep his children engaged and informed. “I prefer buying newspapers so that whenever I come back I ask them questions about what they have read. They are enjoying it and it is helping me to keep them engaged,” Isingoma says. For Florence Kaakyo, who has three children ages, six, eleven and 19, the challenge has been on keeping all of them engaged during the quarantine since the homework that was given to the young children was not enough. “They gave them homework, but since the closure was abrupt the schools did not give enough and it has already been finished. However, we are engaging the children in activities like laundry, washing dishes, weeding around the house which are also key in their growth,” Kaakyo says. She is happy that her children are informed about the virus and are taking caution. “My 11-year old daughter was worried when they ordered the closure of the schools because of the virus. She cried thinking schools will be closed forever and she won’t be able to finish her studies. But she is now informed that school will resume soon,” Kaakyo says. Since the homework materials got finished, Kaakyo is planning to develop some home materials to teach her children and schedule educational TV programs. “There are many things that children can use to learn. I will cut for them sticks to count, engage them in making toys from local material but also buy them chats. For the adults I’m buying them data and encouraging them to research stuff related to their areas of study,” Kaakyo says. On ensuring that her children stay home she says she has made sure her children understand the dangers of going out and the benefits of staying home for now. “We have told them about the danger of moving out and visiting places. It is now a rule and punishable,” Kaakyo says. Susan Kabakondere, a psychologist counsellor explains that for parents to get along with their children, they need to come out and tell the children what exactly is happening. “Sensitize the children and show them why it is important to respect the quarantine. Tell them the benefits of social distancing. Caring starts with us keeping children safe and that is what children should learn first,” Kabakondere says. She emphasizes the need for parents to have time for their children since there is limited space for children to have fun. “Get time for your kids and engage them in things that can boost their mental activities like playing with them a few games and do not get hard or else they will feel tortured.

Children understand very fast, let them watch TV but it should be regulated. Encourage exercises even when you have little space, they can jump a rope as they count, with this they will learn, why it is good to be healthy,” Kabakondere says. She explains that it is important to keep children informed about matters that affect them. Online To keep children learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education and Sports, UNICEF and the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) introduced a free of charge and easy to use digital learning platform - Kolibri. The platform with education content has been approved by the National Curriculum Development Center (NCDC) in Science and Mathematics for Secondary School learners and Inclusive education for primary. At the same time, to support the continued learning of the vast majority of children who would want to access Kolibri but do not have the required gadgets or are limited by lack of electricity, UNICEF, together with the Ministry of Education and other education partners, are exploring the use of existing radio-based learning materials since radio reaches more than 80 per cent of Ugandan. New Vision provides material for children In a bid to keep children engaged in learning during this period, the New Vision has re-introduced the Pass PLE pull out that will be published every Sunday going forward, according to Barbara Kaija, the Vision Group Editor-in-Chief (EIC). “We have chosen to relaunch Pass PLE, at this particular time so that it gives an opportunity to parents and children to read together, learn together, and have time together,” Kaija says. She explains that the pullout is good for Primary children from classes P5 to P7 but can also be used by Primary Four pupils. “The pullout does not substitute teaching but compliments it so that children are able to do research, be familiar with question approach among others,” Kaija says. The questions in the pullout are being set by trusted teachers in the education system and the questions are within the curriculum. The questions are set in four subjects Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies, but also answers are given. “This is one of the best ways we can keep our children learning in the absence of enough learning materials. Let parents embrace the pullout,” Kaija says. How parents can help their children to learn Hope Mbabazi a teacher, at King Solomon Junior School, Bulenga says, depends on the setting, whether town or village parents can help their children to learn within their means. “There are parents who can afford online learning and can get material for their children. If you can afford it download it and guide your children. Be part of the learning and don’t let them do it alone,” Mbabazi says. She notes that young children for classes nursery to primary Four can be involved in fun games. “Intensive revision is not needed for young children but you can buy them storybooks, which you can read with them, get educative movies, and other fun movies. However, you should monitor the movies and make sure they are of good morals,” Mbabazi says. She also suggests, making use of the word of God, is key in this time. “If parents can access revision materials, like Pass PLE, it will be good for children who are in P7. These adult children need to revise their books but also engage in games ludo, football among others,” Mbabazi says. Harriet Mujuni, a teacher says one-way parents can help young children to feel productive while they are at home is to engage them with housework or cooking. “Don’t let children be idle, it will bore them. Since the majority of the parents are home, use this opportunity to teach children how to wash clothes, dishes, or mop a house. These are things that they will not learn at school,” Mujuni says. She warns against letting children loiter or go to neighbors which on its own is a bad habit that should be discouraged. Instead of worrying that children are not doing enough schoolwork, parents should view the enforced break as an opportunity for some child-led, individualised learning, which most schools struggle to offer. Managing teens Teenagers, in particular, may miss their friends terribly and, due to their adolescent brains, feel invincible and omnipotent in the face of the virus, warns adolescent therapist Alicia Drummond. “They’re wired for experimentation, without the ability to weigh up long-term outcomes.” Because they may impulsively decide to take risks, it’s worth explaining why guidelines need to be followed. “My rule of thumb with parenting teenagers is: ask, don’t tell. So ask them: why do you think we’re isolating? What do you think the ramifications of you meeting up with your friends might be?” Drummond is quoted by the Guardian. “Instead, reiterate why it’s important that they don’t do it again.” Whatever happens, don’t try to punish your teen by taking away their tech. “What we have to be deeply careful of is not letting them become too isolated. We all know that isolation has an impact on people’s mental health, and that’s particularly true for adolescents.” Encourage them to stay connected to their friends virtually, in a healthy way, rather than going out and putting other people at risk.

[almightygodismydependence-blog]

The Experience of Growth of a Christian Born in the 1990s

Wei Chen, Fujian Province

I’m a Christian who was born in the 1990s. I was once a student in one of those famous schools that all parents want their kids to study at and will go to extreme lengths to get them in. In China, they are known as key schools, and I studied in one for 10 years. In China, parents have very high expectations of such schools, and rack their brains for ways to improve their children’s chances of going to these high-quality places of learning. They think that their kids will thus gain a first-class education that will put them head and shoulders above the rest and bring glory to their family and ancestors. In order to get me into a key school, my mother pulled out all the stops to develop relationships with the right people and also spent a considerable sum of money. But the schools run by the C.C.P. have already lost all their purity of purpose and have become dens of lies and falsehoods. The teachers and staff—who should have been upstanding models of fairness, humanity and morality—have become treacherous, cunning and immoral hypocrites who are cultivating batch after batch of similarly hypocritical students, the so-called “pillars of the nation.”

When talking about teachers in China, it’s common to use a line from an ancient poem to describe their diligence: “The silkworm doesn’t stop producing silk thread until it dies; the candle doesn’t stop dripping wax until it turns to ash.” But after 10 years in that school witnessing the actions and behaviors of my teachers, I feel that I have to repudiate this. I remember the second semester in my first year. The music teacher announced that our class had been selected for a music class inspection by some senior figures, and that we had to continually rehearse the content that she’d prepared for the inspection exactly as she wanted. During one of the rehearsals, one of the classmates was being a bit uncooperative and repeatedly failed to do what the teacher said. Suddenly, the classroom went very quiet, and when I looked up I saw the music teacher staring furiously at that classmate. She stood up with a crash, threw her musical textbook down onto the piano with all her strength, and strode angrily toward the classmate. She grabbed him and dragged him to the back of the classroom to stand against the wall as punishment. When we saw this, all 30 0r so of us became petrified, and immediately began to carefully do exactly what the teacher wanted so that we didn’t meet the same fate. Later on, our head teacher and the music teacher also had one-to-one talks with all of the naughty students to warn them to shape up. So when the senior officials came they saw a well-ordered classroom with a friendly and welcoming teacher who had a voice so soft it gave you goose bumps. It seemed that we students and the teachers had entered into an unspoken agreement to cooperate to achieve the common objective of seeing satisfied smiles on the faces of the senior officials. After the inspection was over, I got together with a few classmates. The question we all asked was: “Why has our teacher taught us how to deceive people?” When we reached the third year we were told that some people were coming to listen in on our math class. The math teacher told us: “In class tomorrow we’ll be doing the same stuff that we did a few days ago. So I hope you’ll all go home and revise it well.” After class, the teacher asked the class monitor and class cadres to join her in her office. The next day, the back row of seats in the classroom was all taken up by teachers and officials who had come to observe us. The class started, and the teacher asked the pre-arranged questions and allowed the class monitor and class cadres to answer. Their flawless answers brought a satisfied smile to the teacher’s face. This open class came to a successful conclusion after fooling the government officials all the way, and was definitely a case of “For every policy the senior leadership create the lower levels create one to deal with it.” Inspections and evaluations by the Bureau of Education always put the teachers on the defensive: They would make us memorize all the possible questions and answers and would repeatedly and sternly warn us. They’d say things like: “The Bureau of Education inspectors are coming today so you’ve all got to stay in this classroom. Stay in here and be good. If you mess up I’ll make sure you all suffer the consequences!” They even threatened to deduct points from our end-of-semester exam scores! We also had a full school assembly so that the teachers could lay down the law and drill into us everything we needed to remember. We were so well-trained that an inspector could have grabbed the most unruly kid in any class and asked them any relevant question and they would have got a concise and fluent answer guaranteed to bring a smile to their face. Even more ironic was the fact that the usually smelly toilets were cleaned and the trash heaps were tidied up. Then there was the time when the bell for class rang but my classmates kept on making a terrible din no matter how loudly the teacher banged on the desk. So the teacher shouted at us angrily: “You were all so good during the inspections, but now that they’re over you’ve gone back to being how you were originally.” When I heard this I had a quiet laugh to myself, as I thought that this was certainly an instance of “A strict teacher produces outstanding students!” Six years of elementary school life had helped our performing arts skills progress greatly: Whenever we heard that there was going to be an open class, or that some officials were coming to observe us, we all knew just how to work hand-in-glove with the teacher to put on a good show to fool them.

When I got into key high schools, both junior and senior, I discovered that the practice of faking things was even more prevalent and developed. Our physics classes were nearly all theory, with very few practical experiments involved. When the school inspectors were about to visit, our teacher told us to do all of the experiments in the few classes beforehand. But we all knew that we had to be ready for the inspection, so we didn’t actually do them but just went to the lab and waited for the teacher to read out the correct results, which we then copied down. The senior staff of our school was also always looking for ways to bring our school up to Grade 1 standard, because doing so would mean more recognition, better equipment and facilities—both hardware and software—and more funding from the government. But this was a challenging task that needed the teachers and students to work together closely to complete. In order to pass the inspection and evaluation, we began all the fakery again. A few of the strongest students in the class were sent to the office to get all of the boxes of reports, experiment material, tables and charts—all the stuff that we usually never heard of or looked at. Then the teacher wrote all of the standard answers and results up on the blackboard and we copied the information into the tables, charts, etc. Then we handed them over to the teachers (and then they were hidden away until the time of the next inspection.) After that, I went with a few classmates to the school canteen to buy something to eat for breakfast. One of classmates wanted a chicken leg, but the canteen staff told him: “Today’s inspection day, so we’re not allowed to sell cooked food.” We looked at each other in bemusement, because we’d never have thought that the canteen—which made piles of money through selling cooked food every day—would also have a rest day. Ha-ha! They really were putting on a good show of singing from the same song sheet as the school’s senior management! Eventually, the combined deceit of all of the staff and students ensured that the school was promoted from a provincial Grade 2 school to a provincial Grade 1 school. The senior staff was naturally delighted, and grinned from ear to ear all day long. When the news was excitedly announced at a special school assembly, the gathered students were also very happy to hear it, because we knew that if we hadn’t passed the inspection then we would have had to carry on wracking our brains to think of ways to trick the inspectors next time.

As a result of the diligent cultivation from an early age at the hands of our teachers—those “engineers of the human soul”—we matured into students well-prepared to pass exams. Our ability to fake things and deceive people also progressed nicely. In our school, the rules didn’t permit students to have girlfriends or boyfriends or smoke. So we got round this by continuing our teachers’ tradition of “For every policy the senior leadership create the lower levels create one to deal with it”—we didn’t hold hands or hug or smoke in public areas of the school but instead snuck into dark corners or waited until we were outside of the school gates before having our fun. Anyway, as long as we weren’t caught in the act then there wouldn’t be any evidence. Also, bullying and robbing other students of their money were common occurrences. And so I sunk lower and lower into this great vat of sin, learning all the time how to be two-faced and sly. In the eyes of most of my relatives and classmates I was a good boy: I didn’t have a girlfriend, nor did I drink or smoke. When guests came to our house, even though I just wanted to play computer games, I would instead bring up the learning Web site—a site I visited so infrequently that I’d almost forgotten my account details—on the screen in order to win the guests’ approval. It was only when I was totally sure that the guests wouldn’t come into my room again that I’d start browsing the Web and playing games. Whenever I was feeling upset or troubled, I’d call up a few of my close friends and we’d go to a bar near to my house to get completely drunk. Once we’d drowned our sorrows and maybe acted a bit crazy, we’d calculate what time each of our respective parents would go to bed so that we could sneak in without them smelling the alcohol on us. Then we’d stumble and weave back home and sleep the rest of the night away snoring loudly. I remember one time when I finished off half a bottle of 56° sorghum liquor in three swallows. Walking home I could barely control my arms and legs, but when I got to the door of my house I slapped my face a few times, steadied myself as best I could, took off my shoes as quickly as possible, covered my mouth with my hand, and walked straight into my room, locking the door behind me. In my room I was king of my own domain, and so no matter how hard my mother knocked on the door I didn’t open it. The next day before opening my bedroom door, I didn’t forget to open the window to let some fresh air in. When I could smell that there was no stench of alcohol in the air, I took my clothes—which did still have smell of liquor—out onto the balcony to soak them in water. And that’s how I got rid of all the evidence. Ha-ha!

Occasionally, I would think about how the Lord Jesus had said that we must all be honest and always tell it as it really is. I was very dissatisfied with my various behaviors, and felt that I was totally phony and fake. I even felt that I wasn’t a real Christian, as I didn’t even have the courage to admit to my own faith in case I was mocked for claiming to be a Christian when my morals were so bad. Sometimes I’d pray and confess my sins, but my lifestyle didn’t change and I continued to feel lost, confused, and helpless. I knew that I wasn’t a good Christian, but I felt that the pastors and the deacons in the church all knew the Bible very well and could all discuss doctrines and teachings at length, so at least they were all good Christians, all apples of the Lord’s eye. But the reality once again struck back against my way of looking at things: It was during an election for church deacons, and as an impartial observer I was able to clearly witness just how absurd the whole process was. There were 13 deacons to begin with, and when the pastor announced the results of the election it turned out that the same 13 had been re-elected. There hadn’t even been any other candidates! I couldn’t help but shout out: “Cheats!” and then stormed angrily out of the church. I pondered over this event, but whichever way I thought about it I always came to the conclusion that religious elections were just as fake as the practice I had witnessed in school or the elections the local government held for village cadres. On another occasion, I was child minding for the pastor and struck up a conversation with her 7-year old daughter: “I bet your mother reads Bible stories to you pretty much every day.” She replied: “No, my mom said there’s no point in reading that stuff!” I was stunned, and asked her again, to make sure. But the little girl replied with certainty: “Mom doesn’t let me read the Bible and told me not to believe any of it. She said that only scientific knowledge has any use.” The truth left me dumbfounded: This pastor was a total hypocrite who was teaching her child to ignore Christian teachings! I would never have imagined that the senior figures in my church were all deceitful atheists who were just putting on a show to further their own interests. I was terribly disappointed in them, and vowed never to go to any church meetings again. I felt that listening to them preaching was no different from listening to those falsely just and righteous senior school staff who got up on the stage and tried to fool us with their trickery. At a later date, my mother became one of the church deacons, which gave me even more of an insider’s view of how this so-called holy, God-worshiping “temple” had developed in the same way as modern society. The pastor and deacons had formed factions, and of course there were lots of differing opinions, so the dozen or so of them were frequently quarreling until they were red in the face. They also had the habit of finding spurious reasons for spending the congregation’s donations on trips and dining out. They once announced, in all earnest, that they were going to give 500 yuan to poor families to subsidize their children’s school fees. In fact, the parents who applied for the subsidies were all close to the pastor and deacons on a daily basis. One of these “poor parents” actually owned a 3-storey house and had a monthly income of over 1,000 yuan. As for the parents who everyone actually knew to be living with hardship, not one of them got the subsidy. Through personally witnessing all this, I became extremely disappointed and didn’t know what to do about the whole situation. I felt that only the return of the Lord Jesus could put an end to these filthy and despicable affairs. I couldn’t help from calling out: “Lord, please, please, come soon!”

I’m so grateful to our Lord for taking pity on me and listening to my pleas. After about 2 months, one of the brothers came to my home. At the time, I was the only one at home, and out of politeness I sat with him for a while, chatting about this and that. But during our chat the brother bore witness to Almighty God’s work of the last days for me. He said that the Lord Jesus has already returned and is called Almighty God, and that He is already expressing truths to do His work of judgment starting with God’s house in the last days. The brother also said that Almighty God is going to save mankind, which has been deeply corrupted and harmed by Satan, from its sins, free mankind from Satan’s influence and take us into His kingdom, thus ending this evil age. The more I listened, the more extraordinary and stranger it seemed. I had believed in the Lord Jesus for all these years but had never heard any of this. In particular, the parts where the brother dissected the various evil phenomena now prevalent in society, schools, and religious circles and revealed their substance and true situation were all issues that I had long puzzled over. I ended up fellowshiping about all of the things that I’d seen and heard over many years with the brother. I expressed my bemusement over why schools—that were supposed to be places of innocent learning—had become dens of lies, and why churches—that were supposed to be holy places—had become dens of fakery and in-fighting. Moreover, I wanted to be an honest person, as the Lord Jesus demanded, but it was just a pipe dream, as every day my life was lived from behind a mask. With regard to my puzzlement, the brother read some passages of God’s words to me: “Satan corrupts people through the education and influence of the national governments and the famous and great. Their lies and nonsense have become man’s life and nature. ‘Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost’ is a well-known satanic saying that has been instilled into everyone and become the human life. There are some other words of life philosophy that are also like this” (“How to Know Man’s Nature” in Records of Christ’s Talks). “Cruel, brutal mankind! The conniving and intrigue, the jostling with each other, the scramble for reputation and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? God has spoken hundreds of thousands of words, yet no one has come to their senses. They act for the sake of their families, and sons and daughters, for their careers, prospects, status, vanity, and money, for the sake of clothes, for food and the flesh—whose actions are truly for the sake of God? Even among those whose actions are for the sake of God, there are but few who know God. How many do not act for the sake of their own interests? How many do not oppress and discriminate against others for the sake of maintaining their own status? Thus, God has been forcibly condemned to death innumerable times, countless barbaric judges have condemned God and once more nailed Him to the cross. How many can be called righteous because they truly act for the sake of God?” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Why do people engage in such deceit? To achieve their own aims, and to achieve the objectives they desire. And so they adopt certain methods, which shows that they are not upstanding, and that they are not honest. At such times, people’s insidiousness and cunning is revealed, or else their maliciousness and ignobility. With these things, you feel that it is especially hard to be honest; without them, you would feel that being honest is easy. The greatest obstacles to being honest are people’s insidiousness, their deceitfulness, their maliciousness, and their ignoble motivations” (“To Be Honest, You Should Lay Yourself Open to Others” in Records of Christ’s Talks). After reading these words of God the brother continued to fellowship more with me and that was when I had a sudden flash of realization: The root of all of our problems is that Satan has power over mankind and is corrupting us! Satan the Devil has filled us with poisonous ideas such as “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” “Money is first,” and “Power is above all else.” These poisons have taken root in the deepest recesses of our hearts and have become our lives; these concepts control our every word and action. So regardless of whether people are in a school or in a religious community, they will be unable to stop themselves from furthering their own interests, and will compete and struggle against others to do so. When the pastors put up a sign saying: “Work for the Lord and serve His flock,” they still intend to fill their own pockets, and when the school hangs up a banner with the slogan “Impart knowledge and educate students to benefit the nation and the people,” it’s all just a charade. In fact, teachers use the slogan “Be diligent and industrious to serve as role models for others” as a cover to grab as much for themselves as they can. I’ve even heard of teachers losing all their humanity and humiliating or viciously beating students in order to further their own interests. This sort of thing is now so common that it’s no longer news. Satan the Devil uses power and money to control our hearts and spirits, which causes us to become more and more evil and sinister. In order to get what we want we will stop at nothing, and as our treacherous and cunning methods get more accomplished the profit they bring gets bigger and bigger. As a result, we just get more evil and corrupt and become capable of committing the most heinous of sins. It is just like the Chinese saying, “If the upper beams aren’t straight the lower beams will be crooked too”: Under the evil governance of the CCP all government officials are embezzling large amounts of money, and so senior staff and teachers in China’s schools naturally copy them as best they can. Concepts such as morality and justice get cast to one side and the word “profit” takes center stage, and that’s how schools become a microcosm of the evil society that they exist in. And once the eyes and ears of the students have been exposed to this evil contamination they will naturally become more and more evil themselves, just like blotting paper soaking up black ink. Some examples of this include students flirting with each other in the dark corners of the school and students smoking and getting really drunk in bars. I also saw young lovers hugging and holding hands in public places, and these days it’s even common for elementary school students to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some students will deceive their parents or make life difficult for them in order to get more pocket money, and there have even been cases of children attacking their parents with knives after being refused of more money. Heaven knows how many parents have spent every dollar they have and pulled out all the stops in order to send their innocent little darlings to a high-quality school, only to see them not only not learn much or develop good characters but actually become more debased and evil and eventually turn into accomplished cheats or even murderers. People are always complaining that students are getting worse by the year, but this is the rotten fruit of the CCP’s rule. The brother also told me that the Age of Grace was when the Lord Jesus was doing the work of redemption—forgiving mankind’s sins—which isn’t the same as the work of the last days to judge, cleanse and transform mankind’s corrupt disposition. In other words, although believers in the Lord can gain redemption for their sins, their sinful nature is still firmly rooted inside of them, and they still cannot help but be corrupted by Satan to do evil and resist God. Such people live in a vicious cycle of committing sins in the daytime and admitting to their sins at night: Even the pastors are unable to extricate themselves from their sinful ways. For the last days, God expresses truths and does the work of judging and purifying mankind through His incarnation in order to thoroughly cleanse and transform mankind’s satanic disposition and resolve the issue of the source of their tendency to sin, so that they can be completely saved from Satan’s domain and be able to live in the light. As I listened to the brother talking it was like dark clouds were dispersing to reveal a clear blue sky: All of the doubts and bemusement of many years disappeared and I there and then accepted the gospel of the last days of Almighty God.

The brother then read another passage of God’s words: “The vast and hazy world has made many of you, unflinching and dauntless in filling the different roles of this world. It has formed many ‘warriors’ that do not fear death at all. More than that, it has created batches of desensitized and paralyzed humans who do not understand the purpose of their creation.” “Mankind, who left the supply of life from the Almighty, does not know why they exist, and yet fears death. There is no support, no help, but mankind is still reluctant to close their eyes, braving it all, drags out an ignoble existence in this world in bodies without the consciousness of souls. You live like such, with no hope; he exists like such, with no aim. There is only the Holy One in the legend who will come to save those who moan in suffering and long desperately for His arrival. This belief cannot be realized so far in the people who are unconscious. However, the people still yearn for it so. The Almighty has mercy on these people who suffer deeply. At the same time, He is fed up with these people who have no consciousness, because He has to wait too long for the answer from humans. He desires to seek, seek your heart and your spirit. He wants to bring you food and water and to awaken you, so you are no longer thirsty, no longer hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time” (“The Sighing of the Almighty” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I was very moved by these words. In the past, in my confusion and pain, I had shed many bitter tears, but no one had ever been able to so clearly penetrate the secrets in my heart with their words or describe the true state of my heart and mind. And there had certainly been no one to tell me how to walk the path of my life in the future. But a few short sentences of Almighty God’s words were able to fully express what was hidden deep in my heart, and, more importantly, were able to show me a way forward. Now I not only know that the source of mankind’s degeneracy and corruption is because mankind has moved away from God’s life sustenance and fallen under the domain of Satan, but I also know that God always hopes that we—people who have been tricked and harmed by Satan—can return to Him as soon as possible and receive His salvation. God’s words brought me illumination and hope, and brought an end to many years of living in darkness. From then on, I started to devour God’s words and to participate enthusiastically in church life. I began to hate those dimly-lit bars where I used to get falling down drunk, and gave up drinking for good. Whenever my drinking buddies tried to get me to go out with them I’d find a good reason not to go. If I couldn’t think of an excuse, I would go with them, but not a drop of liquor ever passed my lips again. I watched them drink bottle after bottle, and when they were totally loaded they started acting crazy as usual. Out of the blue, I felt an unexplainable sadness. I felt that they were truly pitiful and I remembered that I too once behaved like that, getting drunk time and time again in order to numb myself and temporarily forget my worries and the emptiness inside of me. But drinking just caused the suffering and emptiness to last even longer. Now that I have something that I can really rely on, my heart feels full and joyous, and I’m truly grateful for Almighty God’s immense salvation!

What makes me even more grateful is that Almighty God not only relieved me of my spiritual emptiness but also led me away from all the filth and contamination. Every time I met up with the brothers and sisters I always felt totally liberated, because among them there is no fakery, no bravado, no empty talk, and neither is there any deception or suppression. The brothers and sisters seek to be honest people who are always ready to say what is on their minds because they know that the more honest they are the more God will approve of them and grant His blessings and the more they are liked by others. After seeing how each one of the brothers and sisters was living in a simple, open and liberated way, I decided to rebel against my own ego and vanity and tell one of the sisters about how I’d been under the influence of evil trends and fashions and just how degenerate and useless I’d become. The sister not only didn’t look askance of me but even told me about all of her own transgressions and the process of how God had saved her. And she was someone who I’d only known for fewer than 10 days! With my good friends who I’d known for years I rarely heard anything that really came from the heart, but here at The Church of Almighty God everyone is like this—everyone is making honesty into a practice. God’s house is a place of purity and piety that is completely different than the outside world! In the church there is no differentiating between high and low, rich and poor, or automatic seniority of the more qualified over the less qualified. The speech and actions of all of the church members is in accordance with God’s words, and these words are the rules and standards by which they behave. In God’s house I saw the true future and the true destination, and I started to hate my dry and monotonous school life where I was learning nothing of value and was just becoming more and more treacherous and cunning. In a society where good educational qualifications mean a bright future, I firmly and resolutely decided to abandon my schooling and to plan instead how I was going to remake myself. A lot of people didn’t understand my decision, and some even called me a fool who was destroying his own future. My relatives and classmates didn’t understand either, and when our pastor—the one who was full of fake kindness and fairness—heard the news that my mother and I had accepted Eastern Lightning, she spouted: “You’re both wrong! You’re both putting your faith in a person! Eastern Lightning has already been designated an evil cult by the government! If you keep on believing in it, you’ll be abandoned by the Lord. You’d be wise to study hard while you’re still young….” But I knew that I was absolutely on the right path, and I never regretted my decision because I knew that I have no future worth mentioning in a school that is full of lies and fakery. In fact, staying in such a place will only bring about the complete annihilation of my conscience and the loss of my humanity. Furthermore, how could those pastors and elders in the religious community, who don’t have a bit of the reality of truth and are tainted with the filth and corruption of the world, clearly understand my spiritual decision?

In The Church of Almighty God I have personally experienced how the truth and Christ rule in God’s house. Whoever practices truths gains respect and support, while those who promote dishonest practices or do evil are stonewalled, and if they don’t repent after being warned a few times then they are expelled. Because I have been too deeply corrupted by Satan and love status and prestige too much, during the period when I was a church leader I used my power to protect and fortify my position by attacking and taking revenge on a sister who disagreed with me. It got to the point where I demanded that she be expelled, and if she weren’t then I would leave, and anybody who tried to fellowship with me became my enemy. Even after multiple attempts by the brothers and sisters to support me and help me, I still stubbornly insisted that I was in the right. In the end, the sister wasn’t expelled and I was stripped of my leadership position for not accepting truths and not treating people fairly. This was God’s righteousness in action, and was also an example of God’s love and salvation. Even more so, it clearly showed me that God’s house and the outside world are very different: In God’s house it is truth and righteousness that rule, and they treat everyone equally and fairly. After I was removed from the leadership position, my corruption led me to misunderstand and complain about God, and I even considered betraying God and going back to my old life of uncontrolled drinking and debauchery with my school pals. But God didn’t give up on my salvation, and the enlightenment of God’s words and the fellowshiping of the brothers and sisters were able to pull me back from the brink of danger once again. Although I’m now just an ordinary believer in The Church of Almighty God, here I know what it means to be a real human and I understand that if people leave God then they will inevitably be trampled on and harmed by Satan. Almighty God allowed me to find true direction in life, and it was God that saved me from the dark and evil trends of this material world. I have no way of expressing the depth of God’s love and compassion, but can only dedicate the rest of my life to Him by pursuing truths and fulfilling my duties to repay His love!

#incarnation #Lord Jesus #gospel #the truth #God's word

[comebeforegod]

The Experience of Growth of a Christian Born in the 1990s

Wei Chen, Fujian Province

I’m a Christian who was born in the 1990s. I was once a student in one of those famous schools that all parents want their kids to study at and will go to extreme lengths to get them in. In China, they are known as key schools, and I studied in one for 10 years. In China, parents have very high expectations of such schools, and rack their brains for ways to improve their children’s chances of going to these high-quality places of learning. They think that their kids will thus gain a first-class education that will put them head and shoulders above the rest and bring glory to their family and ancestors. In order to get me into a key school, my mother pulled out all the stops to develop relationships with the right people and also spent a considerable sum of money. But the schools run by the C.C.P. have already lost all their purity of purpose and have become dens of lies and falsehoods. The teachers and staff—who should have been upstanding models of fairness, humanity and morality—have become treacherous, cunning and immoral hypocrites who are cultivating batch after batch of similarly hypocritical students, the so-called “pillars of the nation.”

When talking about teachers in China, it’s common to use a line from an ancient poem to describe their diligence: “The silkworm doesn’t stop producing silk thread until it dies; the candle doesn’t stop dripping wax until it turns to ash.” But after 10 years in that school witnessing the actions and behaviors of my teachers, I feel that I have to repudiate this. I remember the second semester in my first year. The music teacher announced that our class had been selected for a music class inspection by some senior figures, and that we had to continually rehearse the content that she’d prepared for the inspection exactly as she wanted. During one of the rehearsals, one of the classmates was being a bit uncooperative and repeatedly failed to do what the teacher said. Suddenly, the classroom went very quiet, and when I looked up I saw the music teacher staring furiously at that classmate. She stood up with a crash, threw her musical textbook down onto the piano with all her strength, and strode angrily toward the classmate. She grabbed him and dragged him to the back of the classroom to stand against the wall as punishment. When we saw this, all 30 0r so of us became petrified, and immediately began to carefully do exactly what the teacher wanted so that we didn’t meet the same fate. Later on, our head teacher and the music teacher also had one-to-one talks with all of the naughty students to warn them to shape up. So when the senior officials came they saw a well-ordered classroom with a friendly and welcoming teacher who had a voice so soft it gave you goose bumps. It seemed that we students and the teachers had entered into an unspoken agreement to cooperate to achieve the common objective of seeing satisfied smiles on the faces of the senior officials. After the inspection was over, I got together with a few classmates. The question we all asked was: “Why has our teacher taught us how to deceive people?” When we reached the third year we were told that some people were coming to listen in on our math class. The math teacher told us: “In class tomorrow we’ll be doing the same stuff that we did a few days ago. So I hope you’ll all go home and revise it well.” After class, the teacher asked the class monitor and class cadres to join her in her office. The next day, the back row of seats in the classroom was all taken up by teachers and officials who had come to observe us. The class started, and the teacher asked the pre-arranged questions and allowed the class monitor and class cadres to answer. Their flawless answers brought a satisfied smile to the teacher’s face. This open class came to a successful conclusion after fooling the government officials all the way, and was definitely a case of “For every policy the senior leadership create the lower levels create one to deal with it.” Inspections and evaluations by the Bureau of Education always put the teachers on the defensive: They would make us memorize all the possible questions and answers and would repeatedly and sternly warn us. They’d say things like: “The Bureau of Education inspectors are coming today so you’ve all got to stay in this classroom. Stay in here and be good. If you mess up I’ll make sure you all suffer the consequences!” They even threatened to deduct points from our end-of-semester exam scores! We also had a full school assembly so that the teachers could lay down the law and drill into us everything we needed to remember. We were so well-trained that an inspector could have grabbed the most unruly kid in any class and asked them any relevant question and they would have got a concise and fluent answer guaranteed to bring a smile to their face. Even more ironic was the fact that the usually smelly toilets were cleaned and the trash heaps were tidied up. Then there was the time when the bell for class rang but my classmates kept on making a terrible din no matter how loudly the teacher banged on the desk. So the teacher shouted at us angrily: “You were all so good during the inspections, but now that they’re over you’ve gone back to being how you were originally.” When I heard this I had a quiet laugh to myself, as I thought that this was certainly an instance of “A strict teacher produces outstanding students!” Six years of elementary school life had helped our performing arts skills progress greatly: Whenever we heard that there was going to be an open class, or that some officials were coming to observe us, we all knew just how to work hand-in-glove with the teacher to put on a good show to fool them.

When I got into key high schools, both junior and senior, I discovered that the practice of faking things was even more prevalent and developed. Our physics classes were nearly all theory, with very few practical experiments involved. When the school inspectors were about to visit, our teacher told us to do all of the experiments in the few classes beforehand. But we all knew that we had to be ready for the inspection, so we didn’t actually do them but just went to the lab and waited for the teacher to read out the correct results, which we then copied down. The senior staff of our school was also always looking for ways to bring our school up to Grade 1 standard, because doing so would mean more recognition, better equipment and facilities—both hardware and software—and more funding from the government. But this was a challenging task that needed the teachers and students to work together closely to complete. In order to pass the inspection and evaluation, we began all the fakery again. A few of the strongest students in the class were sent to the office to get all of the boxes of reports, experiment material, tables and charts—all the stuff that we usually never heard of or looked at. Then the teacher wrote all of the standard answers and results up on the blackboard and we copied the information into the tables, charts, etc. Then we handed them over to the teachers (and then they were hidden away until the time of the next inspection.) After that, I went with a few classmates to the school canteen to buy something to eat for breakfast. One of classmates wanted a chicken leg, but the canteen staff told him: “Today’s inspection day, so we’re not allowed to sell cooked food.” We looked at each other in bemusement, because we’d never have thought that the canteen—which made piles of money through selling cooked food every day—would also have a rest day. Ha-ha! They really were putting on a good show of singing from the same song sheet as the school’s senior management! Eventually, the combined deceit of all of the staff and students ensured that the school was promoted from a provincial Grade 2 school to a provincial Grade 1 school. The senior staff was naturally delighted, and grinned from ear to ear all day long. When the news was excitedly announced at a special school assembly, the gathered students were also very happy to hear it, because we knew that if we hadn’t passed the inspection then we would have had to carry on wracking our brains to think of ways to trick the inspectors next time.

As a result of the diligent cultivation from an early age at the hands of our teachers—those “engineers of the human soul”—we matured into students well-prepared to pass exams. Our ability to fake things and deceive people also progressed nicely. In our school, the rules didn’t permit students to have girlfriends or boyfriends or smoke. So we got round this by continuing our teachers’ tradition of “For every policy the senior leadership create the lower levels create one to deal with it”—we didn’t hold hands or hug or smoke in public areas of the school but instead snuck into dark corners or waited until we were outside of the school gates before having our fun. Anyway, as long as we weren’t caught in the act then there wouldn’t be any evidence. Also, bullying and robbing other students of their money were common occurrences. And so I sunk lower and lower into this great vat of sin, learning all the time how to be two-faced and sly. In the eyes of most of my relatives and classmates I was a good boy: I didn’t have a girlfriend, nor did I drink or smoke. When guests came to our house, even though I just wanted to play computer games, I would instead bring up the learning Web site—a site I visited so infrequently that I’d almost forgotten my account details—on the screen in order to win the guests’ approval. It was only when I was totally sure that the guests wouldn’t come into my room again that I’d start browsing the Web and playing games. Whenever I was feeling upset or troubled, I’d call up a few of my close friends and we’d go to a bar near to my house to get completely drunk. Once we’d drowned our sorrows and maybe acted a bit crazy, we’d calculate what time each of our respective parents would go to bed so that we could sneak in without them smelling the alcohol on us. Then we’d stumble and weave back home and sleep the rest of the night away snoring loudly. I remember one time when I finished off half a bottle of 56° sorghum liquor in three swallows. Walking home I could barely control my arms and legs, but when I got to the door of my house I slapped my face a few times, steadied myself as best I could, took off my shoes as quickly as possible, covered my mouth with my hand, and walked straight into my room, locking the door behind me. In my room I was king of my own domain, and so no matter how hard my mother knocked on the door I didn’t open it. The next day before opening my bedroom door, I didn’t forget to open the window to let some fresh air in. When I could smell that there was no stench of alcohol in the air, I took my clothes—which did still have smell of liquor—out onto the balcony to soak them in water. And that’s how I got rid of all the evidence. Ha-ha!

Occasionally, I would think about how the Lord Jesus had said that we must all be honest and always tell it as it really is. I was very dissatisfied with my various behaviors, and felt that I was totally phony and fake. I even felt that I wasn’t a real Christian, as I didn’t even have the courage to admit to my own faith in case I was mocked for claiming to be a Christian when my morals were so bad. Sometimes I’d pray and confess my sins, but my lifestyle didn’t change and I continued to feel lost, confused, and helpless. I knew that I wasn’t a good Christian, but I felt that the pastors and the deacons in the church all knew the Bible very well and could all discuss doctrines and teachings at length, so at least they were all good Christians, all apples of the Lord’s eye. But the reality once again struck back against my way of looking at things: It was during an election for church deacons, and as an impartial observer I was able to clearly witness just how absurd the whole process was. There were 13 deacons to begin with, and when the pastor announced the results of the election it turned out that the same 13 had been re-elected. There hadn’t even been any other candidates! I couldn’t help but shout out: “Cheats!” and then stormed angrily out of the church. I pondered over this event, but whichever way I thought about it I always came to the conclusion that religious elections were just as fake as the practice I had witnessed in school or the elections the local government held for village cadres. On another occasion, I was child minding for the pastor and struck up a conversation with her 7-year old daughter: “I bet your mother reads Bible stories to you pretty much every day.” She replied: “No, my mom said there’s no point in reading that stuff!” I was stunned, and asked her again, to make sure. But the little girl replied with certainty: “Mom doesn’t let me read the Bible and told me not to believe any of it. She said that only scientific knowledge has any use.” The truth left me dumbfounded: This pastor was a total hypocrite who was teaching her child to ignore Christian teachings! I would never have imagined that the senior figures in my church were all deceitful atheists who were just putting on a show to further their own interests. I was terribly disappointed in them, and vowed never to go to any church meetings again. I felt that listening to them preaching was no different from listening to those falsely just and righteous senior school staff who got up on the stage and tried to fool us with their trickery. At a later date, my mother became one of the church deacons, which gave me even more of an insider’s view of how this so-called holy, God-worshiping “temple” had developed in the same way as modern society. The pastor and deacons had formed factions, and of course there were lots of differing opinions, so the dozen or so of them were frequently quarreling until they were red in the face. They also had the habit of finding spurious reasons for spending the congregation’s donations on trips and dining out. They once announced, in all earnest, that they were going to give 500 yuan to poor families to subsidize their children’s school fees. In fact, the parents who applied for the subsidies were all close to the pastor and deacons on a daily basis. One of these “poor parents” actually owned a 3-storey house and had a monthly income of over 1,000 yuan. As for the parents who everyone actually knew to be living with hardship, not one of them got the subsidy. Through personally witnessing all this, I became extremely disappointed and didn’t know what to do about the whole situation. I felt that only the return of the Lord Jesus could put an end to these filthy and despicable affairs. I couldn’t help from calling out: “Lord, please, please, come soon!”

I’m so grateful to our Lord for taking pity on me and listening to my pleas. After about 2 months, one of the brothers came to my home. At the time, I was the only one at home, and out of politeness I sat with him for a while, chatting about this and that. But during our chat the brother bore witness to Almighty God’s work of the last days for me. He said that the Lord Jesus has already returned and is called Almighty God, and that He is already expressing truths to do His work of judgment starting with God’s house in the last days. The brother also said that Almighty God is going to save mankind, which has been deeply corrupted and harmed by Satan, from its sins, free mankind from Satan’s influence and take us into His kingdom, thus ending this evil age. The more I listened, the more extraordinary and stranger it seemed. I had believed in the Lord Jesus for all these years but had never heard any of this. In particular, the parts where the brother dissected the various evil phenomena now prevalent in society, schools, and religious circles and revealed their substance and true situation were all issues that I had long puzzled over. I ended up fellowshiping about all of the things that I’d seen and heard over many years with the brother. I expressed my bemusement over why schools—that were supposed to be places of innocent learning—had become dens of lies, and why churches—that were supposed to be holy places—had become dens of fakery and in-fighting. Moreover, I wanted to be an honest person, as the Lord Jesus demanded, but it was just a pipe dream, as every day my life was lived from behind a mask. With regard to my puzzlement, the brother read some passages of God’s words to me: “Satan corrupts people through the education and influence of the national governments and the famous and great. Their lies and nonsense have become man’s life and nature. ‘Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost’ is a well-known satanic saying that has been instilled into everyone and become the human life. There are some other words of life philosophy that are also like this” (“How to Know Man’s Nature” in Records of Christ’s Talks). “Cruel, brutal mankind! The conniving and intrigue, the jostling with each other, the scramble for reputation and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? God has spoken hundreds of thousands of words, yet no one has come to their senses. They act for the sake of their families, and sons and daughters, for their careers, prospects, status, vanity, and money, for the sake of clothes, for food and the flesh—whose actions are truly for the sake of God? Even among those whose actions are for the sake of God, there are but few who know God. How many do not act for the sake of their own interests? How many do not oppress and discriminate against others for the sake of maintaining their own status? Thus, God has been forcibly condemned to death innumerable times, countless barbaric judges have condemned God and once more nailed Him to the cross. How many can be called righteous because they truly act for the sake of God?” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Why do people engage in such deceit? To achieve their own aims, and to achieve the objectives they desire. And so they adopt certain methods, which shows that they are not upstanding, and that they are not honest. At such times, people’s insidiousness and cunning is revealed, or else their maliciousness and ignobility. With these things, you feel that it is especially hard to be honest; without them, you would feel that being honest is easy. The greatest obstacles to being honest are people’s insidiousness, their deceitfulness, their maliciousness, and their ignoble motivations” (“To Be Honest, You Should Lay Yourself Open to Others” in Records of Christ’s Talks). After reading these words of God the brother continued to fellowship more with me and that was when I had a sudden flash of realization: The root of all of our problems is that Satan has power over mankind and is corrupting us! Satan the Devil has filled us with poisonous ideas such as “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” “Money is first,” and “Power is above all else.” These poisons have taken root in the deepest recesses of our hearts and have become our lives; these concepts control our every word and action. So regardless of whether people are in a school or in a religious community, they will be unable to stop themselves from furthering their own interests, and will compete and struggle against others to do so. When the pastors put up a sign saying: “Work for the Lord and serve His flock,” they still intend to fill their own pockets, and when the school hangs up a banner with the slogan “Impart knowledge and educate students to benefit the nation and the people,” it’s all just a charade. In fact, teachers use the slogan “Be diligent and industrious to serve as role models for others” as a cover to grab as much for themselves as they can. I’ve even heard of teachers losing all their humanity and humiliating or viciously beating students in order to further their own interests. This sort of thing is now so common that it’s no longer news. Satan the Devil uses power and money to control our hearts and spirits, which causes us to become more and more evil and sinister. In order to get what we want we will stop at nothing, and as our treacherous and cunning methods get more accomplished the profit they bring gets bigger and bigger. As a result, we just get more evil and corrupt and become capable of committing the most heinous of sins. It is just like the Chinese saying, “If the upper beams aren’t straight the lower beams will be crooked too”: Under the evil governance of the CCP all government officials are embezzling large amounts of money, and so senior staff and teachers in China’s schools naturally copy them as best they can. Concepts such as morality and justice get cast to one side and the word “profit” takes center stage, and that’s how schools become a microcosm of the evil society that they exist in. And once the eyes and ears of the students have been exposed to this evil contamination they will naturally become more and more evil themselves, just like blotting paper soaking up black ink. Some examples of this include students flirting with each other in the dark corners of the school and students smoking and getting really drunk in bars. I also saw young lovers hugging and holding hands in public places, and these days it’s even common for elementary school students to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some students will deceive their parents or make life difficult for them in order to get more pocket money, and there have even been cases of children attacking their parents with knives after being refused of more money. Heaven knows how many parents have spent every dollar they have and pulled out all the stops in order to send their innocent little darlings to a high-quality school, only to see them not only not learn much or develop good characters but actually become more debased and evil and eventually turn into accomplished cheats or even murderers. People are always complaining that students are getting worse by the year, but this is the rotten fruit of the CCP’s rule. The brother also told me that the Age of Grace was when the Lord Jesus was doing the work of redemption—forgiving mankind’s sins—which isn’t the same as the work of the last days to judge, cleanse and transform mankind’s corrupt disposition. In other words, although believers in the Lord can gain redemption for their sins, their sinful nature is still firmly rooted inside of them, and they still cannot help but be corrupted by Satan to do evil and resist God. Such people live in a vicious cycle of committing sins in the daytime and admitting to their sins at night: Even the pastors are unable to extricate themselves from their sinful ways. For the last days, God expresses truths and does the work of judging and purifying mankind through His incarnation in order to thoroughly cleanse and transform mankind’s satanic disposition and resolve the issue of the source of their tendency to sin, so that they can be completely saved from Satan’s domain and be able to live in the light. As I listened to the brother talking it was like dark clouds were dispersing to reveal a clear blue sky: All of the doubts and bemusement of many years disappeared and I there and then accepted the gospel of the last days of Almighty God.

The brother then read another passage of God’s words: “The vast and hazy world has made many of you, unflinching and dauntless in filling the different roles of this world. It has formed many ‘warriors’ that do not fear death at all. More than that, it has created batches of desensitized and paralyzed humans who do not understand the purpose of their creation.” “Mankind, who left the supply of life from the Almighty, does not know why they exist, and yet fears death. There is no support, no help, but mankind is still reluctant to close their eyes, braving it all, drags out an ignoble existence in this world in bodies without the consciousness of souls. You live like such, with no hope; he exists like such, with no aim. There is only the Holy One in the legend who will come to save those who moan in suffering and long desperately for His arrival. This belief cannot be realized so far in the people who are unconscious. However, the people still yearn for it so. The Almighty has mercy on these people who suffer deeply. At the same time, He is fed up with these people who have no consciousness, because He has to wait too long for the answer from humans. He desires to seek, seek your heart and your spirit. He wants to bring you food and water and to awaken you, so you are no longer thirsty, no longer hungry. When you are weary and when you begin to feel the desolation of this world, do not be perplexed, do not cry. Almighty God, the Watcher, will embrace your arrival any time” (“The Sighing of the Almighty” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I was very moved by these words. In the past, in my confusion and pain, I had shed many bitter tears, but no one had ever been able to so clearly penetrate the secrets in my heart with their words or describe the true state of my heart and mind. And there had certainly been no one to tell me how to walk the path of my life in the future. But a few short sentences of Almighty God’s words were able to fully express what was hidden deep in my heart, and, more importantly, were able to show me a way forward. Now I not only know that the source of mankind’s degeneracy and corruption is because mankind has moved away from God’s life sustenance and fallen under the domain of Satan, but I also know that God always hopes that we—people who have been tricked and harmed by Satan—can return to Him as soon as possible and receive His salvation. God’s words brought me illumination and hope, and brought an end to many years of living in darkness. From then on, I started to devour God’s words and to participate enthusiastically in church life. I began to hate those dimly-lit bars where I used to get falling down drunk, and gave up drinking for good. Whenever my drinking buddies tried to get me to go out with them I’d find a good reason not to go. If I couldn’t think of an excuse, I would go with them, but not a drop of liquor ever passed my lips again. I watched them drink bottle after bottle, and when they were totally loaded they started acting crazy as usual. Out of the blue, I felt an unexplainable sadness. I felt that they were truly pitiful and I remembered that I too once behaved like that, getting drunk time and time again in order to numb myself and temporarily forget my worries and the emptiness inside of me. But drinking just caused the suffering and emptiness to last even longer. Now that I have something that I can really rely on, my heart feels full and joyous, and I’m truly grateful for Almighty God’s immense salvation!

What makes me even more grateful is that Almighty God not only relieved me of my spiritual emptiness but also led me away from all the filth and contamination. Every time I met up with the brothers and sisters I always felt totally liberated, because among them there is no fakery, no bravado, no empty talk, and neither is there any deception or suppression. The brothers and sisters seek to be honest people who are always ready to say what is on their minds because they know that the more honest they are the more God will approve of them and grant His blessings and the more they are liked by others. After seeing how each one of the brothers and sisters was living in a simple, open and liberated way, I decided to rebel against my own ego and vanity and tell one of the sisters about how I’d been under the influence of evil trends and fashions and just how degenerate and useless I’d become. The sister not only didn’t look askance of me but even told me about all of her own transgressions and the process of how God had saved her. And she was someone who I’d only known for fewer than 10 days! With my good friends who I’d known for years I rarely heard anything that really came from the heart, but here at The Church of Almighty God everyone is like this—everyone is making honesty into a practice. God’s house is a place of purity and piety that is completely different than the outside world! In the church there is no differentiating between high and low, rich and poor, or automatic seniority of the more qualified over the less qualified. The speech and actions of all of the church members is in accordance with God’s words, and these words are the rules and standards by which they behave. In God’s house I saw the true future and the true destination, and I started to hate my dry and monotonous school life where I was learning nothing of value and was just becoming more and more treacherous and cunning. In a society where good educational qualifications mean a bright future, I firmly and resolutely decided to abandon my schooling and to plan instead how I was going to remake myself. A lot of people didn’t understand my decision, and some even called me a fool who was destroying his own future. My relatives and classmates didn’t understand either, and when our pastor—the one who was full of fake kindness and fairness—heard the news that my mother and I had accepted Eastern Lightning, she spouted: “You’re both wrong! You’re both putting your faith in a person! Eastern Lightning has already been designated an evil cult by the government! If you keep on believing in it, you’ll be abandoned by the Lord. You’d be wise to study hard while you’re still young….” But I knew that I was absolutely on the right path, and I never regretted my decision because I knew that I have no future worth mentioning in a school that is full of lies and fakery. In fact, staying in such a place will only bring about the complete annihilation of my conscience and the loss of my humanity. Furthermore, how could those pastors and elders in the religious community, who don’t have a bit of the reality of truth and are tainted with the filth and corruption of the world, clearly understand my spiritual decision?

In The Church of Almighty God I have personally experienced how the truth and Christ rule in God’s house. Whoever practices truths gains respect and support, while those who promote dishonest practices or do evil are stonewalled, and if they don’t repent after being warned a few times then they are expelled. Because I have been too deeply corrupted by Satan and love status and prestige too much, during the period when I was a church leader I used my power to protect and fortify my position by attacking and taking revenge on a sister who disagreed with me. It got to the point where I demanded that she be expelled, and if she weren’t then I would leave, and anybody who tried to fellowship with me became my enemy. Even after multiple attempts by the brothers and sisters to support me and help me, I still stubbornly insisted that I was in the right. In the end, the sister wasn’t expelled and I was stripped of my leadership position for not accepting truths and not treating people fairly. This was God’s righteousness in action, and was also an example of God’s love and salvation. Even more so, it clearly showed me that God’s house and the outside world are very different: In God’s house it is truth and righteousness that rule, and they treat everyone equally and fairly. After I was removed from the leadership position, my corruption led me to misunderstand and complain about God, and I even considered betraying God and going back to my old life of uncontrolled drinking and debauchery with my school pals. But God didn’t give up on my salvation, and the enlightenment of God’s words and the fellowshiping of the brothers and sisters were able to pull me back from the brink of danger once again. Although I’m now just an ordinary believer in The Church of Almighty God, here I know what it means to be a real human and I understand that if people leave God then they will inevitably be trampled on and harmed by Satan. Almighty God allowed me to find true direction in life, and it was God that saved me from the dark and evil trends of this material world. I have no way of expressing the depth of God’s love and compassion, but can only dedicate the rest of my life to Him by pursuing truths and fulfilling my duties to repay His love!

#Lord Jesus #the Bible #Eastern Lightning

[touchpointpress]

I interviewed Sharon Yang, author of Bait and Switch (released December 15, 2015) and Letter From a Dead Man (released December 6, 3017.) Are you as excited as I am to hear about what’s happened to Jessica Minton and her friends? Order a copy of her new book here: https://www.amazon.com/Letter-Dead-Jessica-Minton-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07664TYT1/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507496492&sr=1-1&keywords=letter+from+a+dead+man

And while you’re waiting for it to arrive at your doorstep, you can learn more about the author and her books right here.

This is the second book you’ve published with TouchPoint Press. What was different for this book from the last one your published? Have you learned anything?

One interesting difference was that I automatically planned to develop the cover myself with my husband. There had been a holdup on the release of Bait and Switch due to the publisher’s artist not coming through with good material. So when I decided to take the bull by the horns and ask Sheri if I could come up with my own cover, she gave me an enthusiastic green light. The first cover was actually almost exactly what I’d always pictured as the cover. So, as I was editing Dead Man, I was tossing around ideas with my husband for the cover. I’d originally had a different idea, but it didn’t quite seem to fit the style that we’d started with Bait and Switch. Then, re-reading and revising Dead Man, I came across a scene that I thought perfectly captured the spirit of the book and evoked one of the most suspenseful scenes: Jessica hiding from killers behind one of the lions at the New York Public Library. We tested a few poses, in sketches and by having me stand next to one of the actual lions in NYC, before settling on our final choice. So, I learned from my first experience to just go right for my own creation for a cover.

That’s really interesting. I don’t often think about how much time and effort is put into developing a cover design. How did you find and/or choose to work with TouchPoint Press?

The answer to this question is a funny story. My discovering Touchpoint was part serendipity and part luck. I had studied the Writer’s Guides to Publishing and Agents and made up detailed lists of who my best bets would be for my kind of fiction. I came across the Red Writinghood Ink Agency. The book made them seem perfect for a new writer with my ‘40s mystery style, but their website said that they weren’t accepting new writers now. I was disappointed, but decided, “What the heck, I’ll still give them a try, just in case.” So, I sent my query to the agent listed in Writer’s Guide to Agents as my best bet as a contact, Sheri Williams. Well, lo and behold, Sheri had left to start her own publishing company, Touchpoint. She loved Bait and Switch and wanted the whole manuscript. The rest is history! So, my take away is be persistent, take chances; you never know where opportunities will flare up. Hard work and luck pay off!

Do you think of writing as a second/full-time job? Does your time at work and your writing time overlap any?

Right now, writing is clearly a second job. I pay the bills by teaching as a tenured Professor in English at Worcester State University. It’s highly unusual for writers to make enough to support themselves in a comfortable life. So, since my teaching is such a demanding job, I basically only write in the summer, when I’m not teaching. This setup gives me a nice balance. During the school year, I throw myself whole-heartedly into teaching, so I’m exhausted when summer rolls around. Writing, either fiction or my scholarly work, is a nice change of pace for my mind. I exercise my intellectual and creative muscles differently. Then, by the end of summer, I’m so exhausted with writing that I’m ready to switch gears and go back into teaching. Maybe that’s why autumn always seems like the beginning rather than the end of the year to me.

It sounds like having a yearly writing schedule like that would make sure that you stay energized and don’t feel burned out with one task. During the summer, what are your writing must haves or routines?

I definitely can’t write during the school year. I don’t have the concentration or the time. Summer break is the best because I have longer stretches of time without interruptions. On a nice day, I sit on the front porch, with a great view of the hills and the trees, and work away. I do like to have a cup of tea with me. I’m too stirred up with my writing to have coffee. My first draft has to be written with pen on paper. Typing slows me down; the words don’t flow. Later, I type the written draft up, editing as I go. Later drafts are done on the computer. Editing is easier for me with a computer.

What emotions are you trying to draw out of your readers? Do you enjoy making them work for answers?

The emotions I want to draw? Well, definitely suspense and surprise. I love to drop hints and see if they pick up on them. I like to try to bend the generic rules. I love to play with in-jokes. So, I want the readers to be in suspense but have fun. I also want them to care about the characters, to share their feelings of love, doubt, and humor.

Can you tell us about your future writing plans? Are you planning to continue the series? What hints or tidbits can you give your fans? Do you have anything planned besides the series?

I definitely have more adventures planned for Jessica, James, Liz, and Dusty. I actually have a third novel completed called “Always Play the Dark Horse.” This mystery needs more editing, but it’s in good shape. “Dark Horse” takes Jessica and James to a college campus on the beautiful Connecticut coast, where they run into her old college sweetheart, a mysterious veteran who literally rides a dark horse, and the strange disappearance of an art professor – who later turns up to wreak havoc on everyone’s lives. Dusty continues to preside over affairs while honing her mouse-catching skills, and Rose Nyquist from Dead Man reappears as another professor who helps Jessica and James unravel some fatal mysteries.

In addition, I have detailed outlines for a fourth novel in the series, which I’ll probably call “Shadows of a Dark Past.” Here, Jessica and Elizabeth travel to an eerie, isolated manse on the Maine coast where Jessica joins the rest of her radio program comrades to perform several remote broadcasts revolving around the unsolved murder of a beautiful woman at the manse nearly twenty years ago. Of course, Jessica bears a striking resemblance to the woman – something of interest to the woman’s husband, who still lives nearby with their daughter. When Jessica finds herself sleepwalking to the room where the woman was murdered, Liz calls on James to get up to Maine and help her figure out what’s going on with Jess before her unconscious peregrinations end tragically.

I have ideas for at least three other novels in the series, but they are in a less detailed state. I also have ideas for a mystery set outside the Jessica series, as well as a supernatural tale. Either of them might lead to a sequel.

Wow, it looks like you have everything all planned out! You write what you love to read and watch, and you’re good at it, which is so awesome! But if you had to pick another genre to write in, what would it be and why?

You know, I have to say I only write what I like: mysteries, supernatural tales, and scholarly writing in subjects I love. Writing is far too demanding for me to invest that much of myself in something that does not fully capture my heart.

Fair enough. Is writing a solo experience for you? When do you allow people to see your work?

I have a posse of friends who get first crack at what I write. Partly, they just enjoy reading my mysteries, but they also give me great feedback on what works and what doesn’t work. They are honest but tactful. The friend with whom I work the most is Ruth Haber. She usually gets the very first crack. She is an avid reader of mysteries and another English prof, so she knows what is good writing and fits in the genre and what doesn’t. She’s also good at encouraging me to bend the rules of genre to create something original and exciting.

In your opinion, what was the most difficult part of the writing process?

I think trying to figure out what to cut to make your novel read smoothly and keep the suspense going. You don’t want to undermine the development of characters or toss away some evocative descriptions, but you also don’t want to bog down your readers. Striking the balance between keeping up a good pace and giving your readers some prose they will savor is tough.

That’s a great answer. So, what scene or detail did you take out from either book that you wish you had left in?

With Dead Man, there was a part I wish I could have kept, but it would have slowed down the building of suspense. That was a flashback to a scene where James proposes to Jessica. I have considered including it on my website as a little treat. I also had to cut a dramatic scene from Bait and Switch where Jessica almost ends up shoved down an elevator shaft. It worked really well, but it would have dragged out the novel too long. However, I’ve been figuring how I can adapt that vignette to a later novel in the series.

You are all about characters and character-driven plots. You’ve said that you were inspired to write a story with a strong heroine. Did you find it harder to write about male characters?

I don’t really find male characters hard to write. I just think about who this person is and go from there. That usually seems to work. I tend not to enclose people in gender roles, although who that character is might do the enclosing for me.

If you weren’t a writer, what interesting thing would you want to be known for?

I don’t know if this is interesting, but I do want to be known as a teacher who is creative, inspiring, and challenging. I want to be known for not just inspiring students to love literature but to better understand themselves and others through reading. I want to be known for helping them find their voice as writers and to use that voice to help others.

That is interesting! Interesting and inspiring. Would you say that writing energizes or exhausts you?

Writing definitely does both. It’s thrilling to have ideas and to play them out in my mind, then translate them into words to provoke my intended vision in readers. However, I usually kind of collapse after a bout of putting ideas and images down on paper. Writing is hard – but exhilarating – work!

You do a lot of research for your books. You’ve mentioned books and movies and newspapers and interviews…How much time do you think you spend researching versus writing and editing? Have you gone on any “reading/writing pilgrimages”?

I don’t know if I can compare the amount of time I put into editing vs. research. Sometimes one leads into the other. For example, when I was editing various drafts, I realized that I’d written some information that might not be true. As a result, I had to go back and double-check to correct the manuscript. So, yes, it was the AF of L in 1945, not the AFL-CIO and there was no racing at Saratoga the summer of 1944.

In addition, we definitely do “pilgrimages” to check out setting. We went to the NYPL to take photos of the lions so we could see how to set up the cover – and I adjusted my description of two scenes to depict more accurately what the area outside the library looks like. Another time, I wanted to see how a scene I intended to write would play out. We went down the subway by Bryant Park, then I raced up the stairs, down the street, and over to hide behind one of the lions. Nobody even noticed. That’s one of the sneak peeks I have on my website.

I remember reading about that on your blog. That sounds like one crazy adventure! What’s the best money you’ve spent as an author?

As a mystery writer, I would say joining Sister in Crime and Sisters in Crime-New England. These two organizations have provided me with guidance on publishing and promotion. They have helped me to get the word out on my books and sell them through putting me on speakers panels for various libraries, organizations, and book fairs. Even better. They’ve introduced me to other writers who are not only wonderful mentors but good friends. Plus, I get to widen my library of great mystery writing through these connections!

I’ll definitely have to suggest those organizations to other mystery authors. And finally, the golden question: What does literary success look like to you?

When you use the word “literary” to me, there’s an implication we’re discussing the quality of writing rather than “fame and fortune.” I want to create writing that evokes imagery and feeling. I want to inspire readers to interact with my characters as if they were real people. I love to challenge them to figure out “whodunit.” I also want them to have fun getting the in-jokes that connect to high and pop culture. I want to sell enough books to be able to keep writing, but I don’t expect to be making enough to retire on. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if I suddenly was rolling in greenbacks from the profits – as long as I could keep control of my writing and not be forced to cookie-cutter it to what is perceived as popular taste.

  I hope you enjoyed getting to know Sharon Yang a little better. You can follow her on her website, https://sharonhealyyang.com/, and keep checking out our website for more information about her appearances and future works.

Interview with TouchPoint Press Author Sharon Yang I interviewed Sharon Yang, author of Bait and Switch (released December 15, 2015) and Letter From a Dead Man…