Although these two tidbits of information may seem completely unrelated, they are in fact both events that have happened in my life in the last 24 hours. Other than that there is absolutely no connection between the two of them.
When we arrived in Korea, we also decided to start reading Romans together. We read through it once without any commentaries or study guides and would talk about it as we went. In some ways it was really great to just read the Bible without having a set agenda of what we were going to talk about, but at the same time, Romans is deep. We ended up deciding that we wanted to read it through again with a Bible study that had a discussion questions and a commentary.
I'm SO glad we did. Cass Monaco, an amazing author of Bible studies, told me that in order to really say that you have studied a book of the Bible you should read it through 50 times. (As in read it straight through.) We definitely came away with a better understanding of the book having studied it twice in a row. I could easily read it a third (fourth and fifth....) time and learn even more. I think something that impacted me the most was going through my day and having specific verses from Romans pop into my head about situations that I was in. It can be so easy to have a general "Christian" perspective without really having the foundation be the Word of God. I know that I struggle with this at times. I have "the answer" but I'm not really confident I know WHY its the answer or WHERE I could find it. So, I'm thankful to have a little bit stronger foundation from having studied Romans.
For my second, and unrelated, point. I went to the doctor yesterday. I've been "sick" for about 3 weeks. Never sick enough to put in me in bed, but sick enough to be nagging and annoying. But, in the last week it started to get worse. I was coughing ALL over the place and just feeling like I would contaminate all 700+ of my students. SO - yesterday afternoon, with the help of my co-teacher, I ventured into the world of health care in South Korea. You know what? I'm impressed. The whole process took about 30 minutes. We walked from school to a doctors office. I gave them all my information and waited for about 5 minutes. Went into see the doctor. He spoke pretty decent English which was nice. After looking down and swabbing my throat he told me I had a throat infection - so not a cold like I had thought - and he had me breath over a humidifier of sorts for about 2 minutes. I was a little skeptical of it, but it actually really soothed my throat so I went with it.
Then, I got my perscription and went next door to have it filled. Literally took me 30 minutes. AND - cost me a grand total of about $8 USD. CRAZY. The doctors visit was $4 and the medicine for 3 days was $4. Again, the fact that it was so speedy and so cheap made me question the legitimacy of what I was getting myself into, but let me tell you. I'm feeling MUCH better. :) All in all, a very positive experience.
Ah yes, Romans.....when Tim and I were dating....well, while he was 'dating" Dad (lol) they did a Bible Study on Romans. Dad had him read through the entire book every day, and then they sat down and talked about it once a week. Tim says it was the most helpful thing he has ever done in a Bible study.
ReplyDeleteHow are you guys doing? We will miss you at Thanksgiving. Will you be able to find what you need for a traditional Thanksgiving meal? I imagine you won't actually have the day off! We will be thinking about you!
Love, Rachel