Joshua

As many people in the world seem to know by now, Stacie and I have been studying very hard for a big Hebrew Comprehensive exam. Basically we had to translate ten chapters from Joshua on our own, (no class time on any of this one) then walk into the exam room and have two different sections of those ten chapters sitting in front of us and we had to be able to translate it. Plus, a number of questions regarding the Hebrew grammar, such as parsing and syntax questions (which has never been clear to me). So we did our part by preparing as best we could.


Studying all day...

...and all night......for about 12+ hours a day for a couple weeks. There were definitely moments of discouragement and frustration along the way, especially as the day drew near and we realized we hadn't prepared anything for the the Historical Geography question (on the Hebrew Comp exam). This question, whatever it was going to look like, was going to be worth 25% of it. This exam is pass/fail, and we need to pass in order to graduate. So the last couple days we crammed about everything we could regarding the overall history and geography of the Exodus and the Conquest (Pharaoh's, dates, conquest strategy, routes, maps, and the archeology of Jericho and Ai).

On Friday, April 25th, Stacie and I finally took the exam. Stacie and I were the only ones taking this exam that day, so they threw us in separate rooms and said "good luck." By this point, many people knew we were taking this exam and many people were praying for us, encouraging us and cheering us on. For those of you who did - THANK YOU! We truly could tell that it was bigger than ourselves.
I mean, I was full of joy all day, even while I was taking this exam. Never stressed, worried or frustrated. Just taking my time and trying to answer the questions thoroughly.

Stacie slugged it out for about 6 1/2 hours before she finally finished. I was in my cell for about an hour longer. So it was a long and difficult exam, but both of us agree that we are so thankful for all the things we had to learn to prepare for this one. There is nothing about all of this that I am like "why do I need to know this???" It's fun stuff, and it's why God called us here.

Thanks to you all for cheering us on through the finish line. We now have one week left of classes and then finals. 2 final exams plus one even BIGGER comprehensive exam on Historical Geography.

Grrrrrrr.