Deadlines

Deadlines are good motivators. While I don't work well under a lot of pressure, I find that deadlines help me focus on a task and filter out a lot of unnecessary stuff. Not to mention that it's a great feeling when you finally check the item off your list.

One of those deadlines on my February calendar is a new book for the Vida Nova publishing house. I am now proofreading the translation to make sure it is faithful to the original. (I can't reveal the title, but I can say that it is aimed at leaders of youth, their parents and friends.) Along the way I make occasional grammatical revisions, consulting with my live-in Portuguese language expert, Lalia.

The book deals with crises that youth face, like depression, divorce, addictions, grief, sex, relationships, and others. With the publisher's permission, we decided to add a chapter on employment to the Portuguese language edition, because that is a huge crisis in Brazil. I'll be writing that chapter based on interviews and other information.

One more deadline. Next week, classes begin at the local Baptist seminary. This semester I will be teaching first and third semester Greek. I'm looking forward to the challenge of making Greek understandable and even desirable. How is that possible? One goal is to teach students how to glean the goodies from Greek reference books. Another priority is to constantly remind students that Greek is a means to knowing God better, not an end in itself. This perspective keeps us humble, too!

Oh yeah. The photo was taken from our living room window a few evenings ago. Intense colors courtesy of Sao Paulo's high particulate levels!