Fun English on the web!

I've just uploaded my guidebook for teaching English to young children to a site called Scribd. There's a Spanish version and an English version, both available either to look at online or to download as a pdf.

Here is the English version for you to read right now! If you want to see it full-screen, click on the small rectangular icon on the top right of the viewer.

It is the product of many months of hard work, mostly undertaken during my first year in Paraguay and completed in February 2007. The Spanish version has been very popular with our students and those who attended my workshops last year.

Fun English for Kids (English) - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Fun English for Kids (English)

© Fiona L Cooper 2008

Celibacy In Print!

It's very exciting because I've just seen my article, Sex and the single 30-something, published in the July edition of Evangelicals Now, a monthly magazine from the UK. It is my blog post (see the link on the right), adapted slightly. They kindly sent me a complimentary copy and there's a lot of interesting stuff in it.

Here's a quote from a book I'm reading at the moment, which sums up the prevailing attitude to celibacy, I think;

"There's nothing wrong with celibacy, as long as it's for the right reasons."

I wonder what those reasons are?!?! And what would be considered a wrong reason for celibacy?

The quote is from "Cold Kill" by Stephen Leather and it is said by a psychologist to her patient. It's quite clear that in our sex-crazed, God-denying culture, celibacy is seen as being so unnatural that you are considered abnormal and probably in need of help if you practise it.

Long live abnormality if it glorifies God!

Work Update

This photo shows students during a games afternoon

My different roles at the college are very much a challenge this year, particularly as Head of English. The situation with English is complicated and involves unhappy students, staff shortages and over-demanding teachers. I’m not enjoying the responsibility at all. I'd appreciate your prayers for the wisdom to know what to do, the courage to do it and the grace to do it with love.

I am enjoying teaching the level 1 students from the first year of the diploma course. They are a lovely group of girls and we have a lot of fun together. It’s the first time I’ve taught the same thing 3 years running and I like the fact that I’ve been able to improve the way I teach each year. (My poor class the first year I was here; they were definitely the guinea pigs!)

My students in the degree-level class have been a huge challenge because of the wide range of abilities they have. I have been teaching them the English they would need to be able to teach it to 3-6 year olds. It’s been fun, since I’ve been using activities suitable for pre-school age children. Those who have a high level of English have opted out of this first semester since they felt their time could be used more effectively in other ways. One of my other students told me she's been using some of the songs I've taught them with her nursery class, which is just wonderful to hear. Next semester the focus is on strategies and planning, so they all have to come to that.

I went on my fist visit of the year to the state adoption centre's orphanage for abandoned babies last week. Each week from now until the end of the year, our first year students will go in groups to do activities with the children. This is a great help to the staff, who are overworked and have so much to do in order to keep the babies clean, fed and clothed that they don't have much time at all to focus on their individual developmental needs. There were five of us (four students and me) and ten babies, between the ages of about 9 and 18 months. Some of the children were very active; at one point one of them started to climb up the shelves! Others needed a lot of attention and interaction to keep them from crying. One baby was content just to sit in my lap the whole time, watching what was going on in the rest of the room. It can be quite hard to leave them at the end of the session! The state does its best to find members of the child's extended family to take care of him/her and if they can't, the baby is put up for adoption.

The first teaching practice of the year is due to begin shortly so I will be going to visit some of the second year students on placement. I look forward to seeing how much the students have learnt and to being able to give each of them encouragement and constructive advice.

The Big Fat Lie About Romance

I'm going to have a bit of a rant now. Well, after all, this is my blog and isn't that what these things are designed for?

I am FED UP with the lies that we are constantly sold about romance. They come from television programmes, advertisements, films, books and magazines. But we get them most from the telly that we all spend so much time watching. There's an advert here in Paraguay for a body lotion that shows a woman putting the cream on her leg, while her boyfriend watches. Then they both fall into bed and the voiceover says, "The difference between 'going to bed' and 'going to bed with him' is the softness of your skin." The idea it's selling us is that if we use the right skincare product, we're guaranteed to get the man of our dreams. IT'S A BIG FAT LIE!!! There is no cream, no make up, no pair of jeans, no shampoo which will help you find your Prince Charming. In your sane moments, you probably know that over-well. But in your moments of desperation, of wondering whether you'll ever get married, of doubting whether God really knows what's best for you and of thinking that you've maybe put off hundreds of possible suitors by choosing the wrong hairstyle; in those moments, you may take a bit of pursuading that what you're being sold is not the truth. In those moments you're vulnerable to whatever lies the devil exposes you to. And it makes me MAD! It's so unfair, but so in character for him to take advantage of our deepest longings in that way.

And the idea that we can find that perfect love, that the man of our dreams really does exist and when we find him, we'll live together in blissful happiness forever... IT'S A LOAD OF RUBBISH!!! Yet we're sold it from all sides and we begin to expect it to happen to us, even think it's our right. But it ain't going to happen. The perfect man does not exist. Nor, for that matter does the perfect woman. But you know that. Or do you? It's so very easy to be fooled into believing all the BALDERDASH we're shown on the telly or in magazines, particularly in those vulnerable moments mentioned above. And it's very hard to get away from the images of "true love" which we see all around us, so they become ingrained into our subconscious and we accept them as if they were reality. ABSOLUTE TRIPE. Perfect happiness does not exist this side of heaven. Why? Because everything in this world has been corrupted by sin.

The media have latched onto this longing in all of us for perfect love and they use it to sell us things, whether through advertisements or in persuading us to watch certain television programmes or buy particular magazines. And when they've reeled us in, we let our minds feed on their lies without ever questioning the truth of what we're seeing, reading or hearing. And so we go through life thinking that our perception of romance, gained through the GARBAGE we expose ourselves to in the media, is actually accurate. IT'S NOT.

If we had a truer idea of the realities of relationships and the possibilities of other ways to find satisfaction, we could be much happier than we are. I fully believe that the biggest cause of dissatisfaction and sadness in the world is unrealistic expectations. As we seek the blissful life we're sold, we are constantly disappointed because we fail to find it. The media promotes the possibility of marital bliss and when we find out our marriage isn't like that, we look for a way out so that we can find it with someone else. UTTER CLAPTRAP.

We need to realise that the ONLY person with whom we can have a completely intimate and perfectly loving relationship is God. That's what he made us for. To live in harmony with him. No person on this earth can ever fill the longings in your heart for deep love. Only God. No person on this earth will ever satisfy your heart the way he can. No-one on this earth will ever know you completely and yet love you intensely. But God does. Seek him, not romance. Allow yourself to be loved by God and you will get a glimpse of the joy that awaits you in heaven. A joy that will never fade, a love that will never disappoint, a life that will never end.




The glory is God's alone.

Singleness on the Mission Field

Following my blog on Sex and the Single Thirty-Something, I was asked to write an article for Oscar, the online mission resource site.

Find it here