gooooooogling

Thought for all of you to ponder: do the verses in I Corinthians 14 prohibiting speaking in tongues without an interpreter also apply nowadays to people singing in a foreign language in church? I don't mean once in a while, like if you have guests from a different country, but on a regular basis. My pastor here occasionally asks if I'll sing a solo in church (part of the weekly service is devoted to special music in small groups, duets, trios, and solos), and I don't know what language to sing in. If I sing in English, I can accompany myself on the piano and know that I'm pronouncing everything correctly...but no one can understand me. If I sing in Ukrainian, it's harder for me to read the words of the song and the piano notes at the same time, especially as I don't get to practice playing the piano often...also, my accent's noticable enough that I don't know how easy I'd be to understand if I sang a song people didn't already know.

Either way, I feel awkward. I love singing in our "older group" (i.e. anyone over 18 who can carry a tune...we sit together and function as sort of a very small choir), because I'm part of it, just another member of the church. If I sing a solo, everyone looks at me, and no matter which language I sing in, everyone's reminded that I'm the American. I spend my life over here being the American...at church, I just want to be another Christian. But my pastor keeps asking me to sing, and I don't think that trying to explain all of this to him would help.

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In other news, the Y kids and I watched E.T. dubbed into Ukrainian this afternoon, which was a lot of fun...I hadn't seen that movie in ages!

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These are the best of what comes up when I type "Sally needs" into Google:

*Sally needs a suitor who is capable of tending to her dreams and is willing to be second priority so that the people can come first. (I followed the link...it's about Sonic the Hedgehog, of all things!)
*Sally needs to be reminded to multiply before adding
*Sally needs to learn how to stay on task during independent work
*Sally needs to increase her positive interaction with peers
*Sally needs $50000 to buy a Pete's Postage Post franchise
*Sally needs to get a real gun
*Sally needs to work in such an unfulfilling job
*Sally needs sunshine
*Sally needs to make her best underwater documentary film in order to attract backing for future projects
*Sally needs a hug