Missionary studying biblical greek and latin
Donation protected
tl;dr Summary:
I am trying to rustle up some money so that I can attend the 2020 Macquarie Ancient Language School intensive summer week. I intend to study biblical and patristic Greek for the duration of the week. I am also trying to gather funding to attend the Sydney Latin Summer School. Both of these weeks are taught in an intensive mode, which I personally find very effective and valuable. I also intend to continue my studies in Australian sign language; the "Sign language 2" course is running in intensive mode over the Saturdays of november.
I need $720 in total. $160 will pay for the tuition for the greek week, and the extra $20 will cover the cost of the food catering for the week. A further $220 covers the cost of my Sign language course, and the remainder ($320) covers the total cost of the latin summer week including food and materials.
I do not have a very large or stable income. Which is why I'm starting up this gofundme. The vast majority of my money goes into rent, and the rest of it goes into groceries. If you were willing to help out with supporting me in my academic and religious missions, it would mean the world to me.
Update:
I have raised enough to cover MALS summer week, but I still need your help to cover the Latin week and Auslan studies. Please consider giving! :)
Elaboration:
I'm a second year arts student, studying ancient languages at the University of Sydney.
So far I have studied
-Classical Latin (one year)
-Attic Greek (one year)
-Koine Greek (one semester)
-Levantine and Modern Standard Arabic (one semester)
-Mandarin Chinese (one semester)
-Biblical Hebrew (one semester)
-Sanskrit (one semester)
-Auslan sign language (one term)
I am intending to continue with all of these languages over the next 5 or so years and strive to achieve mastery in them all at least in terms of reading fluency.
My motivation for this is that I am intending to go into academia and missionary work here in Sydney. There are many diverse religious communities in this city, each with a very important history, culture and deep tradition. The languages I am studying are highly relevant to the literature that has historically defined these communities.
In terms of the academic side of things, i'm intending to do comparative studies of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Daoist philosophy/theology. I want to get deep into all of these traditions at once and study them via the original languages and primary texts.
In terms of the more practical missionary side of things, I spend much of my week visiting mosques, temples and churches in order to engage with members of these various traditions at both a lay and academic level. Learning these languages enables me to connect on a very deep level with all these people, as I'm able to articulate the theology which defines their faith lives in their own prestige language. I also am learning sign language, which is important for engaging with the deaf community in Sydney and just an all around useful skill.
As a missionary, I don't actually seek to convert anyone to anything. I merely aim to be a bridge between communities that tend to regard each other with suspicion and animosity (for example, evangelicals and catholics, or muslims and christians). In other words, my goal is to teach muslims about true christianity and teach christians about true islam, and that sort of thing. There are many myths and lies on both sides of the divide and my mission is merely to shine a light and reveal the lies for what they are, and hopefully in the process get people talking and engaging with each other in a more friendly way.
A breakdown of which of the languages I am studying correspond to which religions:
Arabic - Middle and far Eastern Christianity, Islam of all varieties
Latin - Western European Christianity, the vulgate, the eastern church fathers, the liturgy
Greek - Eastern European Christianity, the new testament, the septuagint, the eastern church fathers, the liturgy
Syriac - The language of Jesus, the liturgy, the far eastern church fathers, the peshitta
Hebrew - Judaism and all it's related literature. The Torah, Mishnah and Talmud
Chinese - Chinese religion and philosophy
Pali and tibetan - Buddhism
Sanskrit -Buddhism and Hinduism
I am trying to rustle up some money so that I can attend the 2020 Macquarie Ancient Language School intensive summer week. I intend to study biblical and patristic Greek for the duration of the week. I am also trying to gather funding to attend the Sydney Latin Summer School. Both of these weeks are taught in an intensive mode, which I personally find very effective and valuable. I also intend to continue my studies in Australian sign language; the "Sign language 2" course is running in intensive mode over the Saturdays of november.
I need $720 in total. $160 will pay for the tuition for the greek week, and the extra $20 will cover the cost of the food catering for the week. A further $220 covers the cost of my Sign language course, and the remainder ($320) covers the total cost of the latin summer week including food and materials.
I do not have a very large or stable income. Which is why I'm starting up this gofundme. The vast majority of my money goes into rent, and the rest of it goes into groceries. If you were willing to help out with supporting me in my academic and religious missions, it would mean the world to me.
Update:
I have raised enough to cover MALS summer week, but I still need your help to cover the Latin week and Auslan studies. Please consider giving! :)
Elaboration:
I'm a second year arts student, studying ancient languages at the University of Sydney.
So far I have studied
-Classical Latin (one year)
-Attic Greek (one year)
-Koine Greek (one semester)
-Levantine and Modern Standard Arabic (one semester)
-Mandarin Chinese (one semester)
-Biblical Hebrew (one semester)
-Sanskrit (one semester)
-Auslan sign language (one term)
I am intending to continue with all of these languages over the next 5 or so years and strive to achieve mastery in them all at least in terms of reading fluency.
My motivation for this is that I am intending to go into academia and missionary work here in Sydney. There are many diverse religious communities in this city, each with a very important history, culture and deep tradition. The languages I am studying are highly relevant to the literature that has historically defined these communities.
In terms of the academic side of things, i'm intending to do comparative studies of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Daoist philosophy/theology. I want to get deep into all of these traditions at once and study them via the original languages and primary texts.
In terms of the more practical missionary side of things, I spend much of my week visiting mosques, temples and churches in order to engage with members of these various traditions at both a lay and academic level. Learning these languages enables me to connect on a very deep level with all these people, as I'm able to articulate the theology which defines their faith lives in their own prestige language. I also am learning sign language, which is important for engaging with the deaf community in Sydney and just an all around useful skill.
As a missionary, I don't actually seek to convert anyone to anything. I merely aim to be a bridge between communities that tend to regard each other with suspicion and animosity (for example, evangelicals and catholics, or muslims and christians). In other words, my goal is to teach muslims about true christianity and teach christians about true islam, and that sort of thing. There are many myths and lies on both sides of the divide and my mission is merely to shine a light and reveal the lies for what they are, and hopefully in the process get people talking and engaging with each other in a more friendly way.
A breakdown of which of the languages I am studying correspond to which religions:
Arabic - Middle and far Eastern Christianity, Islam of all varieties
Latin - Western European Christianity, the vulgate, the eastern church fathers, the liturgy
Greek - Eastern European Christianity, the new testament, the septuagint, the eastern church fathers, the liturgy
Syriac - The language of Jesus, the liturgy, the far eastern church fathers, the peshitta
Hebrew - Judaism and all it's related literature. The Torah, Mishnah and Talmud
Chinese - Chinese religion and philosophy
Pali and tibetan - Buddhism
Sanskrit -Buddhism and Hinduism
Organizer
Alexander Roberts
Organizer
Lilyfield NSW
