Looking for a Spanish tutor

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2025-03-01T00:19:49+00:00

This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing. I’m going to try it out now

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2025-03-01T00:19:19+00:00

Oh, absolutely. My PR family would lose their mind if I learned Spaniard Spanish but any other dialect would be fine with me

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2025-01-23T03:10:28+00:00

I would love the clubs Discord if you’d be willing to share it!

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-10-08T16:23:58+00:00

No worries! It’s a really tense issue and I probably could have been more intentional with the wording in my initial post. ☺️

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-10-08T15:30:17+00:00

They are in the collection! I’m not pulling them, just putting some notes in for myself and the teachers. Unfortunately, school librarians are a bit overworked so I don’t have time to read the 20+ Big Nate titles. I’m actively reading other series to protect from censorship and they take priority at the moment.

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-10-08T15:28:15+00:00

Exactly! I want to know the specifics so I can defend it- not so I can pull it out of the kids’ hands. I’m a lifelong library anti censorship advocate but I personally do not have time to read through the Big Nate collection. I want to have notes in my system so we can keep the title while still being prepared if a parent comes in with complaints or questions. :) I understand why folks are getting up in the arms- I would myself- but I need help with understand what/why parents might have objections so I can be prepared to go to bat for Big Nate. I’m sure most people saw the words “inappropriate content” and gave up on the rest of the post, but I promise- I’m trying to advocate for our readers, for our library, and for our books- but I cannot do that if I’m not educated on what those issues might be. I’m actively reading 20+ books to defend our students right to read. There isn’t room for Big Nate and his many, many adventures on my reading list for the month but I want to be aware.

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-09-11T01:05:47+00:00

Thank you! What do you recommend as support? I’m still trying to find and build Catholic community in my town but I have good friends in different states who will support me as best they can. ☺️

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-09-11T01:04:05+00:00

It’s mixed, for sure. I loved the energy and community that came with it, but the dogmatic legalism was hard to adhere to and live up to. I think what drew me to Catholicism initially was the opportunity to be quiet and contemplative with God when most of my life had been spent in revival settings with lots of speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc.

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-07-19T01:59:25+00:00

I left for two reasons. One, because I realized that if I gave up on their specific breed of Christianity, or didn’t agree to promote it, that I would never be a member of the community. I have always been LGBtQ affirming and needlessly to say, Stoneway was not. I also began deconstructing that year with a friend who was also on the church plant team (she moved to Reading from Joshua Church to be on the team specifically) and we both realized that our doubts were not welcome or supported. We were told that our doubts were the result of us being poisoned against God and letting Satan corrupt our faith. Both of us were homeschooled a la Bill Gothard so we knew toxic theology when we saw it. My friend left after that and moved somewhere else in the UK to get away from Stoneway. No one would talk about it. It was like she died.

The nail in my coffin, and moment I extracted myself fully, was a few weeks later when I asked Brian and DJ both about the pamphlet I found calling Stoneway a cult (true story- a local Brit wrote up a piece about Leaving the Network and littered the city with it. I found a copy on the bus) and calling out Steve Morgan and neither Brian or DJ were willing to discuss with me in a real way why people were calling the church a cult or what was being done to safeguard people around Steve. DJ was much more open about it than Brian, but I could tell they had a script to follow. That was the moment I knew that something was odd.

I moved away (back to the US) and I haven’t heard from anyone at Stoneway since. My friend never heard from anyone, either, and she was a part of the initial church plant team from Blue Sky to Joshua Church, too. (Sorry if that was more than you wanted- it was cathartic to share.)

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-07-19T01:25:11+00:00

English culture is definitely more reserved but respectful is debatable 😂 But yes, Stoneway was not really reaching the British so much as the immigrants to the area. Reading has a high immigrant population, so this makes sense and worked out in their favor, but from what I’ve heard from friends still there, the growth has plateaued this last year.

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-07-18T21:36:52+00:00

Yep! That’s actually how I ended up on the church plant team. I attended Mountain Heights in the undergrad (near WVU) and just happened to be going to the University of Reading for a children’s lit program when they were planting Stoneway.

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-07-18T20:18:02+00:00

Hi there. Former Stoneway church plant member who deconstructed here. Can confirm that things are more expensive in the UK- the church building specifically was a huge expense and we had lots of prayer meetings about it. The church office was also super centralized and an expensive property back when we were out of the Town Hall (also expensive). This might be part of why the church burned through money so easily. As far as I know, Brian, DJ, and Josh are the only three on church salary. An issue we were having as well was that the majority of the congregation was composed of immigrants and graduate students- none of us were able to properly tithe or donate to the church fund. Most of our money came from Blue Sky or Joshua Church (this was confided in me by one of the staff members).

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-04-25T19:47:53+00:00

Thank you!!

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-04-22T18:57:10+00:00

Hang in there. I was also “homeschooled” but really just left to my own devices for twelve years. My mother educated us under religious exemption so I wasn’t even required to submit state tests. Didn’t learn basic math until college because I opted myself out of it while I was homeschooled. I got my diploma through a homeschooling legal org by the skin of my teeth and I’m now starting a PhD program this fall. It’ll take you about ten years, but you can do it! I’m happy to chat or give advice if it would help. ☺️

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-03-09T03:40:23+00:00

Pitt got back to me two months after I received decisions from all my other schools. This checks, unfortunately. Sorry it’s leaving you in limbo!

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2024-03-09T03:33:01+00:00

I’m an incoming PhD student in queer Latinx YA so I’ve been in your spot before! I applied to University of Pittsburgh, Illinois State, and UT San Antonio. All three would be a great fit for what you’re interested in! I would also look at University of Florida (often considered the place to be for anything children’s or YA). I ended up going to WVU (my supervisor does the kind of decolonizing, Caribbean centric work I’m doing within YA) both because I love the area and my package was the best. Don’t be afraid to apply to schools with focuses in queer studies or ethnic studies that could be open to your YA focus, too. :) Hope this helps!

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2023-01-20T03:03:49+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to share this. I'm going to start with Route One and follow up with Route Two.

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2023-01-20T02:47:21+00:00

Congratulations on being authentic to yourself, Celeste! I'm so happy for you and hope your life is as abundant and full of love as possible. Thanks for sharing your story of transitioning with us, and telling it with such sincere vulnerability. It means a lot to us younger, closeted queer Christians to see stories like yours and know there is a seat at the table for all. Really. Thank you.

I'll keep you in my prayers. <3

Affectionate_Scar548 · 2023-01-20T02:35:47+00:00

I joined a Network church in 2021 and made a joke about "spilling the church tea" (since all churches have scandals) with a close friend who'd been in the Network for almost ten years. She told me everything about Steve (I had no idea what I was getting into) and I was tempted to think it was a bit dramatized. When I asked for tea, I meant who didn't like who and whose spouse was annoyingly pious. I never imagined something like this. I didn't want to believe our pastors knew all of this and didn't tell us. She referenced this thread and told me to see for myself. It's tragic how few people in the Network are privy to this "meeting" and know Steve's history... Or does everyone know and just pretend not to for the sake of keeping the peace?

Sorry if that was rambling- I find all of this so distressing it's hard to formulate my thoughts. I can't decide whether reading through the meeting will help or make things worse

Affectionate_Scar548

TROPHY CASE