Strong and Courageous

This past week was Junior 2 week here at camp and three of my students from Dunlap United Methodist Church were able to come and volunteer.  They arrived on last Thursday and spent about 10 days here in northwest Ontario.  Kaitlyn and Seth served as cabin leaders and Krislan was a team captain.  They had other duties in the kitchen and around camp as well.

One of my favorite songs that we sing here at camp is "Be Strong and Courageous," and once we've introduced it to the kids, I try to encourage them with it throughout the week.  When someone is afraid to jump off the high dive I say, "Be strong and courageous."  On the most difficult hike I tell them we are going on an adventure, and they must be strong and courageous.  And then we celebrate together when they have made it through the hike or jumped off the high dive.

This week I am celebrating the strength and courage of my three students.  They took a risk and stepped out in faith to come to a land far away, where they didn't know anyone but me.  They came without an adult accompanying them on their flights. Two of them had never flown.  They stepped into some demanding roles that challenged them and stretched them out of their comfort zone.  Faith always requires you to risk, and being successful in this pretty calculated risk will make the next call to step out in faith a little easier.  And nothing pleases God more than our faith. 

The other thing that made me proud of them was that they used things that they had learned back at home here in their work.  Krislan had a great experiment that had a spiritual application.  She stepped right up and demonstrated it to us, and we were able to let her share that with the girls in their cabin devotions.  She also shared it with Seth, and he was able to teach it to the boys.  And in their general temperament and demeanor, learned from their families, these three were able to be kind and patient and gracious to some very difficult campers.

I also want to salute the courage of their parents.  It is not easy to let go and allow your child to step into the unknown.  It is not easy to have them far away and not be able to communicate with them at all for several days.  I so appreciate these parents trusting me and believing me when I presented them with the possibility of this trip.  I also appreciate all that they did to work with me in making this happen financially.  In allowing their kids to take this step of faith, they make the next step easier for themselves and others.

The congregation at DUMC was exceptionally generous in supporting these young people.  They went above and beyond in making it possible for all who were willing to come to be able to make the trip.  I am very thankful.

God has dealt bountifully with us this week in so many ways.  I can only praise Him and say, "Not to us, not to us, but to your name be the glory."

Seth with some of his Bears

Hiking with Krislan and Kaitlyn

Time for Feasting

I've been reading The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg thanks to the recommendation of my dear friend Bea Ward.  I have really been enjoying it, but one of the chapters made a particular impact on me this week as we prepare for campers to come on Monday. Chapter Four is called "A 'Dee Dah Day': The Practice of Celebration. In this chapter he includes a passage from G.K. Chesterton that I thought was superb.  Here's what it says:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.  They always say, "Do it again"; and the grownup person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grownup people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening "Do it again" to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we are.

I love those thoughts, but the idea that really caught my fancy from this chapter was this.  In the Old Testament, God commanded both days of feasting and days of fasting.  The days of feasting were every bit as important as the days of fasting.  That is because God is a God who is characterized by joyfulness and loves celebration.  The days of feasting were prescribed because God wants us to take some dedicated time to gather with people we love, eat, drink, sing and dance.

For the kids who come to camp, this is their week of "feasting."  It's our job to lead them in celebrating.  And it's our great responsibility to lead them to see that the focus of our celebration is the Big, Awesome God that we serve.

John Ortberg further says, "When we celebrate, we exercise our ability to see and feel goodness in the simplest gifts of God.  We are able to take delight in something we wouldn't have even noticed yesterday."

So these next few weeks we will be doing this holy work, this work of joyful celebration.  We will be rejoicing in "the simplest gifts of God" as they are revealed in this spectacular location, and helping kids to learn to do the same.

There will be "choice foods" at our feast, as well as singing, dancing, and playing.

And laughter...there will be lots of laughter.

Let the feast begin!!!

Salute to My Dad

Dad's 80th Birthday Party

On this Father's Day, I want to salute my dad.  He turned 80 this year, and we've spent some time looking back at his life.  Here are some of the things we remembered about Dad.

In his youth my dad faced some significant challenges.  At the age of three he was severely burned on one leg in a fire at his home.  His mother was also burned over a significant part of her body, and they were both in the hospital for many months.

Dad also had a lot of trouble with one of his eyes.  He told me he had surgery on it when he was a kid.  His dad took him to the hospital and just dropped him off for the surgery.  No one stayed with him.  That's just how things were back then.  It amazing to think of it today.

When he was dating my mom, he drove her and my aunt and a friend to Kentucky to visit relatives and they had a bad wreck.  A truck crossed the center line and hit them.  My dad had a significant injury to his arm and you can still see the effects of it today.

Through all this I know my dad as someone who overcame these difficulties and who went on to work hard all his life and build a good life for us all.  I am thankful for his perseverance in the face of trials.  As he has grown older he has worked hard to deal with his physical limitations.  He had both knees and one shoulder replaced and worked like a champ to do his rehab and stay as active as he possibly can.   Even now, I don't think he's ever happier than when he's riding his tractor and working in his garden. 

Looking back at Dad's life I am always thankful that he worked so hard to make a good living and a good life for our family.  He worked at a dairy and I often think of him in his white work clothes and paper hat.  I can't open the dairy case at the grocery store without fondly remembering the smell on his clothes when he came home.

Some of my fondest memories of my dad are from the vacations he took us on.  Each year we got to take a fun family vacation.  We went to Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, and Missouri, and our most daring trip took us to the World's Fair in Montreal, Canada in 1967.  After I got married and moved to Tennessee we spent several years vacationing together at Fall Creek Falls where we would get one of the fishermen's cabins.  

I am thankful for a dad who made my childhood so idyllic and who gave me a secure and loving home to grow up in.  I am very thankful he's still around and that he is continues to be at work in my life.  He has been there for me countless times and I love him very much for all he means to me.

The Joy of Teaching

Recently I've talked to one of my former students from Bledsoe County.  I've asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up every year for the past five years, and up until now she's always said she wanted to be a teacher.  This time she said she wants to be a nurse or dental hygienist or something in the medical field.  Now, there's nothing wrong with changing your mind, and my students have done it often.  The difference here is that some teachers have spoken to her about their discontent with the teaching profession and have persuaded her that teaching is the last thing she wants to do.

Another really bright girl that I recently met told me the same story.  She said that her teachers discouraged her from going into teaching.

I think this is really sad.

It's not that I don't get it.  I do.

I've felt the pressure to get my students to perform proficiently on standardized tests.  I've felt discouraged because my creativity was being squelched.  I know very well the stress that is involved in teaching.

But there's something else to take into account when it comes to whatever you decide to do for a living.

You have to find the joy in what you're doing.

In the past couple of months I've listened to two comedians talk about this very thing.  First I heard Stephen Colbert when he was interviewed on Face the Nation.  He said that he has always called his show "The Joy Machine" because if you don't find the joy in each show, the machine will eat you alive. Just a few days later I heard Jerry Seinfeld say on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" that the thing that kept him sane in a crazy business was that he found the joy in the daily work.  ( I highly recommend checking out both these links, especially if you like these two comedians.)

There's a lot of joy to be found in teaching. It comes from doing something that has impact and significance in the world.  Education is a key factor in creating a positive quality of life in the future.  Teachers make a difference in students' lives.

For me, joy is found in being with children.  Every day I get to teach, I get to interact with kids who make me laugh, who amaze me with their insight, who have great potential.  Every student has the story of their own life that needs to be understood, and I find joy in getting to know that story.  I also enjoy going places and experiencing new things with kids.  Being around young people keeps me young and relevant, and lets me see things with fresh eyes.

Since this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, I wanted to share these thoughts.  This is a hard time of year for them, and teachers need to feel appreciated.  I hope I can encourage them too to keep finding the joy that probably led them to this career in the first place.

Teacher friends, keep up the good work!
 

Teaching in Kosovo

The main purpose of my trip last month was to teach school.  My sister Penny is friends with a woman named Nadine who started a school in Mitrovica, Kosovo.  She has lived in Kosovo since around 2000 and raised her daughter there.  Her daughter married a man there and now they are all working at the school.  Nadine wanted to make a trip to the U.S. to see if she could recruit teachers for next year.  She is the science teacher at the school, and so my job was to be the science teacher in her absence.

I took some materials I had used in Bledsoe County and taught a simulation about a family lost at sea.  Each student received information on a different family, including plants and animals they had encountered, and the students had to do research to try to determine where the family was located.  The students did a great job, and they seemed to really enjoy it.

My traveling companion, Kay, is also a teacher, and she was a lot of help in the classroom.  She was so willing to do whatever I needed to make the lesson go smoothly.  She contributed many good ideas to our plans, and I'm very glad she was able to be with me on this adventure.

My favorite part of the week was on Friday.  The students, who were speaking English as their second language, all had to prepare a dramatic reading to present to the class.  I was able to watch all the 6th and 7th graders present their readings.  They were delightful.  Three girls gave a reading from one of the Harry Potter books, each one playing a different character.  The girl playing Ron got all the sarcasm just right.  Two other girls read a story called "Gloria Who Might Be My Best Friend."  It was very touching.  Another boy gave a solo performance of a Judy Moody book.  He would read a couple of pages and then pantomime what he had just read.  It was all very entertaining, and their command of the language was so impressive.

Here are some pictures from the week.

We stayed with Nadine's family.  Most of the homes in Kosovo are
multi-generational.

Kay demonstrating the concept of different
densities of salt water.

During lunch period there is always time for a little dodgeball.

The view from our classroom window.  The city
was not a very attractive place.  The building here was a car wash which
is a popular business in Kosovo.

I love teaching!

The ninth graders working on their project.

We were able to spend one afternoon doing experiments about bubbles.

One evening the whole staff went out for dinner.  They
were all such a pleasure to spend the week with.  Kay and I
are hopeful that we were able to encourage them in the work
they are doing there in Kosovo.

This Really Felt Like The Amazing Race

On our way to Kosovo, Penny and David took us to the capital city of Macedonia, Skopje.  It was beautiful weather, and I enjoyed touring the birthplace of Mother Teresa and visiting a memorial built to honor her.  The town square was a busy place on Sunday afternoon, full of people and music and dancing.

One of several statues of Mother Teresa

Macedonia also claims Alexander the Great as a native son.

I really loved this fountain which honored mothers with their children.

While we were in Macedonia, a couple of our experiences reminded me of the real Amazing Race.  We were able to walk through the open market full of booths with all kinds of merchandise and produce.  The sights and smells reminded me of the many times teams are sent to hunt an item at a market just like the one in Skopje.  It made me smile to think about it.

But smiling was not what I was doing on our next leg of the "race."  David and Penny wanted to take us to a lake they had found during a previous visit to Macedonia, but they did not know for sure how to get there.  They looked at the map and found a town that seemed to be on the way, so they entered that town in their GPS.  Now, when you're in unfamiliar territory and you're using GPS, once you begin, you find yourself at the mercy of the GPS.  The voice of our mechanical guide took us up a narrow mountain road with many curves and switchbacks.  Meeting another car was a nail biting experience.  

We stopped once to ask a local person for some directions and were told that we were on the wrong track.  But we continued into the remote mountain terrain until we had determined to turn around if we had not found the lake we were looking for in another ten minutes.

It was only a couple of minutes later that we arrived at, not our original destination, but an overlook that gave us the most glorious view of mountains and a distant lake.  The thought that we might have turned back before finding this beautiful place makes me cringe.  We truly enjoyed to unexpected discovery, and found our way back to civilization and the road to Kosovo.

Veliko Tarnovo

We flew from Prague to Sofia, Bulgaria, where Penny and David picked us up.  Then we were on our way to their home in Veliko, Tarnovo.  We made one stop at a large cave long the way.

And finally we were there in their town in central Bulgaria.  For your information, Bulgaria is about the size of Ohio.  Sofia is on the western border and Veliko Tarnovo is in the central part of the country.  The next day we spent time touring the town.  It was a charming town.

Mother Bulgaria honors those who have fought for her.
Bulgaria has been on the losing size of every war.

Bulgarians takes pride in their graffiti.  It is everywhere.
Some of it is very interesting.

The art museum

It was really great to spend time with my sister and see what her life is like.  It was great to go in the spring too.  Penny said they have a tradition in Bulgaria.  At the beginning of March people put a woven piece of string around their wrist.  They wear it until they come across the first blossom on a tree or bush, and then they tie it on the branch.  We saw many strings ties on the branches around town.