My wife, Amanda, loves doing projects. So much so that when the girls hear the word “projects” they start salivating or foaming at the mouth. They jump for joy at the sound of projects.
The other day when I came home from church, Sari greeted me and showed me the project they had done that day with leaves. I show my excitement by taking a picture of their wonderful creation (it was bright so Sari wore my sunglasses!)
Loretta and I put on a CORE group (youth) retreat for Friday, Sept 24 – Saturday, Sept 25, 2010. We call it CORE 24 because it is literally 24 hours that we are on the retreat.
This was our second CORE retreat, and we have found that the simple act of “retreating” and devoting some time to reflect on our Christian life and spirituality is precious and necessary. This isn’t an outreach event. It’s an internal reflective and contemplative event. Loretta had 4 high school students attend, and I had 4 middle school students attend. The 10 of us made our way to The Wilderness Fellowship Ministries, which is a little over an hour away from Hayward. This place does not have electricity. Only the bath house does (so that is where we made our coffee!). The fridge and the stove are propane powered and the water is from a hand-pump. It was rustic. No lights at night, either!
Loretta and I had two important sessions we wanted to engage the students with, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first was for the students to ask the question: “Where is my relationship at with Jesus?” They had an hour or so of silence and solitude to think and ponder that question. Then we shared our thoughts around the campfire.
For the second session we asked the students to answer the question: “What do I want my relationship with Jesus to look like at the end of the school year?” Their task was to return to silence and solitude, and draw a picture of what the answer to that question looked like as they picked out a Psalm that illustrated where they wanted to be.
Again, this was the second year we did these same exact exercises, and they continued to prove to be effective thought provoking questions that engaged the students in self-reflection.
Plus we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs! But that goes (almost) without saying when you’re hanging out with students minus electricity and no electronic gadgets!
I came across this website called Wordle. With Wordle you can insert any number of words and text that you wish and it will generate a conglomeration of those words in any color, size, a few fonts, and arrangement you wish. I inserted my blog URL into the Wordle app and it generated the graphic above (with a few personal tweaks of my own). It makes words that I’ve typed more often more promiment than the words I’ve only used a few times. Interesting. Sari gets written about a lot, eh?
After learning about Judge Deborah last week, you would think that the Israelites would realize that if they OBEYED and followed God, then their lives would be what God wants for them: to be His light to the nations as His kind of people. Sadly, the Israelites choose to do evil in the sight of the LORD right after Deborah died. So the “Cycle of Sin” continues:
The LORD God sends some pretty bad people to make trouble and hurt the Israelites–the Midianites. While in hiding, the LORD God gets the attention of a man named Gideon and encourages his to stand up and fight. Gideon becomes the next Judge and does some interesting good and bad things in the process. One thing we’ve been telling the students as we talk about the cycle of sin is that it’s a downward cycle… and the judges will be getting worse and worse themselves.
source Vimeo
This year in Middle School Youth (msy YOUTH) on Wednesday evenings, we have been walking through the stories of the Bible… trying to unpack the statement above about God, his plan to fix this world using his particular kind of special people in order to make (or remake) his kind of world.
We’ve created and displayed different elements to relay the stories of the Bible in “big picture” kind of ways because it is a daunting task to try and make it through the WHOLE Bible in one calendar school year. I’ve been trying to record and document and link the different elements as we do them.
What I wanted to share is the motions that we have been doing to remember the stories as we run through the stories. After each story we create a sort of kinetic motion that will help us remember and review. Here they are:
Sari started gymnastics a little over a week ago. She did great! The class is called: “Tumbling with Tots” which means that parents get to tumble/coach with their aspiring gymnast. It’s really fun! Sari got to jump and balance and climb and fall.
After the first class I was processing my behavior and thoughts while I was “tumbling” with Sari. I was shocked with how easy I compared my daughter and her abilities with the other 3-4 year olds. I was gauging how Sari could to the “lobster” and the “bridge” better than others, and how Sari listened and participated better than others. On the flip side, there were a couple of things Sari could not do that most other kids could do, like jump up with two feet and fall straight back. I also felt pride when Coach Cara praised Sari for her tuck and pike. However I felt dismay when Coach Cara chided Sari for her lack of patience.
I had never felt those kinds of feeling before. And I couldn’t believe I was thinking them! I’ve typically been hard on parents that do those kinds of things (when I hear about them), but now that I’m a parent and my kids are involved in organized things, I’m convicted with how I’ve judged people in the past. And I’m convicted with how I “compared” and “competed” in my mind and thoughts.
Is it difficult for you, too?
Sari has been using this one line lately when she is either frustrated with her parents or excited with her parents. It’s about her birthday, which isn’t until February.
If Sari is excited she’ll say: “YEAH! Thank you! You can come to my birthday party!”
If she’s mad she’ll say: “You CAN’T come to my birthday party.”
Who would have ever thought that an ad for wearing your seatbelt could be so beautiful, cinematic and stir so many emotions?
I have been really enjoying the blog over @ iblogo lately. I really appreciate their content and ideas and the thoughts they generate and questions they ask. The two guys, Mark and Kelly, tackle technology and church together and think critically and productively about it.
source YouTube
I spent a large part of my day on Thursday (10.14.10) reading, searching, perusing blogs, watching, cataloging, etc on the internet. I don’t usually get time to do that, but it really sparks my creativity as well as ideas of what is being done “out there” in the world, and what are things we can do here (particularly in Hayward) with these various ideas.
The above graphic is a good example. I read a lot about technology and the use of social media and how the internet and the collaboration on it has changed our world and behavior. It was good to come across something simple and time-tested: community.
HT iblogo
This is a powerful video about WORDS using associations:
source YouTube
I am always amazed at the “vastness” and implicit impact the internet (and its subsidiaries) are having on humanity and our behavior.
Check out this “infographic” below:
HT Imago
Last Sunday evening (10.10.10), we took the Followers (Kindergarten through 5th grade) out to the Yoder’s property and had a hayride available for half the group, while the other half ran through the cornfield, bobbed for apples, stuffed a scarecrow, and ran around. Then we switched groups. Then we had a campfire with smores and water to drink. All in all we had about 65 students in attendance and 15 or so adults.
We ran this event for the Followers in conjunction with a movie Pastor Mark wanted to show: “I Am”. It was a neat way to synchronize what we are continually doing with the children’s ministry to coincide with an adult event.
source YouTube