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Newspaper Article – The Bible and Public Education
Here’s my December newspaper article – published yesterday in The Republic: A recent Thursday evening found me in the local school auditorium listening to the 5th and 6th grade choir’s Christmas program. I thoroughly appreciated the program, but not because I could make out my two oldest children’s voices among the 50 or 60 on stage. (I couldn’t.) And it wasn’t because it helped “put me in the Christmas spirit”. (It didn’t. I’m a Grinch.) Rather, my appreciation was for how “behind the times” we are. In this age of hyper sensitivity and political correctness, when a field trip to…
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Waiting for Les Miserables
I have truly enjoyed only one recent trend on Facebook. Not the election moaning. Not the Chik-Fil-A debates. Not even the 30 days of thankfulness in November. (It was sad how many people started strong and then ran out of blessings before the month ended! After Thanksgiving Day itself, it seemed that most people got distracted by … other stuff.)But here’s the trend I’m talking about: people confessing they have no idea what Les Miserables is about – neither the book nor the musical. And, of course, this conversation is prompted by the musical-turned-movie premiering on Christmas day.Those ignorant of Les Mis…
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Sadness Around the Table Tonight …
… as we had to let the kids know that we won’t be heading to Haiti this January. We had all gotten our hopes up, but it is simply not to be. Melissa and I are still processing it, and it leaves us feeling a bit deflated, but we know the Lord is the master of the calendar. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.” (Ecc 3:1) I had tried not to get my hopes up too high because I learned long ago that I am very bad at trying…
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A Life Lesson from My Dad
My dad owned and managed a True Value Hardware store and built a lifelong reputation for common sense, common decency and uncommon integrity. In his lifetime he interacted with thousands of customers and hired, trained and guided scores of teenagers and dozens of adults. Of course, my brothers and I also worked at the store while we were growing up, so I got to see firsthand what my dad was like as a boss. Here is one truth (among many) that was impressed upon anyone who ever worked for my dad: he would never ask someone to do a task that he himself refused to do or one he felt was…
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Long Distance Education Frustrations
I guess Thanksgiving bumped my November newspaper article – and it landed in today’s paper: As I have mentioned in this space before, my wife and I are currently raising funds to move our family to Haiti where we will teach at Cowman School. In the meantime, I am teaching high school Language Arts to several students there long distance over the internet. “Do you understand what plagiarism is?” I recently found myself asking one of my students as I stared into the webcam perched on top of my laptop. “Yes, yes. I know what plagiarism is,” he answered from his classroom…
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The Cattle on a Thousand Hills
The other night, Melissa and I had the chance to meet with some folks from our church who had also gone to Haiti on a short term mission trip. Before that meeting, we hadn’t really known each other beyond familiarity of names – and had certainly never sat down to chat over a cup of coffee before. It was a joy to get to know them and to see their heart for the hurting people of Haiti. We were impressed to find out that one of this couple’s responses after returning to the States from Haiti was to sell their…
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Powerball Letdown
A lot of people were talking about the Powerball Lottery over the last few days. I heard that in the 24 hours before the drawing, 105,000 people an hour were buying new tickets. (And that sounds a little low to me!) In the hours after the drawing, a picture of a Powerball winner was circulating on Facebook with a note that he would give away one of his millions to a random person who “reposted” his picture. It was a hoax, but over 450,000 people reposted the picture, hoping at a second chance to get some of that Powerball cash.My lottery…
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December Update
(This is the text of an email I am sending out to various supporters, friends and family members. If you don’t see it in YOUR inbox, that might mean I don’t have your email address – or I’ve got the wrong one! If you’d like to be on our mailing list, drop me a quick note at [email protected].) Greetings! We certainly hope this email finds you well at the start of the Christmas Season. Remember when you were a kid and this “season” seemed to last FOREVER? I am missing those days – especially this year when time seems to…
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Thanksgiving 2012
So many of my most recent posts have been VERY wordy, so it’s a good time to pause and post some pictures from this past week. As you know, we are trying to see if we can move our family to the Haiti in January. (And it’s a bit stressful, with December hitting by the end of this week, not knowing for sure whether we have a major life change coming after the first of the year.) But we feel very sure that if we don’t make it to Haiti in January, we will most likely head there in August of…
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More Vuja De – When Hell is a Laughing Matter
This is a post I don’t really want to write – but in the interest of being as transparent as possible, I will. I don’t want to write it because it necessitates a confession, and it’s bad enough that I said what I said in front of a table full of family members. Now I am about to repeat it online for all who care to read. And I am seriously embarrassed by what came out of my mouth and I am reminded of Jesus teaching the religious folks of his day that “it’s what comes out of the mouth that makes…