Sledding! Korean style

All week long the staff from outside of Korea has really been looking forward to today. We had been told that we were going sledding with the students this afternoon.

We later found out that Koreans don't exactly sled like they do in America. Actually they don't even go sledding in the snow.

We drove 50 minutes up this huge mountain range. It was beautiful! But when I looked out my window I was terrified, it dropped down further than I could see and I was on a big tour bus with about 60 kids. We arrived at this rice patty unloaded the kids. They were each handed a wooden sled made out of shipping pallet with something like ice-skate blades on the bottom and two sticks each with a large nail at the bottom. Then we walked around a building and they had a rice patty that they had filled with water and it was frozen. The kids would sit on their sleds and scoot around with the wooden handled nail things. It was AMAZING!

After we were done sledding we went to another area where old men had been cooking potatoes for us! They had these huge open grills filled with rocks, with a big fire beneath them. They rolled up regular potato's and sweet potato's in foil and threw them in the rocks to cook for about an hour. They tasted amazing! (I ate a sweet potato so Aunt Gina you owe me a $1 at Thanksgiving! Sorry Mom!) All the kids would stand around and fight to get one when they threw it out of the grill! Here are a few videos from today's festivities!

The first one is of Kendall introducing you to Korean sledding, and the second is my friend Ann Brill (a teacher here) falling down! She had never seen snow before and was very excited for the little that was there. Hope all is well for you! Love, Joy & Peace!

Who wants a Lobster?

I went into town last night to buy some rice for class. We ran out of rice for our shakers. While we were waiting for the bus one of my friends said you have to see this! We walked around a street corner and found this machine...I'll let the video speak for itself.



Love, Joy & Peace!

A day in Korea

When I’m not sick and in bed sleeping I have a pretty busy schedule. The whole month that I am here is one big camp that kids from all over Korea have paid nearly $3000 to attend. The purpose of the camp is to help improve the English skills of the children in a Christian environment. So the structure is a lot like a camp in the U.S. would be. They have a pretty set schedule that they follow every day.

What is hard for me and probably many Americans to imagine is that the age of the campers is from 7 or 8 years old to about 16. Could you imagine being sent away to a camp to learn English for 3 weeks by yourself when you were 8 years old? It’s pretty crazy! For the most part the kids are pretty good with being away from home.

So here is what I do all day!

I usually wake up around 7:30 A.M. and get ready in my dorm room. We have bathrooms and showers on our floor just like a college dorm in the states. I finish up any last minute lesson plans, check my e-mail and rush out the door for breakfast and staff meeting at 8:30. At our staff meeting we discuss the day and any other specific things that need to be addressed.

Foyer - Outside of Dorm rooms and Staff Lounge -

Staff Lounge - In Dorm

Dorm Room Hallway -

At 9:00 A.M. I have a homeroom class. Every teacher has a homeroom class. This is the only class that I get to see every day. Each homeroom is named after a different city around the world and is assigned a missionary from that area to learn about during camp. My homeroom city is pretty easy for me…it’s Chicago! Our class missionary lives in Cairo Illinois. So every homeroom period we have a game and a lesson about missions, Chicago, or our missionary. They are a pretty fun class. Here is a picture of my homeroom class.



At 10:00 A.M. I have my first class followed by another class at 11:00 A.M. I am teaching bible and was assigned a text book to teach from so my lesson prep is fairly easy. I usually begin the class with a game (the kids love hangman!) and then I have the students go around the room and read one paragraph at a time from the book. I then write some vocabulary words on the chalk board and have the students write them on a sheet of paper. Then I will have the students pronounce each word and I then define it for them. After we define all of the words I read the story out loud to the class. I will stop every few sentences to explain what is going on or act scenes out.

My Class Hard at work -

Its really neat to teach bible to these kids. Korea is a pretty Christian country but some of these kids are still shocked by the stories! My first lesson was on the birth of Jesus and in several different classes it was amazing to see the shock on some of the students faces when I told them that God’s Son was born in a stable! I hope that I always have that sense of wonder and awe about Jesus!

After my 11:00 A.M. class I have to take my students to lunch in the cafeteria. It is about a 5 minute walk from my class room but it is very cold out! I will eat lunch with whatever class I happen to have that day and after lunch I will walk the class back to the dorm room. I then have a break from Lunch until 2:00 P.M. (I’m usually online around then which is about 11:00 P.M. in Indiana if you want to try and catch me on msn or facebook!)

After my break I have a 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 P.M. class. At 5:00 I am responsible for leading a club. Each teacher is required to lead a club every afternoon. Some of the clubs offered are soccer, beadwork, film, African dance and card games. I am co-leading the Music club with my friend Kendall Ludwig. Students go to their club with their homeroom class and get to go to a different club every week. Last week I posted a video of our kids playing shakers that they made in our club to a song that I said Kendall wrote. I know that Kendall didn’t write “River of Life” I just uploaded the wrong video! So here is a new video of our kids shaking their shakers to Kendall’s song.



After our club Kendall and I take our 20 kids to dinner. We eat with them, walk them back to the dorm and then we are done for the evening. It’s a pretty full day. Once I get feeling better I will have some pictures up from around town and some different buildings on campus and things.

Hope all is well!

Love, Joy & Peace!

M.A.S.H.

If you have been following my updates on facebook, or have happened to catch me on MSN or facebook chat you probably know that I have been pretty sick these past few days. Well apparently I’ve been really sick! I’ve been in bed for the past 2 days with the Asian flu! I know…real exotic!

The staff here actually made me go to the ER yesterday afternoon. I had to walk downstairs and then a driver drove me about 20 minutes to the city of Pohong to go to the hospital. I was a little afraid to go to a hospital ER in Korea (maybe to many episodes of M.A.S.H.?) but then I began to think about how many doctors I know from the states that are Korean. My fears subsided a little…until we walked into the ER. My translator Cu said to me “You might see something interesting in here,” right before we walked in.

It was crazy! The ER was like a trauma center and there were people on cots all over the room! Their were no dividers between beds and you could see everyone. Some were rolling around their beds in pain, some had blood over them and some weren’t really moving at all.

We talked to the man at the front desk and he told us that it would cost $100 USD to see a doctor today (Sunday) but if I waited until tomorrow I could see one for only $10 USD. So we went to the grocery store and bought some fruit instead! I didn't go back today. I'm feeling a lot better!

The camp nurse gave me a bunch of pills to take so I have been taking those. I have been drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot, and I even found some mint tea (my favorite!) at the grocery store. I’m starting to feeling better but my voice is still a little rough and I’m pretty congested still. It’s much better than cold chills and sweating all night with a high fever! So please keep praying for me that I continue to improve. I had to have someone teach my class today which means I don’t get paid for being here today!

Hope all is well for you!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dancing in Korea

School has been going great!

Things are a little different than I expected but its been very fun and interesting. I wish I had more time to sit back and write out all of the funny things that these kids have said and done! They are so much fun. I'm off on Sunday so maybe I will be able to share some stories then!

I am teaching 5 classes a day. Some classes are pretty advanced and some have a hard time understanding the word "wave."

I am also responsible for a "Club" each day after class. I am co-teaching Music club with my friend Kendall. Our plan was to sing and learn some new songs. That didn't work well. Apparently Korean kids don't like to sing. But as you can see from the video below they love to shake! We made the shakers yesterday in class and today we had them shake along to some of our songs! It was really fun!

I'm off to bed. I'll try to put some funny stories together for the week end! Enjoy the videos. Love, Joy & Peace!



This last video is of me walking my kids back to our dorm after dinner! They had a bit of energy and I wanted them to say hello to you!

Korea

So...I'm in Korea.

It only took me 30 hours to get here! I flew out of Detroit on the 26th at 1:45 P.M. and the adventure began. When I left my moms house in Michigan the roads were covered in ice. I had to drive 20 MPH for 1 1/2 hours! I arrived at the airport and had to wait in line for two hours to check in. I boarded my plane and flew to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo I immediately boarded another plane to fly to Seoul, Korea. Once I was on the plane we sat for an hour. After an hours wait we were told that we needed to get off the airplane. They had just replaced the brakes on the plane and needed to simulate a landing before we could take off. Everyone exited the plane and then 20 minutes later we had to board again. Once on board we had to wait 2 more hours before we took off. It was great...not really. We arrived in Seoul 3 hours late and then we had a 4 1/2 hour drive. We didn't arrive at the school until 7:15 A.M. our first meeting began at 9:30. I have been going all day on an hour of sleep. So if some of this doesn't make sense I'll blame it on that.

The camp has been really fun so far. We spent all day today in orientation. We went over rules, where my classroom is, discipline, philosophy, cultural understanding and where to go to eat. The food is very spice but is really good. Lots of rice and noodles and soup with every meal.

Most of the other teachers are from South Africa and it has been fun to get to know them. I have been spending some time with a guy named Nate who is from Birmingham Alabama. He is a great guy and this is his first time at the camp as well.

I'm sharing a room with my good friend Kendal Ludwig. His luggage got lost so we've been sharing a lot!

Our room is on the 5th floor of a college dorm. Once you reach the top of the stairs for our floor you take off your shoes and put on slippers or walk around in your socks! I love it. Plus, the floors in our room are heated. It feels really nice when you roll out of bed in the morning.

I'm really tired and need some sleep. I'll try to have some pictures up in the next day or so. Keep reading and I'll keep telling you whats going on.

Love, Joy & Peace!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend! I had a great time! Kara came to North Vernon on Wednesday night and went to Jubilee (our church youth group) with me. After church we loaded up the van and headed to Michigan. We pulled in the drive way at my moms' house around 1:30 A.M. it was a long drive!

On Thanksgiving day we all had a wonderful breakfast of bagels together and then Brad Gallup took Kara and I off for a photo shoot. This is my favorite picture of the shoot! It was really cold out, the wind was blowing hard and there were birds everywhere (which is a big problem for Kara!).

 

That night Renee and Don and the Girls girl's joined us for dinner along with my parents neighbors Marty, Mandy, Macie, and Mason! We had turkey and ham and all of that other delicious Thanksgiving stuff. I always enjoy eating anything my Mom makes. After dinner we hung out in the living room while everyone took turns playing the Wii.

On Black Friday we all slept in and Kara and I left at around noon for her parents house in Lima Ohio. We stopped to pick up her Grandma in Fort Wayne along the way and we had a really good time with her for about an hour as we traveled.

Kara's Mom had a huge meal prepared for us for dinner that night! There were 13 of us around 2 tables enjoying the feast. Kara's Grandma even cooked oysters for the occasions! Nothing says Thanksgiving like fried oysters! That night we went and look at Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols in the living room and watched Home Alone 3!

On Saturday morning after being woken up by Caleb and Tyler (Kara's 16 year old brother and his friend) we all enjoyed biscuits and gravy for breakfast!

Kara's brother Jonathan left around 2:00 in the afternoon to drive back to Olivet. He had been gone for about 20 minutes when the phone rang at the house. Jonathan was calling to tell his Dad that while he was pumping gas a couple in the car next to him could not get their car started. Jonathan tried to help but they couldn't find out the problem. So he called and asked his Dad to come and help.

So Kara's Dad got up and traveled to the gas station while we all made plans to put up the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations. About an hour later as we were moving furniture and boxes into the living room Kara's Dad walked into the house with two strangers behind him. The strangers came in and sat down in the living room. They were introduced to us as Stan and Lucy. They were both seem to be around their 50's. They were from Toronto Canada and their car had broken down at the gas station.

They figured the problem was with the starter so Jon and Stan purchased a new one and were on their way to install it. They asked Lucy if she wanted to stay at the house instead of waiting in the cold while they worked on the car. Lucy agreed.

So here we were with a perfect stranger in the living room as we were about to put up the Christmas tree. We talked with Lucy a few minutes and then asked her if she would like to help with the tree. She smiled and said yes! Lucy jumped right in and even started vacuuming the living room at one point! After the tree was up we talked a little more with her. We learned that Stan and Lucy moved to Toronto in the 70's from Krakow Poland, the home town of Pope John Paul II. When they were children they were confirmed by Pope John Paul II while he was still Bishop in Krakow. I was so impressed with how comfortable she seemed given the situation. Kara's Mom then made hot chocolate and coffee and had us all gather in the living room as Lucy shared how they celebrate Christmas in Poland.

Kara and I had to leave at 6:00 and Lucy was still at the house when we left. We figured that her Dad would fix the car and they would be on their way. That night we called to see how things went and we were told that they couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan were going to spend the night at their house!

On Sunday morning they still couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan needed to get home that day. They decided to get a ride to Detroit and take a train into Toronto and then ride the subway to their home. Their son-in-law drove up from Cincinnati to drive them the 1 ½ hours to Detroit. But before they left Stan walked into the house and told John that he would have a hard time having the car towed into Canada and that it would be difficult to get back to fix the car, so he pulled out the title and the keys and gave them to Kara's Dad and said, "You can have the car!" They hopped in their son-in-laws car and drove of to Detroit!

The whole thing sounds like it should be in a movie! It was great. We have their address and phone number and I'm hoping to meet up with them this spring while I'm in Toronto!

I had an amazing weekend. It was so much fun to be with family, to relax, to eat some good food, and it was really good to be with Kara for 5 days in a row.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I'll be posting soon about my upcoming trip to Korea, so check back soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

The Beast in Me

So I found this video today too. I like it. I hope you do to. Seriously what could be better than Johnny Cash, an old man and a dog?

Johnny Cash |MTV Music

Mc Skat Cat

So I discovered a web site www.mtvmusic.com the other day and it is great. The site has just about every music video ever created. I thought this video was amazing! Enjoy!

Paula Abdul |MTV Music

Momma T

So I'm a few weeks late on my post! But to my defense it seems as if no one cared about my game! Oh well. I had several people make guesses in person and my favorite guess was from Seth who thought that the quote on the last post was from Marilyn Manson. Actually the quote from my last post was from none other than Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa? Really?

The quote is from a book titled "Come Be My Light" by Brian Kolodiejchuk. The book includes some of the private writings of Mother Teresa. Although the writings are not the typical hope inspiring snippets you often find in other books. This book deals with the very personal struggles of faith and love and nearness of God.

A quote from Mother Teresa listed on the back of book exemplifies the tone of the book she says, "If I ever become a Saint - I will surely be one of "darkness." I will continually be absent from Heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth."

What I love about her struggle is that although she tried to keep it from the public, it was a very real struggle that she had. Her story is that early in her life she felt a strong call from God to minister to the people of Calcutta and after that point she rarely felt his presence. Could I suffer what she suffered, experience what she experienced and see what she saw and still be faithful to God's calling even though God seemed distant and far away? I hope so.

This book also gives me hope that sometimes the doubts and fears and insecurities of faith that I have are not something that only I deal with. This woman, who for many people exemplifies the word Saint, struggled too, she had doubts too! I believe there is strength from our honesty with one another.

So if you struggle, if you doubt, if you have emptiness or misery and yet are following the calling and direction of Christ seek him all the more. Long for him more. Desire him more. I also urge you to share your true feelings and thoughts with a mature Christian as well.

I love how she ends this section of writing with this, "...here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I smile at Your Hidden Face - always."

May we also be able to say, "Here I am Lord." Even when He feels distant. Even when He feels hidden.

I love this C.S. Lewis quote from the book "The Screwtape Letters,"

“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

Who Said It?

So I haven't blogged in a while. I'm sure if many of you are even reading still. A lot has happened in the past few months that I would love to tell you about in some future blogs but for now I want to play a game with you. I want you to read the following quote and post a comment guessing who wrote it. Next Thursday I will tell you who said it and add some comment to it. But for now read it and post a comment on who you think it is. Love, Joy & Peace

"Lord, my GOd, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love - and now become as the most hated one - the one You have thrown away as unwanted - unloved. I call, I cling, I want - and there is no One to answer - no One on Whom I can cling - no,No One. Alone. The darkness is so dark - and I am alone. Unwanted, Forsaken. The loneliness of the heart that wants love is unbearable. Where is my faith? - Even deep down, right in, there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. My God how painful is this unknown pain. It pains without ceasing. I have no faith. I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart and make me suffer untold agony. So many unanswered questions live within me I am afraid to uncover them becasue of the blasphemy - If there be God, please forgive me. Trust that all will end in Heaven with Jesus. When I try to raise my thought to Heaven there is such a convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love the word it brings nothing. I am told God loves me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Before the work started there was so much union, love, faith, trust, prayer, sacrifice...I don't feel not even a single simple thought or temptation enteres my heart to claim anything in the work.

The whole time smiling...people pass such remarks. They think my faith, trust, and love ar filling my very being and that the intimacy with God and union to His will must be absorbing my heart. Could they but know and how my cheerfulness is the cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery.

In spite of all - this darkness and emptiness is not as painful as the longing for God. The contradiction I fear will unbalanc e me. What are You doing My God to one so small? When you asked to imprint Your Passion on my heart - is this the answer?

If this brings You glory, if You get a drop of joy from this - if souls ar brought to You if my suffering satiates Your Thirst here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I will smile at Your Hidden Face - always."


Who do you think said it?

What would your Cardboard testimony be?

I found this video on accident today and as I watched it I began to cry in my office. This God I worship, I serve, I (as Paul said) am a slave to, puts broken pieces together, heals, restores, makes new! It's pretty powerful I think. Watch it to the end!

What would your Cardboard testimony be?

Love, Joy & Peace!

Test Your Awareness

I saw this video a long time ago (probably 10 years ago!) on the news one night. I thought it was pretty amazing. I just saw it again today and thought I would share it with you!

It does raise a few questions for me though:

- For those of us who claim we never see God working could it have something to do with what we are looking at or for?

- What are some things that distract me from seeing what Jesus is doing?

- How can I focus more on Jesus and what he wants me to become or do?

Mission to the Gulf: Pascagoula Mississippi

For the past week I have been working hard in the state of Mississippi with 94 adults and teenagers from the Indianapolis District Church of the Nazarene NYI. All 94 of us traveled by bus and five 15 passenger vans to the town of Pascagoula Mississippi.

We partnered with Mission Encounter a missions ministry group out of Nashville Tennessee to pull of this trip.

Our team spent the week working on 8 different homes throughout the Pascagoula area. We did removal of old dry wall, installation of new, painting, bathroom remodels, brush removal, concrete work, and a list of other work. It was amazing to get the work done and see the progress that can be made by 94 teens and adults in just a few days of work.

I worked on and off throughout the week with teens from our church. When I was not working with them I traveled with our Mission Encounter director to every job site. I had an opportunity to see all of the work that was being done, talk with most of the home owners, and see students grow in their love for God and their neighbor!

There is so much work that still needs to be done in the Gulf coast region. I talked with directors from several different mission groups that shared with me that they may have to shut down their rebuilding efforts in Mississippi if more groups don't start signing on. In fact, this was the last weekend for one ministry group down there.

There is still so much work that needs to be done in this area. As you drive around the towns you still see people everywhere living in FEMA trailers provided to them by the government. One home we worked on still had wet carpet in it from the hurricane. The hurricane happened three years ago!

Check out our blog at to see some video of the work we did this week.

It was amazing to hear the stories we heard from different people about the Hurricane. I will end this blog with a few stories about people I met this week.

. I talked with one family that had major flooding in their home as Katrina hit. There home was so damaged and help was so slow they had to spend three months living in tents in their front yard. All of their meals were cooked on a grill they had. This month they may be able to finally move back into their home!

. One woman I met was able this week to use a bathroom in her home for the first time since Katrina. I asked here if she was happy with the work our teens were doing and she responded, "I couldn't be more happy! I was just able to pee in my own house for the first time in 3 years!"

. One woman shared with me how after the storm they had no water or food in their home. They had to go to a central point in town and wait for hours in line just to receive some water and some MRE's which are military food pouches. She told me she never travels anywhere without water now!


If you or someone you know is responsible for planning a missions trip in the next year I strongly encourage you to look into traveling the Mississippi and the rest of the Gulf coast area.

I was amazed to see how God used 94 people to make such a huge difference. Someone commented that they thought it was great that what the richest most powerful government in the world has been unable to do in three years a group off teens from Indiana compelled by the love of Christ pulled off in just 4 days!

Bus Barn Part 2

So i've been working on this building for the past um...2 years now! And we are finally about done. We are converting an old 3 sided barn into a youth center. If you scroll down you will see some pictures that show where we were about 2 months ago. These pictures show how things look as of today! We've finished painting, installed ceiling fans and lights. We will have the floor painted in 3 weeks. Brad will appreciate the color of our back wall! Let me know what you think!

My Fun Week!

This past week has been full of excitement!

I started last Sunday driving our church van pulling a wagon full of Kids in a parade! Honestly, what's more fun than a parade?

Once the parade was over I traveled to camp camby our district camp group for Junior and Senior High Camps. Three other people from my church went with me. We had an awesome time. One student responded to God during an evening service and told me, "I don't want to tell you what I was praying about. But I will tell you I plan on coming to church a lot more!" So that's always good!

Then Friday morning I woke up and traveled to Ottawa Illinois the town I went to High School in. I married a couple at Starved Rock Lodge. We had rehearsal on Friday and the Wedding was on Saturday night. The wedding went perfect.

While I was in town I was able to spend a ton of time with most of my Family. I slept at my Aunt and Uncle's home for two nights. They have three little Kids Drew (7) Kate (5) and Drake (2). They are about the best looking kids you will ever see!They also have as much energy as I have ever seen. (Although their parents claim that its only when I'm around!) We had a ton of fun.

They woke me up at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. I heard them all walk slowly into my room trying to giggle quietly. I peaked at them from under my pillow and I heard one say, "Who's going to wake him up?" then Drake the youngest said, "I will!" And then he screamed in my ear "WAKE UP!!!" I faked like I was scared and then they all jumped on me in bed while Drake began to sing, "Drop it like its hot!"

I really can't think of a much better way to get woken up in the morning!

My friend Jake Heaton who is interning in Sterling Illinois drove down and hung out with me on Saturday. He drove down and we went to Marseilles (my home town) for an event called the freedom ride. They expected over 30,000 motorcycles to show up for a war memorial event they have in town. It's a pretty big event! The town only has 4,000 people living in it! It was pretty crazy! I might have some pictures of that day up soon. We hung out with my Grandma, Mom and Step-Dad. It was really good to see all of them!

Jake and I left the freedom ride and went to starved rock. We went to St. Louis Canyon and climbed to the top of Starved rock. It was a lot of fun to hang out with him and enjoy creation together. I love that kid!

I attended Ottawa First Church of the Nazarene on Sunday with all of my family. My mom and Step-dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Gina and Andy, Roger & Cortney and their 3 kids. It was really cool to worship with all of my family!

I'm sitting in Jeremiah Joe's a coffee shop in Ottawa about to leave for Bourbonnais to eat dinner with a good friend! I'll just say I hope it goes well!

So it's been a great week a few other things I did: Dinner at Sam's Pizza, dinner at Uptown Bar and Grill (the restaurant I learned to be a gentleman in! :) ), six hours of hiking, farmers market, meeting Henry the Hobo, lunch a Betty's, sitting by the river, being with family!

I hope you have a great week!

How to stop a fight

Not a week goes by that I don't hear about a fight between students at our local high school or middle school. I often have students run up to me on Wednesday night before our youth service to tell me about a fight they saw, a friend that was hurt, or how they were attacked by someone at school. I really get sick of students thinking that fighting is the only way to solve problems!

Whenever I have students that talk about wanting to fight someone I always tell them, "God didn't make you for that!" I always half joke when they tell me that they saw a fight at school by asking, "Why didn't you run into the middle and yell "God didn't make you for this!" to get them to stop fighting?" They usually laugh me off. Usually...

Last night as students were coming in for our service one girl came running up to me her name is Alison. She ran up and said, "Ryan, you will never guess what happened yesterday!"

She said she was walking down a hallway at school and saw a very large crowd of students in the middle. She looked a little closer and saw two boys facing each other walking around in a circle getting ready to fight. So Alison took off running through the crowd, jumped in between the two boys, stuck her hands out and yell, "STOP! God didn't create you for this!" Everyone looked at her funny and the boys and the crowd all walked away. She stopped the fight!

She then said, "But they ended up fighting today! And it was really bad!" I told her how amazing I thought it was that she was willing to step up and speak truth in a crazy situation and not give in to the crowd and animalistic behavior around her.

I read somewhere (I think it was something from Shane Claiborne) the "Violence is for those that have lost their imagination." I challenged my students to use their imagination against violance. What else can you do to help show the beauty and sacredness in each person? What can you do to help call into question the idea that violence is the answer to every problem. What can you do to be a peacemaker?

This Jesus that I worship calls us blessed and children of God if we are peacemakers! May you be blessed today! May you be called a child of God.




"Nothing is so characteristically Christian as being a peacemaker."
– St Basil the Great

The day I met Bill

Today was a pretty exciting day around Southern Indiana. Bill Clinton made a stop in Columbus and in Seymour to campaign for Hillary and share some of her plans for the economy.

I arrived about an hour before he was scheduled to speak and waited in line for about 30 minutes before they allowed us to enter a practice gym at Seymour high school. There were a few seats that were mainly used by some older folks while the rest of the crowd of about 800 stood on the floor around the stage.

The Seymour High School band was playing while we all waited for President Clinton to arrive. While we waited the band entertained us with such numbers as Cheeseburger in paradise, love potion number 9, and Holiday by Greenday! Exactly the music you would expect for the arrival of the one time leader of the "free world."

President Clinton finally showed up 2 hours late! My feet were tired, people were sitting on the floor, people were leaving! It was a bit frustrating. He talked for a while about the economy, jobs, schools and health care. He claimed that if Hillary were elected we would have access to cars that get 100MPG. Sounds good. He also claimed that there are already 50 of these vehicles on the road today. He also mentioned that the United States is not in a recession, because the definition of a recession is 6 straight months of economic decline. This is not the case for the U.S. but he says it is true for many Americans on a personal level.

After the speech he went around shaking hands and hugging babies. I managed to make my way to the front and was able to stretch my hand out far enough for him to shake it!

I didn't have my camera so the only pictures you get are small ones off my cell phone!

I still don't know who I'm going to vote for...I sure wish Edwards was still running!

More barn pictures

Working on the Barn

For the past two years our youth group has been working on turning a barn into a youth center! I know they both have a lot in common. We have raised most of the money and done most of the work on our own. Here are a few pictures of the work we have done and where we are today. We will be finished by April 5. At least I hope, we have a band scheduled for that weekend! Enjoy...