A trip to South Dakota.

A couple months ago, two of Chrystal's friends out at college, Bethany and Rachel, said that if I ever wanted to surprise Chrystal with a visit, they would help. I knew I wanted to get out there sometime and see some of the places and people she kept talking about (not to mention I kind of wanted to see her again =) so it was too good of an opportunity to pass up!

It wasn't easy keeping it a secret. I made sure not to tell anybody around here what was happening, and I knew Bethany and Rachel were keeping it quiet out there, but I kept thinking she was bound to find out somehow. She's usually pretty good at putting two and two together.

Anyway, we did manage to keep it a surprise, and it was definitely worth it! I had a great week out there and even managed to take some pictures. (I had to because Chrystal lost her camera on my second day out there =( Besides, Heather threatened to disown me if I went to Mt. Rushmore and didn't take pictures! That goes to show she knows me pretty well. I'm not exactly what you would call good at remembering to take pictures. But I did manage to this trip and here's a few of them . . .


Townsends – The Townsends. Chrystal spends a lot of weekends with them, helping out with the youth group. This week I got to go along. We also got to go four-wheeling through the famous Nebraska hills after church. Scenic and very fun!


Chrystal and Rachel studying hard. There was a lot of that out there because, while I was on spring break, they were in the middle of mid-terms.


The choir Chrystal will be touring with at the end of the semester. (I think Chrystal was coughing or yawning when I took this one). They also have a little skit that goes along with the bell choir that is highly amusing!


Chrystal and I at a park. After we got tired of playing on the swing set (hey, who says swings are just for little kids!) we walked up a steep, and very slippery, hill. We took this picture at the top.


A picture of the scenery on the way to Mt. Rushmore. It was beautiful. Those little dark spots are buffalo.


Chrystal and I in front of Mt. Rushmore. (I know, brilliant caption that!)


Rachel, Bethany, and Chrystal, the three musketeers. Aside from two of them feeling car sick on the way there, it was a great trip. How could it not be? – it included a snowball fight at the end!


Stephen let me wear his cowboy hat for one picture. Can't say I fit the nickname he dubbed me with, but oh well =)


When we got back from Mt. Rushmore, Jon Shively (a professor's son) challenged me to a push-up contest. I won't tell you who won, but let's just say he can do a ton of pushups and was grinning when it was over!


View out the window on the plane ride back. I have to say I liked the flight out better! However, it was a good trip and I have a lot of great memories. Very glad I went...

We are starting a new Sunday School study on Prayer. The book was written by a Paul Miller, and we watched an introduction video where he presents the book. He said something that was a new thought to me, but I liked it. Paraphrased, it was along these lines:

“Prayer is NOT a matter of discipline. We often hear or assume that it is because it is hard. Prayer involves discipline, but discipline is not the basis for a vibrant prayer. Helplessness is. When we are helpless, we will pray. When we realize how truly little control we have over things in the scheme of our lives, we will want to pray. Helplessness is the basis for prayer, not discipline.”

If God's real desire for prayer was for us to gain discipline, don't you think he would have made a real and vibrant prayer life something that we could accomplish through discipline? I know simple discipline isn't the key for me, because I've tried that. It only lasts as long as I can make my discipline last.

I'm better at needing help than I am at being disciplined, and I think God designed it that way. Look how many times He told his disciples to become like little children. It was three or four separate occasions. I think he was trying to tell us something...

Valentine's Day...

...Reminded me of the people I care about and the people who care about me.

(My family in PA -- who have provided a lot of fun memories and encouragement/advice for...well really since I've been alive! So yeah, a pretty long time. I definitely wouldn't be who I am without them -- so you can blame them if you like! lol)


(My Valentine in SD -- Who has been a good friend for many years, and an even better girlfriend for the past almost two years... especially through all the challenges of long-distance dating! =)

And be ready always to give an answer...

What should people do when they don't agree?

More to the point, what should Christians do when they don't agree with someone?

I've been asking myself those questions a lot recently. Asking them? Yes. Solving them? Well that's another matter altogether! In fact, I'm nowhere close.

Want to do something interesting sometime? Take a poll and ask people how they think people should deal with differences. I'm willing to bet the majority would fall into two categories:
1.Pluralism – This one is a real gem. It combines the best of two great buzzwords: Globalization and Relativism. These two words are huge right now, especially on college campuses. Ask anybody currently in college when was the last time they heard reference to either of these words, and I'm willing to be bet it would be less than a week. Pluralism. What could be better? Everybody knows the world is quickly becoming a more connected place, and everybody knows that people across the world don't always agree. When you have more and more interaction between people who all believe something different (and all sincerely think they are right) the result can be ugly. What better way to smooth out differences than to deny that they matter? We're all right. No one is. Either way, it solves the problem.
2.Confront and persuade – This one is also a gem. It combines absolute truth and reasoning. If everybody uses reason, they will come to the same conclusion (truth) and there will be no more of these disagreeable things called differences.

My sticking point is that I don't buy totally into either one of these. Relativism doesn't work because it ignores fact that everybody can't be right all the time. Our world doesn't work that way. People who believe contradictory things can't both be right.

However, option 2 isn't much better. Even if you believe in the concept of absolute truth (which I do) you've got to be blind to believe that everybody will agree on what it is.

At this point, it's really tempting to go off on a rabbit trail and prove the argument of absolute truth. I've heard it done many times (in church, in the creation vs evolution debates, even in some college classes) and it's very good. Using logic and evidence, it's not hard to prove. It shouldn't be. It's true.

Sadly, this is where a lot of Christians stop. We know there is a thing called truth and we can prove it.

So . . . relativism isn't real. Great. Now, for the REAL question: How will you deal with the 78% of society that mostly thinks it is?

How will you deal with the roughly 65% of Christians who believe it's true?

How will you deal with the 91% of Christian youth who believe it's true?

I've lived long enough to realize that nobody I've known agrees completely with anyone else I've known. Not ever. Bring up the right issue, and differences will quickly appear. Usually this is followed by an uncomfortable silence where both sides try to figure out what to do. What's the right thing to do when this happens?

Do I really expect to answer this question? No. To be honest, I don't think there is even a single answer. That's okay. Sometimes there isn't. I just think it's a question people should think about. And even after people thought about it, I'm sure they would all come up with different answers! lol

The only thing I would ask is this: If you're a Christian, how did the Bible and the example of Christ fit into your answer? (Opinions are fine, but as much as I hate to agree with the relativists, opinions really mean nothing outside of your own head.)

More on this later...

Answered prayers. . .

Woke up early this morning to go to work. After rolling over to turn off my alarm, it hit me that the fun-filled weekend was over and it was back to the real world. . . the real world where we were going to be setting big trusses all day out in the wind, after which I would come home to homework and a 9:00 deadline for which I needed my textbook which hadn't arrived yet.

Needless to say, neither of those things made me feel ready to start my day. I kind of wished I could go back to sleep for awhile. But I couldn't. I'd already told Larry I could help him on his big truss-setting day.

Rolling over one more time, I asked God to give safety while we were working up high and to help my textbook come in the mail. Why? Because if there's two things I wanted for that day, it was safety and my textbook . . . and if there's two things I don't control it's accidents and the U.S. postal service! =)

Later during devotions I was reading in Mark where Jesus reminds the disciples that if they pray believing, they will receive, even if it involves things like commanding a fig tree to die or moving mountains. I knew these requests weren't anywhere as dramatic or unusual as those, but did believe God had heard and as I went through the rest of the day I kept wondering how he was going to answer.
Long story short, the concrete walls we were working on were pretty high (it's for a gym after all) and it was pretty windy at first, but setting the trusses went faster than we thought and without any accidents. The wind slowed down for the second part of the day and we were able to get all the trusses up by just before dark – something we hoped we could do but really didn't think would work out.

During our short lunch break, I called home to find out if I needed to go pick up another textbook from Millersville so I could keep up with my classes in case my ordered book didn't come for another week (which it very easily could have) and found out that it had arrived, and only because the sender was nice enough to ship it expedited and very quickly after I ordered it – and all that without him even knowing that I needed it quickly because I had forgot to tell him when I bought it.

Anyway, I was encouraged to see how God answered two simple prayers. They weren't really out of the ordinary and could easily be explained by perfectly natural causes, but God used them to remind me that he does listen and act when we pray.

There was no reason we shouldn't have had a safe day at work since we were being careful on a tough job, but there are many people who didn't have a safe day at work today. There was no reason why my textbook shouldn't have come in the mail seeing as it was shipped on time, but not all sellers are nice enough to ship before they absolutely have to. I am thankful for both.

Field Journal

I recently completed four weeks of field experience. It's part of the teacher program and state law that prospective teachers spend at least 35 hours observing and participating (interacting, teaching, etc.) in a real life classroom before student teaching. The following is from one of my many field journals I completed and handed in to my professors at the end. . .

The culture at this High School appears very professional. They are considered a high achieving school and want to maintain that image. Because their reputation is good, their code of conduct is set pretty high, creating that professional atmosphere. The teachers do cooperate and the first day in the school I saw teachers cooperating to time their lessons to each other and create a common final assessment. At the same time, I could see that their reputation also puts some pressure on teachers to have their students perform well, creating some competition among teachers. It wasn't much, but there are politics that go on among the faculty and there was some whispering that went on between cooperating teachers.
Teachers here are expected to help a the tutoring center, do cafeteria duty, help with bus duty, and oversee study hall and home rooms. Teachers often have duty together and the conversations during these seems to be somewhat informal and pretty friendly. The faculty room doesn't get used much by teachers and most of them just eat in their classrooms by themselves. The one conversation I heard in the faculty room (I don't think it was even between two teachers) was about a celebrity scandal. Aside from being somewhat crude, it had nothing to do with school and I got the feeling that not much of anything happens in the faculty room.
I asked about support for first year teachers and was told that there is a program for them, but I gathered that it isn't always comprehensive or terribly relevant to the actual needs of new teachers. It meets about once a week at first and then gradually weans new teachers off. They meet and discuss theories of teaching and some procedures, but I was told the the best support comes from finding another teacher who will take you under their wing for a little and tell you about how the school works.
The classroom I was in is mostly project based so the structure was pretty loose. Kids had a lot of in-class work time and were given a lot of freedom about how and they wanted to complete their projects. A lot of the classes were AP classes and this structure seemed to work fairly well for them and some kids made the most of the freedom to go above and beyond. However, for students who weren't highly motivated, it gave them time to procrastinate and socialize. In these cases, the teacher would usually come over to the table to try to get them back on track. Intervention was informal and usually consisted of a quiet comment or simply waiting till the class was quiet enough to continue with the instructions.
The less formal environment led to a lot of interaction between students and the teacher, and I think most students found her to be down to earth. They were pretty comfortable talking with her and viewed her as someone who was enough like them to understand them. Some of the students really liked and respected her for the freedom she gave them, and some didn't. In each class, there were a few students who didn't like her because they wanted more direct instruction than she gave them and felt that she wasn't teaching them enough.
Special education wasn't a big part of the classroom. Four of the six classes were AP classes and there were some gifted students in them. The teacher told me that the biggest difficulty with gifted students was getting them to take risks instead of just worrying about the grade. Since the assessment was project based, the teacher told me she set it up specifically so gifted students could make their projects as complex and thorough as they wanted to.
There were a couple kids in class with IEP's and they had a special ed teacher who would come in during those classes. She would walk around the classroom, checking in on the tables where they were to make sure they were on task. Again, the project-based assessments were naturally scaffolded to allow students to achieve at the level they were comfortable. Other than that, I didn't see a whole lot of accommodations that were made to the classroom. Students with special needs were simply allowed to do projects that were simpler than other students.
The student I shadowed was definitely a case of a smart student who is underachieving. He excels in the classes he likes, but he is doing poorly in all the others. As I watched him, it became apparent to me that one of the biggest reasons for this is his social life. It's not that he was not against or disinterested in learning, but he was more concerned more interested in being cool. He would participate when “forced” to (and I was surprised at how good his answer was when he was specifically asked) but he wouldn't give the answer of his own accord because it is cooler to not participate. If I was going to teach him, I think I would sometimes “force” him to share with the rest of the class – as long as I had checked up on him and knew he had a good answer. It is a way to let him be involved without hurting his social status. Also, I think I would let him work in groups as a reward, but let him know that if he gets off track he will be switched to another group or have to work by himself for a little.
His favorite class was construction and he was anxious for me to see him in this class. As I watched him and the other boys in shop class, it became apparent to me that they all liked working with their hands better than with a pencil and paper. The same went for physics class, although there he was working with a group again and spent part of the time goofing off because it made the others laugh. However, overall he was naturally more excited and eager to learn when there was a hands-on project to do. I think if he was in my class, I would give the option of making something (maybe a monument for a particular event) for one of the assessments. I would also try to bring in tangible artifacts for him and the rest of the class to put their hands on and get them interested.
Unstructured time was not a good thing for this student. There were two classes where the students were expected to work on their own and weren't given specific instructions or in-class-deadlines. This was when he would zone out. It wasn't that he couldn't follow instructions because I observed him following perfectly when there was a teacher stepping the students through a process in Econ, but when the in clas work time was totally self-guided, he didn't seem to know where to start so he just didn't. I think if I was going to used a project based assessment for him and allow in-class work time, I would need to structure the class so they do the project in small steps and need to report to the rest of the class at least once or twice during the day. Being told where to start and just knowing that the teacher is going to call on several random groups to show what they have accomplished that day would do wonders for providing motivation. It would also help students who are falling behind because they can listen to what their classmates have done and imitate it if they are at a loss for ideas or direction.

Through different eyes

Kids see things through different eyes.

I was sitting in choir, listening to Mr. Hanson read the story of the prodigal son. Listening to him read, I was picturing the story unfolding in my mind as I listened to him read . . .

“And the father, seeing his son from afar off, ran to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him--”
and suddenly from the audience there's a quiet “ew gross!”

I'd almost forgotten that the kids from children's church were in with us this Sunday! Didn't take me long to remember. lol. I tried not to laugh, but I'm pretty sure someone watching me would have known I wasn't thinking about the prodigal son anymore. That's what I love about kids . . . they remind me what a simpler view of life looks like, and how funny it can be at times!

Fortunately, the message on the parable was actually very good and I was able to take something from the sermon besides that one kid thought the reunion between father and the prodigal son was a little too sentimental and bordering on sloppy.

Pastor pointed out that many times we are so focused on the prodigal son that we forget that there was a second son who was just as alienated from the Father – and he was the one who was living in the same house with him! He really didn't love his father any more than his brother who ran away, but he conformed outwardly because there was something to be gained by it. However, when his brother came back, all the anger, dissatisfaction, and envy came out.

For most of us in church, it's pretty comfortable to hear about the younger son. After all, since we're in church, it's a pretty good sign this parable isn't aimed at us. Or is it? Jesus gave this parable primarily in response to the Pharisees, and it was no accident he included the older brother at the end. In the end, it was the younger brother, not the older brother who kept all the rules all his life, who had a better relationship with his Father and got more joy out of it. Why? Because the younger brother realized that he couldn't, and didn't need to, earn his father's love.

The Father came out to greet both his sons. He initiated, and re initiated the relationship and love to both of them, not the other way around. One of them accepted it and was grateful for it because he knew he didn't deserve it. The other couldn't accept it because he was more concerned with being good than being close to his Father.

The lesson I learned: The goal of life is not to be good. (It's not to be bad either, in case you were wondering!) The goal of life is to love God. If your being good is the result of you simply not wanting to be bad, you're missing the point. If your fellowship with God is not your true motivation for dressing the way you dress, saying the things you say, or doing the things you do, I don't care how good you look, you may very well be the older brother in this parable.

Not necessarily a fun message to hear, but one that I think is very necessary. . . especially for those of us who have been in church all our life.