20

Things That Made My Week Awesome:

-When I went to Korean church, realized none of the other Campus Christians were going to show up, and was starting to become very uncomfortable when..a 3 or 4 year old adorable Korean girl came sprinting across the room, latched onto my arm in a tremendous hug, and stayed there. I looked down and hugged her back and gave her a high five, and she just chilled with me for a minute or two before running off to do whatever it is 3 or 4 year old girls do. The guy across from me was gave me a very odd look and asked "Do you know her?" I didn't, and I doubt she was prompted, so that just made my night.

-Going geocaching with Josh and Melissa. We climbed this awesome statue and took a bunch of pictures on it. I really enjoy watching them interact, and that if I don't have anything to say, I don't have to say something intelligent so that they accept me into their group. They are awesome. We were in Kansas City for a mob event and we broke a bunch of laws jaywalking, going through construction zones..moving the plastic IN the construction zone to get the date off of something..very fun. Also went by an ice skating rink which looked like a lot of fun. Note to self: learn how to ice-skate.

-Impromptu foosball game at puppet practice with Rich and Randy. My side won. The table may perhaps have been slanted toward their goal, and they may have been missing two defenders, but let's not let that distract. :)

Rich on faith. Chair analogy

R: When encountering a new chair, you are confident that it will hold you up, even though you’ve never sat in that chair, because you’ve experienced other chairs.

R: You don’t examine the chair before you sit (well, other than for dirt and stuff)

R: It is the example that I was told when I was talking with the then youth pastor about being baptized.

R: It isn’t a perfect analogy, but I like that it shows that we have faith not in blind hope, but in things that we’ve researched, experienced, etc.

J: That researched, experienced part must be key. I can see and tangibly touch a chair. But faith is the evidence of things NOT seen.
J: Though I guess I don’t usually test a chair out before sitting in it.

R: Yea. That to me was the key to getting it.

R: Cause I never push down on a chair, or examine it to make sure that it isn’t made of balsa wood or anything like that. I trust the builder, who I’ve never met, to have built something according to a design that will hold me up. That trust is founded on other chairs that I’ve sat in/seen others sit in

J: Have you ever sat in a chair that broke?

R: No, but that could be like putting your faith in another religion. Either the design was flawed, or the builder shouldn’t have been building charis

“Benefits” of Group Projects:

Actuality: One person gets stuck with it. This is earth shattering. It always happens in school projects. If the grade is a combined group grade, not individual, one person will get stuck doing the vast majority of the work because he/she cannot bear to get a bad grade. The others might do superficial work. I.e. “check over” it and catch a grammar mistake or two. Or heck, maybe even research one bit of it. But in the end, one person learns, others coast. This is not dissimilar to our current tax situation. One group of people do the work and get paid, then everyone benefits off of them, even the ones who did nothing.

Actuality: In my experience, that is because you have an easily-divisible group project. I.e., “You do problems 1-4, I’ll do problems 5-8.” or there’s not enough equipment, and you need to make groups to share. Good, right? No.

A. Unfortunately, that means the first student will likely learn the information in problems 1-4 and not the information in problems 5-8.B. Alternatively, it is one of those drill-and-kill (which have their place!) assignments with the same concept over and over again, the student either missing out on the necessary practice to cement that concept, or why are you drill-and-kill teaching something that the kids already know so well?

3) Kids can learn from each other, giving me more free space to help those that need it.

Actuality: A. If I send my kids to school someday instead of homeschooling them, I will want them to learn the information from the qualified teacher, not from each other! They can do that on their own time!Disclaimer: I don’t mind if kids learn about other points of view from each other, as long as it is brief and not the focus of the lesson. My problem is with other kids teaching the lesson-what if they have it wrong, or cannot explain it as aptly as the teacher?B. Why are you slowing down the bright kids? Separate those who can handle the information and put them in a class where they won’t be bored out of their minds helping kids who can’t or won’t care.

Application:

I actually value group projects, as ways of learning; not about the material, but about people. Let’s face it, everyone has to work together in real life, right? So the question is: are there actual people who will really do the work in a group project? They would be comparatively simple to work with. The real thing I learn from group projects is how to work with people that don’t do their work, or at least don’t do it anywhere near my standards. I hope someday (insert butterfly music) that I will get to work on something I care about with people who care about it just as much.Ways to deal with people who don’t do their work:

• Love them as Christ loved the church. Don’t have to like them, you have to love them. That doesn’t mean doing their work for them. Jonah had to do his job, after all,when he didn’t want to. I’m still working how to implement this one practically, other than not repeating “I hate group projects.” over and over again in my head.
• Tell the teacher. This is kind of a cop-out. It might work short term for school projects, but it’s harder to pass of in real life, it sounds like whining, even Eve pointing the finger. “I couldn’t get it done because of so-and-so”. I think in real life, we need people who deliver, not make excuses. (Insert clip from Princess Diaries-“We get a call, we deliver”) What’s the teacher going to do? Best case scenario, reassign you to a different group, in which case the situation is repeated, with less time to work. Naw, best case scenario would be to let you work alone, but why dream?
• Do just your part alone, not the others’. This is fair, right? However, you won’t get the grade, you’ll look like a fool on presentation day, and your group members likely won’t care

The solution? Life isn’t fair. If you want the grade, you must do the work...naaw. I'm not bitter..

Bible banging

Screamers always show up on campus once or twice a year. They are the people that stand on the busiest intersection and scream "You're going to Hell!" at the top of their lungs. They usually have signs that say stuff like "God hates fags" or "Debauchery is the road to Hell"

One showed up on campus today. He attracted about 200 students, mostly freshman. Calls himself Brother Bill, or something like that. This man, in one minute, can seemingly destroy all the careful work I've done with someone over the entire semester. The way to convert people is not to bang them over the head with a Bible. It is to love them. When we love people, spend time with them, pray for/with them and care about them, that is when people respond. The second commandment, after all, is to love one another, like Christ loved the church.

I can actually understand, to a degree, the sort of enthusiasm that some of the screamers have.  There are days when I see so many people that need Jesus that I feel like yelling too. But it accomplishes the reverse of what we need. Agh. I spend SO MUCH TIME AND EFFORT (Though I suppose technically it's God using me yada yada) to attract one fish. And then the other people in the boat jump up and down and scare away not only that fish, but also any others that might be coming in.

I am working so hard to be a good example to some of my unbelieving friends. It is incredibly frustrating to feel like I'm finally, finally getting somewhere and then have it whipped away in the course of about 20 seconds. I hope that testimony I am giving is different enough that I haven't lost them altogether.

God wants spirtual fruits, not religious nuts.