Monthly Archives: May 2016

Awards and Inductions

School, Texas Culture

So we’ve apparently entered the end of the year awards season, which like other things seems bigger in Texas. James got inducted into the National Jr. Honors Society this morning:

JamesJrHonnorSociety_IMG_7168
And Joel got awards for no infractions and A honor roll all year:
JoelAwards_IMG_7186

We were worried when the K-3 awards ceremony, which had been scheduled for 8-10am, was still going at 10:15 (and in the same venue as the grades 4-6 ceremony, which was to start at 10am…). But they made up some time during the second ceremony, ending just after 11, and thereby deserving the Howard H. Sage Award for Procedural Efficiency (IMHO).

 

Prepping the Congo trip

Church, Congo + Culture, School, , ,

imageToday I started printing the posters I’m making for my trip to DRC at the end of June. They should be large enough to be seen by people a long distance away, so they can be used in large classrooms/venues.  The last time I was in Nia-nia, they did some basic teaching with small drawings on a chalk board; hopefully this will help make grassroots literacy more effective. In another location, I had the opportunity to help our local movers and shakers present alphabet work in an open marketplace –so we’re ready for anything!

For interested readers, Anna is pointing to the poster for the egressive (air going out) voiced (vocal cords vibrating) stop (consonant where no air passes) made just behind the teeth. This is different from the implosive (air going in) stop at the same place, on the right. They have a similar contrast for stops made with the lips (‘b’ and ‘bh’). I’ve also made posters for the nine vowels, to help teach contrasts between vowels that they have not been writing (similar to the difference between ‘beet’ and ‘bit’ in English), for a total of 13 posters for this language.

Mourning

Family, Personal, Texas Culture, Thoughts, , ,

Last night I heard that a woman I’ve been in ministry with has filed for divorce. I could only respond “ouch”. There are lots of details I don’t know (and that’s probably good), but I can only think how much our enemy is laughing.
And that we need to continue holding each other up in prayer. We need to pray that we as individuals would have the grace to see our sins and repent of them on a daily basis (c.f., Luther’s thesis #1). And that we would have the grace to see relational troubles between ourselves and others (including spouses) and do something about them. And that we would continue to take all these troubles and sins to God through Christ by faith, trusting that He will be good to us, and much more than we deserve.
Because however much our enemy is laughing now, He who laughs last laughs longest. So let’s continue to hold up each other, as we trust in the One who will win in the end.