This week was a tough week for Angie, with some back pain and fatigue. I'm not sure why my back should suddenly be more bothersome and tense, but I went to bed early (at 7-8pm) on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday after coming home from work. I was finally motivated to call the chiropractor and set up an appointment on Friday morning. It helped a bit, and I plan to go back on Wednesday this week. Maybe the cloudy winters of Seattle are finally catching up to me- I started taking Vitamin D (in fruit gummy form...yum) to compensate for the lack of sun.
On Wednesday, I went to Proxy (Mars Hill's youth group). We played Four Corners (a game in which one random corner gets out every round and you can switch between rounds- not too much skill involved, unless you excel at prophecy!) and the middle school students broke off to discuss not hiding our light under a bushel. Of course, this digressed into an impromptu singing of "This Little Light of Mine" (very badly) at the end, so, hopefully, none of the kids forget the topic of the lesson.
On Thursday, I stayed in Seattle after school for a talk at a near-by Baptist Church about racism in education and teaching African-American boys. The talk was good and...umm...charismatic. His first line was, "the best thing you can do for our African American boys is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." I agree wholeheartedly. He went on to talk about explaining the education gap and strategies that help minority children excel in school, despite less-than-ideal family and economic backgrounds. I asked the speaker for a book recommendation for my particular work situation (in a predominantly black middle school, as a tutor) and bought his book about 101 strategies for teaching colored children. I also met a mom who wanted a tutor for her 7 year old son and passed on that information to my team.
On Friday, our team meeting didn't start until 1pm, so I spent the morning going to the chiropractor (who is really fun- talks to me all about Notre Dame and remembers me from when I stopped going back in September) and asking for donations for our upcoming literacy night at school. We're partnering with the 8th grade teachers for their 8th grade parent night and hoping to do some literacy activities with the students while the parents are talking. We're planning to get some raffle prizes (and prizes for the activities) as well as food donated to help entice some of the parents who don't usually make it out to these events. I got a good response from some of the businesses I talked to, but I won't know for a week or so what will actually be donated.
At the team meeting, we talked about our stress levels. Four hours of talking about the things that stress you out can sometimes be less than productive! Fortunately, I was in one of the low-stress groups, and we had quite a lot of fun with it. The leaders did not plan the trainings for second semester until they got feedback from us on topics we wanted. So, right now, we're sort of doing nothing next week except chatting and "planning" a Americorps party with our "leadership" committees (my committee, the extra hours committee, has not been meeting AT ALL since its inception...). Next week will be a LONG eight hours!
School this week was okay. One of my students might be changing schools soon, and a few others are still having a really hard time. On the bright side, my budding reader is up about 1-2 grade levels in reading, and I was pleased to hear him read a book about panda bears that I thought was beyond his ability. I helped some, but he is certainly improving on sounding out words. Now that I have a good idea of his reading level, I can do a better job pairing him up with books that are both easy and challenging for him. I've also been busy giving scholarship forms to specific students so they can apply for an award for middle-schoolers offered by the mayor. Another state scholarship can pay for full tuition to any Washington school if you meet income requirements- I've been handing out information about that too.
Kayle is doing well this week too. He's been playing piano and computer games in his free time as well as programming his pinochle game. To facilitate connecting our computers, he changed my operating system to Windows 7 (with little or no warning) and got me all upset. It took me a while to get everything back the way I liked it, but I'm adjusting now to my "upgrade". Kayle finally fixed the video driver on my laptop, so I can watch videos/tv shows online. I'm not so sure a change-averse person like me appreciates the fullness of technological advances. Can't I just keep everything the old way? (Kayle says an emphatic, "no!")
In other news, Kayle and I just started to sponsor 10 indigenous missionaries and 10 Dalit children from India through the Gospel for Asia ministry. Microsoft will match our donation to the children, since it's more humanitarian in nature. We received packets about each individual yesterday with stationary to write to the children. We wanted to share a story from one of our missionaries each week, so you can be encouraged by them as we are.
From Janardhan Kumar:
"I was born into a Hindu family in India. I worshiped a host of gods and goddesses, hoping to obtain health and prosperity. I also sought the help of a certain goddess to guard me from all the dangers of life. Moreover, for every area of my life I worshiped different god and goddesses. Thus my life was entangled with rites and rituals to appease these deities. Yet all of these proved to be futile, as I slowly found out later.
I felt as if there was no purpose in my living on this planet...But I had a Christian friend who was all the time happy, and I longed to know the secret behind his happiness. To get some direction from him, I shared all the difficulties I was going through. He invited me to his church. The people who came there were worshipers of one God, and all of them were happy and filled with peace.
The pastor opened my eyes to behold the one and living God who could give meaning to my life. Learning that a sinner can not have a relationship with a holy God, I cried out to Him, asking forgiveness for all my iniquities. The Lord heard my pleas and my heart was occupied with the peace and happiness that I was yearning for. I received Jesus as my personal Savior and Lord that day.
I became a regular to a local church and spent time daily in devotion. Later I witnessed the Lord publicly through water baptism. Gradually, I realized that the Lord was calling me to toil in His vineyard. To study the Word deeply and prepare myself for the task ahead, I enrolled in a Gospel for Asia Training Center."
Janardhan Kumar is now serving in Bihar, India, one of the poorest states which is centered on agriculture. Its population of nearly 83 million is less than 1% Christian. Our friend has a lot of hard work ahead! Please pray for him.
Finally, the sermon this Sunday was excellent. Pastor Mark preached on 1 Peter 1:3-9, and it struck close to my heart. It was about suffering grief for a little while in all kinds of trials and learning to rejoice through it. Here is the link where the sermon will be posted soon (Part 2- January 18): http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial
Well, that's all for this past week. Thank you, mom and dad (Maxey), for the purple (woo hoo!!) Kitchenaid mixer- it arrived earlier this week, but we have yet to break it in. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Oskamp, for the Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping subscriptions. They are both arriving now, and I enjoy reading them! We are still looking for a couch, but we must be serious, because we actually got a tape measure out and measured the space we have.
This week, I'm going to a MLK rally on Monday with Americorps, my school is watching the inauguration broadcast, and Kayle and I are trying out a new community group.
We love you and miss you!!
Angie and Kayle
Phew! This is a LONG one!!
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