Everybody look at me cause I've got a baby goat

La Grange was just too big for us. Now we live on a farm with these cute baby goats!
Actually we visited Jubilee Partners last weekend. Jubilee is part farm, part Christian community, and part refugee camp. Jubilee is made of up of about 12 people that live there all the time, volunteers, and refugees. Jubilee has a huge garden and most of their food comes from what they grow or raise. I think Jubilee houses about 5 refugees families at a time. The UN sends refugees to Jubilee as a sort of transition into American life. There they attend English classes, and learn how to do basic things like grocery shop, that we take for granted. A cool fact that our neighbors, the Mohammads that I have written about before, lived at Jubilee when they first arrived in the US.


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Just imagine all these chickens running towards you. It happened to me.

Surprise

Today we had the best surprise in the mail! Thanks Adam, Carissa, Lillian, and Evelyn. I love the card and the cookies! You guys are the best.

Snowflakes

Since LaGrange gets about as much of a winter as Tyler we decided to make snowflakes so it would at least look like winter. Last week we had a girls night with our house and the women in Alterna. Margareta happens to be a snowflake extraordinaire and tried to teach us how to make awesome snowflakes. We had such a fun night spending time together and making some pretty cool snowflakes.

So I wish I could say I made this but I didn't.

Seriously, how cool are these.

Boys

Many of the kids in our neighborhood live in homes without fathers. Many people in our neighborhood work shift jobs. They aren't always around to be with their kids after school. I'm sure many parents are too tired and exhausted when their kids get home from school. As a result, kids are left without supervision.

There are so many boys in our neighborhood around the ages of 10-14ish. Two days ago we were driving and stopped to say hi to a couple kids we knew. Thank goodness we did. When we rolled down the window we realized they were cursing at each other and close to getting in a fight. Ben and Dustin each took a kid and got them away from each other. Why is it that boys have the need to solve their problems through fighting? Maybe it's what they see at school. Maybe it's what they see at home. Maybe it's what they see on TV. Getting angry is normal, controling your anger is something you learn.

A group of boys have started coming over after school looking to play sports with the guys in our house. Thankfully, we have a soccer ball, football, and some baseball equipment and an empty lot next to our house! There is such a need for male role models in our neighborhood. Because of our current location we have many opportunites to be Jesus to the kids on our street. Yesterday Ben and I went to birthday party of one of the boys who regulary comes to our house. He is in one of my reading groups at schools. I had really been wanting to visit with his family and the party allowed to visit with with mom and grandmother. I learned a bit more about him which helps me in being his teacher. It was also a great opportunity for Ben to hang out with the boys.

My prayer is that we continue to take hold of these opportunites and not let them pass us by.

Three Kings Pics

These are a few pictures from the Three Kings Party we celebrated Jan 2.

Report card time

So my service site this year is an elementary school. For much of the day I work on reading skills with a small groups of students. While I love the flexibility of not having the same kids all day, it can also be frustrating to not have the same kids all day!!! It's harder to establish a rapport with them, plus I don't see their actual grades or test them.

I work with about 7 third graders every morning on reading skills they need to pass their state exams. We do everything from fluency, to phonics, to test taking strategies. For the first part of the year I basically created my own lessons according to where I felt they needed instruction. Reading a-z has been an extremely helpful resource to me. Report cards went out yesterday and I am so happy to say that most of the kids in my group had their reading grade significantly increase! I can't tell you how good that makes me feel. When you only see a group of kids for an hour a day it's harder to monitor their progress. It's good to know that what I am doing is working!

I do miss having my own classroom though and I am kinda hoping that's in my future for next year!

Stuff Christians Do

Isaiah 1: 13-15, 17

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

Prayer, quiet time, church, Bible Study, care group, donate money to some cause, a mission trip here or there.

These verses from Isaiah really struck me last night. I have often been discouraged because I didn't feel like I was doing enough Christianese things. My quiet times were erratic at best, going to church was kind of a chore, I never got around to sponsoring that Compassion Kid, I don't like women's conferences or for that matter any type of church conference....
My faith was basically a giant to do list. If I did enough "Christian things" I didn't feel as guilty.

But the thing is God didn't create us just to go church and become a better person. I think we spend so much time on the importance our personal relationship with God, that we forget about the world around us. Of course I think it's important to have a personal relationship, but it's more than just having a quiet time for 30 minutes in the morning.

Most churches have activities going on almost every day or night of the week. I feel guilty every time I hear of another conference happening at the church because I know I won't go. Once I tried going to an weekend women's retreat with my church and had to leave early because I couldn't take it. Earlier this year we read a book that made the observation that sometimes Christians make terrible neighbors. I have to agree. We spend so much time doing things for and with our church we forget about the people around us. I think it is important to be involved at your church, but chances are when you look around you will only see people that look and think like you. Is that truly a reflection of the Kingdom of God?

In these verses God is telling Isaiah he is weary of all the meaningless so called righteous things we do. That is a relief to me. Not only am I weary of church things, God is too. But God doesn't stop there, he tells us what we should be doing instead.

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

In the words of Jessica Thompson God wants us to "get off our bench." This year for me I want to stay off the bench. I think Mission year has been a step. But it's a continuous process. Sometimes we have to intentionally put ourselves in places where we can seek justice or encourage the oppressed. It's not always easy or comfortable but to me it makes my faith real.