Update

While the past 7 months haven't quite gone as planned, I am excited about what I have learned as a person and as a teacher on the mission field. I am still in Indiana, waiting for the Ministry of Labor in Brazil to approve my work visa. Being in the States, I have had an opportunity to work on curriculum and staff development. In order to be a greater asset to the International school, I have also begun a graduate program (which can be completed on-line) in Language Education. I am praying that I will be able to teach at the International School beginning in the August semester. Thanks to all of you who have continued to pray for approval of my visa. It is supposed to be up for review again on Tuesday. So, please continue to pray!

That Church is Full of What?

I drove by a church tonight. Its sign out front said "Welcome World Changers". While I'm sure there's some group called World Changers that they were welcoming to their church, it got me thinking.
Church members should be called World Changers. Because if they are effectively living out what God calls them to do, the world will change. But then I thought, maybe I'm thinking too big here. Very few people set out to change the world. They affect the people around them, and that changes the world. So, maybe People Changers is a better name. But then I thought that sounded too much like "Hey PERSON! Change! Now!" Which would be weird, because if somebody told me that, I'd be wondering if they wanted me to go change my clothes or something. Plus, you can't change other people, people change themselves, you can only really influence people. So, I jumped over to Self Changers. But then I realized that if Christians were all true Self Changers, changing into the image of Jesus Christ, then other people would be inspired and alot more people outside the church would want to to change themselves too and when people change, the world changes. So, maybe World Changers is a good name for church members. So, then I got to thinking, maybe we could shorten it a little bit to WCs...but that may confuse the British.

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the Lord helped us." 1 Samuel 7:12

In the Old Testament, alters were often built to emphasize the nature of the Lord and what He had brought His people through. I'm not going to use stones, but I do want to praise the Lord with emphasis.

During the different segments that create "life since college", I have often not fully understood much of anything. I have often questioned the Lord. But as I look back over these years, I see that things have worked together for good. And even if I can't see the outcome on some issues, even if right now I don't see the things working together for good, I will rest on the Lord and His record of Love.
And so, I say "Thus far has the Lord helped me."

Sad.

I went to the park with my nephew the other day. There was a kid playing in the sand nearby, making something he thought was a castle and I thought looked like a dinosaur egg. His older brother came over and started stomping on his castle/dinosaur egg thing. The kid got upset. They started all out fighting. Kicking. Screaming. Hitting. It was intense. I put a stop to it. Decided that sand should not be thrown in the general direction of my nephew and that I didn't care if I was not "in charge" of them. Kids shouldn't act that way.
They were stunned.
I was stunned that they were stunned.
Then the mom came over. She barely even looked at me, let alone addressing the situation.
I was stunned.
Parents say self-esteem trumps character.
The community says walking away trumps discipline.
Kids grow up to be adults who think highly of themselves yet have no character.