Lugano 2013

Lugano - our annual trip to southern Switzerland with the 8th graders - was a blast. Apart from the too-close-for-comfort experience with near hypothermia when 9 kids decided to swim across the lake, things went really smoothly. The times in devotions were amazing. Below are my pictorial impressions and expressions.

 Anything more beautiful than seeing students pray together?

 Posing at our overlook with all the sweet 8th grade girls.

 The hikers who kept me company at the back.

A gale came up during our ferry ride. Some acting may have been involved. :-)

Only one injury that required all 5 chaperones to fix.

Third time co-leading this trip with my excellent colleague, Rachel! Thanks, friend!

Van ride home!

Fighting the Entitlement Mentality

This lesson is recent and raw, but I may as well get it down while it's fresh in my mind. I'm always grateful when God speaks to me so crystal clearly on something, even when it's a gentle smack in the face.

See, without going into too many details or wanting to put down my beautiful students, there's been some battling going on between teachers and students of late. Mainly it's been in regard to the end-of-the-year dinner. Students have been making various, what I'll call "selfish," requests for it, and after thought and research, we have basically said "no" to most of them. The response has been, as to be expected, less than enthusiastic and culminated on Friday on their M.S. evaluations. Several negative comments followed each other until I somewhat exploded into a tirade. "Don't they realize that this dinner is entirely a gift?! From us to them! It costs them nothing, and we shower them with love and stories and gifts and personally written notes, and yet they're demanding things to be exactly their way. And when it's not, they gripe and whine and say we're treating them like 3rd graders! This isn't a 'right,' it's a free gift. A gift!"

I'm pretty sure God waited all of two seconds before I heard the Holy Spirit clear as day in my heart: "Sound familiar, Katrina?" When I stop to consider all the gifts God has given me, it doesn't take me too long to shut my mouth. I get to live and work in the absolute best setting I could imagine, with people who also love what they do and the kids they do it for. God has, for some reason, seen fit to place me into a supportive family, and my circle of wonderful friends spans the globe. I'm healthy and get to travel, and I haven't even broached the subject yet of all the gifts Christ gave me through his death on the cross - salvation, redemption, eternal life! The very breath I use to complain against him is a gift. And that's my default, isn't it: to complain and gripe and say "But why couldn't I have been made like this? And why can't I have that?"

Entitlement. It takes me back to the original sin in the Garden. It's the idea that God is holding out on something good that we deserve, something that is our right. It's the lie we've been taught from the cradle that we should only have good things happen to us. Yet, a friend back in Minnesota used to say it straight forward a lot: "What we truly deserve is eternal hell." And he was right. Entitlement is a lie because God doesn't hold out. In fact, what he has promised and guaranteed us is exactly the opposite in all the splurging he plans to do in heaven. With such an amazing future in our back pockets, why shouldn't we be willing to endure fire and brimstone in this life if he asked us to. The final reward stands absolutely secure. Entitlement steals our joy in the here and now. It darkens those lenses that allow us to see every gift for what it actually is: a gift! "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). In that one instant, I saw myself and my sweet kiddoes in the light of truth. As believers, we're not getting what we deserve, and that's a good thing.

This wasn't meant to be a sermon, except to my own soul, but perhaps you can identify. When I saw my tirade in light of my own short-comings and God's generosity, I was able to leave my office again and feel genuine love again for the students. Just one more gift from his hand to my heart.

The beautiful 8th grade class - they really do hold a special place in my heart!

Of Castles and Paper Airplanes

  

The weather wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but there was no changing plans now. I had told the 8th graders that we were hiking to the castle today, and hike we would! Armed with our lunches, hiking shoes, cameras, and a Castle worksheet, 24 students and 5 teachers set out for Sausenburg.

Despite the rain, we had a blast clambering over curtain walls and scaling up the stairs of the tower, checking out the view of the bailey and batter below (ask an 8th grader what all these terms mean). Where things grew interesting was in regard to NG's paper airplane. (Why yes, it was made out of his castle worksheet). I had a rule about not throwing litter from the top of the tower (thanks to the kid last year who lost his worksheet that way), but NG very badly wanted to toss his paper airplane down. Soon he had the whole class begging on his behalf as well. The pressure was on. After surveying the situation and eliciting a promise from NG that he would retrieve it no matter where it landed - even from the far side of the woods - and a promise from the rest of the class not to copycat him, I finally relented. He leaned back and let fly! 

And it landed about seven feet away, below him, in the middle of the vines on the tower (blue spot in the second picture). No retrieval possible. I've never heard 24 8th graders laugh so hard!

 Fun was had by all, and with any blessing, some things were learned as well about castles and the Middle Ages and the wisdom of the words "I really don't think that's a good idea...."

Alvin Fernald: Mayor for a Day

I'm clad completely in black, half-crouched behind the set and surrounded by sixteen Middle schoolers. Twelve of them are budding thespians currently pacing circles in the itty bitty living space allotted to them. It's clear some of them are fighting the urge to wipe the sweat from their brows, the stern words of the make-up artists still ringing in their ears: "Do not touch your foreheads!" Outside, beyond our black fortress, we can hear the crowd cramming in to their seats. Sold out, we were told. Some parents have flown from far away countries to come watch their children shine on stage.

HK tries to release some tension by doing jumping jacks and is immediately shushed by the four others when they see the set wobble. PR is quoting lines - not just hers. She had memorized everyone else's lines by about week two of practice. Her task is a difficult one tonight though, playing the love interest to the main character. KB is bubbling with nervous babble next to me, and I nod with a smile and a gentle pat on her police cap.

Suddenly the house lights begin to flicker. Sixteen students around me gasp and duck as if they've been struck. The long-awaited moment has come. The music cues, and DD takes his place next to door. With one final adjustment of the bow tie, he disappears and is replaced by Alvin Fernald who cautiously opens the door onto stage with a "Hello?" and will not return until the final bow has been taken.

And shine they do. Every single one of them. The crowd laughs at all the right moments and even at some unexpected ones. KB nails every single one of my favorite lines (she had them all), LW is cute as all get out, KJ manages to keep a stern face for all her mean lines, and PR's awkard kiss even finds its mark. The crowd hoots and hollers, and I can't help but cheer along with them. Even though I contributed little to this production beyond crowd control, my heart is absolutely bursting with pride!

I'm proud of these kids and their outstanding efforts to put on an amazing show. I'm proud of my colleagues and the way they were able to coax this talent out of ordinary kids. I'm proud of the community who sees the value in coming out tonight and supporting Middle Schoolers. I'm proud of the God who created them all with talents and allows them to put them on display to show off his creativity and unique personality placement. And this pride humbles me, too. What a responsibility to continue to love on these kids (and the 46 others who sat in the audience) and help them ALL discover their gifts. What a privilege.

 Trying to make HK look older.

Pre-show jitters for the star DD.

PR getting her make-up applied.

The process is a little more painful for JO who fights it all the way.

 The most beautiful fire chief ever: JC

 KJ's mom flew in from another continent!

 So impressed with the way KB stretched herself!

Cast, crew, and director

Days Like This

Yesterday was one of "those" days. There was not a moment of rest between awaking at 5:30 and sleeping somewhere around midnight. Here's a quick overview:

morning work-out
shower & getting ready
run to the bank
drive carpool
write two tests
teach four classes back-to-back
run interference with two struggling students when another slices his finger open and ends up needing to be driven to the doctor's office (though not by me at that point)
interview a friend on video for Chapel talk
return home to cook dinner
host four 8th grade boys for dinner
drive them to school
speak on a Panel for Small Groups
clean up
find out the bus didn't come, help drive students home
answer e-mails
fall into bed
be awoken by the bank in America twice with address questions
fall back into bed

By the time the bank was calling, I could barely remember my name let alone answer some of the questions coherently. It was physically and mentally and even emotionally exhausting, but at the end, I really could honestly say, "This was a good day." It's one of those days that drives me to my knees and reminds me of so many things.

1. I love being here! :-) I can tell I have a purpose and enjoy my calling here so much.
2. I am feeble and dependent on a higher power. If God weren't sustaining me, I'd come apart at the seams every day.
3. I am feeble and dependent on other people. It meant the world to know I could call on other teachers or friends to pick up where I was slacking yesterday. We need each other, and that's exactly how God designed it to be.

I've recently learned to see Psalm 118 again in a new light and have fallen in love with it. When David finishes listing all the pressures he's facing (surrounded by enemies, hard pressed on every side, nations cutting him down, ...), he recognizes over and over again how it was the Lord who led him through each and every challenge. And in v. 24 he says, "The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad." It was his day from start to finish, as is today, as is tomorrow, and as is every day. I can choose to see the exhaustion, or I can choose to rejoice. What will you do with your day?

Idols, Plagues, and God's Word

I had a stack of self-made posters in my hand, ten to be exact, each depicting the name and picture of an Egyptian god or goddess. The 6th grade class had been reading about some of the Mythology of Ancient Egypt, and the names were overwhelming, so I told them we'd highlight just ten of them. As I held up each poster and had the class repeat the names after me, they also filled in a pyramid chart that was very carefully labeled 1 - 10. It was after the fourth one that MS at the back threw down his pencil, crossed his arms, and asked "Why do we have to learn this? They're not real anyway; they're just idols." I had to bite back a smile as I promised him it would be okay, and we had to finish.

When their notes were complete, I hung the posters on the board and pulled out my Bible. JO's eyebrows shot up, but being the model student that he is, he pulled his Bible out, too. Turning to Exodus, I asked if the class knew how many plagues God sent on Egypt via Moses. A couple hands went up with the correct answer: "Ten." I asked if anyone knew the first plague. A couple more volunteered the answer: "Turning the Nile into blood."

Excited, I nodded and then, pointing at the gods on the board, asked which god or goddess that particular plague may have been targeting. Confused at first, they looked at my quizzically. "Who is the god of the Nile?" "Hapi," one student offered. "Right!" I shouted so loudly, I probably scared a couple of them. "Hapi. So let's turn Hapi around because I think God owned him with that plague." Next I read the second plague to them, the frog infestation. DW smiled broadly. "Frogs? That one god you showed us - Geb - has a frog face." "Indeed he does," I said and proceeded to turn Geb around.

In one instance, 15 students caught on to what I was doing, and 15 hands (including skeptical MS') shot up, and voices were climbing over each other. "Do the 10 plagues go with the 10 gods?" "Is the darkness plague against Ra?" "How did God do that?!" "Is this true?" It was that moment teachers dream of, and we had so much fun going through the rest of the plagues until all the Egyptian gods had been defeated and were no longer staring out at the class.

But my absolute favorite second of the whole morning was seeing IB, the normally quiet and seemingly non-interested student, pull out his Bible partway through the process and ask, "What book of the Bible is this in?" My heart sang. If one student learns to love his Bible just a fraction more than he did before, God's name be praised!

 Gotta love enthusiastic 6th graders

 Turning Geb around.

That's IB's hand up right there with his Bible open! :-)

Sleeping Lovelies

Here's a picture that warms my heart and tingles my toes: all my girls asleep on my living room floor like sardines. :-)