They Wrote This For Me

 

Dream Home, Revisited

by Jenny Schroedel

It’s been a year since I’ve written for Boundless, and more has changed in our life than I could have imagined. We’ve moved to the Big Island of Hawaii, where my husband pastors a small mission parish while I chase after my two kids and Meli Hoku, our Boarder Collie Lab mix puppy who has already been lost (and found) twice in the coffee fields surrounding our home. The economy in Hawaii is as turbulent as it is back on the mainland, perhaps even more so, because people come here on vacation, and when cash is tight, the tourist trade dwindles, along with hundreds of jobs and the desire to purchase second homes. Here, you’ll see “for sale” signs on every street, as well as the “for lease” signs on nearly a quarter of the shops and restaurants in town as they are forced to turn out the lights and close their doors. But this unusual economy has created an extraordinary opportunity in our own lives — the chance to inhabit our dream home, if only month-to-month. And it is fascinating to inhabit your dream, and then realize how different it looks from the inside than it does from the street. Settling In Last summer, some of our friends had to move back to the mainland suddenly. Their beautiful home had been on the market a year, and while they wanted to keep it on the market, they didn’t want to leave it empty. In Hawaii, empty homes fill with mold and pests — nature just takes over. So they asked us if we might consider living there and paying a reduced rent in exchange for caretaking the home and yard, and also being available to show it. The house has everything we could have hoped for and imagined, and it has been a great joy to host so many guests, to watch the sun rise over the mountains and set over the Pacific, and to jump with the kids on the in-ground trampoline. We love living on a quiet mountain road, amongst the coffee fields, taking carrots to the horses down the street every evening and waking to the sound of roosters crowing. But I have to say that within a few days of moving in, I was shocked to discover one of the harsh realities of inhabiting a luxury home: It is a lot of work! If you lack staff (or in our case, if you are the staff) you might on average have about 15 minutes a day to actually enjoy the home. Should you add an adventurous toddler like Natalie and a puppy to the mix, you might have to cut that figure down to about 4.5 minutes. Add to this the yard, which is meticulously landscaped but located in a jungle. It is so naturally moist that the sprinkler system has never been used — the gentle mountain rains keep everything growing in overdrive, which is part of the problem. I cannot look at the yard without cringing at the work ahead. There is always bamboo to trim back, rotten strawberry guavas to gather and dump, and weeds the size of cherry trees to pull. Engaging The Dream Ever since we arrived in Hawaii, my husband and I have longed to build a church and guest house. This island is the youngest land in the world, and locals call it “The Healing Island” because the land is so life-nurturing and restorative. Along with the gentleness of the ocean breezes, the fruit trees that drop avocados and guava and lilikoi as you approach, the culture itself is hospitable. When our friends offered their home, we were thrilled because it has a complete guest apartment downstairs. It’s a joy to begin to try out our dream. So this is the reality: It is wonderful to host guests and to live in a beautiful home, but it is almost too much wonderful for us to manage. After years of struggling to be realistic about my capacities — and to keep my expectations pruned, I’m now learning what it is like to live in a large home with a large yard, and to try to maintain it all. There just aren’t hours in the day to do it all justice. The to-do list just goes on and on, and many of the things I mean to do go undone, and many of the things I do get undone by my precocious toddler. This is perhaps one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn in awhile, because I want to do it all, and I want to do it well. Hope in Troubled Times A few weeks into our stint as caretakers of this home, my 7-year-old said to me, “You never want to play. All you do is clean.” This was an awakening. I realized that living within my means (not just economically) but also in terms of inhabiting a reasonably-sized home that is not too high maintenance, could free me up to be more present to my children and my life. And in light of the current economic crisis, where many people bought homes they couldn’t afford and are now forced to give them up, moving into smaller and more modest homes might not be the worst thing after all. Not for families, at least, not for any of us. As the owner of our home showed us the gazebo from Bali and the tangerine trees, he said, “You know, I was planning for my kids to grow up here.” Then he shook his head and said, “It looks like everything is crumbling and falling apart, but maybe God just wants to do a new thing.” Moving Forward We’ve lived here for five months now. Every night, before we turn in, we thank God for the gift of another day in this unique and wonderful home, and every morning we wake to a miracle. And yet, sometimes I fantasize about our two bedroom condo in Chicago that had just enough space, but not too much. We had a scrubby patch of grass there, where the kids played and I drank coffee with friends. We shared it with our neighbors, and although it wasn’t private, it wasn’t our sole responsibility either. And my kids were out there far more than the use our current yard with the trampoline, because the laughter and play of the neighborhood kids always beckoned. But perhaps our new home is curing me of the “What if?” syndrome, which asks, “What if we had a fireplace, forty linear feet of granite countertops, a stainless steel sink so large the puppy could swim laps in it?” For the time being, we have all that and more, and many days I spend the bulk of my energy trying to maintain it. We’re discovering that less is sometimes more, and more is sometimes less — less time, less money, less peace. Perhaps the cure will work and I will find my way to a deeper contentment. Perhaps our crumbling economy will cure us all. As Dickens said, “Enough is such a wonderful word.” Let’s keep praying for enough, and embrace the gift for what it is, because if you have enough, you are rich indeed.

Quote For The Day

“…we… are tempted to allow ourselves be swayed by personal preference. Resist the temptation. A better evaluation tool is to check out the messages being conveyed, not the style or look of the messenger.”

-PluggedIn Magazine

Blue-Collar Christianity

A Tender Trash Can Moment
by Ashley Harris on Jan 23, 2009 at 7:30 PM

I just joined the Boundless team on Monday, so my cubical is still a little sparse. I haven’t put up pictures of my roommates or my boyfriend and there are pitiful little books for someone who works at a Webzine on my shelves. It’s safe to say that my cube looks unoccupied.

So, I didn’t blame the custodial crew on Tuesday when they left me without a trash bag for my trash can or again on Wednesday when they took my trash can altogether. I did, however, tape a note to my trash can (that I recovered from another set of empty cubicles) saying my cube was, in fact, occupied.

I expected my little note would end the trash can dilemma, but what I did not expect was that the custodian would write me back. I found this note on my desk this morning:

Thank you, 
It is a pleasure to serve you! God bless!
Your custodian

God did bless me by this anonymous employee who did their work “as unto the Lord.” I was moved almost to tears. He or she reminded me, on a Friday when I’m thinking about weekend plans and trading in heels for sneakers, that I’m to commit every task and every hour of work to the glory of the Father.

May you wait tables, cash checks, install satellite dishes, write blogs, sweep floors, or whatever it is you do with a deep gratitude for the work God has given you.

Blessings to you this weekend!

Good thoughts about education…

From Boundless.com

 Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D. had the following to say on Jan 19 at 5:53 

 

Some evolutionists agree, e.g. Andrew Coulson, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, interviewed by Brandon Keim, A Libertarian Solution to Evolution Education Controversy: No More Public Schools, Wired Science, 23 January 2008. He points out that religious people don’t protest against churches or temples of a different faith precisely because there is no government compulsion or taxpayer funding, so people choose what they want (or don’t want).

I support the idea that government money for education should go to parents rather than schools, which would then have to perform to attract pupils, and parents would be free to use this for homeschooling too.

But government schools, as the late Milton Friedman (a leading proponent of school vouchers) pointed out:

‘Public schools teach religion too, not a formal, theistic religion, but a set of values and beliefs that constitute a religion in all but name. The present arrangements abridge the religious freedom of parents who do not accept the religion taught by the public schools yet are forced to pay to have their children indoctrinated with it, and to pay still more to have their children escape indoctrination.’

Economics professor Walter Williams likewise pointed out that the problem with American education is government imposing a one-size-fits-all system. Conversely, there are no fights over computers or cars precisely because people have choices. But if the government used tax money to provide, say, Toyotas, then non-Toyota drivers would be resentful that they are subsidizing a car they don’t use. See his article Bitter Partisan Politics and Education.

Now THAT’s News!

Would-be bride, 107, seeks first husband

Mon Jan 12, 2009 12:42pm EST 

 

BEIJING (Reuters) – A 107-year-old Chinese woman who was afraid to marry when she was young has decided to look for her first husband and hopes to find a fellow centenarian so they will have something to talk about, a Chinese paper reported.

Wang Guiying is worried she is becoming a burden to her aging nieces and nephews since breaking her leg when she was 102 and had to stop doing chores like washing her clothes.

“I’m already 107 and I still haven’t got married,” the Chongqing Commercial Times quoted her saying. “What will happen if I don’t hurry up and find a husband?”

Born in southern Guizhou province the child of a salt merchant, Wang grew up watching her uncles and other men scold and beat their wives and often found her aunt crying in the woodshed after an attack, the paper said.

“All the married people around there lived like that. Getting married was too frightening,” she said of an era when Chinese women had few rights and low social standing.

Many also had their feet bound in an excruciating process aimed at making them look more dainty and marriageable.

After Wang’s father, mother and older sister died, she still shied away from marriage. Instead she moved to the countryside and survived as a farmer until she was 74 years old and no longer strong enough to work in the fields, the report said.

Her nephew in the booming city of Chongqing then took Wang in, but she is worried he and her other nephews and nieces are too old to take care of her now even the youngest is 60.

“My nephews and nieces are getting older and their children are already tied up with their own families and I am becoming more and more of a burden,” she said.

Local officials have said they are happy to help Wang search for a 100-year old groom, and suggested her family get in touch with old people’s homes to find candidates, the paper said.

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sugita Katyal)

 

 

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

The Best Sports Story Ever

Christ’s Love, Pigskin Style
by Suzanne Hadley on Jan 16, 2009 at 12:06 PM

I love it when I see God’s kingdom in everyday things — like high school football games. My friend Becky posted this story on her blog. “I think Kris Hogan makes God smile,” she wrote. I agree. Consider this story on ESPN:

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team’s fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

This unusual behavior took place at the request of Faith’s head coach, Kris Hogan. You see, Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility and every game they play is on the road. Hogan wanted to do something kind for the team.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans — for one night only — cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send:” Hogan wrote. “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”

The parents agreed. And though Faith beat Gainesville 33-14, the Gainesville players acted like they’d just won state, giving their coach a celebratory squirt-bottle shower.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that’s when Isaiah [Gainesville's quarterback] surprised everybody by asking to lead. “We had no idea what the kid was going to say,” remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: “Lord, I don’t know how this happened, so I don’t know how to say thank You, but I never would’ve known there was so many people in the world that cared about us.”

And it was a good thing everybody’s heads were bowed because they might’ve seen Hogan wiping away tears.

Well done good and faithful servant.

This inspires me.

Home Economics – Family & Consumer Sciences

Becoming a Woman Who Pleases God

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Why Major In Home Economics – Family & Consumer Sciences at The Master’s College?

Dr. Patricia A. Ennis, CFCS Chair Department of Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences

Fulfill The Biblical Precept
Titus 2:3-5 instructs the older women to “admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God will not be discredited.” This passage implies that the younger woman learns how to: 

• Use time management skills in her home. 
• Manage the family finances. 
• Cook nutritious meals. 
• Practice hospitality. 
• Joyfully submit to her husband. 
• Raise her children in the “fear and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4)…

…so that the Word of God will not be discredited.
The Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences discipline encompasses the six areas described in Titus 2:3-5-it’s simply good stewardship to merge the Biblical Mandate with one’s professional pursuits. 

Acquire Professional Preparation
Professional opportunities abound in Home Economics–Family and Consumer Sciences! A sampling of career tracks available at The Master’s College include Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in Business, Child Development, Clothing, Textiles and Design (both Clothing and Interiors), Human Services (Biblical Counseling with the ability to diagnose and prescribe), Foods and Nutrition, Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences Education, Communications, and International Service (Missions). Generating from these career tracks, the course in Entrepreneurship trains our students to establish home-based business. Marketability is a consistent thread throughout the Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences curriculum at The Master’s College. Beginning with vocational assessment and investigation of career options in the Orientation to Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences course and concluding with the completion of a professional portfolio in the Resource Management Practicum the concept of professional stewardship is encouraged. 

Experience The Department’s Distinctives
Today’s world demands a flexibility and response to change for which many are not prepared. Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences at The Master’s College is designed to train Christian women to meet these changes with confidence! Courses within the department promote individual character development, increase one’s professional skills, develop insights into home and family living, and prepare its students to enter a wide range of vocational options. As a profession, Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences applies the findings of the physical, biological, and social sciences to improving the quality and standards of individual and family life. Additionally, it cultivates a knowledge of the arts to make life more creative, enjoyable, and emotionally satisfying. Master’s students majoring in Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences participate in a number of learning and enrichment activities, which emphasize: 

• Maximizing human resources. 
• Coping with economic uncertainty. 
• Assessing the importance of fibers and fabric in today’s clothing. 
• Maintaining lifetime nutrition. 
• Understanding growth and development from infancy to aging. 
• Creating positive parenting attitudes. 
• Interpreting the housing needs of the individual and the family. 
• Understanding family differences and cultures. 
• Responding to twenty first century issues facing individuals and families. 
• Utilizing modern scientific methods and resources to enhance quality of life. 
• Generating research to identify the needs of individuals and families. 
• Approaching individuals and families with preventative measures rather than crisis intervention. 
• Educating the public to ensure productive and harmonious individual and family lifestyles.

The Master’s College Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences Department offers both a general and secondary education major emphases: 

Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences General
The General emphasis allows the student to acquire a solid foundation in Home Economics–Family Studies and Consumer Sciences. Courses are divided into three categories: 

Character - designed to develop the character of the Christian woman.
Principle - acquisition of the academic knowledge necessary for a strong foundation in the Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences profession.
Laboratory - perfection of the skills unique to the Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences profession. 

Students may focus on a specific concentration in Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences in the junior and senior year. Where possible, they engage in an internship leading to professional employment in such areas as: 

• Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in Business 
• Clothing, Textiles & Design 
• Foods & Nutrition 
• Early Childhood Education 
• Preparation for Graduate School 
• Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in International Service (Missions)
• Home Economist–Family & Consumer Scientist in Human Services (Biblical Counseling)

Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences Secondary Education
Students earn a California Single Subject Teaching Credential that qualifies them to teach Home Economics–Family & Consumer Sciences in grades 7-12. Additionally, it prepares them to begin Home Economics–Family Studies & Consumer Sciences programs in Christian Secondary Schools, home school and opens a number of career options in the field of education. 

Dr. Ennis founded the Home Economics–Family Studies and Consumer Sciences Department at The Master’s College at the request of Dr. MacArthur in 1987. 

Hard Work U

This is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of or seen. I think more schools should do this. This is amazing.

Apparently most students at the College of the Ozarks get offered jobs before they even graduate. REALLY? I wonder why…

Quote for the day

… let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:24)

How Terribly Sad

The saddest part isn’t that Natalie Dylan (not her real name) is auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder.

The saddest part isn’t that the San Diego student is using the auction to help raise money to pay for her graduate studies.

The saddest part isn’t that the 22-year-old got the idea from her sister, who spent three weeks working as a prostitute at a Nevada brothel to fund her own college education.

The saddest part isn’t that some 10,000 men have already bid on the young woman’s chastity.

The saddest part isn’t that, four months after Howard Stern helped her launch the auction, Dylan has now reportedly received an offer of $3.7 million.

The saddest part isn’t even that the money she hopes to raise will fund an advanced degree in marriage and family therapy.

No, the saddest part is all of it.

http://www.boundlessline.org/2009/01/the-saddest-part.html