It's been a whole month since my last post (and that was just a few pictures). I thought it was finally time to update the blog.
I am officially on summer vacation. I taught summer school during the month of June. It was a success. I only had one parent call me to contest a grade. It never ceases to amaze me. First of all, you have to complete a semester's worth of curriculum (at least the bare bones of it) in 20 days. I try to stress this fact to the students the first few days so they understand that they really cannot afford to get behind. There is no going back. Second, you have to complete a whole semester's worth of curriculum in 20 days! Oh, did I just repeat myself? Why some kids think that they can do all or most of the work in the last 3-4 days is beyond me. I tell them daily what they need to accomplish that day and that week to be on track, and still some kids sit idle until the last week. The mother that called me was reasonable. She understood why her son did not earn a credit. She admitted that he waited until the end to try to pull everything off. Actually, she admitted that she sat up with him and did some of the work for him the night before! I think she was more upset that she probably spent several hours of her precious time doing his work and then he still did not pass.
I also interviewed for a new position the end of June. I am still waiting to hear word on that. They anticipated having to interview 3 or 4 other candidates. Since they thought 1 or 2 of those might be from out of town they weren't exactly sure when they would finish up the interviews and make a final decision. I will hopefully know by next week (or the 3rd week of July at the latest). If I get this job I will likely have to attend some meetings the first part of August. It is hard to plan the rest of your summer when things are up in the air like this.
On another front, church has been very good lately. Pastor has recently focused on what it means to demonstrate the love of God to others -- especially others who claim to be Christians. He definitely has hit on a point that is not talked about too much in many places today. God's love is demonstrated differently in different situations. For instance, Pastor asked, "How do you demonstrate the love of God when your 4 year old disobeys you?" "How do you demonstrate the love of God when a Christian brother is involved in an adulterous relationship?" "How do you demonstrate God's love when someone shares some gossip with you?" Too often we tend to think God's love is demonstrated by "turning the other cheek". Or, we think that it wouldn't be loving to point out sinful patterns in someone else's life because we would then be "judging" them. Pastor has been reminding us that God's love compels us to speak truth to people-- even when that truth may not be easy to share. He has also reminded us that we must speak the truth in love, but we must speak the truth. This has been a good reminder for me.
Well, I am sure this leaves much to be desired as far as updates go, but I need to sign off for now. Hopefully, it will not be a whole month before I am again able to add a post.
