Youth Group and Science Fiction

The fact that I am a SciFi Fan should not come as a shock or surprise to anyone who has met me, seen me or even heard of me from friends. The fact that I spent most of my late nights in college watching The X-Files in syndincation with my roommate should also not cause any heads to be scratched. So the fact that our youth group messages for Term I are based on a SciFi movie should not cause any real alarm, but might, instead, trigger a sigh and a shake of the head in response.

The movie The 5th Element (starring Bruce Willis) is a SciFi movie about aliens, the end of the world and good versus evil. (what else would you expect?) In order to fight the "ultimate evil," Bruce Willis must gather the 4 elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water) and place them around a perfect, supreme being (the 5th element). [Yes, the spiritual overtones ARE subtle and hard to decipher.] In Youth Group each Friday, we have spent two weeks talking about each of these 4 elements and places where they show up in the Bible.

Wind:
1. Jesus walks on water and Peter did, too, until he was distracted by the "wind noise." What is the wind noise in our lives that distracts us from keeping our eyes on Jesus?

2. Based on the song "Mind's Eye" by DC Talk. It has a quote from Billy Graham... "Can you see God? I can't see the wind, but I can see the effects of the wind." What happens when the wind slows? Does that mean there is no more air? No. Take a breath in a still room. The air is still there. What happens when you can't see the "effects" of God? (i.e. No blessings in your life.) Does that mean God isn't there? No. Take a breath and remember that God is ALWAYS there.

Water:
3. Fear versus Afraid. If you aren't afraid of the water, do you treat it too casually, forgetting it can kill you? (I asked a kid to let me hold her head in a bucket full of water... then challenged her that she said she wasn't afraid of it.) If you're not AFRAID of God, do you still FEAR Him?

4. Amos 5:24 (in context)[Thanks, Bret for the idea!] God wants justice and righteousness in our lives. He saved us to make us Holy so that He can be in relationship with us. The youth were challenged to "be Holy as I am Holy." I asked what does God want? And they all said, for us to love each other, to be forgiving, to be in relationship with Him. No one said for us to be Holy. So we talked about how sometimes it is easy to sin because we know we are forgiven. Here, God says be just. Be righteousness. (Be holy!) It was an interesting night. (We also discussed burnt offerings and sacrifices and what it meant to the Israelites when God said I will no longer accept these... v. 22/23. The Precepts Study I am doing on Leviticus came in handy that night.)

Earth:
5. Gil used the illustration of rocks, pebbles and sand in a jar. Everything fits only if you put the BIG rocks in first... which represents our relationship with God and making Him a priority. The students had trouble descerning what was a Big Rock and what was sand. (Xbox is NOT a big rock by the way...)

6. Gen 2:7, Ps. 103:13-14. We are dirt. God made us that way. God is compassionate because He remembers that we are dirt. When you forget to be Holy, when you sin, go back to God. He knows you're dirt. When other people sin against you, remember they are dirt... just like you. So treat people like dirt! (it works on a teenage level... trust me.)


We have two weeks left before our Christmas party (that's the 5th Element part) and we get to talk about Fire. I may even break out my Bunsen Burner for these!

(Yes, my choice of topics and my excitement for them did inspire the first Nifty Nerd Night. Someday these guys will realize how cool the Kingdom of Nerds really is!) (Did I just end that sentence with a preposition? :)

Fear

(One more about Service Emphasis Week...)

I learned a great lesson during SEW... I felt like I got one step closer to a conundrum that has plagued me for ages... a question that has caused sleepless nights and paced corridors in homes, college dormrooms and monasteries for weeks, years, centuries... What is the difference, really, between having fear and being afraid? If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as Proverbs states, how is it that we are supposed to love, worship and draw close to that which we fear?

Swimming lessons and SCUBA diving has helped me get one small step closer to an answer.

During swimming lessons with the women of our support staff, we started with 10 women, most of whom were deathly afraid of the water. We had them get into the shallow end, and walk in a large square so they could find the boundaries in which they felt secure. Most of them gripped the wall of the pool so tightly that I praised God for the adhesive holding the back of the tiles in place. Amy and Laura were doing a great job with the women. They started with all the basic strokes and some of the women started venturing out farther and farther from the wall. One young woman decided she wanted to try kicking on her own, without the protection and security of the wall. So with two fun noodles tucked securely, one under each arm, she pushed off from the wall. She kicked with all her might and succeded, not in moving forward, but in flipping herself over. She immediatley panicked and started screaming for help! Laura looked up at me, "She's in 3 ft of water, she can stand up!" I replied, "She doesn't know that. You need to help her up." Laura rescued her and calmly led her back to the wall where she could grasp the slippery tiles and regain her balance. Afterwards, she realized she could stand up, and was in no real danger, so she laughed at herself good naturedly. By the end of the week, she was doing the elementary backstroke and the freestyle kick.

I had my own "afraid" experience that same day. We have a large problem with black algae growing on the bottom of the pool. The only way to clean it is to scrape it... with some sort of blunt tipped instrument. But, you can only hold your breath for so long and the constant dive-resurface motion only accomplishes a large headache and ringing ears. So, we rented SCUBA equipment to scrub the bottom of the pool. Two of the lifeguards are certified divers and my roommates sister, who is also dive trained, was visiting that week and offered to help.

Laura and Jo prepping the equipment.

Learning to SCUBA is on my list of things to do before I die so I was VERY EXCITED. Learning to SCUBA is on my list of things to do before I die because I never wanted to do it because I am afraid of it. (Being an asthmatic, I tend to panic with anything that restricts my airflow.) I was VERY SCARED. Jo (my roomies sister) suited me up, taught me how to breathe and jumped in the pool with me. I got my head underwater, then panicked. I resurfaced immediately. There I was, in a 9 foot pool, surrounded by my students who I had trained as Lifeguards, taught them how to control their fears, encouraged them to do more, be more, train more... and I was panicking because I couldn't breathe normally. Jo talked me through it. Mind over matter. I was afraid but I had nothing really to be afraid of. Yes, I did make it down to the bottom of the pool. I did "conquer" that fear.

All 4 students working hard on the bottom of the pool.

Afterwards, as my lifeguards went back down to finish scraping the bottom of the pool, I had some time to think about the difference between fear and afraid.

I was afraid because of past panics... past experiences... past pain. These women were afraid because they didn't know what to do. Now that we had learned what to do, how to conquer our fear, were we really better off?

I wonder now if we have really down a good thing. We have taught the basics in swimming. But, have we taught the proper respect for the water? Now that these men and women are no longer afraid of the water, have we put them in greater danger?

I'm a trained Lifeguard. I have pulled numerous people out of dangerous situations. I can swim for an hour straight, cover a distance of 2 km and still get out and take a cycling class. But I never swim alone and I never swim in the dark. Why? Because I have a healthy respect for something that can kill me. If I ever take a casual attitude towards a body of water, that's when trouble starts and accidents happen. I'm not afraid of it, but I have a healthy fear of it. I respect what it is capable of, but I take every opportunity I have to enjoy it.

That's what I learned about be afraid of God and having a "fear of the Lord." I cannot take Him too casually or lose my respect for what He is capable of doing, accomplishing, creating. But, I also need to take every opportunity I have to enjoy Him.

Suited up and ready to go!

SEW

Service Emphasis Week

Last week, HOPAC secondary school was not in session. In fact, no teacher showed up to teach last week. No student sat in a classroom. No books were opened.

But lessons were still learned.

Each year, the secondary students spend a week on a short-term "service" trip. The secondary teachers are chaperons, team leaders and service planners. Some of the groups went to orphanages. Some went to Tanzanian prisons. One group even traveled to "the bush" to work with the Masai in Northern Tanzania.

I spent the week camped out at the school with 4 amazing students: Josh, Niko, Laura and Amy. (All of us from different continents... yes, I got teased about my "weird American accent.")

We were asked to lead swimming lessons for our support staff: local Tanzanians who serve the school as office staff, gardeners, cleaners and maintenance workers. All four of the students have been taking Lifeguard training classes at the school, so they were asked to lead these classes during the week. We also had a number of service projects to complete around the pool area. These students were so dedicated, they were waking up at 6:30 in the morning (because we were sleeping in primary school classrooms and primary was still in session!) and working until 6:30 in the evening. 12 hour days, exhausting labor (scrubbing algae and painting), HOT, HOT Tanzanian sun. They were champs!!

The View of Our Pool from the Basketball Court

The sketch of the mural... designed by the team and perfected by the art teacher.

The finished product.

For me, the best part of the whole week was the swimming lessons. We got the chance to work closely with people we have very little interaction with on a daily basis. Now, we know their names, we say hi, we talk. Also, these are people who live in a coastal community, surrounded by water. Most of them began the first lesson terrified of the water. Most of them ended the third lesson able to do 2 strokes: freestyle and elementary backstroke. (Nobody is going to the Olympics anytime soon, but they're probably not going to drown either!) All 4 students have also volunteered their break times to continue the lessons. What an example!!

Teaching the Elementary Backstroke... Chicken, Eagle, Snake!

Josh teaching freestyle.

Nike teaching floating on your back.


The team... sunburnt and exhausted.


Laura said that she learned you could serve anywhere. "Everybody needs some help. You just have to find what God has given you that you can give to someone else."

Responsibility

Why is it that the more responsible you are, the more responsibilities people give you?

How do you refuse to take on other people's responsibilities when their irresponsibility directly affects what you need to do?

How do you teach responsibility? Slowly, slowly or by setting certain expectations and "forcing" people to live up to them?

Bugs in Africa

Yes, Virginia… there are bugs in Africa.

Yes, this post is dedicated to all the bugs in my life… the creepy crawlies, wiggling wormies and scampering insects that have gladly taken residence in my kitchen, classroom and bedroom.

First, I would like to pay tribute to Syd… Syd the Spider. Syd lives everywhere… underneath our water filter, on the side of the fruit basket, beneath my bed slats and behind the clear, plastic fruit drawer in the refrigerator. Yes, Syd does cause quite a shock when you first see him, but when you see Syd attack other members of the bug kingdom, you develop a fond place in your heart for Syd and all his brothers and sisters. (The only time we kill Syd is when we start seeing small bites on our ankles that do not compare to the normal, daily mosquito bites that have become part of our existence in Dar.) [Geckos are also really good at killing bugs…we love them… but they do also give us quite a scare because they lurk in dark places, behind cabinets, in air-conditioning vents, etc. ]

Next, the great flying termites! Some of the largest bugs I have seen here… not so creepy until they drop their wings and become small crawling insects that chew on woodwork and lay eggs. Then, it does begin to look like autumn because the wings are golden-brown in color and cover the sidewalks and grassy yards with paper thin, oblong shapes. Not a delicacy I have tried, but Tanzanians like their Flying Termites fried and sometimes dipped in chocolate!!

Third… MOSQUITOS!! (and I would just like to clarify, once and for all, Mosquito nets are not Romantic!!!!) Mosquitoes are everywhere in Dar, and they are especially vicious this time of year. They go for whatever piece of skin they can find… fingers, ears… I even got a bite on my baby toe last week. There is no blood there! Why would they bite there? We do everything we can to keep them away… bug spray, mosquito coils, nets dipped in repellent, bug screens, and finally… the piece de resistance, the Mosquito Racket!! It’s a bug zapper-tennis racket combined… really fun at parties. If all that fails, there is always the tried and true handclap to squash the little annoyances!

Ants, ants and more ants… I would mention these in detail, but they are everywhere, in everything, impossible to exterminate and even harder to see. As a result, we no longer call them bugs… we call them protein!

Ralph… Ralph is a cockroach. We call him by a single name because we refuse to admit that Ralph has brothers, sisters, children, parents… Ralph is one roach who lives in our kitchen. (we refuse to accept any other reality on the subject.)*

Finally, in learning to live in harmony with the bugs in our lives, we teachers have tried to take an example from our students, who not only accept the bugs that they must share life with, but see them as friends, pets, and distractions during a boring lesson.

*NB: we found a great Cockroach repellent recipe in one of our cookbooks. It works pretty good!

Christmas in January

My Christmas packages came!!! I'm learning that it takes a least a month to get anything my family sends. As a result, I got to celebrate Christmas the third week of January when my Family Christmas Package arrived!! There were lots of practical useful gifts: tank tops, bug spray, lip balm and Chili Con Queso dip!! (We are saving the dip for a very special evening when we can make tortilla chips!) There were also some fun, unexpected gifts: DVDs of one of my FAVORITE TV shows and a really cute bag from Bonnie and Tim. (Yes, it's already being copied by sewing groups.)

After presents, Clare and I made pizza, then celebrated some more when the electricity went out and we had to make granola by candlelight. Happy Christmas!!