Reading to Kids

What are your favorite books to read with your kids? 

I just finished reading Number the Stars to Eika and Henry.  Before that, Hank read The Kenyan Chronicles with them.  We are searching for our next literary adventure to have together.

Meanwhile, there can almost always be found a big stack of picture books from the library.  Jude is going through a stage of wanting to be read the same book over and over and over again, and for the past 3 weeks it has been Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We hear a lot about porridge these days.

What is in my hands?

This week I am learning the difference between these two:

I “repent” by trying to do it right the next time.

I confess that I don’t “have it right” and come to Christ, my righteousness.

One is the "repentance and rest" of Isaiah 30:15.  One is my own striving to make myself okay.


Does the necessity of repentance in conversion constitute a kind of work that detracts from the empty-handedness of faith? Does it compromise grace?

In a word, no. Sinners must always come empty-handed. But this is precisely the point. By nature, my hands are full (of sin, self, and my own “good deeds”). However, hands that are full cannot hold on to Christ in faith. Instead, as they take hold of Him, they are emptied. That which has prevented us from trusting Him falls inevitably to the ground. The old way of life cannot be retained in hands that are taking hold of the Savior.

Yes, repentance and faith are two essential elements in conversion. They constitute twin graces that can never be separated. As John Calvin well reminds us, this is true not only of the beginning but of the whole of our Christian lives.

--Sinclair Ferguson

Blobbing

We employ a method of learning geography called "blobbing."  The kids start with a horizontal piece of paper and draw a horizontal line through it for the equator.  Then they add a circle or oval or continent-shaped blob for each of the continents.  We do this over and over, learning just a few things at a time to add.  We trace peninsulas, rivers, seas, coastlines.  Sometimes we zoom in and focus a few weeks on a smaller region.  And little by little, week by week, they add more detail and pretty soon have a darn good grasp of not just countries, but seas, rivers, mountain ranges, and cities of the world.  They trace the outlines on a dry-erase map, and then they "blob" it.  They label their work, learning not just the names of places but the spelling as well. 

Here are a few pictures from this morning of Henry and his class working on Northern Europe.

 

And here is what Jude thinks about blobbing:

 

 

Blobbing, among other things, is a technique described in Leigh Bortin's book The Core. 

The class in these pictures is part of our Classical Conversations community. 

Repent! Repent!

It's all throughout Scripture, and yet how much have you heard lately about repentance? 

In our Sonship study, the last session and our current session are about repentance.  Here's my thought for the day:

Repentance is not possible without rest.  It is not repentance if I am still working, striving, resolving to “do better."

 

Is repentance something you think about or engage in regularly?

Hope in White Coats

...And it begins!  January 2nd was the official start date for the McCropder team doctors' work in Kibuye Hope Hospital.  You can read Eric's account of their first day here. 

We are vicariously exuberant for this monumental step in Burundi's healthcare expansion and development!  Even though we aren't part of the team, we aren't WHM missionaries, we have never been to Burundi and don't even have our visas yet, this exciting beginning is hugely profound to us.  We have been following the adventures of these people since shortly after they became united as a team over 6 years ago.  Seeds were planted in our hearts way back in 2008 as we started praying for the Faders (whom Hank met as a freshman in college), the McLaughlins, and the Cropseys during their training at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya.



Here are the six McCropder doctors:  experienced, well-trained, knowledgeable, and yet still desperately in need of God's strength for what lies ahead.  In Carlan's email update yesterday, he told of being confronted with AIDS, leprosy, tuberculosis and cerebral malaria, toxoplasmosis and typhoid all within his first few days seeing patients.  There is no end to the list of challenges, disappointments, miracles, and triumphs that are going to constitute the news of the coming months and years for this team.  Pray for them please!  Among many other specific requests, this stuck out to me and I love that this is the cry of their hearts.  They say, "O God, help us to love.  Whatever we do, let us do it with your love."  Yes.  Let it be so.

Eyes to the sky

Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

This verse (Colossians 3:1-2, the Message) caught my attention this week.  How much of my time to I spend "shuffling along" spiritually?  How many of my thoughts are "eyes to the ground?" 

Let's look up.