Keziah homeschools Malachi
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As a many of you pray with us, I’d ask specifically tonight for Ezra and on Saturday for Keziah as we begin farewells with their close friends. These moments make my heart ache for them. I hold out hope in the knowledge that God redeems pain and calls out new life in new ministry assignments. Still hurts though.
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hallywoods reblogged teachingliteracy
Literary Birthday - 4 April
Happy Birthday, Maya Angelou, born 4 April 1928
12 Remarkable Maya Angelou Quotes
- The honorary duty of a human being is to love.
- I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.
- Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it.
- When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
- There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.
- My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
- Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
- Life loves the liver of it.
- The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
- When you learn, teach, when you get, give.
- Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.
Angelou is an American author and poet. She has published six autobiographies, five books of essays, and several books of poetry. Her career has spanned more than 50 years. She has received many awards and more than 30 honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Source for Image
by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write
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Art and Ebert
Today we lost film critic Roger Ebert. Even seeing myself type those words seems quite odd to me, a product of our times perhaps, in that film and television now play such a significant role in our lives and our culture. Just this evening I was bantering with a friend on Facebook, as I commented on a selfie he shot while at the dentist, him looking the spitting image of the Terminator character in the film of the same name. We traded lines from the film back and forth, fodder from my long train ride home.
But while it may be easy to dismiss film as a superfluous first world time-waster, and might seem odd honoring a film critic, it seems this moment warrants an extra pause of thought. Roger Ebert brought something to film—this contemporary medium of art—that, at its best, serves as an art form that is a brilliant reflection of our humanity (and at its worst it’s an embarrassing waste of time and money, not to mention demeaning to humanity.) Then again, what art form doesn’t represent both these extremes?
I’m probably an odd one to be writing about film or film critics, as I’m not one to see every movie that comes out, and rarely watch television these days. I write about Mr. Ebert’s passing though because, in our culture, he represented an influential voice of observation, study and reason in what has become one of the most powerful art forms humanity has every wielded. And in western culture, film has arguably become one of the most influential forms of art. And by art, I mean forms of expression of what it means to be human, a tool for communicating the human condition at it’s best and at its worst, at its peak and valleys, its triumphs and tragedies. And in that form, Mr. Ebert was arguably one of the most influential voices not only in communicating what is good and bad (at best, a subjective exercise), but perhaps more importantly guiding us in how we ought to engage this most prolific and powerful medium of art.
After some time now of pursuing, exploring, and experiencing art, I have come to realize that it bears the power and potential to bring humanity together in ways possible through no other means. The writer Ernst Fischer reasoned that one of the great possibilities of art is to show us our connection to a greater human reality, one that we all belong to, or at least want to belong to. Through great art we can relate to the human condition in ways nothing else can deliver. At its best, film has become one of the most powerful mediums of art in our culture. It’s important though that engaging this form of art—as in every form—doesn’t devolve into a passive activity, one in which we seek it only for escape. Rather, great art should provoke us to action, to change us, to move us forward. When executed well, it surely can do this as few other things can.
Having sherpas like Ebert to guide us, even at times carry us through the process of learning how to view this medium of art is important, more than many of us know. I’m certain those close to Mr. Ebert feel a great loss in his passing. Like anyone truly influential though, his passing represents a loss to the rest of us. I only hope other talented individuals will step into the gap created in his absence, guides that continue to show us the way through this and all other forms of art. I truly believe our humanity depends on it.
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New Prayer for New Year...
Jn 1.15”John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
I have been locked into this passage for a week now. John’s celebrity status could have written his ministry career ticket (book deals, speaking gigs, etc…), but in an emotionally charged proclamation he redirects the attention to Jesus. When I imagine John speaking this, I get the image of him dropping someone in the river and rushing to Jesus.
What have we actually accomplished in mission ever? If we have sought after the loftiest goals and objectives, but have completely missed where Jesus was already at work, what have we actually achieved?
Thinking about yearly goals is good leadership practice (in my opinion). However, I want to re-evaluate all that I set out to achieve this year to check and know that God has ordered them. I don’t want to fall into the trap of working toward goals that elevate myself, though it is such an enticing trap to jump into. My prayer for 2013…
that Jesus would guide our steps…
that our response would always be yes to his guiding hand…
that all fruit which flows from our efforts would be exalting of Jesus alone…
and that His kingdom would come in our midst as it is where He sits enthroned. amen
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All Parts Together
Coaching is partially (maybe fully) about helping an individual achieve goals through the assets available to them. When you interact with a visionary leader like Oupa, you quickly realize that he sees beyond his means to achieve. Leaders like this need a strong structural support under them to achieve the things God puts in their hearts’ imagination.
Enter Rufaro : “the administrator”.
In collecting the names of the people involved in the two different (primary) Bible Studies happening at the Mugg, I came across Rufaro. In African fashion, you don’t just get a name with a phone number, you get a full on hug and condensed life story introduction. When Oupa introduced me to Rufaro last week, I listened closely to how she was interacting with the Discovery Bible Study. She was coming up with fantastic ideas for structuring their times together. She saw how to maximize the time and find ways to invite other staff into the primary groups.
Oupa said to me this week, that with Rufaro’s help, this will sustain things through the holiday season (a time when Pretoria literally drains a majority of its population for over three full weeks). The staff that is not going back to visit family will continue in the process with Oupa at the assistance of his new administrator.
It takes a whole body to achieve bigger ends. This situation is revealing how flat body leadership really is or ought to be. This is not a top down model. Each part is informing the other parts under one large vision : to move the FULL gospel into the hands and hearts of the Mugg & Bean staff.
“When we carry the gospel to our customers, it changes the way they treat us and how they treat their families and friends.” - OupaLoading... -
Sustaining Movement
For the past few days that I’ve gone to check on our friends at the Mugg, I have had these lingering concerns…
- Is this really happening or are they just telling me what they want me to hear?
- Are people starting new groups as a result, really?
- How many people are actually connected to this?
It is not that I do not trust Oupa, I was just wondering if the cultural communication gap was an issue for our relationship. I asked him for help to understand the only way this whitey American can. “Can you give me names and phone numbers of people in this with you? Who is part of your group? Who is leading a group themselves? Can I talk to them?”
Luckily we have rapport, so it wasn’t this major awkward thing. Today, I went in to collect the names and numbers. He then went a step further, and introduced me as the “guy that gave them the Bible stuff” which was welcomed by a smile and a hug from the group members. The newest person I met today is going to be leading a group at her second place of employment. I gave her my copy of the facilitation guide. To date, I have given out 7 facilitator guides to people in Oupa’s groups and today, I have identified the barrier to sustaining this (my cause for the questions I was internalizing) :
COACHING BREAKDOWN.
Oupa is perhaps one of the most influential leaders I’ve met in Pretoria. When you talk to him, you just want to join whatever he’s doing (glad he’s growing in his love for Jesus!). But what he told me last week was that he needs help getting better at facilitating. He’s not ready to coach new group leaders. Thing is, he’s doing something right because the other seven people in his group are excited to run their own! But without coaching, sustaining the momentum becomes very difficult.
Time to adapt strategy… again.Loading...
