Month: August 2008

Yesterday, Kenya earned its FIRST ever Olympic gold medal in the marathon, courtesy of Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.

Hongera, Bwana!

I must say, it was very cool to hear the Kenyan National Anthem during the closing ceremonies.

I used to think of educators in the typical way kids do. Teachers acted mature, they were proper, responsible, and polite, they weren’t awkward in the way I always was (am).

This week, I became one of “them”. And as I did so, I realized that these math and 1st grade and special ed and English teachers and my fellow SLPs weren’t all that different from our students. In the classrooms during orientation and training sessions, there were the chatty girls, the back seat slouchers, the clowning guys, the know-it-all devil’s advocate types, and people who left their time cards at home. It felt . . . well, like high school.

I think it’d be an eye-opener for our students to see us like this. I guess in some ways, we really don’t change. We are who we are. We just get more responsibilities, more education, more experience, and then someone hires us, and we start getting paid to be on the other side of the desk.

And that just feels really weird right now.

So, life is moving through it’s phases. My brother Pete is now married to Melissa. The fam (4/9 of it, anyway) returned to Kenya last Tuesday. The rest of us are scattered across North America, and we have resumed using email & Skype as our international communication tools. I keep starting to call Mom’s cell phone, then remember that our normal has changed again, and that she and Dad and the boys are 8000 miles away. Sigh.

Speaking of new normals, I started work today. Real work. As in I’m not a student worker anymore. These first days are orientation, of course, but I am getting paid and that is a definite improvement over the last couple months.

I’m terrified about the day after Labor Day when school starts while at the same time chomping at the bit to meet my kids. I guess most first days feel that way.

Ain’t this life a wonderful adventure?

The Very Symmetrical Day of this year – I love it.

Also, Happy Olympics . . . Go Kenya! Go USA!

I’m currently in PA, getting ready for my brother’s wedding after being in a wedding last weekend in MN. My oh my – ’tis the season for babies & weddings galore.

On an entirely different note, a quote from Dennis Rokser, found in the current issue of the Grace Family Journal:

It is important, and interesting to note that there is not even one passage in the entire Word of God that specifically states that a sinner must “repent from his sins” to be saved or redeemed. Why is this? It is because Jesus Christ has already “died for our sins” (an integral part of the Gospel). His propitiatory sacrifice has forever satisfied the righteous demands of a thrice, holy God.

Thus, the real issue today is not the SIN issue, but the SON issue, namely, “what do you think and believe about Jesus Christ?”

He who believes in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18 )

Oh, I do love the clarity and simplicity of the gospel!