Posts Tagged ‘teaching’

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

When Kyla begins to pray she now touches her forehead, then her chest, then crosses her shoulders while saying, “In the name of the Fahver, in the name of the Son, and the Holwy Spiwint.” She proceeds to give thanks for the most simple things in life. Her genuine gratitude really shows and I’ll tell you more about that in my next post.

After seeing and hearing Kyla do the sign of the cross, someone asked her, “Are you catholic?” To which I replied, “Of course she’s catholic.” The word catholic means “one, universal.” The people of God are one church. There may be some organizational nomenclature that distinguishes one gathering of the church from another gathering of the church but ultimately there is only one church, the people of God.

Scott Peterson, University Chaplain at MVNU, asked last night if I have read the book “Who Will be Saved?” by William H. Willimon. I have yet to read it but am putting that as a priority on my reading list. Scott disclosed that the essential theme of the text recognizes the tension between “the narrow way” of Jesus and a universalist perspective that suggests all paths of religion or the unlimited grace of God allow all people access to God (I am not attempting fully or accurately describe universalism; that is a conversation for another day). If I recall the conversation with Scott correctly, he said that Willimon (in the previously mentioned text or another) suggests that those who will be saved must be a part of the church.

What does it mean to be a part of the church?

What does it mean to be identified by the sign of the cross?

Please comment.

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

The Invisible Children and Remember Nhu Clubs at MVNU are hosting an Art and Poetry awareness and fundraising event tonight (Wednesday) in the student union. Kyla will be presenting her piece of art that she and I composed this weekend. Her piece is called “Red and Yellow, Black and White” in reference to the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” As we talked about “all the children of the world” and our need to show and express love to all, Kyla used her hands and fingers to paint red, yellow, and black around a cut-out of Africa that I drew, cut out, and taped to the canvas board making a white silhouette of the country where the dehumanization of children continues through militarization and exploitation. Though I cannot talk with Kyla yet about child soldiers and sexual trafficking, she can begin to understand that love and kindness for all of humanity. Eventually, she’ll hear their stories.

We are incapable to loving absent from relationship. We are incapable of relationship absent from the context of story. We have to learn about each other. We have to be aware of the formative life experiences that make us who we are both individually and as a collective group of people in a global community.

The world is our canvas. May we cover it with strokes of love.

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

I have been considering getting a tattoo for way too long now. I need to just do it. The one thing keeping me from it is that I don’t want to be in the “everybody’s doing it / it makes you a trendy ‘with it’ emergent” category. If I do proceed to have a colored liquid substance commonly called ink injected/burnt into my epidermis I would choose to have some combination of either Hebrew or Greek lettering imprinted. I know Greek better so I am more likely to go with that. My current choices are as follows:

1.) The 5th chapter of The Gospel of Matthew in Greek text line after line across my shoulders and back.
2.) Same as above but down my side along the rib cage area.
3.) Alpha on one forearm. Omega on the other.
4.) ek statis� in Greek (somewhere).
5.) splaxnizomai in Greek (somewhere).
6.) ekklesia in Greek (somewhere).
7.) “I heart Mom” on my shoulder inside a heart (ok, not really… just to clear that up).

Kyla has been learning the English alphabet. She is really starting to get it down and is not yet 2 years old. “J-K-L-M-N-O” is giving her some trouble but she nails the “P.” I’ve started to teach her Hebrew and Greek. She does well with “Aleph-Bet-Gimel-Dalet” and “Alpha-Beta-Gamma-Delta.” I was thinking about making up some flashcards for her but then realized I could simply use my tattoos.

Should I get a tattoo?
What should it read?
If you had a child age 13-19 who wanted a tattoo would you allow it?
Should I be teaching my daughter the biblical languages?

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

"Teaching Little Kyla…"
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

I’ve recently been amazed at what my daughter apparently knows. Since Kyla’s birth, Sarah and I have been intentionally making decisions that form Kyla’s understanding. We primarily do not want to inadvertantly be promoting or reinforcing behaviors that we will want/need to undo in the near future. Prayer is one of those things that is so misunderstood that I actively attempt to teach Kyla what prayer is and what prayer isn’t. First, I must have my own healthy understanding of prayer.

Two things that prayer is not:
1.) Something that happens only before meals and bedtime or at a church gathering.
2.) A list of requests focused mostly on prosperity, health, and safety.

Everyday an e-mail is sent out to all MVNU faculty, staff, and students. The e-mail contains any prayer requests submitted by those in our community. 99.78% of those requests are medical in nature. I also see numerous students in the cafeteria bowing their heads to pray prior to their meals. I understand that thankfulness for food is good and that when one’s daily diet consists of pizza, hot dogs, and burritos that oneself does, indeed, need prayer for such filth to be miraculously transformed into nutritional goodness. I’ll post more on prayer later but want to stay on track… teaching little Kyla. I will at random times throughout the day ask Kyla if she wants to pray – sometimes before a meal, sometimes when we are playing with blocks, sometimes in the middle of a story… sometimes… whenever. Our prayers always begin with statements of gratitude.

A small tear came to my eye when we were laying on the couch one morning shortly after Kyla woke up (she likes to lay and cuddle in the morning). Out of nowhere she turned her head up to me and said, "Pray?"
I held her hands and she closed her eyes and said, "God… thank you."

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

Many�MVNU students have been attending the Sunday morning gathering of Christians who call themselves "Journey Church." Here is the fourth (4th) of six (6) reasons why MVN(azarene)U students have been so highly attracted to the non-Nazarene gathering place that is Journey.

From post #2 of 6�
[Les is not the only person who leads the church in worship. Students gravitate toward�]

4.�The teacher who is present in the lives of students.

Tim Barensc heer is a graduate of MVNU (03) and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Th.). He left southern California and returned to the middle of a not-as-luxurious central, rural Ohio to serve with the Journey community. Tim has focussed much of his ministry toward college students. He and his wife Brittany frequently have students into their home for conversations about faith and life [if the two are distinct and separable (I would suggest that they are not)]. They join students in the cafeteria as well in coffee shops and at other campus events.

I find it interesting that I have heard comments that Tim and "Journey Church" are "stealing students from the Nazarene churches" and/or "recruiting" student to attend. I can very confidently�attest�to the fact that there is no such "recruiting" occurring. Tim simply cares. He is present for the sake of being present. I cannot think of many people who do not appreciate another’s genuine love toward them – love that extends beyond teaching a biblical idea – love that desires to engage life enough to suffer through the pain and brokenness of others.

There is also…

TO BE CONTINUED.