I am still much warmed by the sharing atmosphere here at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. There is an entity on campus called "The Sharing Shop." It is a place where volunteers work to organize food, clothing and household items that are donated for needy seminary students. The whole thing is housed in a duplex, and is open to takers on Tuesday evening and Saturday morning.
If we had known of this, we could have saved a few thousand dollars in shipping costs for a bunch of old worn-out stuff. My wife thought it cheaper to send the stuff rather than buy new. Nonetheless, we indeed gave away a whole lot of our possessions prior to coming to the United States.
I heard a good sermon in Chapel today. Dr. Akin, our fearless leader, preached on Jonah, comparing Jonah's resistance to making any effort to evangelize Nineveh to our current racism and nationalism sentiments which were to some degree exposed in the apprehension and killing of Osama Bin Laden. I was sorry they killed the old man, and I would much rather they had merely put him in jail and let some of us missionaries try to save his soul.
That was the basic point I got from the sermon today, that we should not put nationalism above God, and we should feel as God does, that every lost soul is worth no end of effort to bring to salvation and subjection to God in Christ.
My two oldest sons went with me to Chapel this morning. Having woke up at 4:30, I felt that the time for Chapel came rather late in the day. Afterwards we went out on the lawn and juggled, stretched and climbed some trees. I thought about the value of being in a different place.
Recent research in education shows that children learn more effectively when they vary their study location. I could not get my boys to learn to juggle in my home. However, sitting there on the lawn with nothing else to do, after hearing a sermon in Chapel, they gave no resistance to me offering them three beanbags a piece and telling them to juggle. Each picked it up fairly well. Juggling is a good way to meditate and give your mind a break from the rigors of studying in seminary.
Right this here moment, my wife is fiddling with our brand spanking new VCR machine and TV, which we got from the Sharing Shop. Actually, they are old machines, and we got them used, but they are brand spanking new to us, and if my wife can get them to working, why we will have a new item resident in our humble abode. She handles that sort of thing far better than I, if only because I lack the indwelling interest, not to deny the value of such items; I know well how they can serve as interim babysitters in a pinch. Just settle the little guy down, give him an ice cream sandwich and pop in Barney, Franklin, Roly Poly Olie, or Thomas the Train Engine and before you know it, he is as happy as a clam.
It seems that the video machine may not work. Dunno.
I have corn chips now. Corn chips do not make me feel so bad, as food is not easily sent from one nation to another, but when I buy something that I do not certainly need, or when I cling to possession of something for which I do not have any clear use in the coming six months, then I feel guilty and need to seek out someone who could make better use of it than I.
In Daejeon, we just kept stuff, and much of it was towards the potential to start a hagwon, to serve learners of English. I had a large audience because of my teaching, and always thought it would be better to get that out of my home and in a proper vehicle for the large volume. Too, I could better serve all by focusing my time on training others to teach South Koreans, who are not identical to any other group on earth, regarding their learning proclivities and cultural baggage.
Love, Nathaniel
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