1915...

One thousand nine hundred and fifteen. That is how many pages (of books, not articles) I've read mostly for Covenant Seminary in the last two months (although some was for the missionary prepartion program at Wheaton Bible). Within the next 25 days that number needs to be two thousand seven hundred and seventy seven pages total. I guess for a normal person who reads a bit that is not really that much...say 30+ pages a day, but given that I went from reading very little (except presentations at work and also stuff online) - this has been a huge adjustment for me. Also, many of these books I would categorize into 'smelly old textbook' which can make them brutal to get through. The books on the list thus far are:

Introducing Christian Education*
Teaching for Reconciliation*
The Heart of Evangelism
The gospel and the New Spirituality*
Introducing Postmodernism
Evangelism in the early church
Chameleon Christianity
Let the Nations be Glad
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Becoming a contagious Christian

Clearly some are better than others but if I had to chose my favorite (I've read 70% so far - all but the ones starred) I would say it is 'The Heart of Evangelism'. Dr Barrs is the professor of the class (Apologetrics and Outreach) I'm taking at Covenant Seminary and I have learned a tremendous amount from him. I have to write a small reflection on many of these books so if you want some fantastic night time reading do let me know and I will send them along.

It is hard to believe that Christmas is only 7 days away. I think as a child you always spend a whole month gearing up for the big day so it takes forever to roll around. As with most things in life, the older you get the busier, and important days seem to sneak up on you. Luckily, I think our family is mostly done with Christmas shopping so the stress of the season should be at a minimum. That being said, all of us (Christy, Sammy, Elizabeth and I) have all had a little case of some sort of bug that we can not seem to shake fully. In conjuction with that, my Crohn's symptoms (for those of you that do not know - can not imagine who you would be - I have Crohn's disease) have been coming back. This is especially frustrating after I had been off any medicine for several months. Certainly a matter of prayer for the whole family getting back to a healthy, if not at least normal, state. That being said, staying up until 1:30am probably does not help so I am off to get some sleep...

A Window Into Kindness

So every other Wednesday a lady, Sophia, comes and cleans our apartment (one of the many perks of living in my in-laws condo unit!). I can not really communicate with her because she speaks Polish with only a few words of English (thank you, yes, okay, etc). Sammy is a little afraid of her and will usually get close then run away back to Christy or I. Elizabeth likes to peer in at her from the door frame and watch what she is doing. Even though we can not communicate, you can tell she is such a sweet lady. Every time she cleans Elizabeth's room she will make her bed (something we don't even do as she just has two blankets) and will arrange all of her stuffed animals in a row. I've also seen her cleaning the kids bibs if they happen to be in the sink. Those things are clearly not in her job description, but are little acts of kindness she does simply because she loves children.

I remember thinking weeks ago that Christy and I should buy her some type of gift with a nice card as small token of our appreciation beyond just the money she gets - but as usual - I totally forgot. This last week when she was cleaning, I put together a bag of oranges and grapefruits that we had sitting around (Christy's parents had bought us a big box from the rotary club) for her to take home...way to go me. Problem solved. I'm such an innovator. She said thank you very kindly. When she was leaving that day, she motioned us over and proceeded to bring out of a large bag toys for the kids, Polish candies for all of us and a very nice card. Everything was in Polish but given the Halo around two people over a manager on the card - I'm pretty sure it was for Christmas. First of all, how cool is that? Second, its such a reminder to me that you can be the nicest person in the world but if you do not move from 'nice ideas' or 'warm thoughts' to action - what good is it? I find that this is constantly true of me - I'm the king of great ideas with no action - and here is an example again with someone I hardly know and can not even talk to showing me what true actionable kindness looks like. I need to continue to work to push myself beyond thinking 'It would be great to...' and actually do it.

So this weekend my parents were in town - and I was able to put them to work as soon as they got here. My dad watched Lizzy and Sammy while my mom, Christy and I had a cookie making evening. We probably made 120+ cookies that we were planning on delivering and/or mailing to several people. One such cookie package was sent to my friend Dave down in Florida. He wrote me a note to say thank-you, and also to show me the state of package when it got there. So clearly, most normal people sending cookie tins will put them in a box - however - most normal people are not quite as lazy as I am. At the post office I saw large padded envelopes and thought, 'This is a great idea - the tins will be fine in there...' Well, if you look at the picture on the left you can see that is clearly not the case. As good as the hole by the return address and the packaging tape over the other hole in the upper right is - my favorite part is the big 'Fragile' stamped on the front. Can you imagine what would have happened if THAT wasn't there? Yikes....

Anyway, I hope the holiday shopping is not getting the best of everyone and you are enjoying the snowy (in Chicago) and cold (also in Chicago - I miss warm temperatures) days before Christmas. Make sure you keep the economy going...shop early and shop often.

Until next time...