In Praise of Our Kids

          As I was recently writing our annual Christmas letter (I know it’s January 26th ... don’t judge!), I arrived at the traditional “run-through-the-ages-and-characteristic-activities-for-each-child” part of the letter and I got to reflecting how great our kids have been about this whole “preparing for the mission field” life that we’ve dragged them into. 

        From day to day it's just ... life - and I don't always give them enough credit for what they endure.  We’ve taken them from their own house and moved them into Grandma’s house ... where there is ONE bathroom and three bedrooms total:  Melissa and I in one, Grandma and The Princess in another, and the three older siblings together in the smallest of the three!  We have dragged these poor kids around on long weekends and extended trips to meet strangers (to them) and sit through worship services in strange (to them!) churches.  And there have been bigger adjustments: when I quit my job this past summer to pursue funding full-time, it necessitated a school change for them, and all the stress and uncertainty that comes with such an upheaval.  Furthermore, because of time and budget restrictions, extracurricular activities have often been severely curtailed.  (Dats hasn’t gotten to play on a soccer team for a while, for instance.  And he loves soccer.)

        I'm not saying that it has all come easily to our kids, believe me.  At times they have dragged their feet about certain necessary steps - like downsizing the number of toys they have.  And I'm sure each has now and then coveted a friend's possessions, activities or house.  And arguments about privacy for dressing or whose turn it is to use the bathroom occur daily. 

        Literally. Daily.

        But all in all, they have not only endured all the challenges, they have flourished.  And they know WHY we are doing this and they are all on board 100%.  And we couldn't be prouder.

        Having said all that, here's a little paragraph The Drama Queen (age 10) wrote for a class assignment recently (to practice using prepositional phrases!):

            A Great Dane has more space in a dog house than I have in my room. In my bedroom in the corner is a white wicker bed which is the only thing in my brothers’ and my room that I don’t share with them. Next to my bed stands a tall two-door cabinet stuffed full of our clothes. On top of the dressers is where we keep my sister’s and my hair bow container crammed full of thousands of hair bows that spill out on to the dresser or floor when we open a drawer. In the middle of the room lies our small rug in between my bed and the bunk bed. By the window sits our little, teeny, tiny table which is the only thing separating my bed from my brothers’ bunk bed. Under my bed are my many crafts because there is nowhere else to store them. In our closet my purple, leopard patterned volleyball has been squished in between our shoes. On top of my bed is my dark blue blanket, covered with my pajamas, Bible, journal, camera and a hat. On the ceiling is our ceiling fan that almost hits my brother in the face when he climbs up on to the top of the bunk bed. Someday I hope I will get a bedroom I don’t have to share with my brothers and sister.   

The room ... and the roommates.  I used my plug-in web cam to take this picture because it meant I could stretch the cord all the way into the very top corner of the room, just above the door, in order to snap the picture.  But it still doesn't do justice to the TIGHTNESS ... for the past 18 months now ... and the next six.  They are troopers. (And Grandma is a REAL trooper for letting us stay with her!)

P.S. If you are on our mailing list, you should be receiving our Christmas (in January) letter by snail mail within the next week or so.  If you don't receive one, but would like to receive regular updates by mail and email, just drop me an address at sgross@onemissionsociety.org and we will gladly add you to our mailing list!

The Princess Turns Six

At one point today Melissa and I watched a woman wrestle her screaming toddler out of the kids' museum where our little princess was hosting her birthday party.  The diaper-clad boy was tucked under his mother's arm and was wailing, kicking, and wearing only one shoe - the other shoe was clutched tightly in mom's free hand.  Mom marched as quickly as possible down two flights of stairs and toward the front door while her son let EVERYBODY in the place know exactly how upset he was. 
 
Melissa and I were sitting on a bench while our kids were scattered all over the building - without need of our constant supervision.  We watched the frazzled mom and screaming toddler and agreed that we don't miss those days.
 
But as I write this at the end of the day, I have to admit that I made sure I found reason to cuddle a few quiet minutes with The Princess tonight - who, even at six, is not yet too big to curl up on my lap. Not yet.  And I found myself missing those toddler days ... at least a smidgen.



This was Wednesday, The Princess' actual birthday.  One of our birthday traditions is the chance to open one present at the breakfast table.

 

Followed by a super healthy breakfast.  That there is called a birthday pancake.

Her party was today (Saturday) and she chose the local children's museum as her party site and got to invite a few friends.  This place is very hands-on and educational. And the best part is ... it's not Chuck E. Cheese.

There are lots of fun activities - like the bubble room.

And - inexplicably - a giant toilet.  It makes a flushing sound when you go down the drain into the room below!

Melissa even scored a private room for pizza and cake... at no extra charge ...

And a giant cockroach on the counter to watch the proceedings ... also at no extra charge.  Next year, God willing, The Princess will be celebrating her birthday in Haiti - and the cockroaches will be allowed to roam free.

One of my best cakes, if I do say so myself.  I had never worked with fondant icing before and found it wasn't as difficult as I had always assumed.  This is supposed to be one of the "Lego Friends" - the new Legos being marketed to girls.  She turned out a little beefy, but a fairly close representation overall.  The Princess was duly impressed and remarked, "It's kinda sad we'll have to put a fork in her face."

Lunch was followed by some craft time - which even the big brothers participated in.

The party girls were still doing crafts when the parents showed up to collect them.  These girls loved their crafts.

 

 But my favorite part of the day, hands down, ended up being those quiet moments I cuddled my big old exhausted 6 year old before bedtime.  I am so blessed.

Bon Voyage to Our Missionary and Friend

Today is a bittersweet day.  Our friend (and our missionary) Beka is on an airplane bound for the Philippines and she does not plan to return for at least 20 months.

I first met Beka in October of 2010 during my own introduction to Haiti.  At the time, Beka was a One Mission Society missionary working at headquarters in Communications - writing for the official OMS website and the agency's various newsletters and magazines.  She joined our church's mission team just before we headed to Cap Haitien, going with the purpose of researching the work occurring in Haiti in general and the "Homes for Haiti" program specifically.

Well, she quickly proved to be a real joy and a valuable addition to our team and when we all returned to Indiana at the end of the week, Beka told me about a weekend retreat she was helping with at OMS headquarters: an event for those considering missionary service.  Melissa and I were just hitting the point where we were ready to say Yes to the Lord regarding serving Him in Haiti full-time.

In the course of that great and valuable weekend, Melissa and Beka got to know each other and before long, they were the best of friends. 

It's been two full years now and we consider Beka a part of the family ... and more. Melissa and I had financially supported missionaries in the past from time to time, so the idea wasn't a new one when Melissa told me a year ago that she thought we should officially join Beka's support team.  (I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that we are convinced that every believer is called to SEND workers into the harvest field ... and so we do.  The really cool part is that even though we have dropped down to one income, God continues to provide the funds that we have committed to our missionaries on a monthly basis.)  So currently Beka is a friend AND one of our missionaries.  (I will tell you about our other missionary in a separate post!)

Recently, Beka has heard the call to serve the Lord overseas.  She and her friend Lauren will be working in the Philippines among women and children in impoverished neighborhoods around Manila.  The discipling work they will do is aimed in part at stemming the tide of human trafficking and the sex trade which is so prominent there.  And we consider it a privilege to play a part through financial support and prayer.

So today is bittersweet.  Bitter: saying goodbye to Beka, not knowing when we will meet again.  Sweet: rejoicing that she is fully funded and ready to embark on a new chapter in her walk with Jesus. 

By the way, apparently the name "Manila" evolved from an Arabic phrase meaning "God's protection" - and that is what we pray over Beka and Lauren as they leave Indiana today and carry the Gospel to the poor of Manila.

P.S. I so greatly desired to include a picture or two of Beka but there's some blogspot glitch preventing it for now.  Rats!

Newspaper Article - The Bible and Public Education

Here's my December newspaper article - published yesterday in The Republic:

A recent Thursday evening found me in the local school auditorium listening to the 5^th and 6^th grade choir’s Christmas program.  I thoroughly appreciated the program, but not because I could make out my two oldest children’s voices among the 50 or 60 on stage. (I couldn’t.)  And it wasn’t because it helped “put me in the Christmas spirit”. (It didn’t.  I’m a Grinch.)

Rather, my appreciation was for how “behind the times” we are.  In this age of hyper sensitivity and political correctness, when a field trip to watch a production of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is taboo because of its references to the biblical account of the birth of Jesus, it was refreshing to know that students in Columbus, Indiana were still allowed to learn and perform songs like “Silent Night”.

Contrary to what you might expect, I applaud the existence of the school Christmas concert not as a Christian who is paranoid about the “War on Christmas”.  (In fact, I would not be the least bit offended if the school put up a “holiday” tree or if these two weeks off were called the “winter break”. )

Nor do I applaud it as a parent necessarily.  It’s not the school’s job to “keep Christ in Christmas” for my kids.  (That role belongs solely to my wife and me, if we so choose.)

No, I applaud the concert mainly as an educator - because it gives me just the slightest hope that our culture’s oft misguided sensitivity and fear of provoking controversy have not yet completely eliminated every reference to the Bible from our local public schools. 

During my years at Hauser, I always hoped to teach an elective course called “The Bible as Literature”, but the schedule never allowed. Whenever I discussed the possibility with students, two questions consistently came back at me: “Can you teach that in a public school?” and “What in the world would it be about?”

There was a time in our not too distant past when both questions would have elicited only laughter and incredulity.

A year ago, Marilynne Robinson wrote in The New York Times, “The Bible is the model for and subject of more art and thought than those of us who live within its influence, consciously or unconsciously, will ever know.”  The point is, regardless of whether one reads the Bible as divine inspiration or as mythology, one definitely should be familiar with it.  The Bible remains the world’s widest selling book and a key foundation for much of Western art, literature, ethics and law. Those unfamiliar with what is written there miss out on every biblical allusion present in the books, movies, and debates that surround us every day and an important dimension of meaning is lost.

I have watched episodes of The Simpsons where a good deal of the humor would be lost on the biblically illiterate.  And when our teens aren’t educated enough to “get” a cartoon, a change is due. 

I suggest we need to go even further behind the times.