This weekend was pretty impactful for a number of reasons. On Friday the Ton and I went to see
Expelled. The movie (a doc about Intelligent Design and evolution) is pretty ballsy. Ben Stein, a Yale valedictorian, Richard Nixon speech writer, and actor turned movie-producing saboteur, created a documentary that is provocative, antagonistic, funny, and compelling.
Throughout my time student teaching I have grown more and more concerned for today's students. Their education is so on-sided in terms of the information that they are given to learn through books, articles, and media. This movie posed many of the same thoughts that I have had about our educational system. Hopefully it will generate some sort of open dialogue and debate in the public school system. It will undoubtedly piss some people off and it makes no effort to do otherwise.
My only fear is that it will be used as ammunition against liberal, non-Christian folk by ultra conservative people. It is a pretty polarizing movie and is definitely biased but it is really well done and I would recommend it for sure (Mel and I saw it on Sunday as well). On Saturday I had the opportunity to go with a bunch of VBC folks to the
Tenderloin with an SF-based ministry called City Impact. They are working on renovating a building to turn it in to a school. Since my wrist is still jacked up I opted to help in a nearby school tutoring kids and assisting with the San Francisco Rescue Mission's VBS-style ministry. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids but the real powerful time for me happened after the kids took off. A group of us (Tim, Darlene, and co.) took groceries door-to-door
in 3 different apartment buildings. We split up in to pairs and knocked on doors and offered to pray for the people as well. No one turned us down. The people that I encountered were super poor and many were in bad health. One man, named Cleo, asked me to pray for his health and he told me that he had Valley Fever. For those of you guys that are familiar with Rob Willson's situation, you know he has the same thing. I prayed with the guy and told him about Rob. Cleo was crying and it was a really powerful time. Pray for Cleo and his health.
Also, pray for Frank and his battle with alcoholism and Michael, for the health of him and his family. It is easy to forget about the povery and desperation that is only 20 miles from here (and even closer in some cases). It was a great reminder of what it means to live a life like Christ. These people, many of which offered to pray for me as well, were less in need of help than me in some cases and I relish the opportunity to spend time with them again. I am thankful for what I have. I am thankful for Melissa and Tate and for our health and I hope I don't take advantage of that. A group from the church is going out there again next Saturday. If you have the time you should go. Better yet, make the time to go.
This weekend was pretty impactful for a number of reasons. On Friday the Ton and I went to see Expelled. The movie (a doc about Intelligent Design and evolution) is pretty ballsy. Ben Stein, a Yale valedictorian, Richard Nixon speech writer, and actor turned movie-producing saboteur, created a documentary that is provocative, antagonistic, funny, and compelling.
Throughout my time student teaching I have grown more and more concerned for today's students. Their education is so on-sided in terms of the information that they are given to learn through books, articles, and media. This movie posed many of the same thoughts that I have had about our educational system. Hopefully it will generate some sort of open dialogue and debate in the public school system. It will undoubtedly piss some people off and it makes no effort to do otherwise.
My only fear is that it will be used as ammunition against liberal, non-Christian folk by ultra conservative people. It is a pretty polarizing movie and is definitely biased but it is really well done and I would recommend it for sure (Mel and I saw it on Sunday as well). On Saturday I had the opportunity to go with a bunch of VBC folks to the Tenderloin with an SF-based ministry called City Impact. They are working on renovating a building to turn it in to a school. Since my wrist is still jacked up I opted to help in a nearby school tutoring kids and assisting with the San Francisco Rescue Mission's VBS-style ministry. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids but the real powerful time for me happened after the kids took off. A group of us (Tim, Darlene, and co.) took groceries door-to-door
in 3 different apartment buildings. We split up in to pairs and knocked on doors and offered to pray for the people as well. No one turned us down. The people that I encountered were super poor and many were in bad health. One man, named Cleo, asked me to pray for his health and he told me that he had Valley Fever. For those of you guys that are familiar with Rob Willson's situation, you know he has the same thing. I prayed with the guy and told him about Rob. Cleo was crying and it was a really powerful time. Pray for Cleo and his health.
Also, pray for Frank and his battle with alcoholism and Michael, for the health of him and his family. It is easy to forget about the povery and desperation that is only 20 miles from here (and even closer in some cases). It was a great reminder of what it means to live a life like Christ. These people, many of which offered to pray for me as well, were less in need of help than me in some cases and I relish the opportunity to spend time with them again. I am thankful for what I have. I am thankful for Melissa and Tate and for our health and I hope I don't take advantage of that. A group from the church is going out there again next Saturday. If you have the time you should go. Better yet, make the time to go.
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