During our time on earth we constantly live between memory and vision. Our ability to remember is the most fantastic thing. From the time we are born we constantly categorize everything we encounter so that we will know it at some future time. Babies categorize the world into things to suck or not suck and faces they have come to feel friendly with and faces that are new and scary.
In Christian schools we educate children and young people who live, as we do, between memory and vision. In our minds are all the things we know and all the experiences we have had...our memories. But in the Bible, and in our hearts and minds are the visions of how God wants us to be, how God wants God’s world to be, how God wants our place in this world to be. That is somewhat in the present but very much in the future. And teaching this is what the Christian school is all about.
How do teachers teach this? In ways that are appropriate for different developmental levels. I watched this being taught in a kindergarten class one day. In fact, as I watched I first thought, “Is this teacher crazy?” and then when I caught on to what the teacher was doing I thought, “This is much too difficult a concept for kindergartner’s to comprehend. But you will see that I was wrong.
The children were sitting around the teacher and she had a stack of pictures of wonderful animals. Not the kind we know so well in North America but many of them were found only in your country. She had these pictures nicely glued to backings of colorful construction paper.
She picked up one picture and told the name of the animal and talked about lots of interesting things about that animal. Then she said, “I am going to give this picture to one of you to hold.” She picked a child but before she gave the picture to him she said, “This is my picture of the koala. I made it. It is very beautiful. It is mine. I love it so much. You must take very good care of my picture.” The little boy very seriously said he would and he did as he sat down.
Then she picked up another picture and did the same. At the end of the description of each animal she said (repeat....) (I thought she sounded a bit weird because she as so intense but the children were spellbound by her voice.)
After all the picture had been given out she said, “You know I am going to give you those pictures to keep. But what do you think I was trying to teach you when I talked about the pictures?” One very tiny boy said, “That we have to love these animals and that we have to see that they are beautiful and that we have to take care of them.” (I was surprised that he got all that.)
Then she said, “Why must we do all those things? Why must we love the animals and see how beautiful they are and enjoy them and take good care of them?” And all the children together said, “Because God made them and God said we had to do that.”
Their quick answers were clearly the result of many many lessons carefully taught so that they would come to these aspects of God’s world and what their places must be in that world.
We have Christian schools so that children and young people will come to know God’s world as God’s world. It is a world made for God’s creatures so that we may play in it, and live in it, and admire it, and marvel at it, and love it, and take care of it. We want children and young people to know and to remember how God intended for all the different aspects of this world to be. So together we study textbooks, work experiments, go on field trips, and study Scriptures so that our children and young people may come to know what God’s intention for this world really was.
More about Slumschools
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Making a Space for Seeing
When doctors first learned how to perform safe cataract operations they went all over Europe and America operating on people who had been blinded from birth by cataracts. When they first learned to see, the vast majority of patients of all ages had a very confused idea of space.
Before the operation, the doctor would give a blind patient a cube and a square. The patient would feel it, maybe touch it with the tongue, maybe bite on it, and name it correctly.
After the operation the doctor would step back and show the same objects to the patient. The patient would have no idea what she or he was seeing. You see, the patients could not come to know about something by looking at it. They had to touch it to know because they had only one way of knowing...by touching.
Upon looking at a person, they seemed to have no idea of the size of the person without touching. When asked how large the person was, the newly sighted patient would hold the thumb and index finger out and measure that way.
When a newly sighted woman was shown a painting, she asked, "Why do they put all those dark marks on it?" "Those things are to show where the shadows are in real life," said her mother. "We need the dark shadows in order to understand what we are seeing. Without the dark shadows everything would look flat to us." "But everything does look flat," said the newly sighted woman. She could not look at an object and understand depth.
What those newly sighted people needed was to have opened to them a way to see...a way to interpret what they were seeing...a way to come to know by seeing. Someone needed to help them make a space for seeing.
That, I think, is what all teaching in Christian schools is about. Teachers at every level need to find ways to help students make a way for their own understanding of God’s truths. Teachers need to help students make a way for their own seeing, a way for their own hearing, a way for their own knowing, a way for their own learning to understand the truths of God’s creation can happen.
Before the operation, the doctor would give a blind patient a cube and a square. The patient would feel it, maybe touch it with the tongue, maybe bite on it, and name it correctly.
After the operation the doctor would step back and show the same objects to the patient. The patient would have no idea what she or he was seeing. You see, the patients could not come to know about something by looking at it. They had to touch it to know because they had only one way of knowing...by touching.
Upon looking at a person, they seemed to have no idea of the size of the person without touching. When asked how large the person was, the newly sighted patient would hold the thumb and index finger out and measure that way.
When a newly sighted woman was shown a painting, she asked, "Why do they put all those dark marks on it?" "Those things are to show where the shadows are in real life," said her mother. "We need the dark shadows in order to understand what we are seeing. Without the dark shadows everything would look flat to us." "But everything does look flat," said the newly sighted woman. She could not look at an object and understand depth.
What those newly sighted people needed was to have opened to them a way to see...a way to interpret what they were seeing...a way to come to know by seeing. Someone needed to help them make a space for seeing.
That, I think, is what all teaching in Christian schools is about. Teachers at every level need to find ways to help students make a way for their own understanding of God’s truths. Teachers need to help students make a way for their own seeing, a way for their own hearing, a way for their own knowing, a way for their own learning to understand the truths of God’s creation can happen.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Questions middle school kids are asking!
Taking student questions seriously: We always gave lip-service to the understanding that sstudents' questions must be taken seriously. But we didn’t often do it very well.
A few years ago I completed a survey of 2500 12- to 14-year-olds who attend Christian schools in different parts of North America. One of the most important questions I asked was, “If you dared to ask your parents, or your teachers, or your pastor any four questions, what might they be?” Some of the questions they gave me were thrilling in their maturity and sophistication.
“How do Bible scholars come up with their answers?”
“Does it actually say in the Bible in more than one place that women shouldn’t minister to other people?”
“In the New Testament, people had convicted a woman of adultery or prostitution. Jesus squatted down and starting writing on the ground. I want to know what he was writing. After that, he stood and said, ‘If you have not sinned at all, you will be the first to through the stone.’ Something like that.”
What is the real reason other books aren’t in the NT?”
“Why was Elijah so special, but Noah and Moses died?”
“How do I witness for Jesus Christ without shoving the gospel down people’s throats and being annoying?”
“Do you think that God will listen more, if 50 people pray for a person or 1 person prays for a person? If they are the same, why do we have prayer groups and chains?”
“Why am I drifting apart so far from God? What has happened to me? I feel like a chameleon because I have to change in front of every new person I meet or have met.”
“If Eve never had any girls, where or how did Cain and Seth have descendents?”
“What’s the point? Besides asking God for things and saying thank you for other things, what’s the point? Why do we need God? Why do some people yearn for God or want more of him? I’ve never felt that way. What’s the point of God? Does our life matter at all? I mean, I’d rather be alive, but, again, what’s the point?”
“Does anyone else wonder if God is really real? Because Buddhist thinks Buddha is God. I feel bad for asking that but I wonder sometimes.”
“How can God be the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end? Why can’t I understand that? It sounds impossible. I know it’s true. But I can’t figure out how.”
“This is a question I ask to myself so many times, but I don’t really get the answer: If God knows everything, even the future, why did he created Adam and Eve, If he knew that they were not going to obey Him?”
And some questions made me think, “Oh, God, they are just children and they are asking these things?”
“Will people have sex in heaven? Because what if I die without ever having sex, if there isn’t any sex in heaven I’ll be missing out.”
“Is oral [sex] before marriage ok? I mean it’s not sex.”
“The Bible says its wrong to have sex before you’re married but how far are allowed to go? Can you do oral sex?”
“Can you name all the sins?”
“Could I be possessed?”
“Could you kill and still go to heaven?”
“Do you believe if you’re a Christian and if you commit suicide you go to heaven?”
“Does God forgive me if I keep doing the same sin?”
“Does it really say in the Bible that being gay is wrong?”
New organization
I haven't written for a while. To be quite honest, I find writing really difficult when there is no feedback. But I will continue.
Our new organization will serve schools in the slums of India. At the point when we have the organization set up I will tell you more about it.
Our new organization will serve schools in the slums of India. At the point when we have the organization set up I will tell you more about it.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Siani and Suphala
This is a picture of Siani and Suphala and their children. With them is Lynell, a friend from Michgian. Siani and Suphala started this orphanage a few years ago. Since that time it has grown rapidly.
If you want more information about them contact me, Gloria Stronks, stro@calvin.edu
They need a kitchen!
Siani and Suphala at New Life Orphanage in Orissa, India have moved into a new building which they are completing. They desperately need a kitchen so that the orphans will have a warm meal. That kitchen will cost $5,000 U.S. dollars.
If you are willing to help please contact me, Gloria Stronks at stro@calvin.edu. I will tell you how to send the money directly to the orphanage.
If you are willing to help please contact me, Gloria Stronks at stro@calvin.edu. I will tell you how to send the money directly to the orphanage.
What does New Life Orphanage and School need?
Monthly Expenditure details of New Life School, Kesinga
Salary to 8 teachers @Rs2500/- per teacher So total Rs20000/-
House Rent : Rs5000/-per month
Salary to Principal Rs 5000/-
Salary to 2 persons @Rs1250/- per person total Rs2500/-
Electrical Bill per month Rs3000/-
Phone bill Rs500/-
Chalk & Duster Rs300/-
Printing, Xerox etc Rs700/-
Others , maintenance Rs5000/-
Total Rs42000/- per month
Yearly expenses:
Books, stationery, notebooks, pen , pencils Rs200000/-
Uniform , shoe , socks, tie, belt etc Twice in a year Rs200000/-
Sports equipments, Bench, desks, chairs, computers, toys etc Rs200000/-
If you would like to donate to New Life Orphanage, please contact Gloria Stronks at stro@calvin.edu.
Salary to 8 teachers @Rs2500/- per teacher So total Rs20000/-
House Rent : Rs5000/-per month
Salary to Principal Rs 5000/-
Salary to 2 persons @Rs1250/- per person total Rs2500/-
Electrical Bill per month Rs3000/-
Phone bill Rs500/-
Chalk & Duster Rs300/-
Printing, Xerox etc Rs700/-
Others , maintenance Rs5000/-
Total Rs42000/- per month
Yearly expenses:
Books, stationery, notebooks, pen , pencils Rs200000/-
Uniform , shoe , socks, tie, belt etc Twice in a year Rs200000/-
Sports equipments, Bench, desks, chairs, computers, toys etc Rs200000/-
If you would like to donate to New Life Orphanage, please contact Gloria Stronks at stro@calvin.edu.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Recently I came to know about "The New Life School" in the state of Orissa. Orissa was in the news last August, when extremists murdered many Christians and burned their homes. New Life staff and students had to flee into the woods and live like wild animals for several weeks. Their crime being that they are Christians. They have now returned, but it would not surprise me if they are still nervous. If their homes are small by our standards, schools are functional but much smaller. Classrooms half the size of ours here accomodate twice the number of children there.
Fortunately the needs of the people are much smaller too. A teacher makes the equivalent of $62.50 per month. The principal makes $125.00.
Total cost to run a school with 8 teachers, 2 teacher assistants and the principal is $1050.00 per month. This includes rent, utilities, phone and maintenance.
The school is presently in a rental facility but New Life is in the process of building a new school. It is up to the roof. The cost of the roof is estimated at $11000.00.
New Life School is trusting God to provide for their needs.
George Couperus.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Slumschools, continued
One of the things we would like to do with our organization is this:
Teachers in elementary and secondary public and private schools of North American and Asian countries will learn about the social, moral, and religious beliefs and practices of people in countries other than their own. The teachers will, in turn, work to educate the students in their schools as well as the citizens of their localities about these matters in order to promote the understanding and social and religious tolerance that are important parts of a just and civil society.
Teachers in elementary and secondary public and private schools of North American and Asian countries will learn about the social, moral, and religious beliefs and practices of people in countries other than their own. The teachers will, in turn, work to educate the students in their schools as well as the citizens of their localities about these matters in order to promote the understanding and social and religious tolerance that are important parts of a just and civil society.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Among my favorite memories are the years I spent in a one-room rural school in Minnesota. School was always a wonderful place for me, even though the teacher could give only a small amount of time to each of us. The library was the size of a kitchen cupboard and it was full of wonderful books. I think I read every one of them.
My mother kept a journal during her years on a farm in Minnesota. Her entries were usually something like the following:
Hot and dry today. Canned 30 quarts of beans. Men finished
harvesting the oats. Fried chicken for dinner.
When I was a child I thought her entries were very boring. Now I realize the incredible amount of work that went into such a day. Not only is the idea of canning 30 quarts of beans daunting. I now realize that serving fried chicken to the men who came to help with the harvest meant that she caught and killed two chickens, removed their feathers, cleaned the insides, and then cut them up for frying. And after that she found time and energy to write about it in her journal. My mother should have had a gold crown for the work that filled her days.
These entries will be about neither my mother nor me. Instead, they will tell the stories of children throughout the world and the men and women who teach them, at times under the most difficult of conditions.
My mother kept a journal during her years on a farm in Minnesota. Her entries were usually something like the following:
Hot and dry today. Canned 30 quarts of beans. Men finished
harvesting the oats. Fried chicken for dinner.
When I was a child I thought her entries were very boring. Now I realize the incredible amount of work that went into such a day. Not only is the idea of canning 30 quarts of beans daunting. I now realize that serving fried chicken to the men who came to help with the harvest meant that she caught and killed two chickens, removed their feathers, cleaned the insides, and then cut them up for frying. And after that she found time and energy to write about it in her journal. My mother should have had a gold crown for the work that filled her days.
These entries will be about neither my mother nor me. Instead, they will tell the stories of children throughout the world and the men and women who teach them, at times under the most difficult of conditions.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Each year over 100 million school-age children are unable to attend school. This is true for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the work of children, even as young as age 7, is needed for the survival of the family. These children can bring home a small amount of money and every little bit is needed for food. Other children live in regions that are so isolated or impoverished that there is no school available for them.
Of the 100 million children who can’t attend school, 61% are girls. It is thought in some regions of the world that educating a girl is like “watering my neighbor’s garden.” By that they mean that boys will grow up and marry and after that the young couple will look after the parents. Girls, on the other hand, will grow up to take care of their husband’s family.
Think about the following statistics:
• An estimated 875 million adults are illiterate worldwide and nearly two-thirds of them are women.
• Each year over 100 million primary-age children are not able to attend school.
• South Asia is home to one-fifth of the world's population and 40% of the world's absolute poor.
• In India, one-third of all children aged 6 to 14 do not attend school. This is equal to 23 million boys and 36 million girls -- double the entire population of Canada.
• Africa as a continent has a literacy rate of less than 60 percent. In Sub-Saharan Africa since 1980, primary school enrollment has declined, going from 58 percent to 50 percent.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Examining my own worldview
We need to ask ourselves what we, personally, do believe. Answering the following questions will help with that:
What things do I truly believe are worth caring about?
Which things matter the most to me?
What do I believe is wrong with the world?
What could I do to repair what is wrong?
Is it true that what I believe can be seen in how I live?
Examples of ways in which my beliefs are revealed in actions that I
refrain from doing are these:
Examples of ways in which my beliefs are revealed in actions that I do
are these:
What decisions have we made in our family that nourish the
connectedness I want to have with my children?
What decisions or lack of decision are in danger of breaking that
connectedness?
What tendencies have been developing in my own life?
What tendencies do I see developing in my children?
Young adult: No event in my life has been more significant in shaping my current worldview than the sudden, unexpected death of my father and its lasting effects on my family. I had been in college for a day when my dad suddenly died. My mother, a secondary wage earner whose focus had been childrearing, suddenly became the breadwinner of the family. I saw how she had been ill-equipped educationally for that role. I also began to see that the system itself had handicapped her. My father’s high school education could get him a good union job in an aluminum plant. My mom’s high school education qualified her to be a para-educator in a school, a receptionist, or a retail clerk. None of these jobs could begin to compare in terms of earning power or benefits. Moreover, I saw how others assumed that she wasn’t quite as qualified or capable as my dad, simply because of her gender. The real world isn’t a friendly place for a single, high school-educated woman in middle age.
I saw all this at 18 years old and started to wonder why this was. I quickly realized that my mom wasn’t the only one, either. I began to see the injustice of it all – my mom had played by society’s rules, stayed at home, raised her kids, done everything those prophets of “family values” had told her to, and had gotten kicked in the teeth for it. I decided then that I wanted my work, and the way I lived my life, to be about empowering women. I wanted every woman to have access to education, to better jobs, and to the tools necessary to provide for their basic needs without living on the margins. And the more I learned, the more I became convinced that such a future would require widespread systemic change on a variety of levels. That event, and its after-affects, are the wellspring for my subsequent life journey to this point. What does my worldview have to do with raising my children in the fabric of faithfulness?
From: Families Living in the Fabric of Faithfulness, Gloria Goris Stronks and Julia K. Stronks
What things do I truly believe are worth caring about?
Which things matter the most to me?
What do I believe is wrong with the world?
What could I do to repair what is wrong?
Is it true that what I believe can be seen in how I live?
Examples of ways in which my beliefs are revealed in actions that I
refrain from doing are these:
Examples of ways in which my beliefs are revealed in actions that I do
are these:
What decisions have we made in our family that nourish the
connectedness I want to have with my children?
What decisions or lack of decision are in danger of breaking that
connectedness?
What tendencies have been developing in my own life?
What tendencies do I see developing in my children?
Young adult: No event in my life has been more significant in shaping my current worldview than the sudden, unexpected death of my father and its lasting effects on my family. I had been in college for a day when my dad suddenly died. My mother, a secondary wage earner whose focus had been childrearing, suddenly became the breadwinner of the family. I saw how she had been ill-equipped educationally for that role. I also began to see that the system itself had handicapped her. My father’s high school education could get him a good union job in an aluminum plant. My mom’s high school education qualified her to be a para-educator in a school, a receptionist, or a retail clerk. None of these jobs could begin to compare in terms of earning power or benefits. Moreover, I saw how others assumed that she wasn’t quite as qualified or capable as my dad, simply because of her gender. The real world isn’t a friendly place for a single, high school-educated woman in middle age.
I saw all this at 18 years old and started to wonder why this was. I quickly realized that my mom wasn’t the only one, either. I began to see the injustice of it all – my mom had played by society’s rules, stayed at home, raised her kids, done everything those prophets of “family values” had told her to, and had gotten kicked in the teeth for it. I decided then that I wanted my work, and the way I lived my life, to be about empowering women. I wanted every woman to have access to education, to better jobs, and to the tools necessary to provide for their basic needs without living on the margins. And the more I learned, the more I became convinced that such a future would require widespread systemic change on a variety of levels. That event, and its after-affects, are the wellspring for my subsequent life journey to this point. What does my worldview have to do with raising my children in the fabric of faithfulness?
From: Families Living in the Fabric of Faithfulness, Gloria Goris Stronks and Julia K. Stronks
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Why are Christian schools important for mission work?
With Christians in so many countries supporting missionaries, why should we help Christian schools? A teacher in India answered that question for us:
When I was a child my parents wanted me to get a good education. The best schools in our area were Christian schools. My parents were of a different faith but they saw that the Christian school taught the morals and good conduct that my parents wanted me to learn. In that school I learned about Jesus and became a Christian. Now I have started my own Christian school. It has an excellent reputation and we have many children of parents who are not Christians. When you teach a child about our gracious God and about the saving faith of Jesus Christ, you teach future generations.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Why do we have Christian schools?
When doctors first learned how to perform safe cataract operations they went all over Europe and America operating on people who had been blinded from birth by cataracts. When they first learned to see, the vast majority of patients of all ages had a very confused idea of space.
Before the operation, the doctor would give a blind patient a cube and a square. The patient would feel it, maybe touch it with the tongue, maybe bite on it, and name it correctly. After the operation the doctor would step back and show the same objects to the patient. The patient would have no idea what she or he was seeing. You see, the patients could not come to know about something by looking at it. They had to touch it to know because they had only one way of knowing...by touching.
Upon looking at a person, they seemed to have no idea of the size of the person without touching. When asked how large the person was, the newly sighted patient would hold the thumb and index finger out and measure that way.
When a newly sighted woman was shown a painting, she asked, "Why do they put all those dark marks on it?" "Those things are to show where the shadows are in real life," said her mother. "We need the dark shadows in order to understand what we are seeing. Without the dark shadows everything would look flat to us." "But everything does look flat," said the newly sighted woman. She could not look at an object and understand depth.
What those newly sighted people needed was to have opened to them a way to see...a way to interpret what they were seeing...a way to come to know by seeing. Someone needed to help them make a space for seeing.
That, I think, is what all teaching in Christian schools is about. Teachers at every level need to find ways to help students make a way for their own understanding of God’s truths. Teachers need to help students make a way for their own seeing, a way for their own hearing, a way for their own knowing, a way for their own learning to understand the truths of God’s creation can happen.
The task of a Christian school is to open up the joys and delights and satisfactions of knowing God’s world. The task of the Christian school is to invite students to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, responding to His call and invitation. It means inviting them to come to know as His people know.
Before the operation, the doctor would give a blind patient a cube and a square. The patient would feel it, maybe touch it with the tongue, maybe bite on it, and name it correctly. After the operation the doctor would step back and show the same objects to the patient. The patient would have no idea what she or he was seeing. You see, the patients could not come to know about something by looking at it. They had to touch it to know because they had only one way of knowing...by touching.
Upon looking at a person, they seemed to have no idea of the size of the person without touching. When asked how large the person was, the newly sighted patient would hold the thumb and index finger out and measure that way.
When a newly sighted woman was shown a painting, she asked, "Why do they put all those dark marks on it?" "Those things are to show where the shadows are in real life," said her mother. "We need the dark shadows in order to understand what we are seeing. Without the dark shadows everything would look flat to us." "But everything does look flat," said the newly sighted woman. She could not look at an object and understand depth.
What those newly sighted people needed was to have opened to them a way to see...a way to interpret what they were seeing...a way to come to know by seeing. Someone needed to help them make a space for seeing.
That, I think, is what all teaching in Christian schools is about. Teachers at every level need to find ways to help students make a way for their own understanding of God’s truths. Teachers need to help students make a way for their own seeing, a way for their own hearing, a way for their own knowing, a way for their own learning to understand the truths of God’s creation can happen.
The task of a Christian school is to open up the joys and delights and satisfactions of knowing God’s world. The task of the Christian school is to invite students to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, responding to His call and invitation. It means inviting them to come to know as His people know.
Monday, June 21, 2010
A Day With A Hindu Man
Some people rarely leave their comfort zone. My friend, Gypsy Meadows, is not one of these. Here is what she wrote:
I spent a day with a Hindu man and learned much from him. He works for an airline and is intelligent and good looking. Even more, he is caring, which is why I happened to spend a day with him. I missed a flight and was waiting for the duty manager to receive a certificate which acknowledged the lateness of the arrival of one flight, so I wouldn’t have to pay a high fee for rebooking my connecting flight. By 2am, I got tired of waiting and lay down on the couch and fell asleep. A customer service person from the airline saw what he thought was a young girl sleeping in the office lounge and decided he must do something to help. He woke me up, provided water for me, helped me obtain the needed paperwork and offered to help me find a hotel. The only hotel he knew was a five star, which he called and there was a room available but I didn’t want to pay that much, so he said if I was willing to wait until he got off his shift in a few hours, he would help me find a safe place to stay. He said I was welcome to sleep at his flat which he shared with his brother, or he would try to find a safe, cheap hotel.
Since I don’t know the city of Delhi and it was the middle of the night, I waited in the lounge and did some work until he got off. While waiting, I checked tripadvisor.com and found the name of two very cheap hotels that other travelers have recommended. When Brajish got off, I told him it would be better for me to stay in a hotel than at his home, so he helped me get a pre-aid cab, and even pulled out his wallet to pay for it but I intervened. He put me in the taxi to the hotel and told the driver to take care of me. We exchanged phone numbers and committed to meet for a late lunch after we both got some sleep.
He texted me six hours later asking if I had gotten sleep and would like to meet for lunch. He met me at the hotel at 3. I asked how long it took him to get from his home to the hotel – one and a half hours. He hired a rickshaw, the kind that is powered by a human on a bicycle with a carriage attached. He said he lied to his mother for the first time, telling her he had training to attend at work, rather than endure her wrath that he was spending the day with a woman. Apparently he comes from a very traditional family. I had to type his name into my phone and discretely refer to it occasionally as I could not remember his name no matter how hard I tried.
We arrived at the metro station and took a subway car to the Delhi circle. He purchased my train ticket and guided me through each turnstile and electric door as if he was afraid I was a china doll that would break. In the station he purchased is both an ice cream cone. He tried the ‘Special’ which is a daily surprise. It looked like a mix of several flavors swirled together. Then he guided me up into the market area which was filled with stalls of inexpensive clothing and bangles, nothing touristy, just everyday bargains for Delhians. There was nothing that I wanted or needed and so we walked and talked and I asked him many questions.
His father died three years ago of an unexpected heart attack. He was a postal worker so his mother survivors on the pension, although his older brother lives with her and helps her out. He was in love with a girl a few years ago, but her parents married her off to another man. He said he is over it now. He said children treat their parents as gods, whatever t parent says, goes. Are you or your brother promised to anyone? No, he smiles. When men and women work together, do they fall in love and have trouble with their families? Mostly, people have short relationships where they have fun, and then move on. It’s not serious. The women like to have a guy to spend his money. It used to be the other way around, but now it is the opposite.
He gets to fly for free sometimes with the airline he works for, so he is going to Bangkok next month, the first time leaving the country. He and three friends will spend four days there buying electronics, going to the beach, doing whatever. He is mostly saving his money right now in his life. Americans spend their money and have mortgages and credit, right? Yes, I said. They don’t save. But now is a good time for you to travel and see the world, and some day you’ll have a family that you will need to support. He smiles again.
He walks with his arm touching mine, always attentive and careful, like I am his mother, or girlfriend or sister. Only his friend from work knows he is spending the day with me. He has never done this before, actually spent time with a stranded traveler. He loves to help people, which is why he likes his job.
He asks if I would like to see the temple nearby. I start to ask him about his faith. Most families choose one or a couple of gods to worship, he says. There are maybe twenty thousand gods. What god does he worship, I ask? He likes to worship the main god, [I don’t remember the name] the one who created all the other gods. He doesn’t really like to worship the other gods, although he does worship the bachelor god, which is at the temple we have now reached. Tuesday is the normal day to worship this god, so today is not so crowded. He asks if I would like to go in. I say that I cannot worship the god, but I would like to watch him if that is ok. He says sure.
I ask him about the vendors outside. One vendor sells flower leis, which are bought to give to the god, and to wear by the worshipper. Do I want one? No, I have received many while in India. We take off our shoes and leave them with two men who collect fees for watching the shoes. Then Aakash washes his hands, arms and face at a public basin. He buys some fired lentils of some sort in a paper bag and begins to ascend the temple steps. Is it alright if I walk on this side, I ask? Not sure if there is a men and women’s side. Come, follow me, he smiles.
At the top of the steps he hits a bell and it rings loudly. Why do you ring the bell? It tells the god I am here. He approaches a marble table where a priest stands behind, taking the offerings from the worshippers and giving them to the god. Aakash. He gesticulates in a manner similar to the catholic crossing of oneself, gives his food offering to the priest who presents it to the god of bachelorhood, then returns it to Aakash with a red flower tucked in the paper. What do you do with that? I can put the flower at my home altar and share the food with friends. Remember the girl who gave you the snacks at the airport? I remember now, when I was sleeping, when he first approached me, there was a girl with him who offered me some white puffed rice and other seeds to eat. Feeling groggy from sleep, I asked him several times if I was supposed to eat it, and he said yes, she had just come back from Pune worshipping her god, and now she shares the snack with her friends. I begin to visualize the words of the New Testament, wondering if I had defiled my own faith by eating the snack.
After his offering to the priest, the priest touched his forehead with a powder, leaving a yellow smudge between his eyebrows. Now I understand all the people I see with the dot. It means they have visited the temple of their god that day. Later in the airport, I realize how many people have taken the time to visit the temple before travelling, receiving a blessing for them and even their small children.
Next he approached several other god statues, ringing a bell each time to announce his arrival. There is a woman with her head bent on the bench before the god, beseeching it for some desperate prayer. Other worshippers lay on the marble floor before the gods looking like they have not moved in a long time and plan to remain hours more. Aakash’s actions before each god are reverent and affectionate. He strokes a cow god and kisses it behind the ear, whispering something. He touches each pillar as he walks around the square shrine of the main god. As he exits the temple, patiently answering all my questions, he walks backward down the stairs, touching each stair as he leaves.
We retrieve our shoes, Aakash paying the shoe keeper a few rupees. Then he begins to distribute a small handful of the puffed snack to the poor sitting outside the temple. He gives some also to me, but this time I decide I can’t eat it. I slip it into my purse, not wanting to make this moment about me and what I believe by having to explain why I cannot eat it. When he gives some kernels to an old woman, she tells him she would like some milk for her family and leads him to a dairy shop, where he purchases a carton of milk for her. She had asked for two cartons but he said one is enough. As she receives her milk and walks away, I ask, did she say thank you? No. No she didn’t
As we walk through an overpass where many homeless sleep, we approach shops selling high end items and he explains the significance of the saris hung in the window unique to the region. How do you tell the difference between saris form this region? They are made of a different cloth, he says, like fine linen. So many things I have passed by and not understood about this culture.
As we approach a number of wooden benches he asks if I would like to have my hand painted. I would love to! A woman grabs my hand and begins to show me in a cheap photo album the different styles I can choose from. Many are elaborate and cover both sides of the hands, arms, feet and ankles. Just something very simple, I say. She begins to draw on my hand with what looks like a pastry cone, scrolling a beautifully detailed design freehand with a brown past that turns to dark chocolate as it dries. What is it made out of? Aakash asks the woman in her language and she points to the nearby trees. It is made from the leaves of the tree, he says. For fifty rupees, I walk away with a piece of art on my right hand. The paste is left on until it is dry and hardens and then is easily flaked off, leaving a stain from the leaf juice.
We pass a street vendor and Aakash asks if I am hungry. He is vegetarian, and we are offered a puff pastry that is hollow inside, a hole made in the top and filled with a broth like soup with some vegetables. The first time I try to pick it up, I break it. Aakash laughs and says just drink it. Then I watch him eat it successfully, popping the whole thing in his mouth at once. The soup is cold, and it is not too spicy. I eat several, but decline the final cup of broth, which Aakash drinks for both of us, saying it is good for digestion.
Finally he finds me a McDonalds, which I didn’t know he was looking for. Since he said he would not eat anything there, I suggest we go to a coffee shop instead. Now I begin to ask him about his bracelet, does it have any meaning? His, his nephew gave it to him and so it is very lucky for him. There are a few Hindi letters engraved into the silver. What about the strings wrapped around his wrist? These come from a ceremony that is done when a family moves into a new home. The strings are wrapped around the wrist afterward. I begin to realize that almost everything in his life has some spiritual significance; nothing is by chance for simply for decoration. He tells me Indians wear gold because it gives them luck. Later he describes our meeting in the airport as fate.
It was a very relaxing day for me, never tense when the silence stretched a bit long. He was happy that I was happy, and I enjoyed his openness to my questions. I feel I have been missing so much about India by not hearing its interpretation from a Hindu. A young man who believes his generation will make great change in a society that is at odds with itself between the new generation and the old. He wants his children to be able to make choices and thinks that those of his age will also have that same desire. It will be fascinating to watch India’s evolution in the next thirty years.
I had no trouble at the airport that evening. In fact, it seemed as if everyone was especially helpful and their smiles were a bit bigger than normal. I wasn’t sure if it was coincidence, or if my young Aakash had worked his magic once again.
Note: Aakash’s real name has been changed to protect him from his mother’s wrath.
I spent a day with a Hindu man and learned much from him. He works for an airline and is intelligent and good looking. Even more, he is caring, which is why I happened to spend a day with him. I missed a flight and was waiting for the duty manager to receive a certificate which acknowledged the lateness of the arrival of one flight, so I wouldn’t have to pay a high fee for rebooking my connecting flight. By 2am, I got tired of waiting and lay down on the couch and fell asleep. A customer service person from the airline saw what he thought was a young girl sleeping in the office lounge and decided he must do something to help. He woke me up, provided water for me, helped me obtain the needed paperwork and offered to help me find a hotel. The only hotel he knew was a five star, which he called and there was a room available but I didn’t want to pay that much, so he said if I was willing to wait until he got off his shift in a few hours, he would help me find a safe place to stay. He said I was welcome to sleep at his flat which he shared with his brother, or he would try to find a safe, cheap hotel.
Since I don’t know the city of Delhi and it was the middle of the night, I waited in the lounge and did some work until he got off. While waiting, I checked tripadvisor.com and found the name of two very cheap hotels that other travelers have recommended. When Brajish got off, I told him it would be better for me to stay in a hotel than at his home, so he helped me get a pre-aid cab, and even pulled out his wallet to pay for it but I intervened. He put me in the taxi to the hotel and told the driver to take care of me. We exchanged phone numbers and committed to meet for a late lunch after we both got some sleep.
He texted me six hours later asking if I had gotten sleep and would like to meet for lunch. He met me at the hotel at 3. I asked how long it took him to get from his home to the hotel – one and a half hours. He hired a rickshaw, the kind that is powered by a human on a bicycle with a carriage attached. He said he lied to his mother for the first time, telling her he had training to attend at work, rather than endure her wrath that he was spending the day with a woman. Apparently he comes from a very traditional family. I had to type his name into my phone and discretely refer to it occasionally as I could not remember his name no matter how hard I tried.
We arrived at the metro station and took a subway car to the Delhi circle. He purchased my train ticket and guided me through each turnstile and electric door as if he was afraid I was a china doll that would break. In the station he purchased is both an ice cream cone. He tried the ‘Special’ which is a daily surprise. It looked like a mix of several flavors swirled together. Then he guided me up into the market area which was filled with stalls of inexpensive clothing and bangles, nothing touristy, just everyday bargains for Delhians. There was nothing that I wanted or needed and so we walked and talked and I asked him many questions.
His father died three years ago of an unexpected heart attack. He was a postal worker so his mother survivors on the pension, although his older brother lives with her and helps her out. He was in love with a girl a few years ago, but her parents married her off to another man. He said he is over it now. He said children treat their parents as gods, whatever t parent says, goes. Are you or your brother promised to anyone? No, he smiles. When men and women work together, do they fall in love and have trouble with their families? Mostly, people have short relationships where they have fun, and then move on. It’s not serious. The women like to have a guy to spend his money. It used to be the other way around, but now it is the opposite.
He gets to fly for free sometimes with the airline he works for, so he is going to Bangkok next month, the first time leaving the country. He and three friends will spend four days there buying electronics, going to the beach, doing whatever. He is mostly saving his money right now in his life. Americans spend their money and have mortgages and credit, right? Yes, I said. They don’t save. But now is a good time for you to travel and see the world, and some day you’ll have a family that you will need to support. He smiles again.
He walks with his arm touching mine, always attentive and careful, like I am his mother, or girlfriend or sister. Only his friend from work knows he is spending the day with me. He has never done this before, actually spent time with a stranded traveler. He loves to help people, which is why he likes his job.
He asks if I would like to see the temple nearby. I start to ask him about his faith. Most families choose one or a couple of gods to worship, he says. There are maybe twenty thousand gods. What god does he worship, I ask? He likes to worship the main god, [I don’t remember the name] the one who created all the other gods. He doesn’t really like to worship the other gods, although he does worship the bachelor god, which is at the temple we have now reached. Tuesday is the normal day to worship this god, so today is not so crowded. He asks if I would like to go in. I say that I cannot worship the god, but I would like to watch him if that is ok. He says sure.
I ask him about the vendors outside. One vendor sells flower leis, which are bought to give to the god, and to wear by the worshipper. Do I want one? No, I have received many while in India. We take off our shoes and leave them with two men who collect fees for watching the shoes. Then Aakash washes his hands, arms and face at a public basin. He buys some fired lentils of some sort in a paper bag and begins to ascend the temple steps. Is it alright if I walk on this side, I ask? Not sure if there is a men and women’s side. Come, follow me, he smiles.
At the top of the steps he hits a bell and it rings loudly. Why do you ring the bell? It tells the god I am here. He approaches a marble table where a priest stands behind, taking the offerings from the worshippers and giving them to the god. Aakash. He gesticulates in a manner similar to the catholic crossing of oneself, gives his food offering to the priest who presents it to the god of bachelorhood, then returns it to Aakash with a red flower tucked in the paper. What do you do with that? I can put the flower at my home altar and share the food with friends. Remember the girl who gave you the snacks at the airport? I remember now, when I was sleeping, when he first approached me, there was a girl with him who offered me some white puffed rice and other seeds to eat. Feeling groggy from sleep, I asked him several times if I was supposed to eat it, and he said yes, she had just come back from Pune worshipping her god, and now she shares the snack with her friends. I begin to visualize the words of the New Testament, wondering if I had defiled my own faith by eating the snack.
After his offering to the priest, the priest touched his forehead with a powder, leaving a yellow smudge between his eyebrows. Now I understand all the people I see with the dot. It means they have visited the temple of their god that day. Later in the airport, I realize how many people have taken the time to visit the temple before travelling, receiving a blessing for them and even their small children.
Next he approached several other god statues, ringing a bell each time to announce his arrival. There is a woman with her head bent on the bench before the god, beseeching it for some desperate prayer. Other worshippers lay on the marble floor before the gods looking like they have not moved in a long time and plan to remain hours more. Aakash’s actions before each god are reverent and affectionate. He strokes a cow god and kisses it behind the ear, whispering something. He touches each pillar as he walks around the square shrine of the main god. As he exits the temple, patiently answering all my questions, he walks backward down the stairs, touching each stair as he leaves.
We retrieve our shoes, Aakash paying the shoe keeper a few rupees. Then he begins to distribute a small handful of the puffed snack to the poor sitting outside the temple. He gives some also to me, but this time I decide I can’t eat it. I slip it into my purse, not wanting to make this moment about me and what I believe by having to explain why I cannot eat it. When he gives some kernels to an old woman, she tells him she would like some milk for her family and leads him to a dairy shop, where he purchases a carton of milk for her. She had asked for two cartons but he said one is enough. As she receives her milk and walks away, I ask, did she say thank you? No. No she didn’t
As we walk through an overpass where many homeless sleep, we approach shops selling high end items and he explains the significance of the saris hung in the window unique to the region. How do you tell the difference between saris form this region? They are made of a different cloth, he says, like fine linen. So many things I have passed by and not understood about this culture.
As we approach a number of wooden benches he asks if I would like to have my hand painted. I would love to! A woman grabs my hand and begins to show me in a cheap photo album the different styles I can choose from. Many are elaborate and cover both sides of the hands, arms, feet and ankles. Just something very simple, I say. She begins to draw on my hand with what looks like a pastry cone, scrolling a beautifully detailed design freehand with a brown past that turns to dark chocolate as it dries. What is it made out of? Aakash asks the woman in her language and she points to the nearby trees. It is made from the leaves of the tree, he says. For fifty rupees, I walk away with a piece of art on my right hand. The paste is left on until it is dry and hardens and then is easily flaked off, leaving a stain from the leaf juice.
We pass a street vendor and Aakash asks if I am hungry. He is vegetarian, and we are offered a puff pastry that is hollow inside, a hole made in the top and filled with a broth like soup with some vegetables. The first time I try to pick it up, I break it. Aakash laughs and says just drink it. Then I watch him eat it successfully, popping the whole thing in his mouth at once. The soup is cold, and it is not too spicy. I eat several, but decline the final cup of broth, which Aakash drinks for both of us, saying it is good for digestion.
Finally he finds me a McDonalds, which I didn’t know he was looking for. Since he said he would not eat anything there, I suggest we go to a coffee shop instead. Now I begin to ask him about his bracelet, does it have any meaning? His, his nephew gave it to him and so it is very lucky for him. There are a few Hindi letters engraved into the silver. What about the strings wrapped around his wrist? These come from a ceremony that is done when a family moves into a new home. The strings are wrapped around the wrist afterward. I begin to realize that almost everything in his life has some spiritual significance; nothing is by chance for simply for decoration. He tells me Indians wear gold because it gives them luck. Later he describes our meeting in the airport as fate.
It was a very relaxing day for me, never tense when the silence stretched a bit long. He was happy that I was happy, and I enjoyed his openness to my questions. I feel I have been missing so much about India by not hearing its interpretation from a Hindu. A young man who believes his generation will make great change in a society that is at odds with itself between the new generation and the old. He wants his children to be able to make choices and thinks that those of his age will also have that same desire. It will be fascinating to watch India’s evolution in the next thirty years.
I had no trouble at the airport that evening. In fact, it seemed as if everyone was especially helpful and their smiles were a bit bigger than normal. I wasn’t sure if it was coincidence, or if my young Aakash had worked his magic once again.
Note: Aakash’s real name has been changed to protect him from his mother’s wrath.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Gypsy in India
I have been to India about 5 or 6 times, visiting schools and speaking at conferences for teachers in Christian schools. To get to one of the school/orphanages we love, we needed to take a 12-hour train trip. There were four of us and we had a compartment with four "beds" and so I am sure we were more comfortable than the people traveling in the other part of the train. Nevertheless, it was a pretty amazing experience for us.
My colleague in JustThinkSchools is Gypsy Meadows. Gypsy has been in India for a couple of weeks. She has returned now and I am eager to talk with her and share some of her comments with you.
My colleague in JustThinkSchools is Gypsy Meadows. Gypsy has been in India for a couple of weeks. She has returned now and I am eager to talk with her and share some of her comments with you.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
A Wonderful Lesson
In Christian schools we use those same questions over and over, as much as we can, in our teaching. How we use those questions will depend on the age and development level of our class of students.
How do we teach this with very young children? I watched this being taught in a kindergarten class one day. In fact, as I watched I first thought, “Is this teacher crazy?” and then when I caught on to what the teacher was doing I thought, “This is much too difficult a concept for kindergartner’s to comprehend". But you will see that I was wrong.
The children were sitting around the teacher and she had a stack of pictures of wonderful animals. Not the kind we know so well in North America but many of them were found only in Africa and Australia. She had these pictures nicely glued to colorful construction paper.
She picked up one picture and told the name of the animal and talked about lots of interesting things about that animal. Then she said, “I am going to give this picture to one of you to hold.” She picked a child but before she gave the picture to him she said, “This is my picture of the koala. I made it. It is very beautiful. It is mine. I love it so much. You must take very good care of my picture.” The little boy very seriously said he would and he did as he sat down.
Then she picked up another picture and did the same. At the end of the description of each animal she said (repeat....) (I thought she sounded a bit weird because she as so intense but the children were spellbound by her voice.)
After all the picture had been given out she said, “You know I am going to give you those pictures to keep. But what do you think I was trying to teach you when I talked about the pictures?”
One very tiny boy said, “That we have to love these animals and that we have to see that they are beautiful and that we have to take care of them.” (I was surprised that he got all that.)
Then she said, “Why must we do all those things? Why must we love the animals and see how beautiful they are and enjoy them and take good care of them?”
And all the children together said, “Because God made them and God said we had to do that.”
Their quick answers were clearly the result of many many lessons carefully taught so that they would come to these aspects of God’s world and what their places must be in that world.”
How do we teach this with very young children? I watched this being taught in a kindergarten class one day. In fact, as I watched I first thought, “Is this teacher crazy?” and then when I caught on to what the teacher was doing I thought, “This is much too difficult a concept for kindergartner’s to comprehend". But you will see that I was wrong.
The children were sitting around the teacher and she had a stack of pictures of wonderful animals. Not the kind we know so well in North America but many of them were found only in Africa and Australia. She had these pictures nicely glued to colorful construction paper.
She picked up one picture and told the name of the animal and talked about lots of interesting things about that animal. Then she said, “I am going to give this picture to one of you to hold.” She picked a child but before she gave the picture to him she said, “This is my picture of the koala. I made it. It is very beautiful. It is mine. I love it so much. You must take very good care of my picture.” The little boy very seriously said he would and he did as he sat down.
Then she picked up another picture and did the same. At the end of the description of each animal she said (repeat....) (I thought she sounded a bit weird because she as so intense but the children were spellbound by her voice.)
After all the picture had been given out she said, “You know I am going to give you those pictures to keep. But what do you think I was trying to teach you when I talked about the pictures?”
One very tiny boy said, “That we have to love these animals and that we have to see that they are beautiful and that we have to take care of them.” (I was surprised that he got all that.)
Then she said, “Why must we do all those things? Why must we love the animals and see how beautiful they are and enjoy them and take good care of them?”
And all the children together said, “Because God made them and God said we had to do that.”
Their quick answers were clearly the result of many many lessons carefully taught so that they would come to these aspects of God’s world and what their places must be in that world.”
Friday, June 18, 2010
Creating Teaching Units with a biblical perspective
“The teachers in our school try, as much as possible, to help our students develop a Christ-centered worldview by creating instructional units with a Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration motif. However, students at the secondary level say that it is very repetitive. At times they even roll their eyes with boredom.”
The teacher who spoke was describing something that can be a serious problem. At the elementary school level teachers easily use the questions that are part of this motif:
(1) Creation: What is God’s purpose for this aspect of creation that we are studying?
(2) Fall: How can we tell that as a result of sin this aspect of creation is not the way God wants it to be?
(3) Redemption: Because Jesus Christ came to save us, we can now work to make this part of creation more closely resemble how we believe God wants it to be. What plan can we make to do so?
(4) Restoration: How can we work together to carry out our plan to restore this aspect of creation?
Forming units around these questions works very well for elementary and middle school instruction, whether the topics concern stewardship of the earth, living in communities, or examining actions studied in history or in literature. Teaching with the CFRR motif is one way teachers help students form the tendency to ask themselves the same kinds of questions about all of life. However, when used over and over it becomes difficult to create such units in interesting, non-superficial ways so that older students will be truly engaged in developing this tendency.
More on this tomorrow!
The teacher who spoke was describing something that can be a serious problem. At the elementary school level teachers easily use the questions that are part of this motif:
(1) Creation: What is God’s purpose for this aspect of creation that we are studying?
(2) Fall: How can we tell that as a result of sin this aspect of creation is not the way God wants it to be?
(3) Redemption: Because Jesus Christ came to save us, we can now work to make this part of creation more closely resemble how we believe God wants it to be. What plan can we make to do so?
(4) Restoration: How can we work together to carry out our plan to restore this aspect of creation?
Forming units around these questions works very well for elementary and middle school instruction, whether the topics concern stewardship of the earth, living in communities, or examining actions studied in history or in literature. Teaching with the CFRR motif is one way teachers help students form the tendency to ask themselves the same kinds of questions about all of life. However, when used over and over it becomes difficult to create such units in interesting, non-superficial ways so that older students will be truly engaged in developing this tendency.
More on this tomorrow!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Excerpt from book
Raising children isn’t easy. Sometimes we have no idea what
they are thinking. Sometimes we have all we can do to make sure they
are safe, fed, and don’t hurt each other too much when they fight.
Parent: I bungled along and things went pretty smoothly
until Sarah, the oldest, reached junior high. At that point
she was mature enough to rebel in a way that caused me to
call my parenting practices into question. I think I tended to
follow a modified version of the parenting practices of my own
upbringing: parents have complete authority; children are to
be obedient without question. Thankfully, Sarah rebelled and
I realized that I could not, and should not control my children.
I learned to listen, to recognize my children as individuals, to
respect their ideas and concerns. My greatest regret in life is
that I didn’t learn this sooner. I don’t mean to imply that this
was an easy transition, nor that I executed it flawlessly. It is,
however, the single greatest contribution that shaped my ideas
concerning parenting.
From Raising Children in the Fabric of Faithfulness: Parents and Children Describe What Works
they are thinking. Sometimes we have all we can do to make sure they
are safe, fed, and don’t hurt each other too much when they fight.
Parent: I bungled along and things went pretty smoothly
until Sarah, the oldest, reached junior high. At that point
she was mature enough to rebel in a way that caused me to
call my parenting practices into question. I think I tended to
follow a modified version of the parenting practices of my own
upbringing: parents have complete authority; children are to
be obedient without question. Thankfully, Sarah rebelled and
I realized that I could not, and should not control my children.
I learned to listen, to recognize my children as individuals, to
respect their ideas and concerns. My greatest regret in life is
that I didn’t learn this sooner. I don’t mean to imply that this
was an easy transition, nor that I executed it flawlessly. It is,
however, the single greatest contribution that shaped my ideas
concerning parenting.
From Raising Children in the Fabric of Faithfulness: Parents and Children Describe What Works
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Karuna's Story
From time to time I will tell you about orphanages and schools that I know well and that are worthy of financial support. The orphanage/school that Karuna Dasari and her husband founded is called Moriah Children's Home. You can find the website at: http://www.bflc.org/bflcmoriah.htm.
Karuna's story continues:
I was born in India and my parents worshipped all the Hindu gods. They thought that the more they appeased the numerous gods, the greater their blessings would be. Nagu Pamu, the king cobra, was especially revered in our home. My only brother was named after him. I was called Karuna, a Christian name. It is the custom in India for a respected elder to name a new baby, and the esteemed teacher in the village Christian school was asked to name me.
There is still a strong caste system in Indian villages and my family belonged to the low status, powerless Sudra caste. Like most people in our village, my parents never had an education. They wanted me to do better. There was a Hindu school two miles away, but they sent me to the village Christian school when I was seven years old.
I had never known a Christian or heard Jesus’ name. Every day our teacher led us in worship and told Bible stories. I will never forget the first story I heard – the story of Noah.
Her words worked in my heart. She taught of God the Creator and all things which are created by Him. My parents said all of those things were gods. I felt conflict. On the walls of our two-room home hung pictures of many Hindu deities; all my life I had seen my parents bow their heads in worship before these gods.
The true God was revealed to me through stories from my teacher. I did not take them just as nice stories. I felt that she was teaching the Word of God. As I heard about Isaac and Abraham and Joseph, I felt that my parents were worshipping untrue gods. It was the work of the Holy Spirit. I knew that I must worship the God who created me as He had created the snakes and the trees.
But I was still my parents’ daughter, raised in obedience. So whenever they went to sacrifice to our village gods, I went along. My mother would fold her hands and bow before them several times. I thought this was a festive thing that had no meaning. The worship of Almighty God was entirely different.
In those days there was a pastor who served a congregation in our village and several other villages. He came every month to administer the sacraments. One evening when I was about nine years old I was playing on the dusty street and I saw him in the distance. He was coming to the village; I ran toward him.
I told him, “Pastor, I believe Jesus Christ is my true God and my Savior, and I want to become a Christian. Please baptize me.” He was astonished and said, “I am very happy for you my daughter, God bless you. I would like to baptize you but since you are a little girl, I cannot baptize you without your parent’s permission.”
I understood that unless my parents believed Jesus was God they would not let me be baptized. My teacher had been watching me to see how I was learning and growing. She had developed a good friendship with my parents and sensed that now was the time to ask them to come to church, and invite my mother to the women’s Bible study.
Because my education was important to my parents, they listened to the teacher. My mother went to the Bible study and she encouraged my father to go to church. I also tried to encourage them.
Every night as I lay on my cot with the picture of the snake god hanging on the wall above me, I used to tell my parents all the stories that I had learned at school that day. They listened because they loved me.
My teacher prayed and, in time, my parents, through the Holy Spirit, believed that Jesus Christ was the Holy God. When I was about 11 years old, we were all baptized. Since then, in good times and bad times, they never went back to the idols.
My teacher, using her influence as an old student, helped put me in a Christian boarding school so I could get all of my studies through a Christian school. Attending the Christian boarding school helped to further strengthen my understanding and knowledge of God’s Word.
Now, as a director of a Christian school, I want to give away to other children similar to what I received from the Christian day school of my youth. With much prayer and desire, in conjunction with the Bible Faith Lutheran Church’s church planting and gospel work ministry, my husband and I started the Moriah Children’s Home 25 years ago. Then, 9 years ago, we were able to start the Moriah Christian School.
Karuna's story continues:
I was born in India and my parents worshipped all the Hindu gods. They thought that the more they appeased the numerous gods, the greater their blessings would be. Nagu Pamu, the king cobra, was especially revered in our home. My only brother was named after him. I was called Karuna, a Christian name. It is the custom in India for a respected elder to name a new baby, and the esteemed teacher in the village Christian school was asked to name me.
There is still a strong caste system in Indian villages and my family belonged to the low status, powerless Sudra caste. Like most people in our village, my parents never had an education. They wanted me to do better. There was a Hindu school two miles away, but they sent me to the village Christian school when I was seven years old.
I had never known a Christian or heard Jesus’ name. Every day our teacher led us in worship and told Bible stories. I will never forget the first story I heard – the story of Noah.
Her words worked in my heart. She taught of God the Creator and all things which are created by Him. My parents said all of those things were gods. I felt conflict. On the walls of our two-room home hung pictures of many Hindu deities; all my life I had seen my parents bow their heads in worship before these gods.
The true God was revealed to me through stories from my teacher. I did not take them just as nice stories. I felt that she was teaching the Word of God. As I heard about Isaac and Abraham and Joseph, I felt that my parents were worshipping untrue gods. It was the work of the Holy Spirit. I knew that I must worship the God who created me as He had created the snakes and the trees.
But I was still my parents’ daughter, raised in obedience. So whenever they went to sacrifice to our village gods, I went along. My mother would fold her hands and bow before them several times. I thought this was a festive thing that had no meaning. The worship of Almighty God was entirely different.
In those days there was a pastor who served a congregation in our village and several other villages. He came every month to administer the sacraments. One evening when I was about nine years old I was playing on the dusty street and I saw him in the distance. He was coming to the village; I ran toward him.
I told him, “Pastor, I believe Jesus Christ is my true God and my Savior, and I want to become a Christian. Please baptize me.” He was astonished and said, “I am very happy for you my daughter, God bless you. I would like to baptize you but since you are a little girl, I cannot baptize you without your parent’s permission.”
I understood that unless my parents believed Jesus was God they would not let me be baptized. My teacher had been watching me to see how I was learning and growing. She had developed a good friendship with my parents and sensed that now was the time to ask them to come to church, and invite my mother to the women’s Bible study.
Because my education was important to my parents, they listened to the teacher. My mother went to the Bible study and she encouraged my father to go to church. I also tried to encourage them.
Every night as I lay on my cot with the picture of the snake god hanging on the wall above me, I used to tell my parents all the stories that I had learned at school that day. They listened because they loved me.
My teacher prayed and, in time, my parents, through the Holy Spirit, believed that Jesus Christ was the Holy God. When I was about 11 years old, we were all baptized. Since then, in good times and bad times, they never went back to the idols.
My teacher, using her influence as an old student, helped put me in a Christian boarding school so I could get all of my studies through a Christian school. Attending the Christian boarding school helped to further strengthen my understanding and knowledge of God’s Word.
Now, as a director of a Christian school, I want to give away to other children similar to what I received from the Christian day school of my youth. With much prayer and desire, in conjunction with the Bible Faith Lutheran Church’s church planting and gospel work ministry, my husband and I started the Moriah Children’s Home 25 years ago. Then, 9 years ago, we were able to start the Moriah Christian School.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Karuna Dasari
She looked so familiar to me but where might I have seen her before? As I spoke to the 38 Christian school teachers and school leaders in India, my eyes moved back to her.
During the break I walked to her table and she introduced herself:
My husband came to the U.S.A. to study theology after he was finished with it, he was given a teaching position in a seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
His teaching job brought my family to the U.S.A. and we made that our home for 20 years. At the end of that time we left our adult children in Minneapolis and my husband and I moved back to India. I have 3 children – 2 boys and 1 girl and they are all married. I have 5 grand children from ages 2 to 6. I love my grand children and I pray for them everyday and I visit them at least once a year.
It was difficult for me to imagine living so far from my children and grandchild and when I asked her whether she wouldn’t rather return to Minnesota to be with her family, she said, “Oh yes, but then who would care for my orphans?” Karuna’s story continues:
With God’s help and strength my husband and I continued to develop gospel missions which my husband started in 1979. Along with church planting an orphan home has been running since 1986. We started a Christian day school in 1998 and it continues to this day.
After my husband passed away in the year 2000 I have remained in India to work with my own people. I love the children and I want to help Moriah Orphan Children and the Moriah School as long as the Lord permits me to do this ministry.
• There are 360 children in the school from L.K.G. to X class (lower kindergarten through grade 10). 95% of them are non-Christians. They are taught God’s Word and we sing songs and choruses every day. I pray that Moriah School will grow to be large in order to educate more non-Christian children to be the future church of God.
• There are 50 children in the orphan home and some of them are semi-orphans, meaning that one parent is dead.
• My heart’s desire in the Lord is to bring more orphan children into the home and raise them for Christ. I want to give them basic education and train them in some Vo-Tech courses so that they can work and live comfortably in their adulthood. There are some former children of Moriah Orphanage who are now graduates and postgraduates, police people, small business owners and hotel managers. I thank and praise God for this.
Many Christian teachers in India have orphanages in order to care for children who have been abandoned. As Karuna spoke I realized that I hadn’t met her before but it was the expression in her eyes that I recognized. It was the expression I have seen before in the eyes of those who give their lives in service to others. They know that serving those in need is that point in the cosmos where God’s marvelous grace is met with our humble gratitude.
With Christians in so many countries supporting missionaries, why should we help Christian schools? A teacher in India answered that question for us:
When I was a child my parents wanted me to get a good education. The best schools in our area were Christian schools. My parents were of a different faith but they saw that the Christian school taught the morals and good conduct that my parents wanted me to learn. In that school I learned about Jesus and became a Christian. Now I have started my own Christian school. It has an excellent reputation and we have many children of parents who are not Christians. When you teach a child about our gracious God and about the saving faith of Jesus Christ, you teach future generations.
Monday, June 14, 2010
More about Slumschools
Why did we choose Slumschools for the name of our organization? Here are some reasons:
JUST THINK how it would be if American teachers and students understood what living and going to school is like in poverty-stricken regions of India!
JUST THINK how it would be if American and Asian teachers and students understood what it means to be a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian and how that affects one’s world-and-life view! Think what it would be like to live in a slum and yet want to have a reasonably good education! What if all that was available for you or for your children was a government school with teachers who cared very little for teaching.
JUST THINK how it would be if American and Indian teachers knew how to transform their schools and communities into places where justice and civility flourish!
JUST THINK how it would be if American teachers and students understood what living and going to school is like in poverty-stricken regions of India!
JUST THINK how it would be if American and Asian teachers and students understood what it means to be a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian and how that affects one’s world-and-life view! Think what it would be like to live in a slum and yet want to have a reasonably good education! What if all that was available for you or for your children was a government school with teachers who cared very little for teaching.
JUST THINK how it would be if American and Indian teachers knew how to transform their schools and communities into places where justice and civility flourish!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
A new book for parents and for teachers
Families Living in the Fabric of Faithfulness: Parents and children describe what works. 2010, Outskirts Press.
In preparation for this book the authors, Gloria Goris Stronks and Julia K. Stronks identified young adults who clearly were showing by their actions that caring for those in need was important to them. They asked what had happened in their lives to direct them to these actions.
They then interviewed the parents of these young people to ask what they had done to shape their families, living and raising their children along the lines of their Christian worldview.
The people who shared their ideas and concerns did so with an honesty that was beautiful and also sometimes painful. Most of us believe that if we have children, raising those children is among the most important things we will ever do. But most of us also recognize that we have made so many mistakes along the way. This book captures moments in time as we live in a world that has been redeemed but not yet fully reconciled to God. It captures our hopes, our beliefs, our struggles. And, it lets us learn not only from scholars but also from each other.
This book may be ordered from Amazon.com.
In preparation for this book the authors, Gloria Goris Stronks and Julia K. Stronks identified young adults who clearly were showing by their actions that caring for those in need was important to them. They asked what had happened in their lives to direct them to these actions.
They then interviewed the parents of these young people to ask what they had done to shape their families, living and raising their children along the lines of their Christian worldview.
The people who shared their ideas and concerns did so with an honesty that was beautiful and also sometimes painful. Most of us believe that if we have children, raising those children is among the most important things we will ever do. But most of us also recognize that we have made so many mistakes along the way. This book captures moments in time as we live in a world that has been redeemed but not yet fully reconciled to God. It captures our hopes, our beliefs, our struggles. And, it lets us learn not only from scholars but also from each other.
This book may be ordered from Amazon.com.
My first posting!
So what is Slumschools? It is a new organization that has been formed for the purpose of helping schools in poverty-stricken areas around the world. Our main focus right now will be on India.
1. We hope to make it possible for those who teach in the schools to have an opportunity for continuing education, something they likely on their own would not be able to afford.
2. We hope to make it possible for teachers in North American Schools to have an opportunity to travel to India and get to know Indian teachers and schools..
3. We hope to find ways to encourage North American teachers to have greater understanding of the problems teachers in Indian slum schools face.
4. We will give you information concerning other organizations that are doing worthwhile work either in providing continuing education for teachers in poverty-stricken areas and/or helping their schools financially.
1. We hope to make it possible for those who teach in the schools to have an opportunity for continuing education, something they likely on their own would not be able to afford.
2. We hope to make it possible for teachers in North American Schools to have an opportunity to travel to India and get to know Indian teachers and schools..
3. We hope to find ways to encourage North American teachers to have greater understanding of the problems teachers in Indian slum schools face.
4. We will give you information concerning other organizations that are doing worthwhile work either in providing continuing education for teachers in poverty-stricken areas and/or helping their schools financially.
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