Sight Words With 5th Graders...

Yesterday I went to a training for people who work with kids in childcare settings...usually these trainings feature one BIG BANG workshop, and several very lame workshops. This one was on par for the course. When I went I had to choose between a track of workshops, each of which featured one workshop I was interested in and the rest that made me want to sleep reading them. So I skirted the system. When I went to the first workshop, which was o.k., the teacher did not have an updated list of who was supposed to be there. Afterwards I went and got a list of all the different tracks with their workshop titles, descriptions, and locations. I mixed and matched the rest of the day. Some of the things I learned were:
* Ways to deal with autistic children (many apparently love m & m's and will do anything for one; yes, just one)
* That arts and crafts are not for me
* That supposedly, and I don't agree, 5th graders love games with sight words. Sight words include words like do, sit, go, seat, stop, and many other basics. The woman who led this has a preschool background - I think she was way out of her league. Her game ideas included sight words, tracing objects on paper, and putting on music and dancing to it. A waste of time it was, yes.
* Team building...in a nutshell, putting a diaper on a baby doll without looking while tied to another person also not looking who is supposed to help does something miraculous for your staff. I'm not sure how, or what.
The BIG BANG at this training I think was the lunch - turkey sandwich on a croissant (mmmmm), sunchips, and grandma's cookies.
Since I lost my copy of "Organic God" I needed a new book; I went and bought Josh Harris's "Stop Dating the Church". It seems like a book that really applies to me as I've never completely settled down to a church and been committed to just them. I've always been head over heels at first, then the wonder wears off and I find myself pointing out "her faults" to people. Hopefully this book will help bring about some positive change in me.
As of like Thursday I can't take my Robbie Seay Band cd out of my cd player, and my mom cannot take her Randy Travis cd out of her's. Mine: because I really like the cd and want to listen to it over and over; my mom: because she broke the cd player and now can only listen to that cd.
And lastly, I went to Lifechurch.tv in Hendersonville again Saturday night. The power went out right before the service. I'm going again Sunday morning instead of to College Heights Baptist Church in Gallatin, my usual Sunday morning adventure. They still attempted to have church, we watched music videos and Dave Ramsey's message on a laptop. I actually wouldn't go again this morning except that now my brother wants to go (cause i've been going on about how much I like that church). I didn't put my offering in the plate cause, frankly, I couldn't see it. Hopefully today, with daylight available and all, I can.
The people there are really nice and seem to really love Jesus; i'm pretty sure by looking at them that they are people who would not be welcomed into greeter and leadership roles at many evangelical-like churches...the spiked hair, multi-colored dye do's, piercings, plugs, tattoos, and lots of black t-shirts and blue jeans. I do imagine that these people would make excellent disciples had Jesus chosen his incarnation for 1975. They don't really fit in with the religious folks, but their passion for following Him and ability to relate to anyone (not just hollisters) is appealing. I also don't think that their mansions and mercedes would get in the way of their devotion to Christ, since (as far as I can tell) these people are not spending much time in mansions and mercedes.
By the way, I think it's funny to hear pastors at churches talk about reaching out to people no matter what they look like. Yet whenever I see those same pastors out at lunch or somewhere else during the week, they're always with the same people. People with medium level to high level incomes who give lots of money to their church, dress like them, and love to play golf.
I hate golf, so needless to say i've never been to lunch with my pastor back home. I do have a medium level income, but don't give a lot of it to my church (just a menial amount by most standards).
After you read this (Jesse!)...
READ - Ephesians chapter 1.
LISTEN TO - Robbie Seay Band, anyone song...but if you download a specific one I would recommend Love Wins or Beautiful, Scandalous Night.
CHECK OUT - www.servolution.org