What's The Real Issue?

Today, I was able to talk to a student about surface issues vs. core issues.  Yes, the surface issues are mostly easy to identify and most practical to work on, however, if we never understand or work through the core issue, the habits and surface issues will always come back.  I created this visual today, although I'd like to have an actual sphere that the student could hold and interact with.  Thoughts? Resources? Help?

Qingdao Pictures from Dec-March

This is me near the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center. 

Ben and me at May 4th Square.

Olympics

Our school used to be in this building.
This is in downtown Qingdao, rather than 30 minutes east of downtown.

A Very Cool Sculpture!

My good friend Kathryn on the far left, and my friend/co-worker MiMi in the middle.

The group of us that went on the walk!

A nice view of the ocean at sunset!

Bowling with the families during Christmas time.
This is Carl, Ben's principal.

This was our Murder Mystery that we attended, just a few weeks ago.
I played a French man, and Ben was a news reporter.  The killer is amongst us... any guesses?

A Full Day of Learning

Today was a day of learning and communicating. My morning was packed with unfinished business regarding the High School Banquet that is scheduled for this Saturday.  During the early morning, I prepared some contracts and documents that needed to be ready for the afternoon, (more details further down). 

During my middle school homeroom time, we discussed and debriefed about an assembly that we lead the day before.  We came up with a topic, Bible verse, speaker, and game, and the students led it all, in front of the entire middle school.  It went fairly well, although these 6^th and 7^th grade girls were very nervous, especially about praying in the microphone with everyone listening. During the debrief time, they all thought it was awful and could have been better, however, I thought our topic on “Serving God with our Talents” was very clearly communicated and I thought they did much better than other groups. :)  But, I love these girls dearly, so maybe I’m biased!

At 11:30, my student services team left the school campus for a work lunch/coffee.  We drove to a Hong Kong restaurant, where we “weren’t allowed to talk about work.”  So we had fun discussing family and summer plans. 

Let me tell you a bit about our team: Student services consists of 4 other staff besides myself.  Damian is the head of our department, an unorganized but brilliant Australian.  He’s lived in China for 10 years, has wife with 3 young kids, one of them is adopted from China.  Bean (real name is Larry, but no one calls him that) is our college counselor who is a corky American who has lived in China for several years and before that lived and taught in Israel with his wife.  They have 3 adult children.  Patrick is the middle school counselor.  He’s got a sensitive spirit and a great sense of humor. He and his wife are from Hong Kong and they have 2 young children.  Mimi is our elementary counselor.  She and her husband are Korean-American and have taught/done ministry in L.A., California for a number of years.  They’ve been in China for around 6 years and have 2 girls in middle school and 1 boy in elementary school. 

After “not talking about work” during an amazing lunch, we hopped over to a Starbucks, took over a large table, and hammered out some documents about creating a culture of transition in our school.  Because of the international community that we teach, there is always transition, and our school is just starting to understand how to support, help, and provide resources for these students and families that experience so much change.  We worked hard for 4 hours in that Starbucks and I think we now have a much better idea of the next couple steps our department can take in this area. 

Afterwards, Damian and I drove to the hotel where the High School Banquet will be held this Saturday.  The traffic was getting pretty bad by this point in the evening, so we had a while to chat. I asked about the similarities/differences of Australia to the U.S., to which his answer was basically that we have the same “mono-cultural” view of the world, the same arrogance and individual ideas, but Australians are more vocal about it. :)

We got to the hotel and had a quick, but rather frustrating meeting with the event coordinating staff about the contract we were to sign regarding using their services and facility for our banquet.  Sometimes things get lost in translation, or important needs are ignored altogether.   There, I watched Damian tread the line of being clear, straight-forward, and borderline rude in order to get what we were paying for.  I’m still learning this culture, whereas sketchy contracts would never fly in the States.

So today, through working with my homeroom, my team, my boss, and a Chinese hotel, I was able to learn more about myself, other cultures, and about being a professional in our school.  This was a day well spent!  Plus, I got a free lunch and coffee!!  

Dreading the Judges

I'm reading Judges right now in the Bible, and I'm basically learning everything I shouldn't do in life.  I honestly don't remember if I've made it through Judges before, so I'm reading some of these passages for the first time in my memory.  On Saturday, I read Judges 11 and learned about Jephthah's "tragic vow."  If you don't know this passage, I would recommend reading it, although it confuses the heck out of me.  I wonder what Jephthah was thinking, what God was feeling, if the daughter was terrified...

Here's a brief run down...

• The Ammonites were at war with Israel.
• Jephthah was born of Gilead and a son of a prostitute.
• The elders asked Jephthah to fight against the Ammonites.
• Jephthah agrees although he realizes this is a difficult role to say the least.
• He makes a vow to God that if God gives him victory over the Ammonites, then whatever comes out from the doors of his house to meet him when he returns, he will offer it up for a burnt offering.
• Jephthah has victory over the Ammonites.
• He comes home to celebrate, and sees his daughter first come out of his home to greet him.
• Remembering his vow to God, Jephthah mourns and weeps for his daughter.
• He explains what he has done to his daughter, and his daughter requests to mourn for "her virginity" with her friends for two months in the mountains.
• She returns after two months, and her father "did with her according to his vow."
• It became a custom in Israel each year to mourn the loss of this girl, due to her father's foolish vow.

Whew...   What to do with that!!!   What was Jephthah thinking?   Did God want him to fulfill such a vile and foolish vow?  I have no answers.... just questions.   I'm in the process of looking up some commentary on this subject.  If anyone has any great resources, please share. :)

Some days, I have to take a break from Judges, and read Psalms or Thessalonians.   It was such a dark time in history, but I'm so glad we have a faithful God! 

 

Research

Currently, I am researching these topics for work, some of them will eventually be presented to the administration of our school:

• What is the proper protocol for the death/suicide of a student or staff member
• To what extent does memorializing a death in school lead to suicidal ideation in teenagers
• What are the best ways to handle school-wide grief in a multi-cultural setting
• How to reach sexual active teens and teens who have been a victim of sexual abuse.

Please pray for me as I research and work through these heavy topics over the course of the semester.