Prairie View

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Sunday Ramblings

My wrist watch disappeared last Saturday evening, a fact which dawned on me gradually throughout the next few days after one landing spot after another proved to be devoid of my watch. I determined that the most likely place for me and the watch to have parted company was in one of the plum thickets in the pasture fence row where I had gone to pick "Shelterbelt plums" for jelly.

"Go to town and buy yourself another watch," Hiromi advised. I delayed.

Tonight Hiromi and I went back to pick more plums, this time taking the sensible precaution of unplugging the electric fencer before we sallied forth.

Getting Hiromi to go along required some cajoling.

"Why would I want to do that?" he asked.

"Because you love your wife and want to spend time with her?" (I know--shameless manipulation here.)

"Did you see the email I sent you?" (Indirect answer and lack of affirmation provides quick evidence that the effort at manipulation failed.)

"You mean the one that said 'Edit this?' I tried to ignore it.

"Yes."

"I saw it but I didn't open it."

"Will you edit that tonight if I go with you to pick plums?"

"O------K."

"Is there a bull in the pasture?"

"I don't think so. I didn't check all the cattle out very carefully last week. But I walked right by them, and none of them seemed to notice." (Lowell brought a small herd of cattle last week. I think they are mostly cow-calf pairs.)

"Anything can happen. No animal gets the best of me, though." I looked to see if he had picked up some kind of weapon. He hadn't.

So now you know what it takes to get Hiromi to pick plums with me.

We waded through tall ragweed and smartweed in the pasture. I don't remember any of this being here when I was a kid. This pasture had low-growing grass and a patch of Prickly Pear cactus by the west fence, and a meandering little waterway through the middle. You could see a few old buffalo wallows too. Lots of rain of late and no cattle present most of the summer to graze it down must have created this prairie jungle.

The thickets along the west side had no more plums. A shame, since that's where all the biggest plums were last week. Along the north fence though, many of last week's green plums had grown and ripened by now, and they hung in heavy clusters. In about a half hour we had picked three small buckets full.

The best part happened shortly into our picking along the north side. "Here's your watch!" Hiromi called out. There it was--draped across some low twiggy branches about a foot off the ground. It looked nice and shiny, and none-the-worse for having been there during a downpour that gave us several inches of rain.

"Let's go home now. We've already saved lots of money by finding the watch." Nice try. He kept on picking though.

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I'd rather edit a student's paper any day than Hiromi's writing. I find it hard to wade through the content and understand it, for starters, because it's often on subjects that I don't have a personal vision for--fine points of textual criticism. So understanding it is the first challenge. Then I have to figure out how to state it so other people can understand it too. Often it requires major reconstruction because of fractured English--no articles, for example. I often go through it, on the first round, inserting "a," "an," and "the" before many of the nouns.

He's quite appreciative, though, and I know I've done it right when he reads what I've written and says something like "That's what I wanted to say."

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Every year I marvel at how long it takes to organize the cleaning jobs that the students do every week at school. I think I've spent most of five days this year on that project. The good thing is that the cleaning work for me is mostly over after the first of the year. Then the work for the students begins.

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This morning during our share time at church Julian suggested that people might want to share what they like about our church. This was a followup to the topic on Wednesday evening which dealt with what parents can do to help their children desire to become a part of the church in which they grew up.

Quite a few people spoke up, with varying degrees of specificity about what they like. I was especially interested in some of the comments from people who are not members at Center. One young man (Jim) said he has no family within 1500 miles from here, but he has "family" here nonetheless. Another young mother (Dorthea) expressed her heartfelt agreement with the young man's words. She came from the Southwest part of the country with her husband and toddler under extenuating circumstances, and knew not a soul in this place when she first came over the time of Joel and Hilda's wedding. An elderly man in a wheelchair who, with his wife, was there for the very first time, gave God glory for his ability to walk again after a crippling accident that doctors said would make walking again impossible. Through Hands of Christ Ministries, people from our church constructed a wheelchair ramp at their new residence in Hutchinson and helped them move from Wichita. A grandpa (Owen) who was visiting today said he had become part of this church 39?? years ago when he came here to marry a woman who had grown up here.

Echoing Dwight's expression of appreciation for an atmosphere in which people can differ without feeling threatened or taking offense, Joel said he likes the "flavorful stew" that results when he can be with others of varying opinions. Harvey said he was invited to go elsewhere to church today, but he didn't want to be away from Center. He values our young people, as well as everyone else. Jana, who is going back to being a doctor in a clinic in El Salvador this week, said she likes the feeling of "home" she has when she comes here because her heart feels at home with people who share her heart's passions. Josh said he appreciates the way the leaders care for the people of the church, being willing to do what is best, even if that means departing from the way things have been done in the past. Loyal, who just returned from a year of voluntary service at Faith Mission Home took the opportunity to share some of what he has learned about serving others. Paul said he appreciated the warm welcome their family felt when they moved here from Belgium some time ago, and he appreciates now the financial support that makes possible his employment with Hands of Christ Ministries. Irene said she likes Sunday School classes--the privilege of discussing Scripture with sisters in Christ.

I would have said: good sermons, good singing, and being with people of integrity. I probably wouldn't have said it, but I appreciate too that the contribution of women is welcomed and valued here in a way that is not true everywhere.

4 Comments:

  • I think you need a fancy Excel file or a simple program to figure out your cleaning schedule. If you'd email me to explain how the system works, I'd be willing to see what it would take to automate the process. Of course, that doesn't help until next year.

    Presumably, you'd divide the students into groups (e.g. guys and girls), then make a list of jobs that will be rotated within a group. If there are more students than jobs, students will get a break in the rotation. If there are more jobs than students, you presumably need to double them up.

    Recently I set up a simple Excel file to figure out the required Pages/Day to complete a schoolbook within a year. For example, if you want have a 290 page book and you want to do lessons 4 days/week for 34 weeks, then you need do to 2 pages/day three days a week and 3 pages/day one day a week (and you'll be done in 32 weeks). It's just a simple tool, but my wife liked it!

    By Anonymous Ellis, at 8/30/2010  

  • I've thought many times that there must be a simpler way to do this. But for obvious reasons I couldn't get my brain around the technological aspects of automating it.

    Part of what's time consuming is actually making the little computer-printed and then photo-copied and laminated cardstock job cards that get hung on a pin in each office. Then tracking has to happen on a separate chart on the wall.

    I certainly welcome the offer of help, and perhaps rethinking some of these things will turn up a much more streamlined approach on various fronts.

    Thanks.

    By Blogger Mrs. I, at 8/30/2010  

  • Great post. I always enjoy reading your perspective on things I hear in church. However, Wendell said he doesn't have family in 1500 miles. I don't think a Jim attends our church regularly.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 8/31/2010  

  • Good point. On another day I would have known and said that that guy's name was Wendell. I'm still trying to figure out who Jim is. I know I've met him somewhere. The joys of an ADD brain . . .

    By Blogger Mrs. I, at 8/31/2010  

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