Category: Children’s Ministry

Today, Sarah and I enthusiastically voted – after standing in line for a mere hour and a half. I’m sure there are plenty of other people in this nation who waited much longer than that today. It was drizzling and a little cold, but it went by fast, especially since we had one another’s company. We met some of the candidates for the office of mayor and school board here in Richmond. We are a “swing district”, so the candidates wanted to catch us as we stood in our long lines. I asked two of the mayoral candidates the same question – “What makes you different than the people you are running against?” I asked that question because most of my research on the candidates showed that they all pretty much said the same thing – “We need better schools.” “We need to be responsible with the city’s finances.” “We need to make sure we develop the city and think about the needs of the people at the same time.” “We need this, we need that, blah, blah, blah.” I got to hear them try to distinguish themselves while they were talking face-to-face with me. One of the candidates impressed me more than the other in his answer, so I voted for that guy.

Anyway, I really want to share about my week of juggling at school assemblies in Mississippi last week. A church in Northern Mississippi sponsored me to come in and teach about “perseverance” with my juggling show to the local public schools in their area. The church also had me perform at some events at their own church. It was a great time with some great southern hospitality. In fact, one of the best parts of my meals was the option to have tea flavored sugar (others call it sweet tea). A few things about the culture in Mississippi surprised me. First of all, the county in which I stayed was a completely “dry” county. Not only were alcohol sales banned, but you could not even possess alcohol in your homes. They are voting today on whether to allow liquor to be sold in the county. Secondly, and more surprising to me, was the “wooden paddle.” As I was setting up for my juggling assembly at one of the public elementary schools, a teacher about my age walked in with her class – with a wooden paddle in her hand. Yes, they still paddle the kids in parts of America. This paddle was a bit bigger than a ping pong paddle yet smaller than a racquetball racquet. It was made of wood and had tape wrapped around the middle that was flapping off a little bit. I almost could not believe my own eyes. My friend told me that when he was in High School, the High School shop class would make the paddles for the elementary school. Wow. Now parents do have to sign a waiver allowing the child to be paddled if necessary. Apparently, most of the parents are cool with it.

All in all, I had a great time. And I hope to visit my friends again in the great state of Mississippi.

In an article from U.S. News and World Report, “children’s services” was on a short list of industries which are condusive to making millionaires out of those who run such industries (http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/small-business-entrepreneurs/2008/10/07/how-to-make-a-million.html). I work in a field called “children’s ministry,” where the goal is to reach kids with the message of God found in the Bible. And though making millions is not quite the goal in children’s ministry, this article has some interesting insight.

They claim that the reason people can be so successful running “children’s services” (such as specialized education, arts, and programs for young people) is because parents (even in tough economic times) are willing to part with a lot of money just so their children can have the best opportunities for success in life.

Here is the insight: if parents dump tons of money into their children for the sake of making sure their kids have a “better life,” then that says a lot about the importance of children’s ministry in churches and communities. People pay for the things they value. Apparently, parents highly value the prosperity of their children. Those of us in children’s ministry should be aware of that and not be shy about what we do. We have the opportunity to serve kids and families in ways that reach beyond the good things promoted by the local tumbling franchise and the Montesorri schools. Parents care. They will serve, they will donate, they will participate. We are not babysitters, we are not daycare. We get to offer the message of God’s love, forgiveness, and grace to children (who Jesus says are the inheritors of the Kingdom of heaven).

The other night, Sarah came shrieking out of the kitchen, “There are two enormous cockroaches crawling around in the kitchen!” I, superhusband, went to the rescue, slightly aggravated that my wife had gotten so worked up about these two innocent creatures. They were long gone by the time I got to the kitchen, but we looked into the corner near where she saw them. This was a corner between the cabinets and the wall in our kitchen – a small crevice we had never really investigated before. I got out my flashlight and inspected the small crevice. Sure enough, I saw a hole big enough for cockroaches to crawl through, so I stuffed it with an old sock (we’ll see how that works). Then I looked further into the crevice between the cabinets and the wall. There was an old book.

Now, I had the privilege of both surveying and digging at archaeological sites in the Middle East, unearthing everything from centuries-old pottery to 20th Century ammunition from the Six-Day War. That was cool. But to find an old book in our circa 1923 apartment building in Richmond, Virginia was also pretty cool. I used the handle of the flyswatter to retrieve my find.

It was an old spiral-bound book called “700 of the best HOUSEhold Tips – that save time and money!” with a picture of an anthropomorphized house with a broom and a smile. Who knows how many tenants have lived in this 450 square-foot urban apartment. But one of them left behind a gem. And Sarah and I will glean from its wisdom for the rest of our days. It tells us tips like how to create “soap for kids” – you “put bits of soap in an old stocking and tie the end. Children will find it easier to hold.” Brilliant!

Here’s another: “SHORT LEG: If one leg on a piece of furniture is shorter than the rest, balance it by gluing a garden hose washer to the tip of the leg.” Why didn’t I think of that one earlier?

And another: “PICKLESS LOCK: Your lock can’t be picked if you leave your key in the inside lock.” The key word here is inside.

And another: “REMOVING DEAD SKIN: Rub a bit of Miracle Whip salad dressing into your skin and let it stand a moment. Rub vigorously and dead skin is quickly removed. However, this only works using Miracle Whip, not mayonnaise.” Shucks, I guess whatever you use will work as long as you “rub vigorously.”

one more….”STATIC ELECTRICITY: To eliminate clinging dresses, run a wire coat hanger between your slip and dress.” Remember to remove the wire hanger before going to that job interview.

I am so glad I found this earth-shattering volume on household tips. It doesn’t even have a date or publisher information. It probably came as a free gift with a Good Housekeeping subscription back in the day – or something similar.

Have a great day – and remember to keep your keys in the locks to prevent invaders!

Announcing the release of the very first DVD from Jesse the Juggler! It is sensibly called “Live Show” and I just did my first run of 50 copies to see how this flies. If it goes over well, I’ll get more duplicated. For now, I’ll take it around with me to my juggling programs and offer them to people afterwards. It has a full-length stage presentation of my show, two of my promo videos, a picture slideshow, and three smaller (more goofy) videos. My friend Ben Keeling did a smackdown job on the artwork and my new friend Zack at Revolve-CD in Richmond, VA did the DVD duplication work for me. They are shrink-wrapped and ready to go. Let me know if you would like a copy – they’re going for $20 right now.

Hurricanes are typical for the coasts, but rare is the one that reaches far inland with strength to really damage much. I was traveling from Sweetser, Indiana to Richmond, Virginia yesterday (about an 11-hour drive). Instead, the whole trip lasted about 15 hours due to Hurricane Ike’s trek through the upper midwest. I was low on gas around Dayton, Ohio, which is when I saw the strong winds begin. So I looked for a place to get gas – but all the power was out. My cell phone was almost dead on the battery – and there was nowhere to pull over and recharge it (I did not have a car charger). After trying unsuccessfully to navigate through some back roads near Dayton to get through the storm (many roads were blocked with downed tress and/or powerlines), I pulled over into a gas station (which was out of power) and waited. I had no cash (only my debit card, which requires electricity to run through a machine). I had not eaten lunch or dinner (it was about 4pm). I was out of water (I was thirsty). I called Sarah to tell her that I had no idea when I would make it home and that I might not be able to communicate with her due to the dead cell phone. So I just sat in the car and read a book while the storm passed over. It was interesting, because it showed me just how much we rely on power for EVERYTHING in this country/culture. All of a sudden, my life was diminished to a sort of primitive survival mode. I was concerned about where I was going to find water, food, and shelter for the evening. Thankfully, I took the risk of driving further to look for a gas station with power – and my tank’s last bit of gas got me to one. There was a long line, of course, and each filling took a long time because the whole gas station must have been running on a generator. I drove again to a restaurant for dinner and ate while I charged the phone. I hit the road again and finally got to sleep in the same bed as my wife by 4am. Now I’m running on under two hours of sleep – but with all the electricity I could ask for.

“Every Christian community must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together.

Last Saturday night, I had the pleasure of attending my 10-Year High School Reunion (Godwin High, Richmond, VA, Class of ’98). Not only did I attend, but I also got to be on the planning team for the event, which gave me a unique perspective on how High School Reunions are fabricated (or at least ours). The humor of a night like this one is the fact that everyone there is in such a great mood and you end up cheerfully talking to people that you never spoke to throughout all of high school. I remember talking to one guy and introducing my wife to him. After our 5-minute conversation, which was cordial, I looked at my wife and said, “That’s the longest I’ve ever talked to him in my life.” Now, there are those people that I really did know in high school and I got to reconnect with them and see how they’re doing after all these years. It’s seeing those people that made the reunion definitely worth going to. I’m glad I got to be a part of planning it, also. I was the treasurer – and though I thought we were going to fall under budget, we ended up being around three hundred dollars in the positive. We’re going to send any excess money to the people who run the location where we had the reunion since they did such a great job and even gave us a break on our bill with them. All in all, we had 136 people, one of which was a teacher. We had many spouses and guests – no kids, though a few pregnant ladies. Great 90’s music from the DJ, great food from the catering, lots of old faces (most of whom looked just the same), and the satisfaction that we successfully pulled off our 10-Year High School reunion.

You probably know someone who is going through orientation for their first year of college right now. These fresh 18 year-olds are in for quite a ride, including the pressures of parties involving alcohol. In an effort to curb college binge drinking, there is a movement of around 100 college presidents (from institutions such as Duke and Ohio State) called the Amethyst Initiative. This group has united in order to challenge current legislation over the legal drinking age. They claim that banning alcohol from 18 to 20 year-olds treats them like children when in every other sense these individuals are given adult privileges (such as voting, serving on juries, etc.). Technically, individual states have the freedom to lower the drinking age to 18, but any state that does so is slapped with a 10% penalty on highway money coming from the feds. You can read all about the Amethyst Initiative at www.amethystinitiative.org.

Now, I attended a college (and a seminary for that matter) where alcohol was completely banned. That means that I was under some sort of no-alcohol covenant for the better part of my years until I was 26 years-old. I did not live in an environment where the pressures to drink while underage were present. In all honesty, I moaned a little about having to abstain from alcohol all those years, but looking back on it, I’m glad there was such a standard in place. It was a small “price” to pay (abstaining from alcohol) for the better good of having a dry campus that rarely ran into the potentially devastating (or even fatal) consequences of alcohol. But I’m sure many of you went to state schools or some other institution where drinking was fine at age 21 (or even under that age, culturally speaking). Perhaps you have some insight on what the pressures and consequences are really like for 18 to 20 year-olds in regard to drinking alcohol.

Furthermore, I wonder what will happen at some of these schools where the presidents have signed the Amethyst Initiative? Imagine being an underage drinker at one of those schools. You get caught by the campus police. But then you contest that the president of your college supports lowering the drinking age to 18. I suppose the college presidents are willing to go through an awkward period of having that double-standard in order to seek out what they see as a better policy that may come in future years.

If you look at wine from a Biblical perspective, we know that Jesus partook of wine (John 2) and we know that drunkenness is prohibited (Ephesians 5:18; Romans 13:13). We know that Paul taught against consuming certain foods or wine if such activity causes another person to “stumble” or “fall” (Romans 14:21).

I’m curious to see what you all think about this issue. Let me know your thoughts.