Brevity

This phrase originated with Shakespeare in Hamlet:
LORD POLONIUS
"This business is well ended.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go."

Here are some favorite comics from "Brevity." You can access more by clicking here.

Things to do when you can't fall asleep

This would be me tonight . . . 1. Watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the bazillionth time. I love this movie! 2. Add quotes from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Facebook and blog. 3. Lurk around on Facebook. 4. Play Scrabble with people who are awake in the States. 5. Perfect googlepages technique and create several new links to my blog. 6. Type sermon outlines and reflect on what God taught me last week. 7. Pray for friends who are just starting to face their day in the States. 8. Read my Bible. 9. Start rearranging my bedroom. I want to create a "reading nook" and move my bookcase closer to where I read my Bible, so I don't have a pile of books on the floor by the window and have to go across the room to get desired books (Not that it's that far to the other side of the room, but when you have a Bible and notebook on your lap and another Bible study book propped up beside you and a cup of coffee in your hand, you don't want to displace everything to get the commentary or concordance that's on the other side of the room.) 10. Read a book (tonight's selection is The Alchemist) and hopefully fall asleep.

Youlean's Birthday Sleepover

Tonight my campus daughters (Youlean and Selwe) and a couple of their friends came over to celebrate Youlean's birthday, which is tomorrow. We swam in the pool, ate cake and ice cream, and watched a couple of movies (Nanny McPhee and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) Despite the sugar high from the cake, ice cream, Pepsi, and fire Cheetoes, they're passed out on the couch . . . or on their way to being asleep soon. For more pictures, click here.

Summit Meetings

Dr. Ollila preached for the revival meetings that were held at Harvest the week of Sunday, October 14, 2007. He opened the first service with this challenge: "I will be honest about my condition and obedient when God speaks."

Sunday a.m.: "Elements of Revival"

Sunday p.m.: "Anger"

Monday p.m.: "Laboring to be Accepted"

Tuesday p.m.: "Business Lessons from an Unjust Servant"

Wednesday a.m. HCA chapel: "Lessons from a Caveman"

Wednesday p.m.: "How Dreams Become Reality"

Thursday p.m.: "The Spirit-filled Family"

A Few Favorite Songs

Either the congregation or ensembles sang the following songs on Sunday. Each was a blessing to my soul and I've been pondering the words since. "Knowing You, Jesus by Graham Kendrick" I Will Glory in My Redeemer by Steve and Vikki Cook I am going to sing this song, "In the Valley," on Sunday evening. I've been singing this song a lot lately and it's really ministered to me because I identify with the words and the Lord's been teaching me about serving Him in the difficult times.

Nikko Hotel--A Relaxing Evening

After a hectic week, ending with a day that felt like a week in and of itself, my friend Jenni and I headed for the pool for a much needed break. I read a little, watched the sunset, took a million pictures of the sunset, swam and floated in the pool a bit, and talked with Jenni a bunch. It was a relaxing, refreshing evening.



Man in sarong (why?) blowing a horn that sounded like what I always imagined a shofar to sound like. Except it wasn't a call to worship or sound of victory; it was to draw the tourists in to the night show, which fortunately, we could not see from where we were.


Man who ran around the pool lighting the tiki torches


Fabulous sunset!












Me during the sunset

Changes coming!

Stay tuned for changes to my blog's layout and design. Special thanks to Chad Filipiak for teaching me how to update my layout and utilize new features which should make my blog easier (for you, but harder for me) to view and enjoy. My blog's layout will be more like his. I'm excited about learning a more sophisticated way of putting my blog together.

Christian Female/Male Ratio

I have often wondered if there really were more Christian single women than Christian single men, or if it was just my imagination. According to the Wall Street Journal, there's a 60/40 split of Evangelical Christian women to men. Where have all the Christian young men gone? Suzanne Hadley explores this topic further in "Why Dating Outside the Faith is Illogical" and cautions against dating non-Christians because there are fewer Christian men than women.

F-B-I! Gonna have a good time! Hey, hey, hey!

Spirit Week is a week filled with special services, team challenges, games, and skits. Each year God uses this week to help us reach our students and share the gospel with many who have never heard it before.

The team competition this year was between the FBI and CIA. I was on the FBI . . . and we won! (Not because I was on the team, though. :-)

Twin brothers Mike and Mark Herbster preached in the chapels and split sessions during the week. I appreciated their ministry and it was great to hear testimonies from my students about how God worked in their lives during the week.

The Herbsters also played the trumpet and sang before each service.




Mike joined the FBI team.


Mark joined the CIA.



A highlight of the special music was when some of the administrators, teachers, and students joined the Herbsters for a trumpet special. It was especially fun to see Pastor Herron, Pastor Henson, and Dr. Watson ministering in song. We don't get to see that very often!


The FBI guys were a little frightening as they performed an intense New Zealand chant, complete with native grunting and gestures.




During the teacher round of one game, the FBI had to try to pick up the CIA members. I fought my attackers so much, it took 4 of them to finally get me off the ground. Several of us ended up with bruises! Jessica and April, I'm (sort of) sorry I kicked you, but I would have preferred to have gotten away!


Doug Abels wrote a 5 scene play called "Spark of Love," which was performed on Friday afternoon. If you're looking for a humorous skit to use for your camp or retreat, I highly recommend this one. From left to right we have wanna-be superheroes Inspector Trinket (John Collier), Safety Man (Andrew Potter), Twitty Nerd Boy (Jeff Borchardt), and Gravity Man (Doug Abels).


G.O.O.F.B.A.H. (Guardians of the Order of the Fraternal Brotherhood of Heroes)

I was just an "extra" in the fight scene in Cafe Franswa, but we had great costumes and enjoyed our role thoroughly. And how often do you get to beat up your principal?

Church at the Beach

On Labor Day weekend, Harvest holds the Sunday evening service at the USO Beach. We had a fiesta dinner, great singing with the guitar and ukelele choir, and preaching from one of the special speakers for Spirit Week, Mark Herbster, whose twin brother, Mike, was also here for the week.

I cannot claim credit for any of these pictures. My roommate Elizabeth had the camera for the evening. She's becoming quite a photographer!

Two of this year's new teachers, Josie and Dayna


Brenna is stylin'


Two of my friends, Jenni and Julie


This is a great picture! Isn't Caitlyn adorable? (No, she's not Kevin's baby. :-) She's the daughter of Warren and Janet Han.)


Caitlyn gets passed around quite a bit. Here she is with Jodi.


I love this woman, Helen Middlebrook. She's always an encouragement and inspiration to me!


We enjoyed a breathtakingly beautiful sunset while Mark Herbster preached. I love the sunsets on Guam! God is such an awesome Creator!






Even the Piti power plant looked stunning in the sunset. Elizabeth did a nice job with the framing of this picture.

Labor Day Hike to Tarzan Falls

On Labor Day, a group of us hiked to Tarzan Falls down in southern Guam. We had a blast even though it was hot and muddy. I had been to Tarzan Falls twice during dry season and the hike wasn't nearly as slippery as it was on Monday. Even though the trail was messy, the rains made for a spectacular, gushing waterfall, when all I'd seen before was a trickle.

My friends, Elizabeth and Jodi, before we started the hike.


The first of many mud holes, which we encountered right at the beginning of the hike.


The view from the top of the falls


From above the falls


Jodi and me; I was getting up the courage to go under the falls




Elizabeth and me under the falls. I could barely keep my eyes open, the water pounded so hard!


Jodi and Jo under the falls


Playing in the water


Andrew climbing the falls; I tried this once and chickened out about halfway up, then it was worse trying to get back down!


A group of us after the hike; we're just a little bit muddier and wetter than we were when we started!

Serious Humor

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."--Peter Ustinov It struck me as ironic that this quote should show up on my "Quote of the Day" because I had been thinking about this idea since doing some reading on Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry yesterday. Both Laurie and Fry are clever, witty, very funny actors, yet they both have struggled with serious mental illnesses. Laurie has been treated for clinical depression; Stephen Fry, for bipolar disorder. Incidentally, both men sought treatment within a couple of years of each other, and all the while they continued to perform in TV shows and movies which cast them as comic characters. I've always heard that some people develop a fine sense of humor to mask hurt and discouragment. That seems to be true with these men. I wonder if Hugh Laurie's current role as House allows him to explore the darker side of depression that he didn't express, at least on screen, during the mid-90's.

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

This was my "Poem of the Week" for the first week of school. I thought I would share it with ya'll as well. "I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means."

Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry

I am an avid fan of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry's fantastic series Jeeves and Wooster. If you haven't watched it yet, head to your local library and borrow a season or two today! My dad, youngest brother Zeke, and I watched almost the entire series this summer, laughing uproariously at Wooster's bizarre antics and rewatching some episodes several times. I plan on showing episodes to my senior English classes when we start discussing modern literature or when we study films derived from literature. (I think I have read all of the Jeeves and Wooster short stories [and many of his other stories] by P.G. Wodehouse and think them hilarious and well worth your reading.) Anyway, today while reading my new favorite blog, I learned that both Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie have written novels! I can't wait to read them! Hugh Laurie's first novel, Gun Seller, was published in 1997, and his second novel, The Paper Soldier , is due out in September 2007. Stephen Fry has written several books, many of which appeal to me: The Liar (1992), The Hippopotamus (1994), Moab is My Washpot (autobiography, 1997), Revenge: A Novel (rewrite of Count of Monte Cristo, 2000), and Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (2007) So, if you want to buy me a Christmas present . . . just don't get Gun Seller, which I ordered today!

Magnetic poetry

I love magnetic poetry. I have a couple sets up in my classroom and I love to see my students turn around and add a few words to the poems they've been working on (even if they are supposed to be paying attention to the lecture or activity). Here are a couple poems I wrote.

This poem makes me sound like I was depressed, but I was just being dramatic.


I have started the South Beach diet since writing this poem. I do miss chocolate! But I didn't want it to be the death of me.

The start of a new school year

We're into the third week of school already! I can hardly believe that summer is over and we're now into the routine of classes, prep work, very little sleep, and too short weekends. But all complaining aside, I love teaching and I did get a little bored this summer without a good routine. (Now I feel almost "routined" to death--Wait! I'm not supposed to be complaining.) Here are some pictures of my classroom the night of Parent Orientation. I'm very happy with the way things turned out. . . If only I could keep my room this clean all the time!

My fabulous bulletin board:

A couple of views of my classroom:



All the books I handed out the first couple of days of school. Looks intimidating, huh? I felt nervous just looking at all the books I have to teach in the next few months, and I'm sure my students felt a little daunted by the task as well. I can still remember the look of amazement--and slight panic--one of my seniors, who is also in my literature elective, gave me when I handed him the stack of books for literature after giving him a sizable stack for Senior English a few hours earlier.


The faculty and staff of Harvest Ministries: