It's now been a week since we left Sydney. Last night was the first time we have had a whole night's sleep. Liz and I were over jetlag in two days, but Philip and Katrise struggled with the changes. Philip cried for two hours each of our first two nights in our apartment. But that is getting ahead of the story.
We spent our first weekend in a hotel suite while we sorted out renting the apartment on campus, furnishing it, etc. Our first night in the apartment was Tuesday night. It felt good to be able to sleep in our "own" beds.
Philip was feeling incredibly homesick. He was missing all his friends (esp. Sam, Oliver, Lachlan, Mitchell, Amish and Benny). Emails from several of them helped. But what really helped was finding a new friend.
Yesterday, Philip spent several hours playing (fighting?!?) with the other 7 year old boy who lives on campus. Hayden is a great kid and Philip has been looking to play with him today as well. [Legos is their thing at the moment]. Hayden's been off campus a bit because, being the beginning of the summer break, he has been camping, visiting his grand parents, etc.
Philip has also been excited to have a large campus to ride his scooter around. Every stairwell on campus is filled with kids' bikes and scooters. This could be the beginning of a long, fun summer. We're borrowing bikes for Philip and Katrise.
Every week there is a bread delivery to campus. The local supermarket sends left-over bread and students are able to supplement their grocery shopping with free bread. We had our first experience of this today, while Liz was out shopping. So Katrise and I tried to decide what was worth taking. American bread is very different from Australian bread - much sweeter usually. I found some loaves of King Sooper's brand that only had 2g of sugar. Of course, Katrise wanted to take a packet of cupcakes (decorated for high school graduation, since that has just happened this week). I picked up a pack of donuts (to try out, but they were pretty stale) and some bagels. It's a good thing that bread freezes! Apparently, there are produce deliveries as well.
Now to mention some study...
One of the classes I am taking this summer is EM501: Introduction to Christian Education. This is a topic that I haven't really encountered in this form before. The immediate thing that sprung to my mind was adult Sunday School classes - something popular in certain segments of the American church, but unknown in any Sydney churches I am familiar with. I'm finding out that much of what they have in mind would fit with the adult Sunday School model, but is much broader than that.
Our textbook is "Introduction to Christian Education" by Michael J. Anthony. It defines Christian Education as "the process by which those who have experienced a personal spiritual rebirth in their relationship with God partner with the indwelling Holy Spirit to grow in the image of Christ." The beginning of the course surveyed the history of Christian Education. It began with the Didache (Christian instruction for new adult converts during the first centuries of Christianity) and continued through the ages until the present scene, with its mix of local church, parachurch and internet media forums. It then went onto to consider Biblical references to education in the OT and the NT. These included references in Deuteronomy to the instruction of children within the family context, the teaching of the community in Nehemiah and the words of Jesus in the Great Commission to teach disciples in all nations all that he had commanded them.
Several chapters of the text addressed the issue of development - especially in children and adolescents - with insights from psychology, etc. The models developed by Erik Erikson, David Levinson, Jean Piaget, William Perry and Albert Bandura were surveyed. Moral development, presented by Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan were reviewed and reflected on. Finally, the thoughts on faith development by James W. Fowler were considered.
Despite the weighty topic and the heavy duty research referred to, the text is only an introduction, so it has been a fairly easy read. It has been interesting to reflect on the ways in which I have learnt more about my faith. I remember a fairly structured Sunday School program, but I don't remember much of the theological content. In my last year of high school I spent a year in a small group where our teacher taught three teenage boys the book of Revelation (from a dispensational perspective). Student Life provided a comprehensive program of education and training - both for students and new missionaries. Once I finished high school, my local church(es) have been lacking in any formal, organised instruction. I attended a "Regional Bible Study" taught by John North for several years. That was the closest thing to an adult education program I have seen in Sydney.
My first assignment for class is to write brief biography of an influential figure in the history of Christian Education. Suggested figures were: Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Jon Amos Comenius, Thomas Aquinas, E.L. Thorndike, Jerome Bruner, John Dewey, William Rainey Harper, George Albert Coe, Pestalozzi, Johann Herbart, Friedrich Froebel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Robert Raikes, Horace Bushnell, and Henrietta Mears.
I chose Henrietta Mears because I had heard about her but didn't know much about her. I knew she ran the Sunday School at Hollywood Presbyterian in the 1950's which was attended by Billy Graham, Dawson Trotman and Bill Bright. Anyone who influenced guys like that should be worth learning about!
As for other study news, I have to sit an exam to attain advance standing for Greek (since I studied it in Sydney). I'm hoping to schedule it before I begin to fill my head with Hebrew in two weeks.
Friday 29 May 2009
Sunday 24 May 2009
Two Days in America
I thought I might write a blog about our trip to the US. It's purpose is more for sharing with those who might be interested in what we are up to than any great insight.
Obviously, it's not the first time we've made the trip. In fact, during the 34+ hours of travel, we worked out that this is Philip's 5th trip to the US. He came once when we first adopted him, to meet Liz's dad. Then we had a trip to catch up with ministry partners that following Christmas. Then he came with us to Liz's dad's funeral. Then we came 18 months ago (with Katrise) to catch up with ministry partners.
We booked an airport shuttle to the airport. We left at 8:30am on Thursday morning with 8 big pieces of check-in luggage and 7 carry-on (including the mandolin Liz had been given just before we left). Not bad when it comes to moving for 15 months! Our driver - a Syrian guy - took every backstreet imaginable (better than my dad!). But we arrived at the airport safely and in plenty of time.
QANTAS were really pleasant to deal with at checkin. (This was our first time flying QANTAS internationally - Liz had been a United Frequent Flyer previously). We were there early and the checkin counters were open (unlike previous experience with United). They didn't complain about our luggage. And the line was short.
Once we got through security, we let Philip play his Nintendo DS. The lady at the shop told me that, if we turned the brightness right down and the volume off, it's battery should last 20 hours. We were about to test that!
As usual, with kids, we were seated right down the back of the plane. We were glad to see the back of seat video screens. But Katrise' and mine weren't working. (Four requests during the flight to fix them failed). In fact, my overhead light and attendant call button weren't working. The whole armrest control was stuffed. Oh well, so much for inflight movies! Philip and Katrise swapped seats for a while. Philip played his DS, Katrise danced to Taylor Swift. I dozed. I also watched some movies on the screen of the guy in front. There was a good selection: Mall Cop (looked like a funny send up of Die Hard), Frost/Nixon, Yes Man and Gran Turino. All my sort of movies. Oh well.
We landed in LA at 9:30am. We'd been told to leave 6 hours for processing of Green Cards. Philip, Katrise and I had been granted Green Cards. It allowed us to be more flexible while over here - and it is the first step to them being granted citizenship. Fortunately, the processing only took 20 minutes! (Although the refugee family behind us were obviously going to take much longer).
Our flight didn't leave until 6pm - so we had 8 hours to kill in LAX. I noticed our luggage was incorrectly tagged by QANTAS in Sydney, so we loaded it all up on two trolleys and pushed it for 20 minutes along the sidewalk from Terminal 3 to Terminal 7 to check it in correctly at the United counter. Our trip from LA to Denver was using the last of our United Frequent Flyer miles. Check in went smoothly (again), but they couldn't get us on an earlier flight. They were all booked solid.
As we sat in the terminal, we found that solidly booked flights were the norm on this Memorial Day weekend. It seemed like everyone was wait-listed for their flight. On our little plane to Las Vegas, there were 50 people waitlisted (and 31 eventually got on)!
What! Las Vegas? Yes, when Liz booked the tickets all the direct flights from LA to Denver had been booked already. So we flew via Vegas. Fortunately, it was the same plane being used on both legs, so we simply got off at Vegas (did a bathroom run) and then got back on, one row in front of where we had been for the first leg. The kids did really well on the whole trip - Katrise dozed regularly and Philip's brain turned to mush with the DS.
So we landed in Denver at 10:30pm. We caught the undergroud train from the terminal to the baggage claim. All our luggage arrived too. Amazing! By about 11:30pm we were set to leave. Berit (Liz's sister) had come to pick us up in a friend's Expedition (huge car!) All our luggage fit in the boot. We arrived at the hotel by about 1am, moved luggage in, etc. and crashed into bed by about 2am.
At 7am the hotel room's clock radio alarm went off! Philip sat bolt upright, reached for the TV remote and said (as he does at home), "It's 7 o'clock, can I watch TV?". I persuaded him to rest for another hour. We got up at 8am.
Berit had bought us some breakfast supplies (Life cereal was good). But we need to do a bit of shopping to get us through the next couple of days. A visit to Super Target was in order :) We also visited the bank (to make sure our bank account here was all functioning correctly, get a debit card, and set up internet banking). After Liz napped back in our hotel room (and the kids played quietly), we then met our realtor, inspected the apartment at Denver Seminary and signed the lease.
A weird thing happened as we arrived at the apartment. There was an altercation between our realtor and one of the other residents. It was quite unsettling.
Afterwards, we wandered around the seminary grounds for a while and met some really lovely people who were all happy to be living on campus - and that made us feel better about our decision. The key thing for us about living on campus was that it meant we didn't need to get two cars (I can walk to class while Liz takes the kids to school) and so many of the services are available right there - esp. internet.
Anyway, a short visit to Dave & Victoria's (Liz's sister) allowed us to see our cousins Ransom and Anthony (the one graduating from high school today). Twelve years ago Anthony made us all laugh in our wedding video as he said "my name is Anthony" in a squeaky voice. Now he is finished high school!
We had pizza for dinner with Dan & Berit & Delaney. Katrise had been battling a fever all day and was pretty listless. But she enjoyed two pieces of toast with butter on it.
We got home and the kids were asleep by 9pm. But then they woke again at midnight. And didn't sleep until about 2am. So, even though Liz has left for the graduation, I am letting them sleep this morning as long as they like...
Type more soon.
Obviously, it's not the first time we've made the trip. In fact, during the 34+ hours of travel, we worked out that this is Philip's 5th trip to the US. He came once when we first adopted him, to meet Liz's dad. Then we had a trip to catch up with ministry partners that following Christmas. Then he came with us to Liz's dad's funeral. Then we came 18 months ago (with Katrise) to catch up with ministry partners.
We booked an airport shuttle to the airport. We left at 8:30am on Thursday morning with 8 big pieces of check-in luggage and 7 carry-on (including the mandolin Liz had been given just before we left). Not bad when it comes to moving for 15 months! Our driver - a Syrian guy - took every backstreet imaginable (better than my dad!). But we arrived at the airport safely and in plenty of time.
QANTAS were really pleasant to deal with at checkin. (This was our first time flying QANTAS internationally - Liz had been a United Frequent Flyer previously). We were there early and the checkin counters were open (unlike previous experience with United). They didn't complain about our luggage. And the line was short.
Once we got through security, we let Philip play his Nintendo DS. The lady at the shop told me that, if we turned the brightness right down and the volume off, it's battery should last 20 hours. We were about to test that!
As usual, with kids, we were seated right down the back of the plane. We were glad to see the back of seat video screens. But Katrise' and mine weren't working. (Four requests during the flight to fix them failed). In fact, my overhead light and attendant call button weren't working. The whole armrest control was stuffed. Oh well, so much for inflight movies! Philip and Katrise swapped seats for a while. Philip played his DS, Katrise danced to Taylor Swift. I dozed. I also watched some movies on the screen of the guy in front. There was a good selection: Mall Cop (looked like a funny send up of Die Hard), Frost/Nixon, Yes Man and Gran Turino. All my sort of movies. Oh well.
We landed in LA at 9:30am. We'd been told to leave 6 hours for processing of Green Cards. Philip, Katrise and I had been granted Green Cards. It allowed us to be more flexible while over here - and it is the first step to them being granted citizenship. Fortunately, the processing only took 20 minutes! (Although the refugee family behind us were obviously going to take much longer).
Our flight didn't leave until 6pm - so we had 8 hours to kill in LAX. I noticed our luggage was incorrectly tagged by QANTAS in Sydney, so we loaded it all up on two trolleys and pushed it for 20 minutes along the sidewalk from Terminal 3 to Terminal 7 to check it in correctly at the United counter. Our trip from LA to Denver was using the last of our United Frequent Flyer miles. Check in went smoothly (again), but they couldn't get us on an earlier flight. They were all booked solid.
As we sat in the terminal, we found that solidly booked flights were the norm on this Memorial Day weekend. It seemed like everyone was wait-listed for their flight. On our little plane to Las Vegas, there were 50 people waitlisted (and 31 eventually got on)!
What! Las Vegas? Yes, when Liz booked the tickets all the direct flights from LA to Denver had been booked already. So we flew via Vegas. Fortunately, it was the same plane being used on both legs, so we simply got off at Vegas (did a bathroom run) and then got back on, one row in front of where we had been for the first leg. The kids did really well on the whole trip - Katrise dozed regularly and Philip's brain turned to mush with the DS.
So we landed in Denver at 10:30pm. We caught the undergroud train from the terminal to the baggage claim. All our luggage arrived too. Amazing! By about 11:30pm we were set to leave. Berit (Liz's sister) had come to pick us up in a friend's Expedition (huge car!) All our luggage fit in the boot. We arrived at the hotel by about 1am, moved luggage in, etc. and crashed into bed by about 2am.
At 7am the hotel room's clock radio alarm went off! Philip sat bolt upright, reached for the TV remote and said (as he does at home), "It's 7 o'clock, can I watch TV?". I persuaded him to rest for another hour. We got up at 8am.
Berit had bought us some breakfast supplies (Life cereal was good). But we need to do a bit of shopping to get us through the next couple of days. A visit to Super Target was in order :) We also visited the bank (to make sure our bank account here was all functioning correctly, get a debit card, and set up internet banking). After Liz napped back in our hotel room (and the kids played quietly), we then met our realtor, inspected the apartment at Denver Seminary and signed the lease.
A weird thing happened as we arrived at the apartment. There was an altercation between our realtor and one of the other residents. It was quite unsettling.
Afterwards, we wandered around the seminary grounds for a while and met some really lovely people who were all happy to be living on campus - and that made us feel better about our decision. The key thing for us about living on campus was that it meant we didn't need to get two cars (I can walk to class while Liz takes the kids to school) and so many of the services are available right there - esp. internet.
Anyway, a short visit to Dave & Victoria's (Liz's sister) allowed us to see our cousins Ransom and Anthony (the one graduating from high school today). Twelve years ago Anthony made us all laugh in our wedding video as he said "my name is Anthony" in a squeaky voice. Now he is finished high school!
We had pizza for dinner with Dan & Berit & Delaney. Katrise had been battling a fever all day and was pretty listless. But she enjoyed two pieces of toast with butter on it.
We got home and the kids were asleep by 9pm. But then they woke again at midnight. And didn't sleep until about 2am. So, even though Liz has left for the graduation, I am letting them sleep this morning as long as they like...
Type more soon.
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