More on Evangelism

Thank God we are free to evangelize here in America. Sure, sometimes people feel a little too free to do stupid things sometimes in that regard, but I'm very thankful that we can all believe in what we want to believe and even bug other people about changing their beliefs.

Yup. I'll just remember that next time the Mormons come to visit. We live in a big Mormon tourist town, you know. Some head honcho guy in that religion got himself locked up here way back when, so people from all over the world have to go and look at the *very* spot he was imprisoned. Doesn't matter that the jail isn't there any more and it's just a reconstruction. I guess it's the Mormon equivalent of going to the Holy Land or something. Why else would anyone travel hundreds of miles to a place without a decent Perkins? I am so totally asking the next Mormon I chat with for more than five minutes about that, why that's important to them. The thing is, you can't really tell who's Mormon and who's not unless they're wearing their name tags. :)

Well, I think I know Truth when I see it, but as long as someone's not being obnoxious and I don't think the real motive for coming by is to case my house, I'm happy to hear opinions or mini-sermons about stuff. I'll even take your literature and read it. I know other Christians at this point are probably screaming that if I take their literature, I'm letting untruth have a foothold in my life, and I'm letting in forces of spiritual darkness in and letting Satan speak into my life or whatever whatever whatever.

As Elf told me today, "I'm ready to learn about other religions so I can find out the answers to the hard questions." I let him read the Evangel about the different religions in Eurasia, and it has an excellent little synopsis of what people from each religion believe. Unfortunately, the magazine has fallen apart after so many readings and I'm not sure if I should laminate it or not. It's a lot of work to do that. But I might.

In any event, I'm not afraid of your truth and I would way rather hear what you think about stuff than have everything be about a one-way conversation that includes my using repentance-inducing phrases like "turn or burn, bayybee." I would really like for you to be saved (according to my understanding of doctrine, including immersion and magical "in Jesus' Name" spoken during the ceremony) because I really believe this stuff. And if I care about you, I wouldn't let a silly thing like you not talking to me again prevent me from presenting the Truth to you if I genuinely think it's time.

So. About that evangelism. I'm a bit uncomfortable with staged evangelistic events. I can't imagine anyone REALLY comes to know the Lord in a deep and abiding way because some dude passed out a plastic water bottle at a Jesus-Loves-You event. I mean, it's possible. There's that verse somewhere about even a cup of cold water being important in the Kingdom and all that.

But still.

One thing that bugs me about church organized evangelism events is that it usually goes down like this: A group of people know that they want to hand out water bottles because church XYZ did it and it's cutting edge to put your church name on the label. Make sure you have a kewl logo, or no one will want to come to your stuffy church. Then they get together and pray about the logo for the bottles, and "the Holy Spirit leads" them to the one that fits their budget and looks pretty good. I do stuff like that, too, but I'm just not going to admit it to you publicly. And I have a deeep revelation here for reallio that works for me: I've found that sometimes, juuust sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is just go to sleep and don't make a big decision today. Just go to bed. Quit trying to do it all. Take a little comfort in the fact that God did not call you to be the Saviour of the world. Amen and goodnight. Tomorrow, after you've had a bit of sleep, things usually look clearer. Most of the time. :)

Just be who you are, where you are and let God use you!

One place I passed by on my way somewhere else was an Olde-Fashioned Methodist Church. A beautiful old building, stunning brickwork and a quaint location. On the side, though, was some sort of ultramodern poster proclaiming that it was "The Door." That's it. A little photo of a fancy doorknob is supposed to make you wonder what this groovy place is all about and go check it out because it's THE place that God is chillin', maaaan.

Sigh. What's wrong with old brickwork? I'd want to sit in a pew and sing from a hymnal in a place like that. What's wrong with that? Be who you are... and... "The Door." is not it, you guys. I'd feel totally gypped if I visited and the doxology wasn't spoken with much fanfare, or if they redecorated the inside with strobe lights and did the "dry ice smoke during worship time" thing. (Yes, I've seen this actually happen in a church. I don't smoke, or I'd light a lighter during the slow "worship" songs.)

On Wednesday, I was sitting in church and the pastor announced that there would be a new ministry going on in the neighbourhood. I should have trusted the poor man more, but all I could think of was the corny friendship evangelism I've seen in the past. I honest to goodness started praying fervently. "Ohhhh, pleaaase, God, don't make me hand out waterbottles and tell people Jesus loves 'em and I do tooooo and tell them that they're so speeecial, pleaaaase, God... and please let me bring to mind a prior commitment if the ministry is all about guttercleaning because I'm too fat to fit on the ladder... LORD, please help meeee..." Oh, no kidding, I was trevailing in my head there for a sec.

Thankfully... the water bottle thing was not the idea of the staff. *whew* Seems they actually prayed about doing something, you know, actually useful to others.

Do you know what they did? They went to a place where church members already had a connection and... waiiit for iiiiit... they asked the people there what they could do to help them out. They didn't just jump in with some water bottles and a free car wash!

PRAISE GOD! I started crying right in church. Who'da thunk, praying about stuff and then asking someone what they needed?? I mean, I could really do something like this if I could arrange toddlercare. I would love to do that.

They *asked them what they needed.* Wheww. Still in awe at this novel idea. I have myself a good pastor. Now, this whole thing hasn't been announced in any detail yet, so I don't want to give it all away, but I will say this: the ministry? Is something G has wanted to do for a long, long time. It would actually be a blessing to HIM to learn how to do this thing for other people who can't do it for themselves. He has a lot of energy, and he sooo needs to expend it on something more useful than beating the next Pokemon boss.

I'm telling you, I haven't been excited about any sort of "ministry opportunity" in years. But I'm excited about this. Actually meeting a need and doing something useful for someone else. Yeah.

It's all good stuff.

Confused.

I thought pregnant ladies were supposed to get blood tests and sonograms so that they could plan ahead for complications and line up other medical providers if there were some sort of problem. But then I looked into it a bit more and it *seems* that many of these tests are put into place to "inform" parents of problems... with the unspoken understanding that they can terminate their pregnancies before time runs out legally. Problem solved.

So when I've been asked, I have refused to allow my children to be tested more extensively (for example, for fragile X and other problems) in "studies" on autism. The last thing I want on the market shelves is a test that would diagnose autism prenatally. Soon autistics will find themselves in the company of Down Syndrome people if that happens. People will "selectively abort" children if they aren't exactly what they expected.

I think, though, that if I were pregnant that I would want to know if my child were autistic ahead of time. I would just want to be prepared. If there were a test, given my history, I'd take it. But I wouldn't want to help MAKE that test available, knowing other people would use it eugenically. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite; but really, I wouldn't want to see a kid die just because he's autistic.

I wish that we could move away from the "autism strikes 1 in 100 kids and ends 95 percent of marriages" types of statistics some groups like to use for fundraising and more toward "parenting a child with autism is really tough, but you can do it, and I can help!" attitude.

That being said, I won't lie to you. It's tough parenting an autistic child. It's really tough. I can fully sympathize with people who bellyache about this or that service not being available, how hard it is to have ANY KIND OF LIFE whatsoever, the real lack of support from the community around us, even the inability of the child to be on "our wavelength" sometimes. We're parents, but our lives are changed from what we expected. We're frustrated we can't do the things we did before. We haven't done a good enough job by our children because we either don't know how or have just plain run out of energy to keep looking for resources that aren't there.

And we want to advocate for our kids, but often there just plain old aren't resources out there. In our family, we aren't poor enough to qualify for the big money help from the Medicaid people, but we're way too poor to do the $25 copay several times a week, even if services WERE available on our medical plan.

And still yet, sometimes we don't "get" what our children need. We know that the "bratty" behaviour we deal with isn't because of brattiness, but that doesn't mean we can't help our children improve. They're not animals, you know.

But they ARE disabled, and they're going to need some help. Sometimes that help looks doggone weird to you. I know. I never would have thought "put a vest on with lots of super-heavy weights inside (medieval style!) and sing the same ONE line to a song over and over while giving my child a modified noogie" would be a sensible thing to do in public in ANY situation. Um, but it is. I promise-swear that I'm not trying to creep you out by acting weird like this; but this just helps my kid calm and acclimate a bit and I'm tired of him screaming and running. I don't know what's freaking him out right now (because he can't speak or sign yet), but I know this often helps. So... deal with it.

Would I have wanted to know Woodjie was autistic before he was born? Yep. Do I want YOU to know if your child is? Depends on what I think you'll do with the information. Either way, I can't imagine that a physician or nurse withholding KNOWN medical information from a parent is entirely ethical. It doesn't matter what the physician wants. I don't like the way some tests are used as a means to eliminate children with disabilities, but if the tests are taken and the results are in, I just couldn't see hiding what they have to say.

Carnival of Homeschooling

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up and running at Dewey's Treehouse. Pop on over and check it out! :)

Miss Pretty Pretty Palace

We spent about $5 at the thrift store for this house. It had the furniture you see here included. Most of the time, Rose will use the old Playskool people (you know, the ones they don't make any more) and their furniture for the house. We have tables, chairs and even suitcases in our collection. A small Tigger and Toy Story alien are also in this bin, along with a SuperMario car that Woodjie likes to run through the front door with "Rrrr" sound. Woodjie and Rose have some disagreements as to "proper use of grand entryway" in their pristine Victorian home.

Fine Literature

Patrick's English teacher is one of those East Coast liberal types, full of crazy ideas, Patrick tells me. She spouts off nutty ideas in class and runs the school's Native American Club after school. No, there's nothing wrong with "Native Americans," but basically, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture is pretty consistently denigrated by her. About half the works assigned weren't even originally written in English! In an English class, that's just wrong.

She's figured out by now that Patrick is a Christian, and a conservative one at that. She has a few snide things to say, and Patrick has a few snide things to say back. When assignments are handed out, Patrick gets the ones that refer to the Bible because she knows he likes all that stuff. We can't really avoid the Bible, she tells the class, because it's the most classic literature written by a committee, not to mention the fact that it gets referenced in the *older* literary works.

In short, Patrick is the God-boy of the class. He takes advantage of this unique opportunity to be an ambassador for Christ by using the cartoon assignment to portray his teacher as a two-headed worm that takes in assignments at one end and um, produces grades at the other. He writes things like "our honourable chairman said..." in his reviews. He compared the current public educational system to the Nazi concentration camps for his "satire" assignment. Obama, of course, is vaguely alluded to as the Communist, Nazi leader of the free world, and he writes about what a great thing that is that teachers will have more power than pesky parents with much sarcasm.

In short, he gets her goat and she grades him accordingly. Sigh. Brown-noser, he is not.

This is the same young man that I got a worried phone call about a couple of years ago. They were studying ancient Greece and he refused to look at the nudie statues, the social studies teacher told me. He needs to complete this assignment. Could you tell your son he can look at the statues? Um, ok... I told him he could look but not loooook. No ogling. Compromise met. Patrick wasn't particularly pleased, but he dealt with it.

Patrick said that he was just assigned a "mature" book in English class. He raised one eyebrow as he said it and told me I ought to look at it. "Mature," I guess, is eduspeak for "written porno that no way any decent, God-fearing American would allow to be distributed in the local library, let alone keep in his home."

My. This book is the most smutty, disgusting, amazingly bad work of "literature" I think I've ever seen. I tried to give it a good chance... tried to see some redeeming literary value in the OVERALL of the book. Sometimes when a rape scene or the like is included, it's used to demonstrate injustice or bring to light some element of the human condition, etc. I really tried to give this book a fair chance.

I got through about 20 pages. Lots of incest. Large breasts. Genital smells as turn-ons. Chastity belts and marital rape. Spears through the throat. I finally put the thing down when it went into some detail about how the mom in the book is checking out her young teen son's penis and thinking about its size in comparison with his dad's.

Done. Just done. So I wrote the following excuse note:

Dear Mrs. English Teacher (note I did not use preferred MS. title, sure hope she's married):

Please excuse Patrick from reading One Hundred Years of Solitude in English class. Surely some other, more ennobling work can be selected that fulfills class requirements. We would like one that does not cater to the prurient interests or is otherwise unwholesome.

Thank you for your prompt consideration on this matter.

Mrs. C
email address here

Patrick had a good chuckle when he read the note. "This is just what she needs to hear," he said with a big grin. "Perfect." He wanted to know why I wouldn't just email his teacher and why I handed him the note.

Honestly? I am giving him the note because he is nearly 17. In a year and a half, he will be able to watch porno without my consent if he's out of the house. He will be able to do all kinds of things without my permission. Patrick knows my preference on the book. I told him, though, that if he wanted to fill his mind with that smut, that he is old enough to understand the potential consequences.

But I am giving him the note so that the decision is truly his. He can hand in the note, or not hand in the note.

I have a feeling that he will hand in the note because not only does he not want to continue reading this book, he will also drive his teacher batty with the parental backup.

Hello, Smiley. :)

D and I like to go shopping at thrift stores as well as Wal-Mart because we're high class. Sometimes I think that y'all would realllly appreciate pictures of "things people gave away for free... for a reason" posts. What were some of these generous donors thinking? "Oh, I'm sure my collection of empty cookie tubs and plastic knives will net BIG MONEY for the local Salvation Army. And the ripped and soiled sheets? I'm gonna get a thank-you note for them puppies. And my 1958 copy of 'Today's Child' that has obvious mould all over it? That's saleable, too. And now that I am updating my kitchen, I can get rid of the 'Your the Best' plywood shelf that wasn't painted quite all the way and is full of dust and grottiness. Someone else will be buying that at a premium price."

D does a lot of leatherworking and likes to look for cheap leather belts that he can remake into bracelets, or jackets (sometimes marked way down in price because of tears or missing buttons) that he can cut up and use to make things. It's sort of a treasure hunt for him to see how much useful material he can gather in a visit.

The big reason we go, though, is to get out of the house and very occasionally, we find some stuff that is really great. Once D found a bag of Pokemon stuff for $10. If you've ever priced the Pokemon stuff new, you know what a bargain that is if your kids are into that stuff. I also am always on the lookout for more Great Illustrated Classics to add to my collection. I saw some of these at the curriculum fair for $6 each and there's just no way I'm paying that. I just keep trolling the thrift stores and when I find these books, they're usually 50 cents each.

Often we leave with nothing, but we enjoy looking around. Sometimes we see interesting people and other times we wish we hadn't seen interesting people. The poor cashiers have probably seen it all and at the Salvation Army, we've nicknamed some of these helpful and cheery folks "Smiley." They deal with a lot, so probably I shouldn't blame them.

It seems every time we go to the thrift store, that one or more family is letting its kids get totally out of control. More than once, I've seen kids breaking into bags of toys to get the things they want out of them. Then they stuff 'em into other, cheaper bags, leaving the absolutely unsaleable crap. It's stealing, really, but you'd be surprised that kids not much older than Woodjie are doing this and not only that, that these little ones are unattended while Mom's on the other side of the store. I've told cashiers about this before, but I don't think they think it's worth the drama to actually DO something about it.

And it's not unusual, say, if the thrift store is selling toy guns, for several little boys to be running up and down the aisles "shooting" at each other and screaming. Everyone tries to ignore them. But I think the cashiers kinda draw the line when the PARENTS get in on games like this and play "hide and seek" in the old ladies' undergarment aisles and furniture department.

"Please keep YOUR children with you for the safety of other customers and for the safety of YOUR children," intoned Smiley on the loudspeaker after seeing one dad play some sort of football and hide and seek tag game with his five rambunctious children. Poor Smiley. She said this about four times. Finally she hung up the speakerphone and just yelled at one of the kids to go find his dad. The family suddenly decided that it had other things to do that night.

"Awww, Dayyt!" wailed a young teen. "Howcome we don't buy nothin when we come to this store? Tha gun was only two dollar."

"I think 'two dollar' could buy you at least three grammar books here," I think to myself. But I am a very nice, shy sort of person who values keeping all her teeth and so I say nothing. Finally, D and I are done and are ready to check out. Smiley is ready to help us.

"The sign that says, 'No discount on red tags,'" D says to Smiley as he makes casual conversation. "It's rather counterintuitive, is it not? If your sale is on blue and tan tags today, of course there would be no sale on red tags. Are people trying to get some sort of sale on red tags?"

"Ohh, yeah," Smiley tells us. Those "seniors" get a discount every Wednesday and they think they're entitled to money off on the red tag stuff. The sign is there to prove that they are NOT getting a discount on red tagged stuff. They really don't deserve a discount on anything seeing as how it costs so much to keep these old people alive.

"They should be giving US a discount for letting them live so damn long!" Smiley says angrily.

I was just snorting about that line all the way home. This is obviously a place without "secret shoppers" and classes on how to deal with the clientele with finesse. :)

?????

"Kah... oooo... dah," Woodjie tells me as he writes the letters. And yes, C says "kah," and O says "oo," and D says "dah," doesn't it?? I am encouraging him to write his letters and he can identify many letters as long as I am not quizzing him on his letters (he hates that). He can draw pictures if he wants to (they resemble the mitten and alien family, very cute), but if I were to ask him to please draw a happy face, it won't happen. S is his fave letter, but he can't write it yet. It looks like he is trying in the top picture, but S is even harder than the "bah" he has written (the letter that looks like an 8). Maybe he will be literate before he speaks? How do you teach someone who doesn't SPEAK to WRITE? Where is he getting this from? We just keep exposing him to things around us and are surprised at what he picks up sometimes.