Anticipating the new (school) year

The day is almost here. After nearly a year of home assignment, it’s finally time for us to return to Rift Valley Academy. The excitement has definitely been building, and while our hearts break for all of the goodbyes we’ll need to say over the next few days, our hearts are anxious to get back to the work that we love among the students and staff that we love.

But the most fascinating thing about RVA is that the school we left is not the school we’ll return to. Of course it’s true that the only constant is change for any institution and any series of relationship, but RVA’s nature makes its personality change far more than most places. I’m going to use numbers to try to illustrate this change. I’ll start with when we left and then highlight what happens among staff populations and student populations at the two key transition points for each school year—the end of a year and the beginning of one.

July 2009
30% of staff leave
10% on home assignment
20% terminating for good
30% of students leave
15% to graduation
10% for parents’ home assignment
5% termination of parents’ ministry

August 2009
30% of new staff arrive
10% return from home assignment
20% brand new staff
30% of new students arrive
10% return from parents’ home assignments
20% brand new students

Approximately the same changes will happen in July 2010 and August 2010. When you add up those changes, it looks something like this.

Staff
40% brand new staff in two years
10% on home assignment for 2010-2011

Students
40% brand new students in two years
10% on parents’ home assignment for 2010-2011

These statistics are staggering, even to me. In one year’s absence, the school will look fifty percent—50%!—different than it did before we left. In just one year!

What does this mean for us? Well, in some senses, it means that the school we left doesn’t exist anymore. It certainly means that we’ll have a huge learning curve as we return to the school. New staff to familiarize ourselves with. New students to meet. New policies and changes within the school institution. New relationship dynamics to adjust to. Not only that, but we’ll both be teaching new subjects on the academic side of things, while on the student life side of things, we’ll have some changing responsibilities as well.

There are some constants however. The Kenyan staff and community should remain fairly consistent. There will be anchors among the staff—the people who have been there for decades. But most importantly, God remains the same. God has guided RVA through the years—over a hundred years actually—in the midst of sweeping and drastic transitions every year. This is His school. There really is no human way to explain how a place can operate with 30% turnover every year and 50% turnover every two years, apart from God’s specific sovereignty and will for this place. He loves the unreached and poor in Africa, and he loves this school that supports the people who care for the unreached and poor in Africa.

Endorsement Week, part 5

You know how Michael Jordan does underwear commercials and Bob Barker encouraged us to get our pets spade or neutered at the end of The Price is Right? Well, in the same vein that those spokespeople lent their fame to a worthwhile enterprise, I'm going to throw around my huge blogging weight this week with some product business endorsements that I think the 9 of you who frequently read my blog should know about.

I wrote this blog about ClearPlay filters back in January of 2009. For some reason, I never posted it. Weird. Anyway, here is the explanation of how Rift Valley Academy uses ClearPlay technology. I highly recommend this for families that watch movies and have kids in elementary, junior high, or senior high school.

ClearPlay website

"The Video Guy" blog...written when I was actually the video guy!

One of the most “unmissionary” kind of jobs I have is as the Video Guy for our school. As a school we provide a complete program for our students—from their education to sports programs to music lessons to weekend entertainment. While our students’ counterparts in the US can go to the theaters, watch 150 cable channels, and rent movies continually with their non-school hours, RVA kids can’t. They’d like to, but they can’t.

Thirty years ago, the only way our students got to see movies was when the US Embassy in Nairobi would get original film reels of Hollywood flicks. Often times though, those movies wouldn’t be appropriate for Christian students. And if they were appropriate, they’d often need words or scenes edited out because of bad language or content. In those cases, an assembly of 200 students would see a diligent staff member monitoring his watch to put a piece of paper in front of the projector and to pull the audio cable out at the precise moment of the impropriety.

Today, we have far more access to movies on our campus and luckily we have some strong technology to make the “editing” process smoother. But before I get into that, who decides which movies—of the hundreds that are released worldwide every month—should be circulated around dorms and households on campus?

The first step is the Video Preview Committee. Consisting of parents of younger children and older children and of staff who specialize in working with the different age groups, the committee meets once a week to a view a movie together and then discuss it. We then approve it for a certain age-level according to dormitories (1^st grade and up, 5^th and up, 7^th and up, 9^th and up, or 11^th and up), or we determine it to be inappropriate for any student at RVA. (We often pass movies around during the week to watch on our own and then talk about them.)

This step is no easy matter. Some parents are extremely liberal and allow their kids to watch anything. Some parents are extremely cautious and would rather their kids get as little cultural exposure as possible. The committee does try to err on the safe side so that we’re honoring the conservative parental point of view.

To help us further in our job, a great new technology has come up; it’s called ClearPlay. ClearPlay makes filters for movies and imbeds them into their DVD machines. Once the specific movie filter (which edits out various aspects of a film like profanity, sexual content, and violence) is in the machine, that DVD cannot be played on the machine without the editing. However, the way that ClearPlay gets away with “changing the content” of a copyrighted work is that they don’t actually alter the DVD in anyway. The technology simply modifies the way that the owner of the ClearPlay subscription watches it.

The next step is to burn a “ClearPlay” version of the DVD for campus use. The edited DVD then goes into our school’s library where dorm parents can check out the edited and approved movie for their students. The original DVD sits on file in the library (so RVA does officially OWN all of the movies in our library) while the approved version gets circulated.

Since the school’s ClearPlay machine and DVD burner resides at my house, I’m also able to help missionaries with their sermons and Bible studies by editing clips they need from movies. The job of “Video Guy” is time-consuming, but being a movie buff, the job is one that enjoy.

Endorsement Week, part 4.

You know how Michael Jordan does underwear commercials and Bob Barker encouraged us to get our pets spade or neutered at the end of The Price is Right? Well, in the same vein that those spokespeople lent their fame to a worthwhile enterprise, I'm going to throw around my huge blogging weight this week with some product business endorsements that I think the 9 of you who frequently read my blog should know about.

We're putting out a new prayer letter this week. If you're on our mailing list, be looking for it. If not, drop me a note and you can be on it! Our newest prayer card/magnet features the photography of Brian Howarth. He's a member of a supporting church in Julian, California, and he offered to shoot our family. Here's his website if you're looking for an ultra-friendly, Christian, and professional photographer in San Diego!

Brian Howarth Photography

Endorsement Week, part 3

You know how Michael Jordan does underwear commercials and Bob Barker encouraged us to get our pets spade or neutered at the end of The Price is Right? Well, in the same vein that those spokespeople lent their fame to a worthwhile enterprise, I'm going to throw around my huge blogging weight this week with some product business endorsements that I think the 9 of you who frequently read my blog should know about.

We're all grown ups here, right? We all are big enough to know that all people, whether they're Christians or pastors or missionaries, can be tempted. Right? Good. Today's recommendation is a technology that has been a lifesaver for me.

Covenant Eyes is not an internet filter. It's a software that logs and analyzes all of the websites you visit. Then, a compiled weekly report is sent to anyone you choose--a pastor, a spouse, an accountability partners, a parent, anyone--with scores. If you've visited some questionable sites that week, the score will be higher and the particular "risky" sites will be linked in the weekly report. Sometimes it flags things that are totally benign, but overall it's an extremely savvy tool for remaining pure while using the internet.

One of our supporters set me up with it, and I can't tell you the peace and joy I've had for the past two years that I've used it. If you have kids you're worried about or if you struggle with Internet temptation yourself, I can't recommend this software enough. It's a small fee to subscribe, but it could be a product that saves you and the ones you love unmeasurable pain and heartache.

Covenant Eyes website

Endorsement Week, part 2

You know how Michael Jordan does underwear commercials and Bob Barker encouraged us to get our pets spade or neutered at the end of The Price is Right? Well, in the same vein that those spokespeople lent their fame to a worthwhile enterprise, I'm going to throw around my huge blogging weight this week with some product business endorsements that I think the 9 of you who frequently read my blog should know about.

Today's endorsement might seem fairly random but hear me out. Shaun Farrell is my podcasting mentor and is a fellow bibliophile/literature-junkie like me. He and his wife just had baby #2, and so they've had some income adjustments this past year. Shaun has worked hard to break into the real estate business, and the first two years are excruciatingly difficult until you can get a client base.

When we visited him in Sacramento in April, he told me of a cool way that he can build business, even outside of the Sacramento region. He said that if people use him to get referrals for realtors in THEIR area--be it Atlanta or Dallas or Juneau, Alaska--he can grow as a realtor. So, here's my plug for Shaun.

If you are living in the 50 United States and are exploring buying or selling a house, visit the website below. Shaun can help you find a trustworthy and compatible realtor. I know he'll do a great job getting you connected. You have the "Strangers in Kenya" guarantee on that one.

Shaun Farrell of Lyon Real Estate

If you're a sci fi junkie, you might like Shaun's reviews and podcasts. Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing

Endorsement Week, part 1

You know how Michael Jordan does underwear commercials and Bob Barker encouraged us to get our pets spade or neutered at the end of The Price is Right? Well, in the same vein that those spokespeople lent their fame to a worthwhile enterprise, I'm going to throw around my huge blogging weight this week with some product business endorsements that I think the 9 of you who frequently read my blog should know about.

Two weeks ago, my wife and I went to a Family Life "Weekend to Remember" marriage conference. I have to admit, some of my motivation for going was to have a mini-vacation with my wife before we head back to Africa next month. My expectations of the content or "marital growth" were small. Boy, was I shocked! The conference was incredible. The speakers were both excellent, and the course materials were perfect. The best thing of all though was the homework assignments. There were a few pages of the coursebook that focused on questions for you and your spouse to talk about. We spent hours talking about our marriage and each other and really appreciated the way that these questions opened up our lines of communication. The price was good (especially considering how excellent the conference was), and the Hilton where it was held had fairly-priced rooms as well.

I highly recommend finding a conference in a city near you. They run them year-round. Even if you don't stay in a hotel, being there for the day and then going home at night to do the "homework" would be worth it too.

So much of our health and happiness as married people depends on our relationship with our spouse. Spending a few hundred dollars and dedicating 42 hours to your spouse alone are small prices to pay for a strong marriage.

Link to Family Life web site

I thought today was Friday all day

It's 2:20 pm on Wednesday. I just came to the full realization that it is indeed Wednesday and not Friday.

I've spent the last three days engrossed in a research paper for my "Gospels" class at Bethel Seminary.

If you're a "The Office" fan, you'll remember the episode where Jim and Pam spent an entire Thursday convincing Dwight that it was Friday. It worked, and he came into work three hours late on Friday.

I didn't need anyone's tricks. I got confused all by myself. Does that make me a bigger loser than Dwight?