Wednesday August 31

I've survived my first night of teaching at the local community college. I'll be teaching a class there one night a week until mid-December. There are 22 students enrolled in my class but only 17 showed up. My Indonesian friends will be shocked to hear that most of the students showed up for class 10 minutes before starting time. This is a computer class with a big focus on Word, Excel and Access. It will be pretty intense but this is my third semester of teaching a class like it so I should be able to stay one step ahead of the students.

At Hardin Valley Academy we are preparing to hold the Student Government elections tomorrow. Students who are part of student government play leadership roles in planning many activities for the student body. There are many posters and signs up all over the school spreading the word about various candidates. The candidates also had the opportunity to videotape speeches, which were broadcast throughout the school yesterday.

Tuesday, August 30

We are still waiting for the heat to break here. Half the United States is flooded as a result of Hurricane Irene while we didn't get a single drop of rain. All we got was a day of lower temperatures with low humidity (wonderful!) and now we are cruising back into the oven! The forecast is for a temperature of 97 on Thursday, so thank goodness for air conditioning.

Stephen and Betsy await their ministerial call and at this point it is wearing on their patience. God grant them more patience.

Craig has been in Reston, Virginia for over a month now. I believe he is loving his job, his location, his short walk to work, and the fact that he is a few hours drive from Blacksburg and the love of his life, Brooke.

Jacob is getting plugged in well at West High School. He has played with the marching band at the two football games and will travel to Maryville on Friday night for the next one. Maryville is the top rated football team in the state so it might not be pretty for the West Rebels.

We've been back for over three weeks now and we believe we're over the whole jet lag thing and are pretty well adjusted back to American life. I believe when the college football season starts this weekend and I'm relaxing on the couch then the transition will be complete.

Sunday, August 28

We've had a nice relaxing weekend, resting up from a busy week at school. Stephen and Betsy traveled to Atlanta to pick up some furniture, so we were back to our original three for two days. We really didn't do that much, though I finally got around to trimming our bushes by the side of our house, bushes that have been out of control since our return from Indonesia.

At church we received many compliments on our presentation from last week which made us feel very good for doing it. Nobody volunteered to go to Indonesia in the near future, but I think we have inspired several members to think about going somewhere to spread the Gospel.

Many of our friends are interested in the format for a Lutheran worship in America, and I have scanned our bulletin. Unfortunately our scanner doesn't capture every bit of every page, but I think you'll be able to get an idea from this.

Our bulletin includes all the hymns of the service and the majority of the liturgy. By printing every part of the service in the bulletin, it makes it easier for older people and non-Lutherans to follow the service.

We begin with the Confession of Sins.

Then the choir and the ministers process in, led by the crucifer with the cross.

During the summer we only have two readings from the Bible. During the rest of the year we have three readings, normally an Old Testament, Psalm and Gospel reading.

Sermons at our church usually last from 15 to 20 minutes. Our ministers usually stay in the pulpit but have been known to venture out into the congregation once and awhile to better connect with the members.

We have communion at our church for every service, every Sunday. During our five weeks in Indonesia we did not have communion once. When do Christians in Indonesia share communion?

With Communion complete, it is time for the service to be brought to a close, with the Blessing and the Benediction. This closing hymn, "Life High the Cross", is very special to Nancy and Jim. It was used in their wedding ceremony; the hymn was played as Nancy walked down the aisle.

Friday, August 26

Whew! That was a busy week. Unfortunately I think this is what life is going to be like for at least several months. Some of the busyness comes from the normal routine, and having to do meetings and other activities after school. Another part of the busyness comes from special events, such as the preparation for Stephen's ordination. That part of busy will be something to truly celebrate.

The Friday night football report: Jacob's West High Rebels beat crosstown rival Fulton, while my Hardin Valley Hawks lost, sad to say. Jacob reports that his marching band needs to improve before I make a special trip to see them. Nancy and I went to a dinner party on Friday night, otherwise we would have joined Jacob to see his band perform.

Thursday night at HVA we held Parent Open House. All the parents who want to attend come and meet their child's teachers. The night starts with all the parents picking up a copy of their child's schedule, and you can see by the length of the lines that many parents attend. Mostly parents of freshmen and sophomores attend, though I did have several parents of seniors and juniors stop by.

This is a view of the road I drive to work every morning. It is called Interstate I-40W / 75S. W stands for West, S for South. It has two names because there are two major highways that join together for a short stretch of road. This road has four lanes going both directions. I take this road heading West to Hardin Valley while Nancy takes this road heading East (towards downtown Knoxville to go to her school, Dogwood Elementary.

Interstate highways are public highways (not toll roads) that join major cities. Notice a few things: the huge truck to the left (our roads are full of them), our vehicles travel on the right hand side of the road, and the cars and trucks are actually in the lanes which are marked with painted lines. After traveling about five miles on the Interstate highway I turn onto another major highway called the Pellissippi Parkway. Pellissippi is an Native American Indian word. The speed limit along this road is 55 miles per hour, which is the same as on the Interstate. Many cars travel this road in the morning as it leads to several large government offices where thousands of people work. This part of the drive is especially beautiful in the winter because you are able to see the Cumberland Mountains in the background. When it is hot you cannot see them because of the haze in the sky.

Wednesday August 24

This has been a busy week and it's only going to get more busy. Monday night Nancy had open house at her school. That's when all the parents of students come by the school and meet the teachers. She also had a meeting of the leaders of Teens Encounter Christ (TEC), which is a retreat ministry led by high school and college students.

Last night I had my orientation night at the college where I teach my computer class. Those classes will be on Wednesday nights, starting next week (thank goodness I didn't have class tonight).

Today after school I had a training session on part of the new teacher evaluation system we will be using this year. Nancy picked up Jacob from his afternoon marching band practice and took him to his last piano lesson. He has been taking piano lessons from the most wonderful teacher for four or five years, and now he simply doesn't have time for them any more.

The rest of our week doesn't slow down one bit. Tomorrow night I've got another teacher training workshop, followed by the Hardin Valley Academy open house. Nancy has another TEC meeting also tomorrow night.

On Friday we will all collapse for a few minutes after school, then Jacob travels with his marching band to their football game, which is against another high school in Knoxville. Nancy and I will join several other couples from our church for a dinner party. No, I don't have to cook anything, except for maybe a little bread. I believe if we arrive without any bread then they won't let us in.

The Cost of Living in America

Those tropical fruit items that cost a few thousand Rupiahs in Indonesia are quite a bit more expensive in America. You can find pineapples, coconuts and mangoes at most grocery stores, but you pay a big price for them. Pineapples cost $3.99, the equivalent of 35,000 Rupiahs. When they go on sale, the price is $2.99. And none are as ripe as the ones at the traditional market!

Sunday August 21

Today was the day for our presentation about our time in Indonesia to our home congregation. We titled it "Seeing the Face of Christ in Indonesia" and it included images of many of our friends. It was a great deal of fun putting it together as it brought back so many memories. We wore our batik shirts, thanks to Marnala and Kristen for their shopping help.

First we were introduced by the head of Christian Education.We talked about many aspects of our experience in Indonesia. The presentation was attended by over 100 members of our congregation.
Jacob played the ukulele and we sang "This is the Day" in English, Bahasa Indonesia and Batak. Our members did a good job singing in these languages, which were completely new to them.
After our presentation we went out to lunch with Jim's parents (on the right side) and Jim's Aunt and Uncle (seated next to Jim).
Jacob had a great traditional southern American meal of biscuits and gravy, grits with cheese, bacon, and fruit. He ate every bite.

Friday August 19

Friday night was the start of high school football season. It was hot and unfortunately a storm moved through right around kickoff time, so our games were delayed for several hours.

Here is the scene at West High School, where Jacob made his debut with the marching band. Sadly there is no photo of Jacob with his musical mates. They don't wear their fancy uniforms this early in the season and when they do we'll share a photo. For those unfamiliar with football, the teams are on the field, near the end zone, with the big white goal post to the right. The extra players for West are standing on the sidelines, and the cheerleaders are at the bottom of the picture.
Here's the scene at Hardin Valley Academy before our game. I am posing with our mascot, the Hawk. I was getting ready to make a fierce face as the picture was taken, that's why my smile is not perfect. Behind me is the little building where we sell tickets. I am in charge of the ticket selling operation. Tickets sell for $6 (about 50,000 Rupiahs) each.
Some of our HVA students "paint up" for the game. They use special body paint to put decorations, including polka dots and hand prints, on their bodies. These girls play on the softball team.
These are two of my students who are both seniors and were very excited to get the football season started. Before the game there were several "tailgate" parties, with food served like a picnic. Hamburgers and hot dogs were grilled. One of these girls was eating a hamburger but didn't want it in the picture, though you can see it at the lower left.
Some students cover their entire bodies in paint and that can be messy. Our seniors decided on a polka dot theme, like they have the measles, only blue. I'm not so sure about how tasteful or politically correct the "infected with" slogan is, so we'll see how long it lasts.
We had a long rain / lightning delay. There were thousands of fans who had bought their tickets from us and were forced to leave the stadium for safety reasons. My ticket sellers and I were sitting inside the ticket building in the dark, waiting. Even though there was lightning in the area, some of the fans would not go to their cars or move into the school building. Many were gathered right outside our ticket windows, hoping for a refund. Finally the storm cleared out and the gates to the stadium were reopened. This is the view outside our ticket window. There is a big crowd of fans standing in the dark.
Finally our football game began and we beat our opponent, Bearden, by a score of 32 - 0. Over 3,000 people watched the game in person, plus it was broadcast by a local television station.

Thursday August 18

The heat returned today with temperatures reaching 35 C. There was no rain during the day, though a small rain storm has passed through the area in the evening.

Today was an exciting day for teachers in their high tech schools. We arrived to find that none of the computers worked! They are all networked together, and all include a basic connecting program that monitors and limits their functions. By the end of the day it was still a mystery as to the cause of the outage. It forced us all to be creative and to scramble a bit. But it all seemed to work out. It was frustrating for those of us who really rely on technology and had specific plans for the day based on access to technology.

Tomorrow will be a big day, the end of our first week. Jacob will make his debut in the West High School marching band at their football game. Hardin Valley Academy starts the football season playing against a tough team from nearby. There will be a huge crowd at the game and Jim is in charge of the group that sells the tickets and collects all the money.

Nancy took some pictures with her class today during their outdoor recess (play time). She is teaching the fourth grade, and most of her students are 9 years old.

Tuesday August 16

Another hot day in Knoxville. The weather report is very boring this time of year!

Today was our first full day of school. All the teachers were a bit exhausted after classes today, but hopefully tomorrow they will return with new energy. I assume the first days of school here are very much like in Indonesia. We spend time becoming familiar with our students and introducing our class subjects.

This is a picture of our big atrium area at Hardin Valley Academy just before students climb the steps to go to class in the morning. Our cafeteria (canteen) is at the far end of the atrium.

Thanks to Stephen and Betsy for bringing us some awesome Japanese food for dinner tonight. It included chunks of chicken, stir fried veggies, and fried rice.

Of course we are ready to celebrate Indonesian Independence Day tomorrow!

Monday, August 15

Another hot day in Knoxville, though we think it is starting to cool off slightly. Still no rain in sight. The leaves will begin dropping off the trees soon if there is no rain.

Nancy had a great first day at school. Her fourth grade class includes 19 students, although there are typically a few changes in the first weeks of school as families enroll their students in and sometimes even change apartments.

Jim also did well with a good outlook for the semester with his students. School was just for a half day today so stay tuned for tomorrow to find out how a full day went.

Jacob had a good first day at West High School. His big brother Stephen took him to the bus stop in the morning and watched over him. Thank goodness for Stephen being in town right now! Jacob may need to make some little changes in his schedule to make room for Marching Band, but otherwise is in good shape. Jacob's marching band makes their debut this Friday night. Hopefully Nancy will capture some video.

This is the scene from Jim's high school last Friday morning as the older students, dressed in light blue, welcome the freshmen to Hardin Valley Academy.

Here are some of our HVA cheerleaders. If possible I will capture video of them in action soon.
Here are some of the other cheerleaders. The girl on the left is in one of Jim's accounting classes.

Sunday August 14

Today it was a little cooler. I believe the temperature only reached 30 C. Still no rain.

In this posting I have some images of our church, St. John's Lutheran, which is of the ELCA Synod, and is located near the center of Knoxville. Our church was founded in 1888 and the sanctuary was built in 1913. The outside is made of gray stone.
This is inside the sanctuary. We have many beautiful stained glass windows that illustrate major events from the Bible. Our pulpit, where the pastor gives the sermon, is off to the left and is not quite as "elevated" as the pulpits are in Indonesian churches. I think our pastors would greatly enjoy having a higher pulpit to put them closer to God.
This is the Ascension window, directly above the altar in the front of the sanctuary.
These windows depict the Crucifixion, Christ the Good Shepherd, and King David.
This is a closeup of the Good Shepherd window. Though there are no herds of sheep in Knoxville, the window is a favorite of many members of the church.
The pastors and the acolyte wait at the back of the sanctuary by the baptismal fount before the service. The service starts with the procession, with the acolyte leading the way carrying the crucifix, which is a gold cross on a long staff.
During the service we had a beautiful baptism.

Saturday August 13

Jacob had a large number of friends over to our house for Egyptian discussions and fun. This lasted throughout the afternoon, when he had to say goodbye to these friends so he could join a long time friend, Shannon O'Hatnick, for her 13th birthday party.Shannon lives at a nearby lake. There are many recreational activities that take place there, including paddling around on big surfboards.
Several of our friends have boats that are purely for fun. They pull kids on floats behind the boats.
The boats have big motors and can go fast. They swerve side to side and bounce the kids behind them in the waves.
Our friends have a dock which sticks out into the water. The dock has a second floor, a top level, which you can jump off of into the water.
Jacob and Nancy have jumped off this spot, but Jim is still waiting for the perfect moment.
The water is a little bit colder than Lake Toba. Right beside the dock it is about 5 meters deep.