Mount Hood Community College

This week we were at Mount Hood Community College to get the year started there. I posted about the ministry at MHCC here. Here are a few pictures from Wednesday, when my colleague, Josiah, and I were there.
















I had a good talk with Sara (below in the pink shirt), who is a Christian student wanting to be a doctor. We talked about the strengths and weaknesses of the peer-review process in science. this basically is the procedure by which the scientific community decides what to accept as truth and what to reject. The strength is that it allows a tight control on what passes for fact. The weakness is that many things which challenge the accepted norm will be rejected, and some will later prove to be true. So, the scientific community wold say that intelligent design is false because no peer-reviewed study has ever been accepted or published. This is not the same as saying something is not true, however. It merely means that majority consensus thinks a certain way.

For an interesting example of how peer-review rejected a true hypothesis, read here. Even more interesting is that this story is about my great-uncle.

Read here to see how peer-review initially rejected Charles Darwin's theory.

















Here are David, at left, our key leader at MHCC, and Josiah, center, talking with Tim, a student hurt by and hostile toward Christianity:

















All in all, a very good day.

The Frosting is the Best Part...

I (Anne) had to add these pictures that I just came across. The first one is from Alex's second birthday. The second one is from Tuesday at dinner. Some things never change...

The birthday

Sorry I didn't get these up sooner, but here are a few pictures from Alex's 5th birthday. (No way we have a kid who's five...)

Here is the life of the party:
















Here they both are:















Here are some of Alex's buddies from church:
















Opening presents:
















Alex's buddy Kaden at Chuck E. Cheese:
















Cake at home:

My girl

No one else has a daughter this beautiful:

Off to campus

In a few minutes I leave for Mount Hood Community College. This year we have a strong ministry there. I will have some pictures and an update later today!

The big day

Yesterday was Alex's 5th birthday. There is simply no way we have a five-year-old boy. Pictures will follow later today!

One week and counting...

In one week, Anne and I are racing in the Portland Marathon.

You may remember that Anne walked the race (26.2 miles) last year in just over seven hours.

I was so impressed with her discipline that I decided to start training too. Anne lost 35 lbs. and was logging as many as 40 miles a week during her peak training. A man can't watch that happen for long without being impressed!

Anne's goal this year is 6h10m. She is an amazingly fast walker, so I think she'll get it easily. My goal is 4 hours. Some days I feel pretty confident to be able to do it, and some days I think I am out of my mind.

We are both looking forward to the race, as well as getting it behind us. We each have been training up to 10 hours a week, so scheduling has been thorny.

We'll let you know how we do, and maybe have some pictures too.

Misunderstanding

Some not only read my Thursday post as cynical, which it was not meant to be, but some may have also gotten the idea that I have become down on tools or presentations used to communicate the Gospel.

I assure you this is not true. Sadly, many Christians assume that "heartfelt" means the same thing as "making it up on the spot". I have witnessed insensitivity when using Gospel tools like tracts; I have also witnessed incoherence and rambling when someone who eschews their use decides that "winging it" somehow glorifies God more than does preparation.

Imagine a teacher shunning lesson plans to go into class and be "spontaneous and authentic". Or a salesman who, rather than learning his product, how to use it, and commonly asked questions pertaining to it, just goes in cold and makes up a presentation in the moment. Neither would keep their job very long.

So I see a role for tools like tracts, prepared testimonies, and Gospel outlines. Anything that helps us communicate the Gospel better is a good thing. And so is learning how to do so appropriately, with sensitivity.

More thoughts on ministry

I began a few days ago to chronicle my thoughts and experiences related to ministry. I will be doing so for several more posts, because I have enjoyed the journey thus far, and God has shown me much that I am eager to share with friends, family, students, and supporters.

My previous post on this topic was perhaps read by some to be cynical - it was not meant to be. No change can happen until we are discontent with the status quo (or by accident, too, I guess). I believe that God in His wisom is not shy about letting us experience discontent at times to teach us, change us, or lead us.

An example is this: no one goes on a diet for fun. A person diets because for whatever reason and to whatever degree, they are discontent with their appearance, weight, fitness, what have you. It is their very discontent that leads them to enact change in their habits. As any dieter knows, merely reforming habits is rarely enough, though. Thoughts and attitudes must change too - that discontentment must work itself into a person's very attitude toward food or exercise of their health before success is attainable. The reformation of habits is only temporary unless the mind changes too.

So has my journey been. My mind has changed a great deal toward ministry. I think the change has been very healthy. In the coming days you can decide for yourself!

Back to New Orleans!

We decided this week that I will be going back to New Orleans once again to continue in the clean-up/rebuilding effort. Our staff team is sending 6, and we will be accompanying more than 25 students from the University of Portland.

We will be partnering with a church in New Orleans. Details of Campus Crusade's ongoing relief efforts are available here.

Why go back? The reasons are numerous. When I went in March it turned out to be one of the most powerful experiences I and the students from Portland had ever been a part of. More than that, there is a stunning amount of work still to be done, and many other relief agencies have left since the one-year anniversary has past.

We have students, both Christian and non-Christian, lining up to be a part of the ongoing relief effort. If God chooses to use us this way, we will gladly comply!

Thoughts on ministry

Over the next week or so, I plan to share a little about what has transpired in my outlook toward ministry over the last several months. As mentioned here, I have been searching for answers to some big-picture questions that will impact how I lead the Portland Campus team to reach the 100,000 students in our city. I am just beginning to solidify some answers. Bear with me.

I have had a growing discontent in the last two years with "ministry" in general. This has had nothing to do with Campus Crusade, or any church, or person, or our calling to ministry. It is simply what I have seen and experienced as I have watched 'Christianity' try to engage with non-Christians. What I have seen has in many instances been frustrating and discouraging to me.

I have noticed three things that seem to be thematic. The first theme is that ministry can tend to be extremely formulaic. We find something that works and we rush to apply it in every situation. We begin to view people as numbers or statistics. I have heard analyses that if you share the gospel with x number of people, than y will become Christian. I have also seen outmoded strategies clung to because at one time they connected with people.

I have also sensed passivity in ministry. So often we go through the motions and wait for things to happen, wait for people to show up, wait for change to make a decision for us, etc. I see this a differing from 'waiting on the Lord', where His servants are eager and expectant that God will move and are ready for Him to do so. I am referring to a rut, or routine, that we pursue in hopes of God sanctifying our trudge.

Third, I see a growing irrelevancy. Those outside the church believe we have nothing to offer, and that there is no reason to respect our beliefs. This saddens me because even though their anger and apathy might be directed toward us as people, it really keeps them from knowing Jesus. We as Christians are viewed as being anti-this or anti-that, or as being a political movement with great voter turnout. We are viewed as outsiders and separatists, who stand at a distance and bark proclamations to a largely ambivalent and growingly hostile crowd, with which we have no affinity.

These observations are certainly not true everywhere, but I believe that in time they will be, unless changes happen. They are certainly largely true on any campus anywhere in the country.

The question I keep hearing in my head is, "Is the Gospel powerful, or is it not powerful? Are there circumstances where Jesus cannot change people's lives?" I believe that the answer to that is, "Absolutely not!" Daniel 7:13-14 gives a shocking picture of Jesus as having been given "all glory, authority, and sovereign power." "All" is a really big word.

So, my journey has led me to this point: If there is a disconnect between the power of the Gospel and the impact of the message, where is that disconnect and what causes it? There are only a few possibilities: One, that Jesus in fact cannot exercise his power everywhere; two, that some non-Christians do not in fact need Jesus; or three, that we as Christians are somehow not communicating the Gospel very well.

I cannot accept either of the first two possibilities as true. I have therefore concluded that the third is where the disconnect lies. If I am right, that we don't do a good job communcating the Gospel, then this dictates our response.

I will share more about that response in the next few days. Thanks for reading this far!

Kid Logic

Tonight we had watermelon at dinner. Anne moved in to cut Alex off after several pieces, because too much watermelon can lead to a wet bed. Alex protested a little.

Anne: "Well, if you have more, you'll have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom."
Alex: "Arrgh, but Mom, I'm sleeping in the middle of the night!"

Concordia update

I mentioned a few days back that we have a good partnership with the campus leadership of Concordia University. Their campus ministers have been very welcoming and encouraging of our partnership. Here is an update from Darcy, their Director of Christian Education:

"Thank you so much for your support and interest! As always it is deeply appreciated. We too have had a record year of participation with Night Chapel attendance booming, record number going on the Christian Life Ministry Retreat, and record number attending Beautiful Feet Mission conference in November. So God is good! We have been milking the benefits of the gifts you have given. We gave out the water bottles at our activities fair, stuffed with flyers for our various ministries and the highlighters as well.

Our CLM team have received copies of Case for Christ and Blue Like Jazz so that at the beginning of second semester we can start 4 or five small groups that will discuss the book! Our team is very excited about that because we can give the students the books and it can be an amazing outreach tool that can unify the campus community!! Thanks so much for all you have done."

God is blessing both of our ministries as we work together to bring Him glory and to tell the lost about Jesus.

Interestingly, Portland Metro CCC has an unusual partnership such as this with the University Of Portland, a Catholic school, as well. I will post more on that at a later date.

Running around on the weekend

Early on Sunday morning, our family all participated in The Race For The Cure in Portland. Anne and I ran the 5k and the kids did the 1-mile run/walk. In their case it was run/walk/jump off stuff/bump into strangers.





















Alex is the early riser of the house. When I went into his room at 5:30 am to get him up to get ready, he sat straight up and got out of bed wide-eyed, and was down the stairs before I knew what was going on.

















The event itself was neat. There were almost 50,000 total participants, and it was wall-to-wall people. Being a breast cancer survivor celebration, women outnumbered men by about 10-to-1. As you can imagine, Allison drew smiles and comments all morning long.

At times, the sanctimony of a few of the sponsors made me laugh. Chevron at a cancer awareness function? In Portland, the bootcamp of the environmental revolution? Hmmm...chemicals and pollution at a health and well-being gathering. And Quilted NorthernUltra , in their own words, were there "Quiltin' for a cure." I'm sorry, toilet paper just cannot do anything to be taken seriously by me, except not be there when it is needed.

I ate a Pria bar. It said it was nutrition for women. I liked it too. I may eat another one sometime.

Alex the champ

Alex is the official "Skip Skop" champ of his class. Skip Skop is apparently a game where the kids race like horses, running without putting their back foot in front of the other foot.

He told me he wins because he touches the wall across the gym before any of the other kids do. Makes sense.

Saturday leadership

Today was our big leadership kick-off for the year. We gathered student leaders together from several of the campuses in our scope to hear vision for ministry from the staff team and to give the students some equipping and tools to use throughout the year.

All told, we had 35-40 student leaders there. These students are the very best people. They love Jesus, they work hard to lead their ministries, and they are fun to be around. We are fortunate to be entrusted with such treasures!
















If you have read a couple of my past postings, you know that I have been excited to impart to the students a couple of philosophical changes in the way we see and do ministry on campus this year. I will definitely go into more detail in future postings. Suffice to say that we as a team are pondering a return to a more simple, prayer-oriented, relational style of ministry that emphasizes mission and service as the cornerstones of our outreach. We will still use Campus Crusade tools and resources because they are very good, but we are moving toward a slightly different context in which they are used.

I promise to elaborate soon. This is something that I am excited to be a part of!

Thanks for praying for this leadership time, too. We felt your prayers and were encouraged by them.

Clackamas Community College

Friday our team went to Clackamas Community College in Oregon City. We have had a strong group there on years past, but all our student leaders transfered out at the end of last year and we have been looking at relaunching a ministry there.
















So, eight of us traveled to campus for a Freshman Orientation and club fair. We gave away over 100 Freshman Survival Kits in one hour, and talked to many more students about Jesus and about involvement with Campus Crusade.
















On the survey card we did with the FSKs, we asked a question, "Would you be interested in starting and leading a ministry here on campus?" About 15 students said they would be interested. So, in the coming days our team will be following them up with appointments and working to put together a leadership team.















Please pray for Clackamas Community College. It has always been one of our strongest community college ministries. Restarting a group is no big deal (it happens all the time), but pray that God would bring the right students to lead it. That makes all the difference between a good group that represents Christ well on campus, and a group that never gets going and folds in on itself in a short time.

I will update as our team follows up with the potential new leaders.

My nemesis, redux

Yep, we paid a fortune for this one, but we'll have heat:
















The electrician came over at 7:30 am this morning, so I got to watch him work. I must admit, I am revising my understanding of the sequencer from 90% down to about 50%. Boy, I would have screwed this up big time!

We have lukewarm heat now. I have one more thing to take care of and our 7-month oddysey for forced-air heating should be over. I wired the furnace for 10kW, but to run best it needs a 15kW set-up. That means that only one of these two switches is active:
















Notice the black and white wires only go into the switch on the right. All I need to do is fill the big hole in our circuit-breaker panel marked 9-11-13-15 with a double-pole 30 amp fuse:

















Then I will run 10-gauge wire from the fuse to the furnace, and we'll be warm this year.

Electricity is our very dangerous friend!

The daredevil

Alex likes to hang from the door jamb at the top of the stairs and drop on to a pillow at the top of the stairs. It hasn't yet gone as badly as it could, but gravity tends to teach us things we don't forget:

Makin' dogs look good

Anne took this fun picture today. It was rainy, so the kids played inside most of the day:

Great news on the news

I saw this last night on the news. Apparently El Nino will be returning this year. As we all know from Chris Farley, 'El Nino' is Spanish for 'The Nino'.

I am excited for the potential warmer, dryer Northwest winter. Pretty much anything will be dryer than last year's winter, with 37 straight days of rain at one point, one day off, and then two more weeks straight.

The only downside is having to listen to everyone around here complain about how dry the winter is. I swear, I can't think of any other place where everyone complains because it rains too much, but then when it's dry, everyone laments about how we're just not getting enough rain.

That and all the global warming doom and gloom should ensure that Anne won't let me watch the news with her this winter, all the better to not have to listen to me comment on all this while she is trying to hear what the weather guy is saying.

My nemesis

This is a sequencer:
















It replaces this:
















The second picture is of our furnace control board, which is dead. The sequencer is an inexpensive part to replace the dead board.

We have an electrician coming over to wire the sequencer, and we will pay him a fortune to do so. What hurts is that I understand about 90% of how these things work...I just don't know exactly which wires go where. As a friend at church said, "It's that last 10% that burns your house down." Wise words.

I can count on one hand the number of times I have been unable to figure out something mechanical in my adult life. It's not the money, it's the pride that hurts. But at least we'll have heat!

My boy

My girl

Nobody else has a daughter this beautiful:

Big Weekend

This weekend Portland Metro will be holding our first student leadership summit of the year. This is a time for our staff team to gather students together from all over the city to train, align, and encourage them in the things God has called them to on their campuses.

Please, please pray for this time, which will happen on Saturday. We are rolling out a few changes to our ministry this year that we really believe will make a substantial difference in how effective our ministries are in this very unreached city.

I don't want to give anything away yet, so I will share much more next week about our content. Know that we will talk a great deal about a new (to us) philosophy of evangelism, using Colossians 4:2-6 as a model, and we will be emphasizing prayer at a level that we have not in the past.

We expect anywhere from 20 to 40 students to show up. If that number seems low to you, it should. To accomplish our mission of reaching every student on every campus, we will need to see God raise up far more than that. Saturday's leadership time is a crucial step in seeing that happen.

So, please pray for the time!

Kid logic

The other day Alex asked me if he and Allison could have a "slumber party". Everything you need to know about "slumber party" is contained in our dialogue:

Alex: "Dad, can me and Allison have a slumber party?"
Me: "I don't think so, buddy."
Alex: "Why not?"
Me: "Tell me what happens at your slumber parties."
Alex: "No sleeping."
Me: "What else?"
Alex: "Fighting."
Me: "What else?"
Alex: "Screaming and crying."
Me: "What else?"
Alex: "We usually make a HUGE mess."
Me: "See?"

Allison asleep in her doll's toy bed...and Alex with the scratches from falling off the swing.

Pacific University

For several years Portland Metro CCC has had a strong partnership with Pacific Christian Fellowship at Pacific University in Forest Grove. "PCF" embraces many of the same ministry distinctives as does Campus Crusade, so rather than compete with them for students on this smaller private school, we offer them resources such as materials, training, funding, conferences, and retreats throughout the year.

PCF benefits from this relationship by having access to the things a large international organization like Campus Crusade can offer. It is easier for us to plan retreats or service projects such as happened in New Orleans this past spring, for example, due to our size and experience.

CCC benefits because by giving them resources to reach that campus, they are owning a part of our vision, which is the whole city of Portland, meaning every student on every campus. PCF is there on the ground reaching students with the Gospel, and we are helping them to do it more effectively.

Here are a few words from Dave Miller, the director of PCF, regarding an outreach they did last week using Portland Metro's Freshman Survival Kits:

"Wow, you should have seen our table at the club fair this year at Pacific. For the entire time there was no question that we held a crowd the whole time. The kits were a hit this year especially. Many expressed an interest in service projects and getting involved this year. I truly hope the material will take hold on many who took a kit, knowing they probably didn't know much about Christ or Christianity. "

See, as we work to reach every student on every campus, we know that there are many other servants of God like Dave who are uniquely poised to reach people for Christ. So rather than roll into town and start our own program, we seek these opportunities to build the kingdom by working together when we can to maximize our efforts.

Wife Humor

Many things attracted me to my wife when we first met, and still do...her beauty, intelligence, strong personality, and, well, she's really funny. Case in point:

She bought a pair of jeans for me to try on. Let's just say that the fit was less than roomy. I said, "These kinda look like Ryan Seacrest jeans."

Anne, without even a second's hesitation:

"More like Lance Bass jeans."

Back to the store they went.

I blame myself

This is my fault, I admit.

I have lately rediscovered the joys of riding my bike. In fact, on days when the weather holds, I have been riding into Portland for my meetings. What I do is drive across the river to Jantzen Beach, park my truck, and ride the eight miles or so into town.

I am dreading the rainy season this year because I know that I will be much less motivated to ride. But until then, the thought of the OPEC sheiks having one less steak for dinner on my behalf is strangely satisfying.

Mount Hood Community College

In Gresham, OR, at the extreme eastern end of our Portland Metro scope, is Mount Hood Community College. It is a typical community college...commuting students who work full time in addition to taking classes, and very little on-campus involvement of any kind. Community colleges are notoriously difficult to minister on.

For years CCC has had very sporadic presence there. Last year, things changed, however. Josiah, our team representative at Mount Hood, did two things well (he does many other things well, too - roofer, reader, rockclimber, etc.). First, he established a partnership to reach the campus with a pastor from Good Shepherd Community Church in nearby Boring, OR. They have taken over responsibilities for planning the weekly gathering, providing Bible teaching and worship each week.

The second thing Josiah did was find a Freshman named David last year. David has been the "right" leader for Mount Hood. His energy and organizational leadership have driven CCC at Mount Hood to another level. Last spring, not only did David help build the group, but he also planned a New Orleans trip during Spring Break, recruited 21 other student from MHCC to go with him, and raised a few thousand dollars to fund their trip. It has been nothing short of amazing to watch David act out the vision God has given him for his campus.

Now, Josiah is able to focus on guiding David and keeping good relations with the church, which frees him up to open and coach ministries elsewhere.

This is what Campus Crusade ministry in a large city is all about!

What's wrong with this picture?

You've seen those picture puzzles, right? "There are five things wrong with this picture. What are they?" Well, Anne and I saw a living tableau of this at our house the other night...

We were sitting in our family room talking with Alex about school. Allison was upstairs playing, when we heard the unmistakeable sound of something (or someone) falling down the stairs. Whatever or whoever it was impacted the door by the bottom of the stairs hard enough to rattle the walls.

My first thought was, "That wasn't good." But then there was nothing but silence. Thinking that could be really, really bad, like an unconscious little girl, I hurried over to see what happened. When I opened the door, the tableau presented itself.

At the bottom of the stairs was Allison's toy baby carriage, crashed on its side, with two baby dolls flung about like so much footage from a high-school driver's ed video ("Stuffing on the Highway"). Their baby pillow lay a couple feet away, thrown clear by the impact. Standing next to the carriage with a dazed look on her face was Allison...not wearing any pants.

It would be a trip to reconstruct the thought processes that led to the removing of one's pants and the flinging of babies and carriage down the stairs. Pure gold.

And remember, laughing only encourages it.

A Good Meeting

Thursday night saw Me (Adam) sitting outside a Starbucks in Salmon Creek, WA, near Washington State - Vancouver waiting for anyone to show up. I was hosting an informational meeting for students interested in starting a Campus Crusade group at WSU-V. I have been to many of these types of info meetings over the years, and it is never a sure thing that anyone will show up. If they do, it is never a sure thing that the students that do show up will display the aptitude to lead a ministry.

This time, though, three students showed up. All three were fun, sociable, an seemingly willing to get a ministry off the ground. I explained to them what CCC is about, what we want to see happen on a campus, and how they could lead it. We talked for a while, and they are thinking it over. Our Portland team is holding a day-long student leadership summit on Saturday September 16th, and I invited these three to come to it, meet other student leaders in Portland, and get an idea of what role they could play.

We'll see what happens. Getting these groups started is for me the hardest part. We need the right students, the right campus advisor, and the right volunteer and financial resources. Please pray these things come together.

Kid Logic

This week we had a bit of a school crisis with Alex...we decided at the last minute to switch him to a Pre-K program in a different school. Alex sometimes gets upset when things don't go the way he expects them to (as do his Mom and Dad), and so we have been trying to emphasize positives and feel him out for how he is doing without making a big deal about the whole thing.

Today he was telling Anne and I all about his class, and what a great time he was having...crafts, and reading stories, and playing at recess. Finally, he gave us a bit of a sheepish look and told us that they had Oreos for a snack today.

Well, I thought that sounded great, so I told Alex that I thought that maybe next week I could go to school instead of him, so I could eat Oreos, play at recess, read stories, and make crafts too. He thought about this for a second. His reply:

"Well, Dad, sometimes they throw you out of the window, you know."

The stuntman

We have no idea where, but Alex got the idea yesterday that he could roll backwards off the swing, do a flip, and land on his feet. He was showing Anne how to do it, but, as the Olympians might say, he didn't stick the landing.

He is fine now, but falling face-first into wood chips hurts exactly as badly as you could imagine.

A strange day

Today was an odd day on campus. My colleague Joe and I were asked to leave Washington State-Vancouver, even though we had been invited to their student club fair. Apparently we are not a part of a recognized student group, and so we cannot be on campus. How do we get to be on campus? Become a student group. How do we do that? Meet students who want to start one. Where are students? On campus. And so it goes.

On a positive note, before we were asked to leave we were able to meet 6 or 7 students who indicated interest in starting a group. We have an informational meeting tomorrow night, off campus!, to explain who CCC is and what we want to build on the campus. Please pray for the success of this meeting, as it will dictate everything that happens at WSU-V for the rest of this year.

Another launch

I'm off in a few minutes to attend a student club fair at Washington State University - Vancouver. WSU-V has historically been an upperclass school, only admitting juniors and seniors to a few specific programs. This year, however, they have admitted their first Freshman class.

We have tried for several years to start a CCC group here, but have not had any interest. In order to launch a group, we will need a handful of motivated students to spearhead the effort. Today we will try and meet more students, and tomorrow night we are holding an informational meeting to cast vision for reaching the campus for Christ.

If we don't have students rise to the challenge, we will not be able to launch there this year. Please pray that we would find the right people!

Kid language

Ahh, the subtleties of evasive language. Alex and Allison were assigned to clean up their arts and crafts supplies in the basement. After a few minutes of banging, giggling, and crashing, I walked over to the top of the stairs.
Me: "Alex, are you guys cleaning up down there?"
Alex (confidently): "We're workin' on it, Dad!"
Me: "But are you cleaning anything?"
Alex (pause): "Uh, no."

Always ask the follow-up question.

Lewis and Clark College

Friday saw our staff team visit Lewis and Clark College. "LC" is known as the fourth-most spiritualy apathetic school in the country, according to the Princeton Review. However, in an interesting turn of thought, they allow Christian groups free access to their dorms to meet students and talk about spiritual things.

The school figures that free speech and the free exchange of ideas are too important to deny access to anyone who would seek to respectfully engage the student body in honest dialogue. So, as liberal and apathetic as LC is known to be, they are one of the only schools in the country where you can walk into a dorm, knock on any door, and talk to a willing student.

In spite of this freedom, the campus has been historically quite hostile to Christians. A few years ago, some students who were leading a Bible study were the victims of break-in where their Bibles and Bible study materials had Satanic symbols gouged into them, and their door was painted with "We don't want your kind here, Christians!"

We were on campus last week for Freshman Orientation. We met Freshmen as they moved in, did some Spiritual Interest Surveys, handed out FSKs, and spent time praying with the CCC student leaders. We saw quite a bit of interest among Freshmen for our group, and everyone we talked with was grateful for the free FSKs.

Kid humor

As I mentioned a few days ago, Alex and I (Adam) have been working on his reading skills with the excellent program "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons". The other day he had to sound out "but", and when he figured it out, he giggled a little bit. Today he read it again and giggled - "Hey Dad...heh heh...butt."

Hey, I giggled a little bit, too.

We all need heroes...

This guy is my new inspiration. Add 'donuts' and '81 more years', and this guy and I could be twins.

Adam