Busy Sunday

This is a busy Sunday but next weekend will be even busier. Leslie and I will be going to the Health and Spirituality Weekend in Independence, Missouri, our church headquarters. We will leave about 1:00 on Friday. One of the classes is on poverty called "A Framework for Understanding Poverty". It was written as a PHD dissertation by Ruby K. Payne and is a classic. Many schools require their teachers to take a course with it. I have had the course myself when I administered the FAST program in Independence, Kansas. My son-in-law took it when it was offered by his school system while he was still teaching. Everyone would benefit from this class. One of the things it explains is that teachers approach teaching aimed toward a middle class mindset and those reared in poverty have an entirely different mindset. It is very valuable to have this information. Ruby Payne's husband was reared in poverty. His father died very young and their's was situational poverty but many people living in poverty suffer from generational poverty. There all the different in the world in the mindset of those reared in poverty. Where teachers understand that, and respond correctly, they can have a positive impact on their students and be able to effectively encourage them to stay in school.

I went to church this morning as usual and presided there this particular morning. What was really cute was the granddaughter of our speaker. She wanted to be held but ONLY by grandma. She is two. So her grandmother spoke while holding a two year old. It was very cute but grandma was very tired when she finished. The two year old helped take up the offering. Our deacon took up the regular offering but Brindley took up the change offering. We use our change offering to support one of our missions, a boxing club that a former golden gloves champion holds for "at risk" boys to keep them off the street. He feeds them dinner and then teaches them boxing. He does this free of charge just because he loves kids.

Then after our lunch at El Pueblo, I came back home and did my regular Sunday newsletters.

This evening I will just watch TV. There is no "Living the Questions" group tonight. That's next Sunday evening.