On Valentines Day Zeeland Christian’s middle school had a special event called serve and skate. This was an all day event that started with chapel. In chapel that morning we talked about leveling ourselves like Christ did because that’s what he calls us to do. After chapel, we broke up into our small groups and left school to go and serve. We served up until lunch and then went out to eat. After this, the middle school met at the skating rink to skate for the rest of the day.
I am in Mrs. Roskamp’s small group. We decided to go serve at Ditto. Ditto is a second hand store where people can donate their clothes and things they don’t want anymore for others to come and buy at lower price. ZCS is very grateful to this store because they donate their profit to ZCS families so that each person can have $200 off their tuition. Our group cleaned windows, washed shelves, organized toys, sorted clothes, made cards for the volunteers who worked there, and more. After serving at Ditto until lunch our small group went to Culver’s for lunch and then went skating.
That day was a really good experience for me because it went so well with our school’s theme for the year of “Go.” It reminded me that God calls us to “go” and serve others in a Christ like manner. I am grateful I had the opportunity to do that in our community.
February 27, 2014
I recently read the book Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis. This book is about a young high school girl who feels Gods calling for her to go serve him in Uganda. After struggling with the idea, her parents decide to let her go, but her mom accompanies her. When she gets to Uganda she falls in love with the country and decides she must stay longer and longer, until eventually she ends up living there. Although her parents really wanted her to attend college she decides to listen to God’s call and stay in Uganda to serve. Katie taught kindergarten, started an organization to help kids who can’t afford school and serves just about anyone she can. She even ends up adopting 14 girls! Later she decides that she must please her earthly father as well as her heavenly Father because thats what He commands us, so she ends up taking a semester of college for nursing school but she misses Uganda so much she couldn’t wait to go back. She struggles with the fact that where she grew up is so blessed compared to where other people are living in the world. She describes that in Uganda she feels at home for real because she is doing God’s call and is closer to him. In Tennessee she feels farther away from God and struggles with the fact that half the world has more than it needs and the other doesn’t have enough.
Near the end of the book one of Katies adopted girls named Jane’s birth mom shows up and decides she want her daughter back after abandoning her for four years. Katie describes this as “Practically ripping her heart out having to give a girl who’s been promised to have a forever mommy back to the one whose abandoned her” this is an example of a hyperbole because it’s an exaggeration as tough as it would be to give a child away. Each time in the book Katie adopt another girls she describes their personalities. Once she adopted Jane she says “Jane is also my like my little songbird”. This is an example of a simile because Jane may sing a lot but she is a human being and not a song bird. Another example is when Katie was treating seven little kids living in an abandoned house down the street and she says “Then, it hit me like a brick, these kids need a mom.” Because a brick didn’t actually hit her when she realized they needed a mom.
This book has really impacted me because by the way Katie is so dependent on God, the book has really drawn me closer to Him and taught me how to lean on him through everything as well as her connections to scripture. This book also made me more thankful after hearing about the living condition of these people on the other side of the world. It hurt me to hear about how there are two year olds and younger living in places like these that have experienced more pain and hurt than I or most people I know will ever experience in a lifetime. This book has also helped me to look differently at life. I strongly admire the way that Katie explains and accepts the poverty and sin of the world. Lately, that has been something I have also been questioning God about-the brokenness of the world. The way she also levels and humbles herself to the way she serves really connected me more to the understanding of the our theme for the school year of “Go”. I feel very strongly about this book and pray that God will help me to see the way he would like me to serve him. I would definitely recommend this book to all!
In the past month or so, our grade was given an assignment to do on Egypt. We were put into groups and our groups were given two different characteristics of civilization. We then researched these characteristics (ancient and modern) in social studies class for a while. We then had to make exhibits for each one of these characteristics that were later part of an Egypt museum our grade made. While we researched in social studies class, we also made a museum survey in math that we had different grades throughout the school take and we read a book called “The Egypt Game” in language arts. I really enjoyed doing all of these, but I especially enjoyed researching in social studies and learning such cool things about Egypt! I was put into a group with Nicole Funkes, Noah VandenBrink, and Jay Shrouger. Our group was given the characteristics of ancient and modern religion and art. For our Exhibits we made an interactive game for the process of mummification, we had pictures of jewelry from ancient Egypt along with beads and string for people to make jewelry with, slide shows, posters, and much much more. For me, was also a lot of fun to make the exhibits. I learned tons from this project as well as had a lot of fun, it was a great experience.
Here are pictures of our exhibits for the Egypt museum:)
1. Content
Lately we’ve been learning about earthquakes and how they form in science. I learned that they occur when two plates in the earth called tectonic plates rub past each other. This is called transform. I thought it was pretty cool that these plates grow at the same rate your fingernails grow! We also learned that when the tectonic plates meet each other and are touching it is called convergent and when the plates are growing in opposite directions it is called divergent. We have also learned about Pangea. This is a certain theory that at some point in history all of the continents were together as one but over time they were separated, looking at the map this totally made sense and I thought it was amazing!
2. Skills
A skill I’ve been working on lately is working in groups. I still have some work to do, but I think that once I have it down, it will be very useful in a lot of ways. Like for work someday I’ll have to learn to work with everyone.
- How I learn best
- I work best individually, like in math when I do the work by my self or with one person but most times it is difficult for me to work in groups because I like to take charge and do things my way. Working in groups for Bible class right now is sort of frustrating for me because there are some people in my group who don’t want to or choose not to participate and so that makes me think I can just do it all myself and then I get overwhelmed. But I think it’s been going better in our groups for Egypt because our group works really well together and I think we all do a good job working together and sharing the work. I think it just has a lot to do with who I work with and I have to become more able to work with everyone.
The first thing I find interesting about the steps to ratify the constitution is once the congress received the constitution they were angry with the members that wrote it because they were only supposed to revise the articles for the old plan of government. I think that if I were a member of congress I would be very pleased with all the extra work the delegates had just done for our country, without even being asked! The second thing I find interesting about the paper we read is that the people feared that the president would end up being like a king, because that is the whole reason that all of the colonists fought so hard to be their own country and get away from the kings power, so why get worried about that? Lastly, I think it was so silly that it took the states 10 months to get approval to adopt the constitution! It almost seems a little to me like some people are starting to not even care anymore about their new country.
I think the colonists struggled with identity crisis because they most likely didn’t feel ready to be their own country yet, because they had a lot to worry about. I think it must have been really chaotic after they won the war. They were probably so used to being “the colonists” and being “owned” by Britain. But as we know, they got over it and it all worked out in the end!
I consider the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence to be the most important thing about the American Revolution. It was obvious to both sides of the affair that the British were the ones with the most power in this situation. It was a time in our history where the colonists decided to fully stand up to the British and aggressively tell them what needed to be done and why it wasn’t fair that the British had control over the colonists. A lot of times it is hard to stand up for ourselves and tell others that whether they like it or not what they are doing must come to an end. I think the colonists were very brave to write the Declaration because they had to fully defend their point of view so that the British understood what they were talking about. I think it’s sort of like what we are currently doing in social studies with the treaty of Paris, defending our opinions. Over all, I have come to the conclusion that the Declaration must have been something really hard to write.
I think that if I were George Washington I would be very discouraged by the time we were out of supplies at Valley Forge. As much as I hate being cold, I would especially not want to be fighting against people like the British who were better and more trained than I was. I really admire George Washington as he kept on fighting even though he and his men went through a bunch of epic fails! I admire him because he could have surrendered, but instead he didn’t give up!
