July 2010 Lower Family Newsletter

[Chad T. Lower]

Penn College offers classes during the summer for three different summer sessions.  The first is deemed the "Mini-mester" and it is short!  Students meet 4 days a week for 4 hours 15 minutes each day over the course of 13 days for a 3 credit class.  During a regular semester, a 3 credit class would meet two or three times a week for a total of 3 hours during the week.  A semester usually lasts 16 weeks so, accounting for breaks and the like, a student usually received about 45 hours of in class instruction for a 3 credit class.  The minimester still has about 45 hours of instruction, accounting for daily breaks and the final exam, it just happens in 2 and a half weeks.  There are only about a dozen sections offered each year during this term.

 

The main summers sessions are dubbed May Term and June Term.  May term begins in mid-May and lasts 5 weeks until mid-June with students attending class 2.5 hours a day for 4 days a week.  During the May term, I took an accounting class.  The class started the same day as the trial I was in (see last month's newsletter), so I spoke with the professor who allowed me to make up the missed work.  Upon completion of that class and 2 others I finished previous semesters, I can now teach Business Mathematics at Penn College.

 

June Term begins in mid-June and goes through early-August (depending on the class, about 7-8 weeks meeting 2 hours a day for 4 days a week).  I am teaching Elementary Algebra II during the June term.  We will run the full 8 weeks and cover 5 units.  Each unit has a test, then a retest if a student wants to study more and try the test again to improve their grade.  So 5 unit tests, 5 re-tests, and a final exam makes for 11 tests in 8 weeks!  So far, we have finished 4 weeks and they will finish their 4th test today, July 11.  We will also have our 5th test this week as well.

 

Besides finishing a class I was taking and beginning a new one I was teaching, I also helped a coworker move, gave blood, and helped with the WGRC bicycle fundraiser.  When I was hired at Penn College, there were three math faculty hired that year: Stephanie, Barb, and myself.  Stephanie decided that she wanted to live back in Ohio where she finished her Master's in Statistics, so she put in her notice and left this summer.  He dad came down from New York and he, along with Stephanie, Barb, myself, and another person, brought Stephanie's packed boxes out of her apartment and put them in a U-Haul.  She told me that when she arrived in Ohio, she had two of her old friends who were still in the area and two Mormon missionaries help them unload the truck.  I pray for success in her future endeavors.

 

I also gave my 55th pint of blood in June.  For those of you keeping track, another pint will bring me up to 7 gallons.  My recently deceased Uncle John, who has been one of my inspirations for giving blood, had over 100 pints donated.  It will only take me another 8 years or so (at the minimum) to catch up to his achievement.  I also helped WGRC again (www.wgrc.org) with their benefit bike ride.  We had 11 bicyclists ride 100 miles with me and two other motorcyclists as escorts (see picture).

 

The same week my algebra class started, the Math Department had a picnic at Barb's house.  Suzy and I got a sitter for the kids and rode the motorcycle to the picnic.  We had a great time and lots of good food.  Two days later, Suzy left for Grove City for the St. Davids Christian Writers retreat.  She took Ali and Malachi to her parents' house for the week, then continued her journey.  Now that she is on the Board of Directors as the Treasurer, she has to arrive a day early for the board meeting and she gets to attend the conference for free.  Only the director, president, and treasurer get to attend for free since they *have* to be there.  Although she got food poisoning one of the last days there, she said she had a great time.  She said the speakers and workshops were good, and she was glad she went again.  She also won an award again this year for a flash fiction piece she wrote.  This is her first attempt at flash fiction and the judges commented on how well she understood the genre as compared to some of the other entries.

 

While Ali and Chi were visiting their grandparents for the week, Bella stayed with me.  Before I taught in the morning, we would bicycle to our friend Gretchen's house where Bella would spend the morning to play.  I would come and pick her up shortly after 11, and we would bicycle home.  We live about a mile from Gretchen's house and Bella did very well for the distance and realizing that she is just learning how to ride with training wheels.  On Wednesday, after leaving Gretchen's house, she went to Camp Susque (www.susque.org) for Adventure Camp.  She was there from Wednesday to Saturday, even spending the night in a cabin.  Her friend Abby told her about the camp during the school year, and Abby's mom drove them both to camp.  While at camp, they had morning devotions, swam, made crafts, and even had a luau!

 

Bella has been asking for a lizard for her birthday for a long time since I am allergic to most animals.  We finally decided to get a couple of green anole lizards (American chameleons) as a present for her surgery which was scheduled July 9 (more about that next newsletter).  In the pictures, you can see the newest additions to our family: Hannah (the bigger lizard) and Miley.

 

Last month, we read as Paul told us that Love does not delight in evil.  The second half of that verse reads, "but rejoices with the truth."  The word, "but," indicates that we should rejoice with the truth INSTEAD OF delighting in evil.  I mentioned last time that we were beginning the third verse in the love definition.  This time, we are concluding the third verse!  I promised it would get quicker...

 

When Paul (the author of I Corinthians and, consequentially, our love definition) was in prison, he wrote to the church of Phillipi.  There were people who were preaching about Jesus to help people become Christians.  However, there were other people who were preaching about Jesus out of selfish desires and motives.  God knows our heart and I doubt He would be please to know people were advancing their own agenda by using him, but Paul approached it slightly differently.  Philippians 1:18 reads, "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."  He is rejoicing for all good things -- the advancement of the gospel -- rather than focusing on any potential discouragement.  Since we cannot truly know the motives of anyone, only what they profess with their lips, it is probably better for us to assume the best anyway and let God take care of any heart issues involved.

 

Another way we can rejoice in the truth is to let others know we are rejoicing.  When I have good news, I like to share it with others, not keep it to myself.  Isaiah 60:1 tells us, "Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you."  This little light of mine? I'm gonna let it shine!

 

Finally, another way to rejoice in the truth is to be truthful.  To yourself and others.  "So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body." (Ephesians 4:25)  Personally, this is one area that I have been working to change recently.  When it matters, I am and have been truthful.  If there were ever any issues of work or performance at Walmart or any job I have had, I have no problem telling the truth, even if it put me in a bad light.  However, I do like to joke and kid-around a lot which can easily become lies.  I may approach one of my children and tell them I am going to "eat their foot." Then I will go and pretend like I am going to bite them, when in reality, I have no intention of eating them at all, foot or otherwise.  On a more serious note, the other night after dinner, Suzy bought a box of Italian Ice for dessert.  After dinner, she took 5 containers of the original 6 in the box.  After finishing his, Malachi said he wanted more.  I told him there wasn't any more knowing full well that the last one was still in the freezer.  But because I love my kids (and my wife), I am consciously making an effort to reduce these small mis-truths or, at the very least, recognizing them for what they are when I say them.

 

Next month, we will begin the next verse in the love definition.  Until then, I pray you continue to enjoy your summer.

Chad T. Lower
a.k.a. Chopper
http://chadtlower.tripod.com/
 
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Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.
Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
                               Philippians 2:3-4