class trip - turning 50

From March 11 through March 16 I was part of the senior class trip to Washington DC. I think I have finally recovered from the sleep I missed while the bus traveled through the night. The students had free time to see the memorials and the museums and several scheduled activities including visits to the White House, the Capital, Mt. Vernon, the Aquarium in Baltimore, the Holocaust Museum, tours of the National Cathedral and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a visit with Coleman McCarthy, and a stop at the Mennonite Guest House to see our former principal, Wilbur Yoder and his wife. We also saw a play, "Piano Lesson" by August Wilson at the the Kennedy Center.

When I get ready to go along on this trip I often wonder if it is worthwhile. During the trip I realize the majority of our students have not been to D.C. before, some have not been to the east coast, and most would not willingly visit the cathedrals, or see a performance at the Kennedy Center.

When I visit D.C. I am always reminded how obnoxious the security has become. Here in the cornfields of Iowa I don't run into a lot of security issues. When we visited Senator Grassley we went to meet him at the Hart Senate office building. To get in we had to go through metal detectors, empty our pockets, some people had to take off their shoes, and I was scolded when I failed to take off my belt, and its not like I was wearing a big cowboy belt buckle. The last time I had to take off my belt and submit to the detection wand being waved around my body I was in Hebron, going with the CPT delegation to visit the Ibrahimi mosque.

After spending some time with Senator Grassley we went from his office to the Capitol. We were inside the entire time and yet we had to go through security once more. After a bit of a tour we went up to see if we could get into the Senate gallery. Once again we went through security and this time I was asked to take off my belt. After all the students made it through security where a few lost their hand lotion and chap stick we were ushered into the gallery. I found it rather enjoyable because many of the Senators were actually on the floor. We heard brief speeches by Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, and Ted Kennedy among others. Some of the kids saw Obama, Clinton and McCain which they thought was cool.

What puzzled me was that only about an eighth of the Senate gallery was full. The rest of the seats were empty. Yet when we left after watching for about 45 minutes, there was a huge line of people waiting to get into the gallery. If the building is to be our capital, why should citizens be forced to wait in long lines when there were plenty of seats available? If you subtract the press area, at least 3/4's of the gallery was empty. It sort of ticked me off because the year before I was one of those people waiting in the long line and by the time they let us in to the chambers, after waiting over an hour or more, there was nothing going on as the Senate had adjourned.

The visit with Coleman McCarthy probably provoked the most conversation among students. He talked about the classes he teaches on peacemaking. Then he stirred things up a bit when he said the first step in peacemaking is to "not eat anything that has a mother." If I understood him correctly he would fit into the vegan category. So we had this guy advocating vegetarianism to kids from a State which has more pigs than people, and to kids, some of whose parents raise beef and hogs for a living. It made for a lively discussion which was fun to observe- though some of the kids were shy and saved their questions and comments for the sponsors when we got back to the bus.

On the 14th I turned 50 and the kids had fun with that. I endured numerous rounds of "happy birthday" and received a couple of gifts- a self-exam prostate kit, and a mug which said "I lean left" and was made so it does lean to the left. Back at the hotel the kids surprised me with a cake. I should have been more suspicious but I was tired and just happy that at the time the kids seemed quiet. All in all it wasn't the worst way to spend one's 50th birthday.

coaching clinic

I spent a day in Lincoln, Nebraska attending a soccer coaching clinic sponsored by the University of Nebraska and the state coaching association. It has been a while since I have made it to a coaching clinic and it was the first time I went to one in Nebraska so I wasn't sure quite what to expect.

The last time I went to a clinic I was one of the few not wearing what seemed to be the uniform for soccer coaches - Adidas Samba's or Copa Mundial's for your feet, warm up pants and jacket made primarily from polyester or some sort of nylon, preferably with an Adidas logo, though Diadora and Umbro will suffice. Listening to the swish swish noise the clothes make as coaches walked by reminded me of the days when my son was in day care and all his buddies wore what they called "slicks." Part of the fun seemed to be to see how much noise they could make. It isn't quite as endearing when it is 30 to 40 year old men wearing them. There weren't quite as many coaches at the Nebraska clinic wearing this outfit but all the red "N's" on almost any article of clothing made up for it, I suppose.

The sessions were held in the new indoor practice facility built primarily for the football team, at least that is how the turf field was marked. For the most part the sessions were helpful and I was glad to be there. The trick is to take those things I think will be helpful for my team and to teach it to my players.

Monday, March 10 was the first day we could legally practice. There was still a foot of snow on the ground so I had about half the guys come in early in the morning before school and the other half, after school. It seemed to work all right, though I don't enjoy morning practices. Tuesday I left for class trip with the seniors and my assistant ran practices for the underclassman. Our first game is March 31 and we certainly have some work to do before then.

chapel, nooma and changing times

The other day in chapel two students introduced us to the topic of forgiveness by using a short film from something called Nooma, created by a preacher named Rob Bell. It was the first I had heard of the series and of this particular preacher. It is definitely aimed at a young adult audience and the students seemed to respond in a positive way to the message. What struck me was the difference in the message from what I heard when I was sitting in chapel a little over 30 years ago.

Titled "Luggage" the film talked about the importance of not carrying grudges and of forgiving those who have done you wrong. The film cuts between Bell speaking and scenes of a young women in an airport. At the end of the film, after the line "you never know when it will be too late to forgive," (or something close to that) the last scene shows the womens car pulling into the path of a speeding semi truck and getting smashed. Think driver's ed films you may have been subjected to in the hopes of making you a safe driver.

The last line and the scene of the smashed car reminded me of the many times I heard in chapel, "get yourself right with God because you never know when you might get run over by a car, hit by a train, bit by a snake, swept away in a rip tide, or die in your sleep." The message seemed to my teenage ears to be "get saved before its too late, you die, and spend eternity in hell." Sometimes we would sing this awful song full of bad theology about the end times. It went something like this "life was filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor, I wish we'd all been ready." Then there was something about two men walking up a hill and one of them disappearing because the rapture had come and only one of them got taken. You see I sang it enough at youth group I still remember large chunks of the song.

Instead of scaring people into repentance the film seemed to scare people into forgiving. If I interpreted the film correctly the guy was saying, either do your forgiving before you die, or maybe it was forgive the person you need to forgive before they die. While repenting and forgiving are both good I wonder about the technique of frightening people to get them to take action. There are good reasons to do both which have nothing to do with fear. But I suppose fear is seen as getting quicker results, though I would guess they may not be as long lasting.