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One of the nice things the seminary has done for us this year is to build us a new student center. They sorta had to seeming as they made our old student center into an office building. But the new Wartburg student center is a pretty nice place. There are a few comfy chairs, a giant flat screen TV, and six imac computers.

One of the things that used to be in the old student center was a little white board where the students would keep a countdown to call day. In our nice new high class student center a little white board wouldn’t look very attractive. So the powers that be requested that Ed Tech make a countdown to call day screen saver. Being one of the Ed Tech student developers, this assignment fell to me. This is what I came up with:

I am pretty happy with it. It’s pretty cool to see a screen saver that I wrote, up on all six of the imacs in the student center.

I came across this picture while looking through the old pictures in my cell phone. I had almost forgot how small Sumiko was when I got her. For those of you who spend any time at my place know that she is, well, a little bigger now.

Recently, we had German Days here at the seminary. Unfortunately, it’s not the Octoberfest that you are thinking of, it’s more of a german symposium (theological conference.) The funny thing was that they hung a giant german flag over the entrance to the building where they were meeting, and it made me feel like we were filming the next Indiana Jones movie here on campus.

One of my greatest joys over my vicarage was the Tech Club that I started at the school. It all started when I realized that all these computer and technology questions that the students are asking me before and after class, probably mean that this is an aspect of their education that they are willing to grow in, but lack a teacher. (Of course I say this not to criticize, most small schools have trouble teaching technology for a variety of reasons.) So I announced that we would start a Tech Club that would meet every other week after school. We would dissect computers (and other devices) and see how they work. We even covered how GPS technologies work and staged a GPS guided treasure hunt. The Tech Club turned out to be a huge success with over 50% of the 5th - 8th grades showing up. Tech Club became an institution in itself and I could not have been happier.

In one of the last meetings we had, we talked about how batteries work. I pulled out the old citrus battery science experiment. For those of you who are not familiar with that one, it involves creating a battery by inserting a piece of copper and a piece of zinc into a lemon or lime. The acid in the fruit acts as a battery acid and creates electrical flow. We connected a chain of lime batteries together and modded a solar calculator to run off them. It worked great! The kids were amazed that a piece of fruit could power a calculator and a small speaker.

Man, I really miss Tech Club.

The only thing I can think of when I see this picture of our cat Jager is that line from tommy boy when he is singing “Fat man in a little coat…”

She used to lie in the basket a lot when she was little, and is now probably wondering why the basket is shrinking.

Awhile back I put a “Pizza and Game Night at the Vicar’s House” party up for auction at a school fundraiser. To my delight and surprise, it sold for $190. Which makes me think I need to go into the party throwing business. But anyway here are a few pictures from that night.

We had halo 2 running on the xbox, projected up on a big screen. It was pretty cool and I was sad to take it down the day after the party….

I even had DDR hooked up in the kitchen.

Starcraft was running on a few of the computers. Starcraft is really big with this group, which is cool because I can literally say, “you were still in diapers when I was playing starcraft…” (maybe not quite, but close enough)

The Wii was on my TV in the living room. The wii seemed to be the favorite, but that’s no surprise. Ever since I got the wii, my 360 has developed an inferiority complex.

It was not long before the guys found my nerf gun. I am still finding random darts around my house.

And of course, everyone loves cake and ice cream.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks to Zach Meador (the guy with the cake) who won the auction! Hope you guys all had a good time!

Recently I gave what I think is my best chapel so far. I came across a story about a man involving mortal peril from a pendulum. In short, the story illustrates the distinction between knowledge and faith. To best illustrate the story I looped a golf ball attached to a rope over the church rafters. Then while I was telling the story, the kids had a visual reference. It was also a great opportunity to sneak a science lesson into the chapel sermon. We looked at and charted out the pendulum’s rate of energy decay (which was part of the story.) The kids really liked it and the teachers basically had to pull their students away after chapel was done.

Those of you who know me as a vicar, probably know that I consider the object lesson the king of chapel types. Younger kids benefit greatly from a physical representation of the topic; Something that connects what they are processing in their minds to something they already know, i.e. touch, smell, sight. I encourage all my vicarage friends who are reading this to give object lessons a try if you have not already. I think you will find that your audience will stay far more interested and will enjoy greater comprehension and retention.