'Twas the night before two-thousand and twelve

The Christmas season is a time filled with great joy and celebration of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: the greatest gift of all. Over the last few weeks, amid time with family and loved ones, I have spent time dwelling on the scriptures found in Isaiah 9:

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."

Our God is truly an awesome God! 

And now, as the New Year approaches, and the last of the Christmas decorations are shed, I find myself praising God for His many blessings, and in doing so, am reminded of my grandmother. As many of you may know, I am a bit of a "book junky". To put it simply: I love to read! My grandmother was a librarian and much of my love for books was passed down to me from her. I can still remember the day, when on my fifth birthday, she took me to get my very own library card which I used to check out five books. It was love at first page and I was hooked. My grandmother also encouraged me to keep a note card on every book I read, a practice I still maintain today. So, in honor of my grandmother, and in preparation for 2012, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you my top reads from the past year (in no particular order). I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did! 

Bob's Top Reads of 2011:

TITLE: The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science 

AUTHOR: Norman Doidge, M.D.

INFO: The implications on education from the studies covered in this book are monumental. The short answer is that educational practice lags cognitive understanding by at least 20 years. 

TITLE: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer: A Man Who Would Cure the World

AUTHOR: Tracy Kidder

INFO: Dr. Farmer, a Harvard trained physician, has dedicated his life to providing medical care for the poor, particularly in Haiti. This book is well written and deeply convicting. 

TITLE: Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Redemption, and Resilience

AUTHOR: Laura Hillenbrand

INFO: The title sums it up best.

TITLE: The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals

AUTHOR: Michael Pollan

INFO: One of the highlights of our administrative team here at Shannon Forest is that we all love to read. I would never have selected this to read but it was a recommendation from a colleague. I would probably consider it my favorite read of the year. This is a book that will certainly change the way you view the food you eat. 

TITLE: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

AUTHOR: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

INFO: It is by far the most challenging exposition of scripture that I have ever read. 

TITLE: Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community

AUTHOR: David Putman and Ed Stetzer

INFO: A thoughtful analysis of why the Gospel is not transforming American Culture and how to change this trend. 

Bob's 2011 Honorable Mentions:

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer

61 Hours, Bad Luck and Trouble, and Killing Floor by Lee Child

Angels Flight by Michael Connelly 

Daniels Running Formula by Jack Daniels, Ph. D.

Generation iY by Tim Elmore

Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn 
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Dan and Chip Heath
Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church by Michael Horton
War by Sebastian Junger
Hidden Harmonies: The Lives and Times of the Pythagorean Theorem by Robert Kaplan

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter 

Running with the Buffaloes by Chris Lear

Return Flight: Community Development Through Reneighboring Our Cities by Robert Lupton

Running to the Top by Arthur Lydiard

Six Silent Men by Reyenel Martinez

Lore of Running by Tim Noakes

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals and Meaning by Nancy Pearcy

With Justice For All: A Strategy for Community Development by John Perkins

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What it Says About Us by Tom Vanderbilt

Desiring the Kingrom: Worship, Worldview and Cultural Formation by James Smith

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman

I offer continued wishes of a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year to you and your family and look forward to seeing all of you next year! God bless.

My Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time when friends and family gather together in fellowship to give thanks, share some food, and maybe even watch some football together. This year, Thanksgiving marked the return of my daughter Lyndsay from Bolivia. After travel complications arose, first with her visa, then with the retrieval of her passport, we weren’t sure if we were going to have her home for the holidays or not. But the Lord is good and Lyndsay’s passport came into her possession only hours before her flight was to depart for the states. She will be returning to the mission field in Bolivia (sans dreadlocks) after the Christmas holiday is over. Over Thanksgiving I was also afforded the opportunity to spend time with two of the people who most influenced my life: Ralph and Mr. Gilpin. Both men are educators and have both been recognized as Teachers of the Year in Florida. A large part of the draw I have to education is to pay back their investment in me.

 

 Family reunion at the train station in Tampa, FL.

Lyndsay's last photo with the dreads.

Losing the dreadlocks. Hallelujah! 

  My beautiful daughter WITHOUT dreadlocks.

Ralph, six years my senior, was my neighbor and mentored me from the time of my dad’s passing until the day I left for college. The impact he had on my life is incalculable and I am very thankful for him. Because of our age difference, Ralph and I never attended school together, but he was always there for me none the less. I had a lot of energy as a kid and could be rather rambunctious and even rebellious at times.  Ralph saw those qualities in me and helped me to channel and apply them in positive ways. He saw me for me, and not just the me that I was, but the potential me that was present inside. Everything I know about loving young people, I learned from Ralph. 

 

Me and Ralph at Thanksgiving. 

Mr. Gilpin taught Comparative Religion at my high school, and was the only teacher I had who challenged me to expand my expectations and to apply myself to achieve them. Mr. Gilpin was a former priest who had renounced the priesthood to become an evangelical. Before Mr. Giplin, I was a bit of an under-achiever, something that my other teachers would identify and label as a negative, ultimately furthering my rebellious nature. Mr. Gilpin instead saw my rebellious, energetic ways and drew them out of me in a positive way, in a productive way. He was the first person in my life that had really challenged me to make life goals; it was the first time in my life that I had really thought about what I wanted from my future. Most importantly, Mr. Gilpin taught me to love the Church as the bride of Christ; he challenged me to visit churches and view their presentation of the sacraments, to experience worship with them. He taught me that God’s church isn’t in a building: it’s the people.

 Me with Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin over Thanksgiving.

The thing I thank them most for is that they never tried to change me or conform me. Instead, they each helped me to discover my gifts and talents, and most especially they taught me how to channel them. They each cared about me beyond the classroom, and I knew that.

These men are responsible for my draw to education, my desire to be a teacher, to work with teachers, to challenge teachers to genuinely care about their students, and to provide students with a personalized education. More important than any subject is the knowledge that the one teaching is someone who truly sees you and encourages you to be more than you are. My draw to education is recognizing the opportunity that we have to shape young people, and that’s exactly what we are doing at Shannon Forest every single day. If we were to look around one day and discover that the only thing our students take away from their time here is content, then we will have failed them. These are my educational aspirations.