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A quote by the trends manager at youtube. He told his young audience,“We all want to be stars, celebrities, singers, comedians.” Not “most of us”, or “some of us”, but “we all.”
Of course, to be overly stereotypical, its true. To some degree we all want to be the object of someone else’s attention. I for one, however, am very thankful that I don’t need to be the extrovert ideal! Anyway, I just really wanted to copy the quote at the bottom from “Middlemarch”, because I really like it – even if I think its much more than just “partly” and “half”. If it weren’t for the countless unhistoric acts and those who live faithful hidden lives, where would this world be?
Below is part of an interesting article stemming from the youtube guy’s quote.
It’s refreshing, after this, to read an extract in yesterday’s Guardian from Susan Cain’s “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking”. Cain writes that we live with a value system she calls “the Extrovert Ideal—the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha and comfortable in the spotlight.” For Cain, this is “an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform”.
The article finishes with this line.
As George Eliot wrote, 140 years ago, at the very end of “Middlemarch”:
for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
The article was found on moreintelligentlife.com, a division of the economist.
* Just to be clear, the picture has no real connection to the article, just couldn’t find anything that really fit the content. -
That is the sigh that came out of my mouth when I thought about the past few months :) We started a new ministry team, got busy teaching in local churches around Kiev, and now we are on a teaching/recruiting tour of the SBS’s in Europe. Two weeks ago Angela went to Sweden to teach Leviticus in the SBS there. Looks like 2 students will be coming to do Titus this fall with us from there. After that we got home and a day later we all drove to Germany. This is where we will run Titus Project this fall, so we came to build relationships and teach in the SBS here. Ben taught ‘How to Preach’ and our friend Josh taught 1 &2 Samuel. Unfortunately, we have been having some visa problems so now we will stay here in Germany until the end of the month, and hopefully get everything all worked out. Please pray for us. Our kids are sick too, so pray for the kids…and the parents- cleaning up after they get sick is never fun. -
Bingo our son, you are only a few months away from blessing us all with your presence. We pray for a peaceful and safe next two months as you grow and get all ready for this world. We also pray that God will lead us to the right name for you and that your brother and sister will be all ready to welcome you into the world! We love you already!
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“It’s my favorite!” Considering everything is his favourite, he doesn’t quite get the concept, but it sure is cute how he emphasizes the word favourite like nothing else will ever compare, until he finds the next toy, or type of food!
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One of the hardest things as a parent is to see your kids sick. We landed in Ukraine from Sweden on Friday and we left Saturday morning for Germany by car. On day two of the road trip Jay started throwing up. Just when we thought he was over it, Cassie got it. Yuck! Thankfully Cassie is at the age when she can understand what is happening and can understand why she is eating crackers and not sweets- but she sure does like sweets! :)
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We try to make this blog a blend of our work that many of you support and follow, and also include events and exciting details of our personal lives as well. I’ve noticed that the last little while we have been focusing a lot on our work and it has been awhile since we have updated our personal lives.So let’s get personal! We moved on January 31st, so the month of January was unpacking and setting things up! I just put up a whole bunch of pictures so you can get an idea of where we are living. The most exciting thing for us is having a yard. The house is actually smaller than our apartment we were in, but now we can send the kids outside to play!
My pregnancy is going well. I have a great doctor for all of my pre-delivery appointments etc. I still have to find a doctor/hospital for the delivery but that is in the to-do list for March. So far no complications! Hopefully we won’t experience the same thing as the last pregnancy of pre-labour with Jay.
Ben is doing well too. He has been doing lots of reading and is quite busy with our work, but personally he feels happy with where we are, our friendships etc.
I would say we are both a little apprehensive about having a third baby, we recognize that life will need some adjustments, but God is faithful and we trust Him to lead us, guide us, and give us the strength we need. We also miss our friends and family from home quite a bit. Since we don’t have internet at home it makes it even harder to connect with people. But I guess that is a reality of living life overseas.
Well, that was quite long, and personal, but probably a little overdue. Hope you are all doing well!!
