Day 123: Efficiency

Daily Sheet: Day 123: Efficiency

Family Book: “Building an Igloo”

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Travel: Alaska

Video: “Scientists in Japan” – Sara Groves talks about the meaning behind the song

Video: “Scientists in Japan” – Sara Groves (official music video)

 

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Day 115: Care

Daily Sheet: Day 115: Care

Family Book: “The Call of the Swamp”

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Travel: Paraguay

Song: “Hands” – Roo Panes

Hold gently what you wish to grow old with.  Don’t close those hands.

Questions:

  • What do you think this book is about?
  • Do you think it was right for Boris to go back to the swamp?
  • Why did his parents respond the way they did?
  • Discuss the song “Hands” as it relates to this book.
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Day 102: Benevolence

Daily Sheet: Day 102: Benevolence

Family Book: “If the World Were a Village”

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Travel: Gabon

Map: Mary Kingsley’s Travels

Video: “Open My Hands” – Sara Groves (talking about her inspiration behind writing this song)

In Psalm 84:11 we read, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”  Sir Richard Baker comments, “But how is this true, when God so oftentimes withholds riches and honor and health of body from men, though they walk ever so uprightly?  We may therefore know that honors and riches and bodily strength are none of God’s good things, and the good things of God are chiefly peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, fruition of God’s presence, and a vision of His face in the next.  These good things God never withholds from the Godly.”

Video: “Open My Hands” – Sara Groves (live acoustic performance)

I believe in a blessing I don’t understand.  I’ve seen rain fall on wicked and the just.  Rain is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a peace that flows deeper than pain, that broken find healing in love.
Pain is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I believe in a fountain that will never dry, though I’ve thirsted and didn’t have enough.  Thirst is no measure of his faithfulness; He withholds no good thing from us.

I will open my hands, will open my heart.

I am nodding my head, an emphatic “Yes!” to all that You have for me.

Questions:

  • Do you think Sir Richard Baker is right?
  • Why does Sara Groves say, “I believe in a blessing I don’t understand”?
  • Why, if God is faithful, do people experience drought, pain, and thirst?
  • What is our role in all this?
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Day 97: Tolerance

Daily Sheet: Day 97: Tolerance

Family Book: “The Relatives Came”

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Travel: Seychelles; Mauritius

Song: “When It Was Over” – Sara Groves (with lyrics)

Oh love wash over a multitude of things, love wash over a multitude of things, love wash over a multitude of things; Make us whole.

There is love that never fails; There is a healing that always prevails; There is a hope that whispers a vow, a promise to stay while we’re working it out, so come with your love and wash over us.

Questions:

  • What are some different meanings of the word “tolerance”?
  • What is the difference between tolerance and acceptance?
  • What are some things we should not tolerate?  Why not?
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Day 96: Gentleness

Daily Sheet: Day 96: Gentleness

Family Book: “Handa’s Surprise”

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Travel: Comoros; Madagascar

Video: “Childhood Summer” – Sara Groves (official music video)

I miss innocence.  I miss the arms of my mother.  I miss feeling light like a childhood summer.  Childhood summer.

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Day 93: Kindness

Daily Sheet: Day 93: Kindness

Family Book: “The Watcher”

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Travel: Zimbabwe

Video: “All the Ways You Wander” – John Spillane

…And if you take the long way, if you take the long way home, down where the magicians and the dreamers roam, through the mountains of morning, through the valleys of night, searching for the island of your heart’s delight,

I’ll wait for you, like a true friend.  I’ll wait for you, ’til the very end.

Video: “Kindness”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helps Homeless People in Los Angeles”

“I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Video: “14 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Elliot Katz, the boy in the last three videos above, was inspired in part to form his charity organization, ReachingOutCalifornia, by the following verse:

“And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” – Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Yerushalmi Talmud.  

Put in context, the passage reads as follows: 

…We find in regard to Cain, who killed his brother, “The bloods of your brother scream out!” (Genesis 4:10) – the verse does not say blood of your brother, but bloods of your brother, because it was his blood and also the blood of his future offspring [screaming out]!  [The judges’ speech continues] “It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam], to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.”

Questions:

  • The Talmud, from which the Mishnah Sanhedrin passage is taken, is a Jewish writing.  Compare these verses to Jesus’s words as recorded in Luke 9:24: 

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  (New Living Translation – NLT)

  • “The Watcher” is written as a poem.  Describe the format.

 

 

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Day 89: Empathy

Daily Sheet: Day 89: Empathy

Family Book: “The Long March: The Chocktaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief”

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Travel: Oklahoma; Texas

Song: “Why It Matters” – Sara Groves (with lyrics)

Sit with me and tell me once again of the story that’s been told us, of the power that will hold us, of the beauty, of the beauty, Why it matters.

Speak to me until I understand why our thinking and creating, why our efforts of narrating about the beauty, of the beauty, And why it matters.

Like the statue in the park of this war torn town, and its protest of the darkness and the chaos all around, with its beauty, how it matters, How it matters.

Show me the love that never fails, the compassion and attention midst confusion and dissension, like small ramparts for the soul, How it matters.

Like a single cup of water, How it matters.

Questions:

  • Compare “empathy” to “sympathy.”  Which is more meaningful?  Why?
  • Why do you think the story of Jesus raising the widow’s son was chosen for “Empathy” rather than for “Compassion?”
  • Think about the story of “The Long March” while you re-read the bolded lines at the end of Sara Groves’ song, “Why It Matters.”  How do you think the Chocktaw’s act of kindness, inspired by empathy, might have built “small ramparts for the soul”?  And what is the “single cup of water” reference?
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Day 83: Submission

Daily Sheet: Day 83: Submission

Family Book:  “Now Let Me Fly”

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Travel: Nigeria

Video: “The Palm of Your Hand” – Alison Krauss

I’d rather be in the palm of Your hand, though rich or poor I may be.  Faith can see right through the circumstance, sees the forest in spite of the trees.

Your grace provides for me.

Song: “I Surrender All” – Jadon Lavik

All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give.  I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.

I surrender all, I surrender all.  All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow.  Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me Jesus, take me now.

I surrender all, I surrender all.  All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender, Lord I give myself to Thee.  Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessing fall on me.

I surrender all, I surrender all.  All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

 

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Day 80: Bravery

Daily Sheet: Day 80: Bravery

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 “Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor
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“Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909”
“Inch by Inch”

Travel: Guinea-Bissau

Questions:

  • What is the time interval between Lewis Hine’s photography the shirtwaist makers’ strike?
  • Lewis and Clara were both interested in helping make things change.  How did their methods differ?

*** Film Festival Note:  Watch it ahead of time.  It will require discussion.  

Video: “Sing for the Wind” – Roo Panes (Dance)

Hymn: “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” – Fernando Ortega

Video: Audrey Assad speaks about the story behind her song, “Even Unto Death”

Video: “Even Unto Death” – Audrey Assad

Song: “I Won’t Be Afraid Anymore” – Nomos (I can’t find it online for listening, but here is a link for the album — which is all good!)  “I Won’t Be Afraid Anymore” – Nomos

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Day 71: Goodness

Daily Sheet: Day 71: Goodness

Family Book: “Bless the Lord: The 103rd Psalm”

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Travel: Federated States of Micronesia

Hymn: “I Need Thee Every Hour” – Fernando Ortega

Video: “Add to the Beauty” – Sara Groves

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