Singing Praises

Yesterday I found myself singing praises to God in my house. It started out kindof soft, but gradually grew to be pretty loud. The thought occurred to me that my neighbors might be able to hear me, especially since we have tile flooring. This curbed my enthusiasm for a bit, but I soon returned to my previous vigor unable to control myself. I was lost in the moment of praise.

Consider one verse (Psalm 147:1): "Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!"

It is good. Let me encourage you to sing praises to God today. It might be one song; it might be twenty. Whatever it is, I pray that you experience the good and pleasant feeling of singing praises to our God.

Heart of God

Welcome week is over! It was a good welcome week from what I can tell. I have seen returning students reaching out to new students. I have seen new students making new friends. I am going to enjoy having the day off tomorrow...a much-needed break.

As we look to help all our students experience Jesus this semester, I pray that their decisions bring glory to God. This is the time when many students begin making small decisions that lead in directions away from the heart of God. To expect this of our students, I must be ready to lead the way.

Lord, may I continually seek your heart in every decision, in every action, in every conversation. Give me your patience. Show me your heart. May your Spirit guide me.

Wrestle God

I am excited about the semester! Who knows what plans the Lord is about to unfold? My prayer is that I have the courage to empower students to experience God in powerful ways. I pray that God move in such a way that when looking back one cannot help but say, "That was God!"

Tomorrow we begin our semi-leadership retreat. I say "semi-" because I haven't advertised it as a leadership retreat at all. This retreat is a small step toward one of my major goals this year: to develop a team of students committed to lead other students closer to God's heart! This will take a major investment of my time and energy.

I have even considered not doing the discipleship group for this year in an effort to streamline some of my time and energy. This is the time that I wrestle with God in what to choose. Where do I spend my time? What good, wholesome things do I choose not to do? What will have God's blessing? What should I avoid? What do I teach? Dare I say, like Jacob, "I will not let you go unless you bless me?" We will see.

The One Shot

The SHSU football players came to church this morning. It was good to see them there. I'm grateful that their coach makes them experience church at some level. I pray they see God.

I do always wonder what is going on as they sit in the couple of services they are required to attend each year. Are they freaked out with the non-instrumental singing? Do they understand the things we do? Are they hyper-critical of, disinterested in, or excited about things? How religiously inclined are they? Does the sermon connect to them? Are they encouraged? Are they engaged? Will they seriously come back? Did they see Jesus? Are we pushing too much or too focused on them? All these types of questions have circled my mind in the last week, especially this morning.

Here is what I conclude: I can't worry about it.

Sometimes we can get all worked up over what we believe to be the one shot, the one opportunity, the only chance. I hear some saying nervously, "They may never step foot in this building again!!" meaning that we must do everything we can right now.

My approach is somewhat different. I take what opportunities the Lord provides and do what I can. I am in the planting seeds business. The Lord is working the ground of people's heart before they ever come my way sometimes. So, I'm not too interested sometimes in how "perfect" everything went.

I do pray that the Lord brings to himself those he needs right now. I pray that hearts were pricked. If they don't come to our building again, may the Lord draw them to himself in a later conversation or in a powerfully deep experience. There are many ways that the Lord draws us to himself.

I pray that we look for more ways to put ourselves out there in opportunity-ridden situations. May we scatter the seeds, water when necessary, and patiently wait for God's fruit to appear in time. Where does the Lord need you to be?

What Right Do I Have?

“What right do I have, a person called by God, confirmed by the Holy Spirit, and spurred on by divine love…what right do I have to expect something out of any of you in regards to living God’s way of life?

My answer is threefold:

One…I have NO RIGHT.

I have no right to expect something out of you. I have no meaningful relationship with you. I don’t really know you. I might know of you, but I don’t know you. I don’t go with you to work or to have fun. I haven’t been in your home. I see you here in the building occasionally. But, I don’t have your trust. I am not an influential person in your life. So, I have no right to speak any expectations into your life.

Two…I have SOME RIGHT.

I have some right to expect something out of you. As a fellow human being I understand the struggles you have, the temptations to turn away from God. I do know you more than you think. I also know what God intended for his creation. I know it is good and beautiful and full. I know God’s love for us. I know how God desires to mend the broken relationship. So, I have some right to speak some expectations into your life.

Three…I have EVERY RIGHT.

I have every right to expect something out of you. I am your example. I am your minister. I am your servant. I am your leader. I am your pastor. I am your shepherd. When you listen to my words it is as if God is speaking. His spirit directs my spirit. His movements are my movements; there is no difference between us. Everything that has been created, has been created through me. So, I have every right to speak expectations into your life.

I expect you to give up your rights and follow me. Or do you not understand when I said, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ Yes, I am Jesus…the one who died…for you.”

I, Chris, ask this: are you spending time with our Lord and letting him speak expectations into your life?

God's Process

Yesterday I reconnected with two of my High School friends through facebook. Thinking back to those days draws me into reflection on how God has moved me in this journey toward full life with him. From golf to accounting to marriage to graduate school to ministry God has moved me closer to his heart slowly over these last 12 years. It is a process that takes time...a lifetime. God's patience truly does mean salvation.

Organization, Part 2

So I received a call this morning from a random person. She introduced herself as my mind thought...telemarketer. She said she was a professional organizer. I thought that this was strange, but interesting. Some anonymous person from my church called her to come help me with my office. I started laughing out loud at the thought!! She asked what my thoughts were and I couldn't stop laughing. It was hard for me to admit to a stranger. She wanted to find a time when we could meet. After deciding on a time later this week, we discussed my office situation in a little more detail. This lady is now going to help me develop a plan for organizing my office. Is that cool or what?

My initial thoughts turn toward my relentless and sometimes unhealthy self-reliance. To hear myself say I need to get organized sounds completely different when someone else says the same thing! I briefly felt embarrassed to admit that I needed someone else to come help me get organized. But, I came to my senses understanding this is exactly what I need...a plan.

What do you need to admit that you need help with? What's stopping you from asking for it?

Kats for Christ Name Change

We are Kats for Christ.

In years past we have been called "The Bible Chair" (some still call us that) or "The Church of Christ Bible Chair" or "The Church of Christ Student Center."

Beginning this fall semester we are intentionally starting to make a move from "Church of Christ Student Center" to "Kats for Christ." While we have been using both interchangeably since the early 90s, the Lord has led me to help us make this much-needed transition official. There are several reasons this transition needs to happen.

First Reason

We need to point others to Jesus rather than to a particular denomination. This is shaped mostly by my meditation on the stories of Jesus. I hear Jesus' words burning in my heart. "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." "...any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

The more I look at our students the more I see people who want to follow Jesus more than any particular denomination. Without rejecting their denomination, they do experience tension in contending that their denomination is the only one students should choose. They recognize that Jesus calls us to loosen the dividing lines of religiosity, to love our "Samaritan" neighbors with God's love, and to invite "the sick" in to be healed by our heavenly doctor. All of these help us fulfill Jesus' charge to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. Our students understand that Jesus transcends and permeates our dividing walls. That is why they feel this tension.

Second Reason

The students on campus are starving for the heavenly feast of Jesus. They need a safe place to come where they can encounter our Lord without any strings attached. And unfortunately (right now anyway) our church buildings are unsafe. Innocently, as students come to our church buildings we exalt the church building or being a part of our denomination rather than Jesus. We invite them to potlucks, to worship services, to whatever other events we can create. These are good! Hear me! At the same time, we force them to fill out this card so we can contact them later, we lock them in to hear our little spiel, or we stigmatize them as outsiders in the way that we talk about belonging to our group.

It seems like Jesus allowed people to belong to him publicly without forcing himself into their "space." He fed thousands and seemed to be okay with this. Even those who come looking for him afterwards in John 6:25ff. (presumably at their own initiative) are met with more admonitions to work for eternal life kind of food. In Luke 7:1-10 Jesus could have easily forced himself into the centurion's house; he was even on the way. Yet, when he hears this, he stops and reveals the surprising example of faith (rampant in Luke) to the crowds following him!

Jesus never told the centurion to fill out a card if he wants to really belong to the faithful. Jesus never admonished the centurion that he needs to have more faith. He simply and safely meets people where they are and allows them to belong without any pharisaical strings.

Interestingly enough, simply changing the name on our building from "Church of Christ Student Center" to "Kats for Christ" will tremendously help us create a safe place for those looking simply to belong to Jesus.

Third Reason

We have to change our initial conversations to focus more on Jesus! We must spread the fragrance of Christ wherever we go! We must stop creating a hurdle for students in their search for Jesus! Our name has been creating that hurdle!

Consider the hypothetical (yet incredibly normal) conversation below. Notice the trajectory of the conversation, even if we say the exact same thing after their first question.

NEW STUDENT: "What group are you with?"

KFC REP: "I'm with the Church of Christ Student Center."

NEW STUDENT: "Oh...okay. Well what do you do?"

KFC REP: "Well, we do everything we can to follow Jesus."

NEW STUDENT: "Do I have to be a member of the Church of Christ to come?" ....

Notice the subtle tendency in the conversation toward Church of Christ rather than Jesus. I see the new students thoughts in their question. They think (always to themselves), "I smell the fragrance of a denomination here! I better explore this!"

In today's campus environment all kinds of red flags go up for students when they sense exclusiveness from anyone...even if they are part of a particular denomination. It makes them incredibly uncomfortable to know that someone would reject another believer's beliefs based solely on their denomination. And they will avoid any Christian group that even "seems" to give that impression with their name.

Change the name, change the conversation! Change the name, change the fragrance!

Consider these new conversations that I anticipate becoming normal:

NEW STUDENT: "What group are you with?"

KFC REP: "I'm with the Kats for Christ?"

NEW STUDENT: "Oh...okay. Well what do you do?"

KFC REP: "Well, we do everything we can to follow Jesus."

NEW STUDENT: "Like what?" ....

This conversation explores the ways that we seek to follow Jesus in our service, our Bible studies, our conversations, our activities, our friendships, our mission trips, and in our relationships with everyone. The denomination conversation takes a back seat.

Sure, if someone wanted to know, they will eventually ask. We have no reason to hide that we are supported by Huntsville Church of Christ and carry many of its traditions. What is important in today's campus culture is the center of the conversation: Jesus! The fragrance of Christ is spread more readily with something as simple as a new name.

Name Change

Our name is an expression of our character, our values, and our focus. We seek to train and mature disciples of Jesus.

We are Kats for Christ.

Organization

I don't know whether this is an excuse for not being polished or organized in ministry like I should, but my organization skills are lacking. Don't get me wrong, I can organize things, but compared to others (specifically my wife...I love you sweetie) my organization looks...well...like unorganized.

Then in my spiritual reflection on this issue I hear a small voice. I'm not sure if it is something inside me or if it is God, but a voice nonetheless. The voice tells me that if I manage to get my office organized, the grace of God might overtake me in regards to my organization skills. I don't know how to take this, but I do know that I would like my office consistently cleaned and organized. It makes me feel good about myself among other things.

A lot must happen before the semester begins...I pray that God's grace comes when and where He needs it. Maybe organization will come as part of that grace. We will see.

Beauty in Sacrifice

Here is Frank Laubach's journal entry on December 6, 1930:

"Sometimes one feels that there is a discord between the cross and beauty. But there really cannot be, for God is found best through those two doorways. This grey-blue rolling water tinged with whitecaps, hemmed with distant green hills and crowned with colored clouds and baby-blue sky reveals God's love of beauty--and God is so lavish with his paintbrush in the tropics. He is lavish everywhere if one only has eyes to see Him at work.

But when one comes to personality, one demands more than a pretty face or even a soul that sings for joy. There is in the universe a higher kind of beauty. It is the beauty of sacrifice, of giving up for others, of suffering for others. A woman has not reached her highest beauty until she lays down her ease and chooses pain for bearing and nursing her child. A man has not found his highest beauty until his brow is tinged with care for some cause he loves more than himself. The beauty of sacrifice is the final word in beauty."

I am amazed at how transformed his eyes are. Frank sees God everywhere he looks. How can you be beautiful today in sacrifice?

Assisted Living Singing

Tonight our SHARE group went to the Town Creek Facility to sing songs. We put our kids out there to sing various children's songs. The B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves Me (the clapping version), I'm All Wrapped Up, Blue Skies and Rainbows, and a few more. The kids had also colored some pictures to give to the people watching us from their wheel chairs. After putting our kids on display we felt compelled to sing a few classic hymns that opened a few eyes and perked up our audience. I saw one lady just close her eyes and mouth the words with a huge smile on her face.

This small (and for some awkward) offering had Jesus written all over it. Our little 30 minutes of time meant the world to these people whose routine consists of mainly hanging out in a common area waiting for someone to come talk to them.

I had a thought as I was wheeling one lady (ninety something years old...she couldn't remember) back to the common area. If the Lord blesses me with as many years, I pray that people come to see me to sing praises to God. What a blessing it was tonight.

Fruit of the Spirit Suggestions

If you are going to produce a crop of apples, you don’t just go out and make them appear out of nowhere. No…you go and work the ground (till it up)…get the ground ready to receive the seeds…then you plant the seeds (which BTW look nothing like what comes out…i.e. you don’t plant an apple to get apples…you plant an apple seed)…then you water and give it appropriate sunlight…and God amazingly produces the fruit…in time…not immediately.

To produce the heart-level fruit of the Spirit, you will find a similar process with your heart. You work the ground, get it ready to receive the seeds, and you plant seeds that don’t look like what you will end up with (i.e. if you want patience you don’t plant patience...you plant something else). Then you cultivate the environment of your heart.

Constant cultivation of what is planted needs to happen…beware of the hard ground, the rocks, and the weeds that can creep in if we fail to pay attention. Are you cultivating your heart now so that God can produce in you the fruit that he desires of this world? Here are a few suggestions for cultivating the heart for later fruit of the spirit:

To cultivate joy,

• Ask God to show you how good he is
• Meditate on how beautiful his creation is
• Smell the flowers and thank God for them.
• Have a personal worship retreat.
• Sing songs of praise and thanksgiving.
• Pray the scripture, pausing to meditate when the Spirit leads

To cultivate faithfulness and peace in your marriage

• Pray together
  
• Thank each other regularly (write it down every day: record of rights)
  
• Hold each other closely without selfish agendas…just for the sake of affirming the other
  
• Don’t take things so personally (most of the time its not a big deal)
  
• Offer forgiveness
• Ask for forgiveness. Admit when you are wrong quickly.
  
• Smile and laugh at each other.
• Don’t get historical. Remember the time you chose to forget how you've been wronged.
  
• Watch the sun go down together. Just enjoy the beauty of God.
• Tell others that you won't (not "can't") do something because you want to spend good time with your spouse.

To cultivate kindness and goodness at work,

• Ask them what you can pray for (actually pray for them there)
  
• Ask God to show you their strengths
  
• Begin thanking them for things they’ve done (“I overheard your conversation with so-and-so and that really encouraged me”)
  
• Free attention give-away: seriously listen attentively; don’t talk about you
  
• Spend 30 full minutes imagining yourself as another person with whom it is difficult to be kind or good (God will hopefully open your heart toward her or him)

To cultivate gentleness and patience,

• Indirection – stand in longest line at the grocery store
  
• Indirection – go the speed limit (tell yourself…I’m cultivating my heart)
  
• Work with children
  
• Initiate a conversation with someone who doesn’t speak English well
  
• Put yourself in situations where you can cultivate a selfless heart (trust that in time, God will produce his fruit in you)
  
• Confess regularly your own faults (who of us is perfect?)

To cultivate self-control,

• Ask God to teach you to say no to yourself in small things
  
• Indirection – practice fasting (learn to say no to your own body in eating [a basic need], and you will begin to see self-control in other temptations)
  
• Inconvenience yourself regularly, and take it not as an inconvenience but an wonderful opportunity to learn self-control that you weren’t expecting (act of service)
  
• When someone does something horrible to you, don’t tell anyone about it…ever!!
• When you do something good, don’t tell anyone about it…ever!!
• Limit your speaking for a day...see what you learn about others and yourself
• Don't eat your normal snack or dessert or whatever for a day

To cultivate love,

• Spend time with God just listening…ask him to show you his love
  
• Spend personal time worshipping God in song.
• Read about how God loves horrible people
  
• His love is something hard to understand
  
• No conditions…on his love?
  
• Begin to experiment with how you can practice this love too
  
• Do all these things
  

Remember that all these suggestions are only ways to cultivate your heart. And this is not even close to an exhaustive list. Please feel free to add your own in a comment to this post.

Word of Caution: You could easily turn these suggestions into rules and regulations to be performed, but that again doesn’t work on the heart. You would be doing the very thing that you are trying to avoid. Richard Foster: “The Disciplines of the spiritual life are a means not an end. The end is ‘to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.’ The end is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).” (Foster, Streams of Living Water, 55)

Frank Laubach

I am trying a new experiment that I borrowed from Frank Laubach. He worked among the Moros on one of the Philippine islands. He journals about his experiment. On January 20, 1930 he said, "Two years ago a profound dissatisfaction led me to begin trying to line up my actions with the will of God about every fifteen minutes or every half hour." He talks about seeking to respond to God as a violin responds to the bow of the master.

I must admit my intrigue. His conversation with God and desire to respond to God's will is impressive. It reminds me of Christ's passion. As I read through his journey, I am overcome with his honesty in his failure and his humility in his success.

As a part of this experiment, Frank commits himself to intercessory prayer for the Moros. He notices through this intense focus on others that people seem to treat him differently. This sentence is just as interesting to me: "I feel, I feel like one who has had his violin out of tune with the orchestra and at last is in harmony with the music of the universe." Wow!

I could go on and on (perhaps I will later), but I have begun this little experiment of Frank Laubach's. I'm not exactly sure yet what it looks like to align my will with God's, but I do know that my thoughts are more filled with God than normal. This scares me, but I also feel Satan waiting patiently to test this experiment with all his might! My prayer is that I walk through this instead of run with a full head of steam. May God be praised and may his strength work mightily!!

Saying Goodbye

Last night was our last party. There was a homecoming party that prevented several readers from coming, but the turnout was more than I had anticipated, twenty-two.

We played a few fun games together. The fish game was a hit. When you hear "fish" in the story you lift up your right finger while trying to catch with your left hand the finger of the person next to you. (I cheated a little bit because I knew the story, so I got pretty far. I just let others catch my finger at the end...wink...wink.)

Then we had a few snacks along with coke floats. It was interesting to watch the faces of the readers as we explained what a coke float was. They'd never heard of such a thing, but they tried it and liked it.

One of my readers surprised us with a piñata. Kayla went first, then Courtney, Emily, Tanya, and finally I went. It was so demolished at the end that they pulled it up to the top and it broke. Imagine that. I didn't even have to hit it! I just thought about hitting it and it broke!! Yes...I'm that strong.

Anyway, at the end we gave our readers their certificates, took some pictures, talked a little more, and then said goodbye. I can't believe we are finished with the work of our project already!! We have a ton of emails, many pictures, a few gifts, many memories, and confidence that God worked through it all for His glory.

Now we trust that his work is not finished here. God was working before we came and will continue after we leave. We praise him for this opportunity and ask him to spread the fragrance of Christ wherever we go.

Enjoy the pictures below.

The first worked on a word find with many of the words from our Luke workbook they'd been working on.
Tyler's just chillin' with his balloon thinking about something!!

Courtney and Kayla are having fun as we wait for the readers to show up. She couldn't wait to eat ice cream a little later on!

The human first human knot went well. In the end there were two circles they couldn't get untangled.

Our little human knot ended the same way, but it took us a very long time to realize it.

The "fish" game. No one really listened to the story. They were just listening for some form of the word fish before trying to not let their finger get caught by the person next to them. I almost won both times!!

These were three of my four readers. From left to right: Briceida, Ruth, and Tania.

We enjoyed snacks afterwards. Someone brought some "arroz con leche." It was very good!

Emily is trying to give the piñata her best hit. She missed several times. I didn't even swing!

Tania and Tanya. ¡Qué bonita mi amor es!

This is the other preacher, Elio, who works with Raul and Betty at the church. He teaches the Bible class on Sunday mornings.

Our Daily Schedule

The routine continues.

We get up early (it starts getting light about 5:30 or so), get started with breakfast, feed Kayla and Tyler, get them dressed, pack a lunch for Kayla, and get bags ready for the day. Tanya leaves to walk to the school to read about 7:30am (its about a 15 minute walk) and the rest of our family starts walking about 8:00am until a taxi comes by to take us to the Christian school here in Panama.

Betty Alvarado helps run the Christian bilingual school at the Church of Christ. She offered that Kayla go to this school while she was here...and it didn't cost us anything! What a blessing this has been to us and our daughter! She is working on her Spanish all the time. It is kind of funny to listen to. It kind of sounds like Spanish, but it really isn't any language at all (at least to us). She has so many friends now in Panama. Her teachers love her (and her red hair).

Tyler and I hang out for a little while, he takes a nap, I get a few things done for our project, and then we make our way to the cafeteria about 11:15am where we will meet the rest of the team for lunch. After lunch Tanya and Tyler go back to the house while I go to read for the afternoon. Depending on our plans for dinner we meet each other, cook dinner, have our team devotional and depart to our respective houses.

For our family, this begins our nightly routine of baths; after a long day of high humidity and a little rain (yes it rains every day only with a couple of exceptions since we've been here), this is much needed. After baths we get ready for bed and get to sleep. This early time to bed (sometime around 9pm) makes getting up so early the next morning easier! Then we get to do it all over again.

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into our daily schedule while here in Panama.

Reading Away

Emily arrived safely last night and I just talked to Spencer who is waiting for his flight at the airport. Please pray that this transition goes smoothly.

Our reading continues today. We are completely full. There are no more spots available for reading unless a reader can't come to any of their reading times. This is great news! This is also the time when our relationships with our readers starts to get a little more serious. We need continual prayers for these deepening relationships. Ask that God give us wisdom to know what questions are necessary to bring our readers closer to Him. I wait to see what he does this week through our service.

Below are a few pictures to give you a glimpse into our work. Most of our time is spent reading the Bible with the students at the University, so it would be misleading to not include these pictures. Please pray for these 8-hour days of reading.

Texas Party

Last night was our first party. It was a Texas party. Betty and Raul (the preacher here) told us that this was the most readers that have ever been to a party since they started about 5 years ago. There were 34 total, including us. We played Texas People Bingo and Texas Pictionary. We explained Texas slang, but I think that was difficult to understand in Spanish. Oh yeah...we also brought Texas dirt for everyone to eat (see the picture below) along with my grandmother's special Texas sweet tea.

With all the people there we were able to sign up more readers. Now our schedule is completely full!! Praise the Lord!! Enjoy the pictures from the party.

This is our dirt. Really it was a pudding recipe with Oreo cookies on top.

Our team.

Spencer and Raul explain how to play Texas Bingo.

We rush around trying to find people who fit certain criteria on our Texas Bingo sheet.

More Texas Bingo.

Our Texas Pictionary was a hit with our very own Vanna White. Kayla loved erasing what was drawn after each contestant came to draw their masterpiece. One time, she accidently erased the score!! Everyone at the party rightly thought that it was so cute.

Kayla still being cute.

Tyler hit this ball all over the place. He will definitely be a baller!!

Until next time. Peace.

Panama Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures of our family. I thought I would share them today. We are near the Bridge of the Americas at the end (or beginning) of the Panama Canal. There were several big cargo ships leaving the canal and cranking up their engines. Enjoy.

Worship in Panama

Worship in another country has always been a blessing! This morning proved to be the case once again. It was refreshing to hear the sermon translated into English, but it was also good to hear Spanish songs of adoration to our Lord. The people were so warm and friendly this morning. They enjoyed seeing Kayla and Tyler too. Our children are such easy conversation starters.

Our reading starts again tomorrow morning. Pray that God continues to give us strength to offer his grace in our conversations. Also pray that our party on Thursday is a success. Thanks for your continued support.

Update from Panama

We have arrived!! Hitting the ground running we have been reading one-on-one with readers every day since we arrived. One of Courtney's readers showed up for Wednesday night service with her mother and child. What a cool thing after only inviting them that morning.

Kayla and Tyler are adjusting well. Just this morning Kayla was singing, "Arriba, up; abajo, down." She also like to say outside the window "Hola. Buenos dias" to the people next door.

It is fun to see EVERYONE (no exception) watch Kayla with her beautiful red hair. Wherever we go people talk about what a beautiful doll she is.

With eyes on us constantly, please pray that we bring glory to our God and take advantage of that witness. The people in Panama are so nice. They are eager to improve their English and make a good American friend. We are grateful that we have this opportunity.