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Name: david
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Los Angeles
Gender: Male
Interests: whatever is true
(about me in general: Dec. 10th 2004 / about my life in 2004: Dec. 26th 2004 / about work: Dec. 12th 2003 / about thoughts on xanga: Sept. 2nd 2004)
Expertise: not yet
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
8/22/2003
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| Please pray for us (Ukraine Mission Aug. 7-19)!Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
First, off I want to thank you all for all your years (and I really mean years) of support! By his grace, God has used and is using your prayers and support in amazing ways. Now, to God’s glory, after three years of ministry in Ukraine there is a disciple-making ministry underway in Ukraine spanning, at least, five cities led by the very Ukrainians we first reached out to! I am asking again that you would partner with me in the work of His good news in Ukraine. Here’s the basic info. for this year:
WHAT:
Mission to Ukraine, primarily to 1) support and 2) learn about disciple-making ministry in Ukraine through a week long conference for Ukrainian Christians in Nikolayiv, Ukraine
WHO:
The U.S. team from Little Spark Mission will consist of 4, including the LSM president.
The Ukraine team will consist of Christians from various parts of the Ukrainian nation
HOW:
Please pray that:
1) We will support our brother and sisters in Ukraine by being a part of their small groups (some of them will be leading small groups for their first time!) where people will be learning how to follow Christ (discipleship) and how to help others follow Christ (disciple-making). We should be ready to support our siblings in whatever way we can whether it be through prayer, teaching principles of following Christ, going witnessing with them, showing practically how to follow Christ through the example of our lives and attitudes, and sharing our lives.
2) We will have teachable hearts to observe and learn from our Ukrainian siblings in Christ what discipleship (following Christ) and disciple-making (helping others to follow Christ) can look like, even in another culture.
3) We will seek to apply what we learn to our mission field here at home
4) We will depend on the Lord for all of this through word and prayer!
WHEN:
Tues, Aug 5th to Tues. Aug 19th (we will leave for Ukraine early Thurs 8/7 and will return to the states late Tues. 8/19, the Ukrainian training conference will be from Mon. 8/11 to Sat. 8/16)
WHERE:
Nikolayiv, a city in southern Ukraine (for the duration of the conference) and Kiev, the capital of Ukraine (for time apart from the conference)
WHY:
for a world that still needs to know reconciliation with God
for a Kingdom that needs workers
for His glory!
Please let me know if you can support this mission in any way by sending correspondence to me. Please make any checks payable to “Little Spark Mission.” Praise God for the work He has, is, and will do!
Only By His Unmerited Favor,
David Kitani
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| teaching as a team i just completed my first week of summer bridge (basically a shortened summer school for middle schoolers making the transition to high school) with the new small school i am working for (even though im still at locke and it is still a public school...now, it is a charter school)
wow, what a difference! i am so excited at what is possible (and at the same time saddened, realizing what could have been possible with my past students from the same community)! for example 100% OF MY STUDENTS TURNED IN THEIR HOMEWORK TODAY!!! i have never, in my five years of urban school teaching, seen this sort of return! they have all come to school with uniforms. they have had homework in EVERY class EVERY day (this sort of student demand is unheard of in my teaching experience at locke)! they are engaged to learn! i did not have to call any parents about student misbehavior! this is HUGE considering my experience!
you may be saying to yourself: "Well, thats because your school got all the 'smart' kids!"
i will then say to you: "No, that is not why. These are the same students I usually get as 9th graders from the same feeder middle school from the same under privelleged neighborhood and, in fact, most of these students are coming in with more academic difficulty (I tested their reading scores and more than 80% are reading below grade level)."
why such a difference? here are some reasons why i think i see such a marked difference in our students:
1) i work with a team of educators where every staff member is commited to the success of our students (there was a rigorous interview process and pretty much everyone is putting in hours well beyond what we're paid for)
2) the school is smaller. this makes for a smaller community where everyone can get to know each other and no one falls under the radar. we as teachers know what all the other teachers are doing and WE TALK TO EACH OTHER!
3) everyone is held to a high standard. this is not a punitive sort of system where the bar is simply raised but it is a system where we are encouraged to succeed and given the means to do so (we can make local decsions, we give each other new ideas, we believe in what we do, we have bought in to working together). i can challenge the students to do homework every night because i know all their other teachers are doing the same.
4) we give the students clear structure that is enforced by all. students wear uniforms that are tucked in. students line up before coming into class. students are given clear expectations and clear consistent consequences. you would think this is militant. i know i thought so too...i didnt think they would respond to this and i wasnt sure if they would come back after the first day. they did. in fact, a couple more came the next day. kids are not stupid...they know they will be more successful when they are held accountable to.
now i may be singing a different tune come october but for now i can already see the difference. i know now that this is gonna be more work then ive had to do before but by God's grace this can be kept up. God, thank you for answering the prayers of the community! Please grant us the strength to do this work and to do it out of love for you!
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| the point of christianity...wow, i am on a voracious binge of xian apologetics writings (D'Souza's "whats so great about christianity?", Lewis' "mere xianity" and i wanna read Wright's "simply christian", Keller's "the reason for God", Chesterton's "the everlasting man", and the list goes on and on...dang amazon! book suggestions). i don't really know what inspired this...mebe my smart gf's encouragement by her example to read or possibly even the great but heart-breaking class discussion of my seniors on the topic of spirituality.
ah yes, my point...
in any case i came across a wonderful passage from the english-professer-former-atheist turned- humble-christ-truster-man, C.S. Lewis (still, the most articulate writer of 20th century, in my opinion) that answers the titled question quite well:
"I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at the first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes."
- C.S Lewis "Mere Christianity" Book 3, Ch. 12
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| LET'S XANGA Y'ALL!as per observation/inspiration by jr. i'm callin y'all out to put up some entries! keep on communicating, not only facebook/myspace stalking! thanks yumi-chan!
yay summer's here....woo hoo! sorry, for those who still have to work...hey teacher's need it...or else they might choke children! haha! j/k. so what better way to kick off the season then...getting your wisdom teeth pulled! yay! no,ouch! nah, but thanks to yer prayers (which means i really need to do more than jus layzin about!) i'm feelin not too bad (and thats not just the advil talking)...the procedure was super fast, like 10 min., and it turned out that i only had the top two takin out! the bleeding has stopped so thats nice.
im so hungry tho...i was dreaming about eating crunchy cereal...and i want to eat NATTO! Yes, that's right Ji! even tho it smells like feet and is stringy..its so yummy! hahah! thank you for expanding my food horizons!
n in any case i best see some new entries...not only cuz i cant really do much right now...but cuz i wanna know whats goin on in y'all's minds and lives! n if u cant think of anything to write...let's see...u can write about:
- your most intense medical story (ive heard so many nasty one's about teeth pulling)
- your food cravings or yummy food recomendations
- hot asian guys (per Ji's entry) cuz you know our brothers need some encouragement! hahah!
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| the craziest thing happened to me today...so a couple of colleagues of mine went to a mexican fast food joint near
school after school. we were eating and talking it up when a man comes
to our table and threateningly tells us to get the f--- out of there. He told us
that we didnt belong there, along with a host of other profanities and
racial slurs directed at us. this is the angriest racial hate speech
directed towards me that i have ever experienced. we were taken
aback...we didnt really know what to do.
something came over
me (i wasnt really thinking) and i started talking with this belligerent
guy...and sooner than i could realize he was opening up to us about his
experience in the war, the family he lost, and his brokenness over
killing a 17 yr old out there. soon in a 180 change he began to
apologize to us about his behavior and began hugging us. after my friends left i talked with him some more...and he
couldn't believe what i was doing...this was also the first time that
someone told me directly that he thought there was a catch and that i
wanted something from him. he confessed that he was mad at God and was obviously very torn up about his
past as he was haunted by the youth that he had killed...he was repentant. he insisted that he wasnt crying but that he had something in
his eyes. we prayed...he was thankful. today was the first time
either i, my friends, and Eugene stepped into that restaurant. he has
lost friends, family, body parts, and even some of his sanity...today
was his birthday. i believe God wanted Eugene to know that He hadnt
forgotten him.
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