Tag: What I’m Teaching Page 1 of 2

Selfishness is Confusing

On September 15, 2018

We are told to be selfish. Take care of ourselves. Don’t let other people walk all over us. Make room for Me-Time. Do what’s best for ourselves and our lives, not what’s best for everybody else.

But in the same breath, we are told to stay away from selfish people, because they will destroy us.

Be selfish, but avoid selfish people. Awesome.

No wonder our culture’s got this epidemic of loneliness. No wonder we’ve got covered-up racism bubbling up to the surface all over the place. And a skyrocketing suicide rate and school shootings and hidden abuse stories.

Which is probably why we’re all so confused on the topic of selfishness. Because, sure, it’s easy to tell the abusers and the racists to stop being so selfish, but what about the wounded wife or the family of the murdered teenager?

What got me thinking about this is our theme verse at HOPAC this year–Philippians 2:3-4. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourself, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.

I stood in front of all my precious students, squirming in their green plastic assembly chairs while the morning sun streamed onto the covered court. I know their stories, some of them intimately, from many eye-to-eye solemn talks. I know which ones are the bullies and which ones are bullied. I know the ones who have (or are) experiencing trauma. I know the peace-loving ones who always follow the rules and will always concede in a conflict.

Does Philippians 2:3-4 speak to all of them?

We want to divide everyone into one of two categories: Abuser or Victim. One is Bad and one is Good. One receives our scorn and one our sympathy. But is human nature that simple? Didn’t most abusers start out as victims?

We must cling to Twin Truths: I am made in the image of God, therefore I am infinitely valuable. Yet I am selfish to the core.

Imago Dei. I am made in the image of God. Christ loved me enough to die for me, which is an extraordinary love and has proven my extraordinary value.

Yet.

I am selfish to the core. I am consumed with myself–defending myself, feeling good about myself, justifying myself. Being understood, being successful, being fulfilled. Being pain-free, being comfortable, being independent. I am self-seeking, self-pleasing, self-boasting, self-excusing, self-conscious, self-indulgent. Most of the time, life is pretty much about me; I’ve just gotten good at hiding it. I can’t speak for everyone, but especially when I’m particularly depressed or anxious, I’m also particularly self-centered.

Twin Truths: I am valuable, and I am selfish. Lean too heavily on one truth over the other, and my life is out of balance.

Imago Dei means I needn’t cower under abuse or injustice. I can have courage in the face of oppression; I don’t need to allow people to manipulate me; I don’t need the good opinion of others to give me confidence.

But recognizing my innate selfishness is equally important. Without daily, conscious recognition of the grace of God, I will choose myself every time.

I’ve never liked the term self-care because it gives me too much room for selfishness. I prefer stewardship. My body, my time, my health–all are God’s, because God has given me value. If I am going to live to glorify him, then I must take care of what he has given me. So that will often mean trusting God by saying yes to rest or health and saying no to duty-driven perfectionism. For some who find themselves in unjust situations, it may mean fighting or running, and that’s not necessarily selfish.

But we must always keep in mind those two Twin Truths. Jesus appeared on the Jewish scene during a time of intense governmental oppression. But what did he teach? Turn the other cheek. Walk the extra mile. Deny yourself. Sometimes Jesus was so tired he fell asleep on a capsizing boat. Other times he deliberately went away by himself. But we know with certainty that he was never selfish.

This is tricky, because sometimes we can look like we are wearing ourselves out for the kingdom of God, but all that effort is really about us or about what others think about us. On the other hand, it’s also really, really easy to ignore or justify our laziness or self-centeredness in the name of self-care or self-pity. The balance is somehow found in our pursuit of knowing God and knowing our own hearts.

Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel good–above all, better than someone else–I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether. –C.S. Lewis

When you put it that way, it’s not confusing at all.

Courage Over Niceness

By Amy Medina

On January 15, 2013

In Other

When my kids grow up, if the best that people can say about them is that they are really, really nice, I will be sorely disappointed.

Yeah, okay, so I’ll be relieved that they didn’t choose a life of drugs; I’ll be glad if Josiah actually avoids a criminal record, and it would be nice to know that they are hard-working, productive citizens.

But only sort of.

Because a person can be really, really nice and be a hard-working, productive citizen, and still live an absolutely meaningless life.

My dream for my kids is that they will live a crazy, bold, risk-taking, culture-changing, selfless lives…for Jesus Christ.

I pray that they won’t be afraid to sneak into a country that is closed to Christians. I pray that they will be willing to risk their lives for the gospel. That they will rather go to prison than compromise what they believe. I pray that they will desire to get dirty, sacrifice comfort, and love the glory of God more than the praise of men.

I pray this for HOPAC students too. And it’s a tall order, I know. Not exactly something I can control in the lives of our students, or even my own kids. Really, it’s up to the Holy Spirit to light that fire. But I can certainly pack in the kindling.

Which is why I am teaching Voice of the Martyr’s Kids of Courage Curriculum in elementary chapel this semester.

It’s written for a VBS, but it’s easily adaptable for other settings. It focuses on five countries where Christians are persecuted, written on a kid’s level. Yesterday morning, I taught on North Korea. In later weeks, I will go through Nigeria, India, China, and Egypt.

It’s not pretty to teach kids about suffering around the world. Not all the stories have happy endings, and they are full of hunger, pain, and lostness. But strength, perseverance, courage, and of course, joy, permeate the lives of these believers. And that’s what I want for my kids.

Tanzania recently turned up as #24 on the list of countries with the most Christian persecution. America is not on that list, but yet, it’s pretty obvious that’s where we are headed. Lines are being drawn in the sand. Are our kids strong enough to stand their ground?

Plugging In

By Amy Medina

On April 13, 2012

In Other

“The study of film is important for Christians because it is the modern-day equivalent of philosophy.”

Imagine you are in high school.

And the principals (and chaplain) of your high school decide to take the entirety of middle and high school students on a field trip to the cinema.

During school hours. To see a movie.

The most popular movie playing right now, actually.

In fact, that particular movie happens to be opening in Tanzania tonight, which means that all the students got to be the first people in Tanzania to watch it.

Yep.

Haven of Peace Academy.

The Hunger Games.

10:00 this morning at a special showing just for us, at the cinema.

Oh yeah. Total awesomeness.

I’m not sure who was more excited–the students or the teachers.

And why would we take up valuable class time to do such a thing?

Because:

“Movies are perhaps the most perfect mirror that we have so far constructed to show ourselves what we are.”

And:

“Simply put, film is the ultimate form of cultural expression in the modern world. Film is where culture is at. Film is the most powerful image of itself that humanity has ever produced. No one would deny that books, art, music, politics…and so forth are significant, but film is the one ‘cultural location’ where all of these other categories may meet and have a discussion.”

And we couldn’t think of a better (recent) movie that does all of the above.

Of course, the books have spread like wildfire through the students this year, and Gil and I devoured them all over Christmas break.

They are not our favorite books. Not really something to read when you want to think happy thoughts. But as a mirror of society? A type of modern-day philosophy?

Definitely.

The theme that Gil and I chose for chapels this year is “Plugged In.” We have been focusing on encouraging the students to unplug from media and plug into God, but at the same time, helping them to evaluate what they see and listen to and read through a biblical perspective. It’s very, very important to us.

So the fact that the administration also thought that it was important enough to cancel class and cart the whole lot of them over to the movie theatre made us very happy indeed.

And of course, the catch was that they had to participate in an hour of discussion afterwards. And the discussions (and assignments) will continue next week. But still! We definitely have the coolest school ever.

(All quotes taken from Meaning at the Movies by Grant Horner.)

Adoption: The Very Heart of God

By Amy Medina

On November 9, 2009

In Other

HOPAC’s theme this year is Do Hard Things. It comes from a book which was written by 17-year-old twins, Alex and Brett Harris. The subtitle of the book is “A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations,” which pretty much sums up their message.

All of our secondary classes are reading the book this year. I highly recommend it for your favorite teenager. It’s message is clear and compelling.

Our theme in assembly (chapel) this year also centers around the idea of Doing Hard Things. So when my turn came to speak, I chose Adoption. Below is the transcript (pretty much) of what I said to HOPAC secondary students this morning.

On October 31st, 2004, a baby was born, a little girl. Near Moshi and Kilimanjaro. But unfortunately, this was not a happy occasion for her mama. Whoever she was, she was probably very poor, not married, and quite possibly sick or dying. She either was in denial about her pregnancy or simply didn’t know where to get an abortion, so she found herself in labor with her full-term baby. She was probably desperate. She could barely feed herself and had no one to take care of her. She had no way to take care of this baby and knew no one who could. So, in her desperation and despair, she wrapped the baby in a kanga, put her in a plastic bag, and dropped her down an outhouse pit. To die. Then she ran off, never to be seen or heard from again.

But God had a plan for this baby, even if her mama did not. This baby was a fighter, and she screamed with all the strength left in her little body. A little girl heard her. Called her grandparents. Enough people cared about this baby that they took apart the outhouse. Fished her out. Cleaned her up. Called the police. The police took her to an orphanage in Moshi called Light in Africa.

They loved her. Nurtured her. And gave her the name Tumaini—Hope. When Tumaini was 8 months old, a group of American volunteers stopped by to see Light in Africa. They were in the baby room for just a few minutes. But they heard Tumaini’s story. And one young woman who was there that day, went back to America and couldn’t stop thinking about Tumaini. That little baby was so deeply in her heart and mind that she decided she would do everything she could to adopt her.

That woman’s name is Sammye, and that decision to adopt Tumaini cost her a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of heartache. But a year later, she came back to America with Tumaini. That little girl just turned five years old last week. She is thriving and deeply loved and desperately wanted. And just like her name—she has Hope. This is Sammye and Tumi. Grace and Tumi are from the same orphanage. Sammye is the one who introduced us to Grace.

I’m going to talk to you this morning about adoption. Because adoption is a Hard Thing. It’s one of the hardest journeys I have ever been on. But adoption comes straight from the heart of God. I want you to understand it, I want you to love it, and I want some of you to be inspired to pursue it.

Why does adoption even exist? Well, if you think back to Creation-Chaos-Christ from last year, adoption exists because of Chaos. Because of sin in the world. God never intended that any child would be an orphan. God never desired any family to be so poor that they couldn’t feed their children. God’s plan never originally included HIV, AIDS, malaria, TB, etc. that would kill hundreds of thousands of parents. The only reason children need adoption is because of chaos—because of sin.

But in a similar way, every single one of us is an orphan. We are NOT born into the family of God. We are NOT born as God’s children. We are born enemies of God—separated from Him because of our sin. Essentially, when we are born, we belong to Satan. When Christ died and took the penalty for our sin, He bought us back from Satan. He opened the way for us to be adopted as His children by his death. Ephesians says he chose us to be adopted as his children. It uses that word—adopted.

So adopting children is a picture of what Christ did for us. Turning an orphan into a son or daughter. Taking a child who has nothing, and making him a prince. The child can do nothing to deserve it, nothing to make someone choose him. Yet a child who was an orphan is given hope. Is given redemption. Is given a new life. Just like we receive in Christ.

Why adopt? It used to be that the only couples who adopted were those who couldn’t have biological children for some reason. But adoption has been changing in the past couple of generations. It’s been changing in a good way, and Christians are the main ones who are changing it. Adoption is no longer just for couples who haven’t been able to have kids. Adoption is for anyone—even families who already have kids—as you may have noticed with even some HOPAC families. And adoption is often much more bi-racial than in the past—and much more international. It’s common now for families to adopt from Russia, China, Guatemala, India—and dozens of other countries.

Adoption comes from the heart of God. And it is a huge, amazing, incredible blessing. James 1 says: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…. Over and over again in Scripture, God’s people are commanded to care for orphans. This verse says that looking after orphans is the purest form of pleasing God! Adoption is not the ONLY way to look after orphans—but it certainly is an excellent way. There are 2 million orphans in Tanzania alone. Over 200 million orphans worldwide. So I’m asking you, what will be your part in caring for the world’s orphans?

As you all know, Mr. Medina and I have adopted two children. (If you couldn’t tell they are adopted, you haven’t really been paying attention!) So obviously adoption is very near to our hearts. But maybe some of you assumed that since we don’t have any biological children, that adoption for us is a second choice. But I want you to know that’s not the case. Both of us have wanted to adopt since before we were married. We talked about it when we were engaged. God could still give us a biological child—there’s no medical reason why not—but I can guarantee you that we could not love a biological child any more than we love Grace and Josiah.

But as some of you know, who have known us for a few years, adoption is a Hard Thing. Adoption, in any country, is a huge amount of work. It requires lots of paperwork. It requires many interviews. Social workers have to come to your house and check things out. It requires a lot of waiting and wondering without an end in sight. It takes a lot of persistence. Some of you may remember that when we were working to get Grace, I had to fly up to Moshi three separate times to try and persuade a social worker to write one letter. Each time I came back unsuccessful, I wept. A lot. It took us a year from the time we applied until the time we brought home Grace. It took us another year to adopt her. It took a year from the time we applied until we brought home Josiah. It took us another year to adopt him. Adoption is also usually really expensive. It’s actually not so bad in Tanzania, but in most countries of the world, adoptions will cost 20 or 30 or $40,000. For one child. Like I said—Adoption is a Hard Thing.

But is it worth it? Hmmm…is it worth it? Have you seen my children? All you have to do is look into their eyes for about half a second and you can answer that question of whether I think it is worth it. That’s the cool thing about doing hard things for God. It is always worth it. Living a life of mediocrity may be easy, but it will be boring. The hard things are always worth it. Even with all we have been through in Grace and Josiah’s adoption, we want to do it again. Adopting children is also a bit addicting!

So this is how I want to challenge you about adoption. I don’t want you to go home and tell your mom that she needs to adopt a child. Well, that’s not really what I want you to do, but that would be okay! I understand that adopting children is not exactly something you can do while you are in secondary school. But there are things you can do….4 things:

1. You can pray about it now. You can consider it now. I have wanted to adopt ever since I was a teenager. It’s a decision you can make now. You can grow in your love and desire and passion for adoption even now. You can decide now that adoption won’t just be a second choice for you—that it will be your “Plan A”—not just a “Plan B.” Now, I totally realize that adoption is not going to be in God’s plan for everyone. Adoption is a calling from God—and not a calling for everyone—for all kinds of reasons. If God doesn’t lead you to adopt, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I’m asking you to start considering it—now.

2. Even if God doesn’t put the burden and calling of adoption on your heart—for your future family, you can still love adoption. You can become a successful businessman and get really rich—and then support families who want to adopt but can’t afford it. There are scholarship funds available to help families to adopt—you can give to that. You can love and support and encourage and accept families who do adopt—especially because bi-racial families are not always accepted everywhere in the world. You can become a politician or a lawyer who advocates for better adoption laws that make it easier for more families to adopt. It’s not easy to adopt in Tanzania, which is why you don’t see it very often. In fact, right now, there is a bill in Tanzanian parliament about adoption, and if it passes, it will make it almost impossible for families like us to adopt. We need politicians in government who won’t let that happen.

3. If you ever find yourself with an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy, please….consider adoption instead of death for your child. I pray that no one here is ever faced with that kind of situation, but if you are, please—give your child a chance at life. Make the hard choice of going through with a pregnancy than the easy way out of abortion. If that ever happens to you, and you end up pregnant, I want you to think about Grace and Josiah and the amazing children they are. I want you think about giving your child the same chance at life they were given. And I promise—if that happens, and if you can find me, Mr. Medina and I will adopt your child.

4. The last thing I want you to remember about adoption is that if you are a follower of Jesus, or thinking about becoming one, every time you see my children, or other adopted children, I want you to think about your own adoption. You were born an orphan. You were lost, hopeless, unable to help yourself, unable to save yourself. You were like baby Tumaini, thrown into an outhouse to die. Christ paid the ultimate price for you to be in His family. And now he pursues you relentlessly. The only thing different about this kind of adoption is that it is your choice. God is pursuing you—the same way Sammye pursued Tumaini, the same way Mr. Medina and I pursued Grace and Josiah. Will you let yourself become God’s own—to be adopted by Him?
I’m going to finish by showing you some a slideshow of Grace and Josiah. I hope it communicates to you the blessings of adoption, but I hope you also will put yourself in their place and imagine your relationship to God in the same way. The first song that will be playing in the background is by Third Day, and I want to tell you some of the lyrics ahead of time. This is what they say:

Ever since the world around you shattered
You’ve been looking everywhere for something more
Sometimes you feel like your life doesn’t matter
But it does, I tell you, it does
Come on let me love you now
Come on let me love you
And hold you through the storms
I will keep you safe and warm
Come on let me love you now
Come on let me love you
And kiss away your tears
I will always be here
Come on let me love you
Yesterday you found your heart was broken
And tomorrow doesn’t leave much room for hope
Today you’ll find that my arms are wide open
And my heart, my heart is full of love
Come on let me love you now

The Speech

By Amy Medina

On June 17, 2009

In Other

The speech I gave the graduating seniors on Friday (with a little editing):

“Don’t Waste Your College Years”
(influenced by Piper, of course!)

I’ve known many of these students for eight years. In 2001, my husband and I arrived in Tanzania for the first time. I was 23 years old. I had only taught for 2 years, and only second grade. I was given the fifth grade class.

Figuring out how to live in Tanzania was a really rough transition for me. And I had no idea how I was going to teach fifth grade. I still remember my first day at HOPAC. This campus had just been built. It was barely finished. The rooms had just been painted and there was nothing—not even any whiteboards, on the walls. In the storeroom of my classroom were boxes and boxes of books. I had no idea what I was supposed to teach. Mr. Champion, the principal, was gone and didn’t come back until a couple of days before school started. There was no working copy machine until the day before school started. I couldn’t find any art supplies. I remember shuffling around in some old papers, trying to find enough poster paper so that I could at least write down the class rules and post them on the wall. I was beyond overwhelmed.

I really didn’t know how I was going to make it. It truly was the grace of God that got me here on the first day of school. And I remember that day, Dorothy came up to me and introduced herself, and the first thing she said to me was, “I thought you were going to be OLD! But you are SO pretty!” And suddenly, all was well with the world. I knew I could make it. And the class continued to bless me for the two years I taught them.

That year was also the first year HOPAC had a tenth grade—there were about 8 students in that class. And now, look at us. Look at how far HOPAC has come. Look at what God has done, and what He is doing. In such a short time.

All of you are entering your college years. Some of you will be going off to university, some of you will be taking a gap year in far off places, others of you may be starting job training. But all of you are entering a new season in your lives—your college years, even if you aren’t actually going to college.

So this is my challenge today: Don’t waste your college years. Don’t waste them. You are entering an extremely important season in your life. In the next 4-6 years, you will be making decisions that will affect the rest of your life. Your career, your spouse, where you live—all could be decided in the next few years. Don’t waste these years.

I have three thoughts I want to leave with you today.

1. You will waste your college years if you forget where you came from.

Most of you do not recognize your uniqueness, because you are surrounded by people who are just like you. Yet when you go out into the world, especially if you leave Tanzania, you will suddenly realize that you are very different from your peers around you. You are unique because you have friends from 30 different countries. You are unique because you have seen and experienced poverty first hand. You are unique because many of you are from western countries or will live in western countries, yet you know and love and have experienced Africa deeply. You are unique because you are comfortable among many different cultures and languages.

Yet if you enter your new season of life and simply become like all the other ordinary people around you, you will waste your college years. If you don’t use your love of Africa to help others love Africa, if you don’t set an example for others as how to love and relate to people who are different from you, if you don’t continue in your compassion for others because of your experience with poverty, you will waste your college years. You will be different from your university classmates or the other people you meet in this new season of life. But don’t just then become like everybody else. Don’t forget where you came from. Use your uniqueness to influence others.

2. You will waste your college years if you do not consider what you can give back.

5% of Tanzanian teenagers are enrolled in secondary school. Only 5%. If you compare yourself only to the students around you at HOPAC, you are average. But if you compare yourself to the average Tanzanian, you have everything.

You have completed your secondary school education. You have completed your education at one of the finest secondary schools in Tanzania. You have had so many teachers here love you and invest in you and go beyond just teaching you every day to really influence your lives. You have the opportunity to go to university.

You have electricity. You live in a house with cement walls. You have access to clean drinking water. You can afford medical care if you need it. You do not have to worry about having enough to eat every day. These are privileges that most of Tanzania—indeed, most of the world—do not have.

I know that your lives are not always easy and many of you have gone through hard times. But you have been so blessed. And as you go into this next chapter of your life, and you consider what path your life will take—what your career will be, where you will live, what lifestyle you will have—you must think about what you will give back.

God did not give you all this so that you can simply become rich and live a comfortable life. God gave you this so that you can make a difference in the world. How will you give back? Will you seek out how your life can help to make the world better, or will you live only for yourself? If you seek only your own happiness, you will waste your college years. You will waste your life. Seek out God’s plan for your life—how He can use your unique talents and abilities to bring redemption to a broken world.

3. You will waste your college years if you do not search for Truth.

Life…death…God…purpose….love. Most of you could give me your opinions on these subjects. You’ve heard a lot about them at HOPAC, and probably in your family as well. But for some of you, if not all of you, when you leave these walls, you will suddenly find yourself faced with a multitude of opinions that you never thought possible. Your professors will be very persuasive in their beliefs, and most likely antagonistic, to any sort of religious faith. You may find yourself questioned, even ridiculed, on why you believe what you do. You will have friends present ideas that you never considered before. And though at HOPAC we have always encouraged you to think for yourself and never blindly believe anything, when you leave, you will find all you ever believed to be challenged.

What will you do? Will you build walls around your beliefs and not allow anyone or anything to question you, shutting your eyes against opposing views? Will you cave in to pressure and accept the views of whoever is most persuasive? Will you believe whatever is trendy? Or will you take the time and the mental energy to really and truly search for Truth?

If you refuse to think and question what you believe, you will waste your college years. If you give in without carefully considering, you will waste your college years.

Never in your life will you again be presented with so many different ways of thinking than in these coming years. Don’t waste this opportunity.

Think. Hard. About what you believe. Ask yourself the hard questions, even if others don’t. Ask yourself why you believe what you do. Don’t rest until you can prove to yourself the reliability of what you believe. Ask questions of others—your professors, your friends, your mentors. Read books thoughtfully—to really learn, not just to complete the assignment. Pray. With an earnest heart, ask God repeatedly to lead you into the Truth.

Of course, I do believe in everything that HOPAC stands for. I believe the Bible is the Word of God. I believe Jesus is the Son of God who took the punishment for sin that we deserve, so that we can have a relationship with God. But these beliefs did not come without a significant period, during my college years, of searching, and doubting, and begging God to reveal to me the Truth. I don’t believe these things because it was the way I was raised. I believe these things because I came to the conclusion they are the Truth—and that they can stand up rationally against rigorous opposition. I don’t want you to believe the things you’ve been taught at HOPAC simply because we taught them to you. Now, I do believe that any honest search will lead to the God of the Bible. But I want you to believe this because you have discovered, for yourself, on your own, that it is true. There is a very good chance that the things you will believe for the rest of your life will be determined during your college years. Don’t waste this chance.

So. This is my challenge. Remember where you came from. Consider what you can give back. And search for Truth. If you do, you will be using your college years to the fullest. Don’t waste them.

I am confident in saying that every staff member at HOPAC—past and present—who has taught you over the last 13 years, would be very proud to see you up on this stage today. You represent everything good that has been accomplished at HOPAC during these years. We are so incredibly proud of you.