John Allen's Excitement Mood: incredulous Topic: The Kids
I've talked a lot about Joshua and his problems with Asperger's Syndrome, but I haven't talked much about my oldest son, John Allen. When John Allen was 15 months old, he was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called Retinoblastoma. Retinoblastoma (RB) is a childhood cancer that usually hits infants and toddlers between the ages of birth and 5 years old. The primary goal of physicians who work with RB children is, of course, to save the child's life, with the close secondary goal of preserving the eye. However, when John Allen's RB was diagnosed, the tumor was so large that his pediatric ophthalmologist suggested enucleation (removal of the eye). John Allen's left eye was enucleated November 7, 1997. A few months later, he was fitted for an artificial left eye.
One of the problems of having only one eye is depth perception. Thankfully, God made us so that some parts of our brain take over when other parts are damaged. So, although he will never be able to see like a person with two eyes, he does have some depth perception. Nevertheless, however hard your brain works, there are some things that can't happen without two eyes. Like seeing 3-D.
I know that John Allen has never seen anything remotely in 3-D. He goes to the 3-D shows at amusement parks and theaters, and faithfully puts on the special glasses, but they really don't do anything for him. He doesn't see things the way the others do. Nothing comes out of the screen. Nothing has any depth. It's just a fuzzy flat picture.
As a homeschooler, I am notorious for signing up for anything free that I can. Yahoo groups, newsletters, emails, you name it, if it's free and has anything to do with education, I probably am signed up for it. One of the email newsletters that I'm signed up for is a weekly science experiment written by Robert Krampf from www.thehappyscientist.com . In one of his last emails, he talked about...you guessed it...3-D. 3-D chalk to be exact. This prompted me to write to him about something I had been curious about for a long time. Can someone with only one eye see in 3-D? Here is his response:
Hi Tim,
Up until recently, I would have told you that you cannot see in 3D without two eyes, but I recently was sent a link to a photo (actually an animated GIF) that comes very close to being 3D, and it is easily seen with one eye. Go to: http://www.imgspark.com/image/view/bade/276697/
The image was made with a 3D camera, and the animated GIF switches back and forth between the two pictures. I plan to try making some of my own. Let me know if he sees this as 3D.
I hope it helps.
Have a wonder-filled day.
Rob Krampf
The link is to a picture taken by Jaime Martinez, the artist who developed this technique. I have since corresponded with Jaime and become Facebook friends (what else?) with him. Click here for more of his pictures including several excellent 3-D pictures. (Be cautious however. Although, the 3-D pictures are fantastic, some of his other work can be quite graphic. Make sure you peruse his site before allowing your young ones to view it.)
When I showed them to John Allen he became so excited! He could actually see depth! They actually seemed 3-D! In fact, when I shut my left eye, it seemed to me like I could see them better. Take a look yourself. Just press the play buttons on each picture. When we originally saw them, they were in a loop mode where they shook continuously. For some reason it's not allowing me to loop these, but I think that the four seconds that it lasts will be long enough for you to get the picture (no pun intended )! This is still in the experimental mode, but someday, John Allen may be able to see a real 3-D movie!
Thank you, Lord, for making us intelligent creatures. Thank you for giving men the intelligence to create things for our enjoyment. Thank you for people like Jaime Martinez who are creative enough to develop this method of seeing 3-D.
Get Ready for Some Reviews! Mood: energetic Topic: Homeschool Product Review
My space to the left is filling up, and you know what that means! It's time for some reviews! As a matter of fact, I have FIVE scheduled for the month of August. John Allen and Joshua started school a week earlier than the public school kids, but they have been working with some of the products for weeks now! And, boy did they have fun! I can't wait to tell you about them in the coming days. Before then, why don't you get introduced to some of the companies by clicking on their logos to the left. Have fun looking!
Ode to a Community Garden Mood: lyrical Topic: Ministry
Every once in a while, I will talk about something going on with our ministry here at Good News Mission. Sarah tries to write a prayer letter at least every other month, and I always link to them, but I know it is hard to remember to click on the link, and, besides, she can only go into so much detail in her letters. That's why I try to mention ministry happenings from time to time, and am going to endeaver to highlight a particular aspect of our ministry more often.
As most of you know, we work with the low income folks in the small town that we live in. In fact, Good News Mission, and the attached house that we live in, is located right across the street from the housing projects. Now, these projects are nothing like the projects in big cities. Although there are drugs and alcoholism, there are no gangs or violence. In the eight and a half years that we have lived here, there has not been any major incident that we can speak of. But, the people are impoverished both financially and spiritually, and need the Lord. Our main goal is to always give them the Gospel, and teach them how to grow spiritually, but we also strive to help them lead better lives through money management help, cooking classes, tutoring etc.
One of the new things that we began this summer was a community garden. It had been one of my goals for some time, but never got implemented until this year. We had our ups and downs but basically it was a success. Last night, after enjoying some corn on the cob direct from the garden, I sat down to write a little poem about our community garden experience. I hope you enjoy it. It's called:
Super Star Game Giveaway! Mood: a-ok Topic: FamiliesAgain Freebies A fellow blogger, and fellow homeschool Crew member, Debbie Lott, is having a game giveaway on her blog, Debbie's Homeschool Corner. Debbie is a speech pathologist and homeschool mom who has created several games to help reinforce the things that her children are learning. She sells these great games on Currclick, and is giving away one of them via a drawing on August 20th. Check out her games by clicking here, then click here to go to her blog and enter the drawing. I love history, so her historic games caught my eye right off the bat, but I decided to try for the Silly Snail - Parts of Speech game. I'll be praying that God will choose the person who needs the game the most to win! Remember, we are all home educators, whether we send our kids to school, or teach them ourselves. Check out these great games to supplement your child's education today!
It's the end of the summer ministries. Day camp is over. OK, I know, there still is a lot to keep me busy. We still have to clean up everything. There's still the "community" garden that the community seems to have left to us. There's still the back to school bash that needs to be planned. And, there's still our Sunday afternoon ministries and ladies ministries and ...! I know, I know, with all that coming up, why should I be down?
I don't really know. I've worked in the camping ministry enough (since 1983) to know that I should be prepared for this feeling by now. It happens every summer. Your busy one minute. There are kids everywhere! Activities going on! Noise! Excitement! And then...the next minute...there's silence. The silence is eerie. It's almost depressing. It's really no different than the silence that comes everyday when the kids go home. But this silence is the final silence. I guess it's the finality that is what causes the eeriness - the sad feelings. It's over for another year. Nothing to plan for tomorrow...no activities. Nothing to study for...no Bible Lesson. This is it...it's over.
You would think that this year would be different. In the past, at the camp that we used to work at, we had camps going on everyday for six or seven weeks. It was so wild that you couldn't even remember what happened when it was over. This year was different. We had one full week of day camp at the beginning, then only did day camps on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the summer. In the past, we left our cozy world, moved to the camp for a couple of months, then came back to our cozy world. This year, we stayed in our world. These are the people we work with all year around. These are the kids that we minister to week in and week out. This year we stayed at home and worked with the people that God called us to minister to full-time. And we made it! God blessed each day!
In the past, at the big camp, we had 120 campers per week. We had day camps and resident camps. We had over 40 staff members. This summer we barely made it to 40 total people all together. We didn't have a counselor training week. We didn't hire experienced staff. We didn't advertise to folks all across the USA. This year we stayed at home. We worked with the kids and adults that we work with the other 10 months out of the year. We used some of Sarah's ladies that she is discipling to help us cook food, herd kids, set up games. And we did it! God gave us strength and help!
In the past we had a budget! Thousands of dollars for the kitchen. Thousands of dollars for program. Seemingly unlimited space and supplies.This year we had a yard sale to raise money. We used what we had. We bought what we could. We had games in our yard. We used the two rooms of the mission for Bible class and eating. And we survived! God provided!
I used to think that I would miss the big camp. The endless potential, endless supplies, endless space, endless help. I do miss it in some ways. In some ways it will always be a part of me.
So, why am I down? I guess I'm down for the same reason I was always down. Because we've come to the end of a fruitful, productive summer. We saw kids and adults grow in the Lord. We had the usual struggles. The usual ups and downs. But God used us for His purpose. God gave us a job and we tried to be faithful. God opened doors and we saw lives changed. New kids are coming to the mission, new adults have been reached. We have more kids to invite when we start our fall ministries. We have more adults to minister to and disciple.
So, why am I down? I don't really know. I don't really know if I even am down. After writing this I don't think I am. Come to think about it, I'm not really down at all. In fact, I'm looking forward to the future. I'm looking forward to the next exciting thing that God has planned!
Thank you, Lord, for using me. Thank you for using my family. Thank you for the opportunities, big and small, that you have given us. Thank you for the people you have given us to minister to. Thank you for the place that you have given us to minister in. Thank you for using us in this exciting adventure. Please help us to always be faithful to you, just as you have always been faithful to us. Amen
.gif)
incredulous
)! This is still in the experimental mode, but someday, John Allen may be able to see a real 3-D movie!
energetic
lyrical
a-ok
A fellow blogger, and fellow homeschool Crew member, Debbie Lott, is having a game giveaway on her 
down
It's the end of the summer ministries. Day camp is over. OK, I know, there still is a lot to keep me busy. We still have to clean up everything. There's still the "community" garden that the community seems to have left to us. There's still the back to school bash that needs to be planned. And, there's still our Sunday afternoon ministries and ladies ministries and ...! I know, I know, with all that coming up, why should I be down?
