What? Only five more weeks?!

Welcome back from Spring Break, Friends.

It is good to have everyone back together again. We made the count: only five more weeks until the end of our official meeting year! Check out the calendar below so as not to miss any of the fun. We have a lot planned as we wrap up the year.

International Bible Study: Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30, Room100

Matthew 7:7-12 We read the famous "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened" lesson from Jesus. Jesus provides a rundown of what to expect from God and from people: if you don't ask or look or knock how can you get, find or discover. Jesus taught that God is a good father and only gives good gifts to His children. Jesus' colorful examples help us imagine. Would someone ask God if they do not know who he is? Would God help someone if they asked? The answer to the first question was of course someone wouldn't ask for help from a god they do not know. But, the answer to the second question is of course God would help anyone who called for help. Jesus wraps up this lesson with the golden rule: Do to others what you would have them do to you. But there is more! Jesus teaches, "this sums up the Law and the Prophets." God's law and the message that he sent through the Prophets is that people need only ask God and He will show His love and care.

April 17: Join us as we discover what Jesus means when He advises us about what gate to use and about gardening are you intrigued? Me too!

International Friends: Tuesdays, 10:30-12:00, Room 100

Since Mother Nature wasn't cooperating in giving us spring flowers, we hoped to inspire her with some of our own. We met to create flowering branches using tissue paper. Look at the beautiful weather since then. Do you think that our efforts gave her the nudge that she needed? We talked about the Japanese Uguisu and how this bird's call is a sign of spring. In the Midwest we look forward to hearing the House Wren. You can entice these friendly birds to live close with a wren house.

Somehow we got on the subject of craft brews and bourbon. There is a variety of opinion about what are the best, but this list of the Top Ten Craft Breweries in Indianapolis sums up the field. Kentucky is well known for bourbon distillery. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is rumored to be a nice adult field trip. Did you know that bourbon was created as an efficient way to get grain to market? Hmmm. That sounds a little fishy to me!

Finally, we somehow got to talking about mochi. This Sunday from 11:00 until 1:00 there will be a demonstration of making mochi using the giant mallets at One World. For more check out their webpage.

April 17: Let's meet to go thrifting and get supplies to create a "salad bowl" garden. Meet at CLC by 10:30 to carpool/caravan to the Goodwill and to Menards.

April 24: Let's plant our salad bowls! Bring your bowl and we will plant them. Save your egg shells for a foundation and fertilization.

Conversation: Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00, upstairs classroom.

We had fun talking about the difference between accents and pronunciation. Discussions led us to talking about how many accents there are in Iran (10). Interestingly, in Iran accents reflect the other languages that are spoken by the people living in the area. In the United States, accents are regional. In the northern part of the Midwest, you will hear longer o sounds which reflects Nordic languages, The Southern Drawl has many influences and interestingly, the accent of New Orleans is characterized as being close to the accent of New York! And further study shows that some of the eccentricities of the Southern dialect are preserved Old English. 

April 18: Join us and practice your conversational English!

English Classes: Thursdays, 9:30-12:00, upstairs classrooms.

I loved visiting with everyone today. We don't have much time left in the year: only six more weeks. As the year winds up you can count on some more group activities involving the whole school! This will give you a chance to meet more Friends to hang out with over the summer.

April 19: We will have a visit from a fireman! Bring you questions and learn about safety and how the fire department does more than protect our community from fires.

rundown: summary

colorful: interesting, vivid but if someone has a colorful past it usually means they have questionable behavior (what could be more interesting than that?)

wrap up: bring to an end

intrigued: to make curious

Mother Nature: giving natural events personification

efforts: actions

gave her the nudge: to gently move someone or something to act in a particular way

sounds a little fishy: suspicious, not quite right

mallets: hammers

craft brews: beer made in a microbrewery or small beer brewing company

sums up the field: a list that summarizes what is available in a particular area

being close to: like, similar 

eccentricities: unusual behavior

preserved: maintained in the original state

hand out with: spend time