Christmas Memories

          Christmas brings back so many great memories.  It always has been my favorite holiday.  And, long vacations from school helped make it my favorite as well.

          I think of trips on Christmas to be with family members - especially to Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Sunbury and Ephrata.  They were such special times.  I remember caroling and cantatas and Christmas meals.  Ironically I remember family members, many now in heaven, but I don't remember any of the presents I received, especially as a child.  I guess that might prove that people are more important than things.

          Now this might surprise you, but one of the things that I miss the most are my classroom experiences the last day we met before Christmas break.  For many years I had a special routine that allowed me to share my faith with my students in a very unusual way.

          On that day I taught my classes dressed as Santa Claus.  The class involved a number of special activities such as one which I will describe a little later.  I read parts of several Christmas classics to my class, including some things about Hanukkah, ending with the Christmas story from Luke.  I always had the full attention of my students, some of which had never heard these readings before.  I then shared what Christmas meant to me personally - a special opportunity probably unheard of in a public school. Over the years several students thanked me for this and I pray that somehow this time has had an effect on someone's life.  This is an opportunity which I miss each Christmas since I've retired.

          Now the class also included the singing of several of the math carols that I had written over the years.  Actually I have had a few students remind me of these years later.  Maybe that is all they remember from my math classes.  And after sharing these with other teachers including at a national math conference, I've heard that they have also been shared in other schools throughout the country.  Maybe I should have gotten then copyrighted.

          So let me close this Christmas blog with a few of them.  Try singing them - even if you've forgotten the mathematics.

OH ALGEBRA (OH CHRISTMAS TREE)

Oh algebra, oh algebra, how lovely are your properties, Oh algebra, oh algebra, how lovely are your properties. They show us how to operate, our feeble minds they stimulate. Oh algebra, oh algebra, how lovely are your properties.

BINOMIALS (JINGLE BELLS)

Binomials, binomials, add and multiply. Are the terms alike, or are they different? Oh my! Binomials, binomials, to multiply we toil, Distribute the monomial or multiply by FOIL.

TRICKY OLD TRIG-NOMETRY (JOLLY OLD SAINT NICHOLAS)

Tricky old trig-nometry, it's a useful art, Helps you find an angle, especially if you're smart. You can use the tangent or the cosine law, Careful with the 'rithmetic, so you don't have a flaw.

Use the secant ratio for a right triangle, Draw a picture first of all to help your thoughts untangle. Patience with your efforts, precision in your task, Soon the answer you will find, success will come at last.

MATHEMATICS, MY FAVORITE SUBJECT (RUDOLPH)

Mathematics, my favorite subject, is a very challenging class. And, if you ever take it, you will learn to love it fast.

In it we learn equations, linear, quadratic and more, We always do our homework, it will never become a bore.

For some future college day, professor just might say, "Students with your minds so bright, solve this problem right tonight!"

Then you will use this background, that some other kids have missed, With math you'll solve the problem and be named to the Dean's List!

I'M DREAMING OF A NICE PARABOLA (I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS) I'm dreaming of a nice parabola, just like the ones we used to draw,

With a fixed directrix, a single focus, a vertex which on the graph doth fall. I'm dreaming of a nice parabola, with every quadratic that I see,

May your thoughts be second degree, as you sketch a parabola for me.

Have a very merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2021!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 We want to wish you a blessed Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2022.  May the Lord protect you and guide you and your family through these challenging days.

"Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;

His greatness no one can fathom"  Psalm 145:3

          This past year has been a challenging one for us but we thank the Lord for His presence, provision, peace and guidance.  We have been isolated now from our family and friends for nearly two years.  A few months ago we lost the contents of our freezer from an electrical problem that required a new electrical box.  But PTL nothing else, including our house, was damaged.  We have kept our doctors busy with about 145 visits, tests and procedures this year, including 20 trips to Hershey for Barry's treatments.  And this does not include the three weeks Dianne spent in the hospital and a nursing home after a fall.  But God is good and we thank Him for each new day that He gives us.

          The isolation has also kept us from continuing many of the ministries that we previously had.  However, Dianne continues a ministry of encouragement by corresponding online and by phone with many of our friends.  Barry continues running our church prayer chain as we have now done for 50 years.  He also continues his two blogs. His hymn blog reaches folks all over the world with about 1,000 visiting each week.  So we thank the Lord for these opportunities to still minister to others.

          We thank Him, too, for our sons and their wives.  Craig is CEO/President of the Codorus Valley Bancorp and Kisha loves to entertain.  Ken is President of Moore Engineering and Sandy teaches special needs children at Warwick.  Tim is Chief Administrative Officer for Meridian Products and Wendy is a busy housewife who coordinates their busy household.

          And we are very thankful for our grandchildren.  Zachary is doing editing for a company online and he has been a tremendous help in doing work and errands for us.  Josh completed his PhD in chemistry at Penn State and is now working for Colgate Palmolive in New Jersey.  He and Corine, a chem teacher at LS, plan to be married in April.  Taylor continues to work with the DiscipleMakers ministry, but now remotely from Massachusetts.  Her husband, Daniel, completed his PhD. In chemical engineering, also at Penn State, and is now working for Bristol-Myers Squibb.  Noah is a student at Salus University where he is working to obtain his degree in eye care.  Chloe is a senior at Messiah College and she is hoping to attend graduate school.  Lexie is a senior in high school and is presently applying to colleges to continue her education.  Brodie is a tenth grader at Conestoga Valley and is very interested in sports.  We are thankful that all of them love the Lord and are serving Him.  They are all answers to our prayers.

          So we enter a new year trusting in the Lord's continued leading. We do miss the fellowship with our friends, like you, and would welcome hearing from you.

          Take care and keep looking up.

         

    Dianne and Barry Kauffman

Five Steps

          The pandemic has resulted in many changes in our lives that we never expected to make.  Three years ago I would have laughed at you if you had suggested that we would turn to worshipping online each Sunday.  But we have.

          Both of us have physical problems that have made it dangerous for us to expose ourselves to possible covid infections.  We must admit that we are very disappointed that church attendees do not consider people like us as they maintain their personal "rights" to attend church without masks.  Personally I belive that this attitude is selfish and wrong for Christians to have that attitude.  And churches make no attempt to keep folks like us at home involved.  We become the forgotten congregation.  But that is a subject for another day.

           So with no safe place available for us to attend in person, the Lord has led us to the streaming services of Stonebriar Community Church in Texas.  Chuck Swindoll is pastor there and his preaching is sound and helpful

          We also enjoy their outstanding music – professional musicians, great choir and many ensembles.  Excellent!  And their services include both old and new hymns and we can sing along with them.  It has become a worshipful experience for us – all we miss is fellowship.

          Recent Swindoll has done a series on Integrity.  One of his sermons was on Habakkuk.  In his conclusions that week he made four points which he encouraged us to write in our Bibles.  Let me share them with you.

 

1.     GOD IS ABLE, I AM NOT

If we understand who God is, we should not keep trying to solve our problems ourselves.  We can't.

 

2.     GOD KNOWS WHAT IS BEST, I DO NOT

We may think that we know what is best, but He is omniscient and what we often think might be the correct solution may not be.  Trust Him.

 

3.     GOD SEES ALL, I CANNOT

He knows where we are headed and what is ahead.  Our decisions may be shortsighted.

 

4.     GOD SHOULD HAVE HIS WAY, I SHOULD NOT

Isn't this what we really want?  But instead we often worry and rush ahead with our solutions.

 

5.     GOD MUST BE GLORIFIED THROUGH THIS, I SHOULD NOT

May we never forget this step.  To God be the glory!

 

          I have written these steps in my Bible and am trying to remember them as the challenges of life roll on.  What a mighty and glorious God we serve.  God is so good!

          Maybe these five steps will be good reminders to you as well.  Have a good week!

Choices

          Have you ever wondered how your life might have been if you made other choices that were once available to you?

          A physical challenge has recently made me take 25 trips to a medical clinic in Hershey.  We've also made two side trips to Elizabethtown.  These trips have made me ask myself this question.  

          When I was graduating from Susquehanna University in 1963 I had three interviews for teaching jobs – Hershey, Elizabethtown and Penn Manor – and all three offered me a job. Did I make the right choice?

          On each trip to Hershey we passed the old high school where I would have taught as well as their new more modern high school building.  Hershey appears to be a nice, clean town and their educational program is highly rated.  I doubt that I would have gone wrong if I had accepted their offer.  But I just didn't feel very interested or comfortable after the interview.  However, I do wonder what would have happened to my career and family had I said yes.

          Now Elizabethtown was a different situation.  Both my wife and I had lived there, actually about five blocks apart for about two years, even though we didn't know each other at that time.  We both have many good memories and a few weeks ago we even visited the areas where we had lived.  Our old elementary school has been torn down.  Her home looked a little different. My home that was on the campus of Elizabethtown College has also been torn down and replaced by a college building.  But the big campus yard that I played in is unchanged.

          Now I really wanted to go back to Elizabethtown but the teaching job that they offered me was not the least bit interesting.  They wanted me to teach all low level math courses.  I reluctantly said no.

          Then there was Penn Manor, a school that I didn't know much about.  And they didn't even have football.  But they gave me a good schedule and I said yes.  And for 39 years I enjoyed myself.  I had many great opportunities there and I knew I was where the Lord had placed me.

           Years later I was also offered similar jobs as department chairman at Ephrata High and then at Manheim Township.  Both thought they could offer me more than I had at Penn Manor, but they couldn't.  And I had no reason to change.  I was where the Lord wanted me to be.

            But in my second year of teaching I was contacted by the former sports publicist at Susquehanna.  I worked for him at Susquehanna and he and his wife became friends of Dianne and me.  He had just taken the job of public relations director at Wagner College in Staten Island.  He needed a sports publicist to work with him there and he offered the job to me.  It was tempting but Wagner was not a location where I wanted to raise my family.  But who knows where we would be today if I had accepted.

           Now as I look back at the past 60 years I am thankful for all the opportunities I have had not only in education but in ministry as well.  I never could have dreamed of all of them back when I was making major decisions.   But the Lord knew and He provided and helped me make the right choices.

           There is a hymn that shares my testimony.  Maybe it could be sung at my funeral as praise and thanks to the Lord.

 

Some day life's journey will be o'er

And I shall reach that distant shore,

I'll sing while ent'ring Heaven's door

"Jesus led me all the way."

Jesus led me all the way,

Led me step by step each day;

I will tell the saints and angels

As I lay my burden down

"Jesus led me all the way.

 

If God should let me there review

The winding paths of earth I knew,

It would be proven clear and true

Jesus led me all the way.

Jesus led me all the way,

Led me step by step each day;

I will tell the saints and angels

As I lay my burden down

"Jesus led me all the way.

 

And hitherto my Lord has led,

Today He guides each step I tread,

And soon in Heav'n it will be said

Jesus led me all the way.

Jesus led me all the way,

Led me step by step each day;

I will tell the saints and angels

As I lay my burden down

"Jesus led me all the way.