AFRICA: Akhwari--Greatest Last Place Finish Ever

Have you ever heard of John Stephen Akhwari? If not, you should find out who he is, and you should share his story with your children. Let me help you.

John Stephen Akhwari is a marathon runner from Tanzania. He was the African champion runner and he competed in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Even though Akhwari had previously beaten the man who would win the gold medal in the men's marathon that year, Akhwari is mostly known for having the worst marathon finishing time in the history of the Olympics. But really, the time isn't the important part--the finishing is. 

Here is the quote he is most famous for:

"My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it."

Akhwari's Olympic marathon finish is nothing short of heroic given all the circumstances and given his tenacious grit. He is an amazing example! I like everything about the following video except that at the end it categorizes Akhwari's finish as one of the "strangest." I disagree. I think it's one of the best and most inspiring.

Years later, Akhwari was called upon to be honored and participate in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, carrying the torch. Here is a good follow up article on Akhwari's life since his famous finish. 

Whether you're studying Africa, the Olympics, focusing on biographies, working on character development, or need a story for a Family Home Evening lesson on enduring to the end, John Stephen Akhwari from Mbulu, Tanzania, Africa is someone to talk about.

F.R.O.G. - A Chocolate Acronym of Faith

F.R.O.G.

Fully Rely On God

It's Easter candy time. What I like about that is the variety of really cute (and yummy) spring and nature candies, especially Lindt's chocolate insects, frogs, ducks, and bunnies.

The chocolate frogs lend themselves nicely as accompaniment to an acronym that would fit a Family Home Evening or Church lesson, or homeschool devotional. They're also a great meaningful treat for Visiting Teaching, a pick-me-up for a neighbor or friend, or an addition to an Easter basket.  I created the tags below and sent a package of chocolate frogs to my missionary with one of the tags attached:

Happy Spring!

2017 Word Clouds and Positive Thinking

Need a visual reminder of your positive thoughts or goals for the new year?  Create and print your own word cloud! 

The picture above is the word cloud I made for myself for this year. I used Tagul. I'm going to have my kids create their own personalized word clouds this week. There are many different online word cloud generators you can use, some more user friendly than others, and each with different shape possibilities.

Think positive! Even in the middle of SNOWPOCALYPSE 2017 (as my sister is calling it) my word cloud is helping out. In just the past few days we've had a flood in my laundry room, a garage door fall on top of our car as we were backing out, my husband's back go out just as we had to shovel two feet of snow, and burst pipes and subsequent flooding in my family room that forced us to shut off all our water and our heat until our plumber can find a plug for a route of pipes. Tomorrow we have to start cutting out sections of wall. All this just days before my son's wedding...while his fiancee is stuck three states away and cannot get here!

Already in Love with 2017

I am already in love with 2017. Not because, three hours into the new year, anything particularly marvelous has happened to influence my opinion or outlook already (though I did toast my family and some good friends with a very tasty apple-pomegranate sparkling cider) or because I'm one of those who figures 2016 was so bad that anything else has gotta be better. It's true that my year last year did have some major pits, potholes, and pathetic and perplexing problems; I'm certain I cried more in the past year than I've cried my entire life. But it's also true that there were moments of great clarity, times when I was supported and sustained by friends both in Heaven and on Earth, and the blessings were too many to count. No, I am in love with 2017 because I hope and have faith.

Many people hope when a new year rolls around, if they haven't become too hard and cynical anyway. It's what people hope that varies. I honestly don't know how anyone can hope without faith, and I do mean faith in a Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. Sure, people can have faith in loved ones or financial institutions or themselves, or whatever else, but all of those things are subject to the faults and frailties of the mortal condition. I have hope and faith because time and again my Heavenly Father has brought me to and through things--strengthened and taught and directed me--and time and again I have marveled at how He never gives up on me, even when I feel I might as well give up on myself. I know He hears and answers my prayers--every one, spoken and unspoken--down to the tiniest of details. And at the beginning of this new year I have the most hope ever in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The year 2016 really was the Year of the Atonement for me, as I saw firsthand the fruits of it in people's lives and saw the unmistakable and undeniable change in these people. In different places and through various ways I felt an incredible witness of the truth and power of the Atonement. I am not perfect. Uh, not even close. But I can look back over the last year and see improvement and it makes me giddy with anticipation at how I can change and become this next year with God's grace.  I am certain there are going to be some really bad days in 2017. Lots of tears. Pain. Grief. Regret. I won't accomplish half of what I want, I won't change quite as much as I'd like, I'll probably take one step back for every two steps forward. But I stand at the doorway of the new year, glad to be alive and able to think, choose, and change and looking forward with hope and faith.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Chance

   

 "The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. Over us Chance hovers. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall.     It is this Chance that makes us indifferent. A few months ago I was sitting in a dug-out playing skat; after a while I stood up and went to visit some friends in another dug-out. On my return nothing more was to be seen of the first one, it had been blown to pieces by a direct hit. I went back to the second and arrived just in time to lend a hand digging it out. In the interval it had been buried.     It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bomb-proof dug-out I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hours' bombardment unscathed. No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck."

The above is a quote from All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. It's one of many passages in the book that really affected me.  To try to imagine being there with the constant shelling, feeling the personal vulnerability of the Front, and experiencing the ever present rot, disease, death, pain and misery... and then to get to the point that you're indifferent to it because you believe it's just a matter of luck whether you live or die... 

I don't believe in Chance, I believe in God. I believe in agency and the ability to hear and feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We all will suffer in this life, and we all will die. But what a horridly hopeless feeling to go through life believing your existence is based on mere chance.

Of Doors and Keys, Prayer and Faith

I inherited an old box of music from my mother-in-law when she made a long-distance move. Every now and then I go through the stack. It's interesting to me how one piece will mean nothing to me one month, but then really catch my eye another. This month, as we have been studying to topic of faith, I was delighted to come across a gem written by Samuel T. Scott and Robert L. Sande. Here are the words.

Prayer is the key to Heaven,

But faith unlocks the door;

Words are so easily spoken,

A prayer without faith, is like a boat without an oar.

Have faith, when you speak to the Master,

That's all He asks you for,

Yes, prayer is the key to Heaven, 

But faith unlocks the door.

This is a poem to memorize!

I've also shared another great song with my whole family that I have been teaching to the Primary children in my ward. This was published in the Friend in 2007. I have turned more and more to music from the Friend recently as there are some fantastic pieces in there to teach doctrine, build faith, and also to mix things up.