[I first found this article via the Christian Chronicle]
Maddie Higgins, a student at Park Row Christian Academy, was blindfolded as she approached a neighbor’s front yard, not knowing what to expect.
A 6-year-old girl with a rare form of brain cancer, Maddie has long wished to play in the snow.
She was about to get her wish, a chilling experience in the middle of July.
“It’s impossible!” Maddie said as the blindfold was removed. “It’s summer.”
Thanks to Emergency Ice, a Dallas-based company that does all things ice, Maddie was able to play in the snow Friday afternoon, building a snowman with friends and family.
Read the full story and be ready to smile!
I am writing this post from the airplane.
Perhaps not significantly noteworthy since much of today’s content is created on the fly (on a mobile device or literally in the air). What makes this post unique is that I am writing as I return from a 11-day mission trip to Africa (yes, the picture above is from my window seat at some point in my international flight). You can learn a lot about yourself in 11 days.
Admittedly I do not like to be away from social media for that long. I miss posting useful school marketing tips on our website’s blog. I did not peek into Facebook for over a week (I do confess to have scheduled a number of school marketing updates via our Facebook page because I do not believe that just because I am away does not mean our followers are). And yes, I did make a conscious effort to advance schedule daily tweets so I could keep my Twitter audience fed with practical school marketing content even during my hiatus (I hope you found it helpful!) As many social junkies do, I confess that as soon as I had access to WiFi, I was “all-in”, opening multiple apps open on my iPhone in order to reconnect (email, texting, Facebook and Twitter at a minimum). I think my flurry of social frenzy is also evidence of a bigger problem and perhaps yours, too.
We all have too many apps open, more than enough irons in our social media fire, and way too many tabs open. I am not talking about how we behave on our mobile devices or 13″ desktop computers. I am convicted that this is just a pervasive problem in our lives in general. Metaphorically, our batteries are draining.
Perhaps I will write more another time about what I did on my mission trip to Benin, West Africa (it’s not my first trip there – my family actually worked as missionaries for almost 10 years in that country). I already recorded an audio memo on my phone in my Africa hotel room that I hope to soon share via our school marketing podcast. But similar to New Year’s resolutions, as many of you do, I look for vacations, sabbaticals and mission trips to refocus, renew and restart.
As the new school year launches, I join you in looking for ways to trim off the excess in our lives, eliminate the incessant “busy” excuse, and to pour more into the lives of others. Here are 3 ways I commit to doing this in my life: (more…)
[Watch the story below]
In 2009, former ESPN producer, Lisa Fenn, and graduate of Lutheran West Christian school near Cleveland, chronicled a heart-warming story about two young men, Dartanyon Crockett and Leroy Sutton, and the inspirational bond between two boys with different challenges yet amazing resilience and perseverance. On the Lutheran West Facebook Page, Lisa adds, “Dartanyon and Leroy grubbed their way into my heart four years ago. As an ESPN television features producer at the time, I was always on the hunt for unique athlete pieces…what a privilege to be invited into their private pains and sacred celebrations.”
As the sequel to ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” story, we watch of how Lisa stayed with Dartanyon and Leroy beyond high school and witnessed first hand the generous outpouring of ESPN viewers and the amazing story that one of the men to the 2012 London Paralympics.
This is a story that is going viral on social media – so grab a tissue and use this story in your chapel assemblies, classrooms and any other venue where you want to show family, hope and love in action. This is so good that we are happy to present it to you as our first installment of our “Inspiration & Faith” series.
Having trouble on your device? Click here to watch video on ESPN.com
