The Journal of Dr. Richard L. Sleight

OCTOBER 2007 EDITION 

Weight change in October, 190 to 184.5

This month she sang in her first choir concert and invited Freshman Josh Johnson from the Cross Country team to the Tolo.  They went as Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) from Grease.  All that running had paid off.  Even Josh's mom said Jeannie Beth looked "hot." (Click on her photo.  Nancy did her hair -- of which she has plenty!)
 

One Race to Go

September ended with The Bush School the odds-on favorite to capture both the boys and girls league and district titles in Cross country.  But injuries (and a defection to soccer by Bush star Duncan Clark) evened the odds in the Emerald City League.  Even more significantly, BCS junior Andrew Van Ness, the #2 runner for BCS until this month, took a full minute off his 5K time and catapulted the BCS boys to the top of the league. 

On their home course at Kelsey Creek Park on October 2^nd, Nathanael placed 3^rd and Andrew finished 5^th out of 77 runners.  At the Lakewood Hole-in-the-Wall Invitational on October 6^th, it was Andrew who beat Nathanael.  Against District 4 teams at Millersylvania State Park on October 9^th, (where Nathanael had finished 1^st in 2006), again they were Nate 3^rd and Andrew 5^th. 

At the league championships at Lower Woodland Park (in a drenching deluge) it was Andrew 3^rd and Nate 4^th – leading the BCS boys team to the Emerald City League championship!  1. BCS (51), 2. U Prep (63), 3. Bush (70), 4. SAAS (91), 5. Northwest (106), 6. Overlake (150), 7. Cedar Park Christian (164)   (The BCS girls team took 3rd place.)

The District 2 championships back at Kelsey Creek Park earned BCS another trip to State as they capped their season locally with another victory – with Andrew running and impressive 2^nd (where Nate was last year) and Nathanael taking 5^th.  1. Bellevue Christian (54), 2. Bush (62), 3. University Prep (68), 4. Northwest (94), 5. Seattle Academy (97), 6. Cedar Park Christian (146), 7. Overlake (162).  It was interesting that only BCS finished in the same position in both championship races. (Again the BCS girls took 3rd.)

When he’s rested Nathanael is at his very best.  He has his last and biggest Cross Country race yet in Pasco on Saturday, November 3^rd.

Alas, Jeannie Beth will not be moving on to run at Pasco.  In her final race she moved back into 2^nd place on the BCS girls varsity team but would have needed to be about one minute faster over the 3.1 mile course in order to make the top ten that earned State spots.  But she learned to run and will be a force to reckon with next season.

Also this month, Annie demonstrated some of her newly learned technique from her Fencing class.  Grandma Ginger (herself a champion collegiate swords-woman at Hunter College, New York) declared her to have good form.

Tom Disher, now one of my Computer Lab Assistants, posed for this photo on Halloween.   I gave him some pointers on crafting a personal web page since he should be able to help business students do this.  He's getting a good start at myhome.spu.edu/dishet/.
 

Susan's Letter to the Editor
 
Susan was published in the October 10th Seattle Times. She and I agree on end of life matters.

Yet Another Portrait
 
The kids insist I keep the beard until I get to 175 pounds.  It's a strong incentive because I tire of it.  Five pounds in October is not bad.
 

Nancy is 99% Done with the Roof Repair

The flashing is nailed down (in part) so I'm not worried about the roof leaking.  Ten months after half the ridge vent blew off, we have a new improved (and industrial strength) one.

Susan helped as well as Jeannie, Nathanael, and Annie.  Now we need to submit all the costs to PEMCO.  Since Nancy did the labor, they should be delighted with the low cost.  Susan took pictures up there and they signed the plywood before the aluminum went on.

 
SBE Sponsors CBFA National Conference
 

On October 4th through 6th the SPU School of Business and Economics hosted over 250 Christian business faculty members at the annual Christian Business Faculty Conference.

I had a big role behind the scenes.  I was in charge of preparing reports from the online registration database on everything from who still needed to pay to who had food allergies!  I was also responsible for nametags, CEU certificates, the conference website which I designed, and much more.

Above left, our dean Jeff Van Duzer spoke about the "Purpose of Business" from God's perspective at a Thursday pre-conference session.  I also served as the official conference photographer (with my new Nikkor lens!)  On the down side I also was the guy who met the busses at the hotels downtown on Thursday and Friday mornings, meaning I had to get up at 5:00AM to catch the early bus from Bellevue. 
 

I did manage to get a date out of the deal.  I took Nancy to hobnob at the Thursday night welcome event at the Seattle Aquarium.  That is one cool place where I would like to spend more time.  I was so busy eating fancy cheeses and pretending I was a business professor that I didn't get enough time with the fish.  I was reminded of my old aquarium hobby when I had over 200 gallons of fish tanks in my last bachelor apartment.  I think this is a better way to watch fish.  

The House to our West is Under Construction

When the old house goes, it's the signal that a season of noisy construction has begun.  By the end of October, a basement has been excavated and construction appears to be well on the way.  November and December don't seem like good months for framing but Nancy will need to endure a few months of noisy hammering soon.

She's busy herself preparing the house for the holidays and the planned home stay for Grandma Jean.  The kitchen was her first make-over target.

Watch Out!  You Might Get What You Pray For

When I pray I expect an answer.  That answer might be “No!” or it might be “wait”, or (if/since the Spirit was prompting the prayer anyway) it’s likely to be “Go for it!” 

Well, I’ve often felt I needed to be teaching.  After taking a “gifts class” at First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue in the mid-1990’s I was even more convinced.  In 1999 that prompted me to “seek wise counsel” with a long session with friend and Pastor Jim Berkley (see http://jimberkley.blogspot.com/) .  We agreed that if the university offered me an opportunity to teach there, I should take it.  This I did from 2000 until this year.  But that opportunity has come to an end.

Earlier in October I was (for the nth time) debating the seminary issue with myself.  I reached Conclusion #1:  What is a Ph.D. if not sufficient evidence that one is capable of independent study and research?  What could I learn in a seminary that I could not learn in equivalent time spent with my considerable library? 

Then Sunday, October 28^th, Rev. Earl Palmer, offered a very brief sermon on John 7:37-39.  Alas, he made a particular error in his presentation.  Dr. Palmer stated that Jesus only arrived for this final day of the Feast, when in fact Jesus clearly arrived “halfway through the Feast” (John 7:14a).  And there was my answer to a prayer!

At the outset of the service that morning I had set the teaching question before God.  The day before, I had led the Saturday Men’s Bible Study through Ephesians 4:7-16, including “¹¹ It was he who gave some to be . . . teachers,
¹² to prepare God's people for works of service,”  Although there was little discussion of “teacher” on Saturday, the question was still on my heart on Sunday.  I took up the pew Bible and turned to John 7.  Context!  What was the context of the sound bite sized passage Dr. Palmer was discussing?  And in that search I “heard” God’s clear answer.

14 But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews therefore were marveling, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" 16 Jesus therefore answered them, and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. 18 "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.   John 7:14-18 NASB

And this is how I understood the answer to my question: “having never been educated” -- (a seminary credential is irrelevant when weighed against a specific gifting from God.)  And “He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” speaks to the desire to teach to be a response to Another’s call and not a self-chosen path. 

A final surprise awaited me on Monday.  I had packed two books to read (putting aside an interesting yet unfinished book, Longitude by Dava Sobel.)  The larger was Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.  The smaller was a translation into English of a Catholic volume on a similar theme, Daily Life in the Times of Jesus by Henri Daniel-Rops.  The translator was Patrick O’Brian (the pen name of Englishman Richard Patrick Russ).  This tie-in with my favorite author was a delightful surprise.  I, however, will read Edersheim.  The Daniel-Rops text proved to be so influenced by extra-biblical Roman Catholic tradition and legend that it disqualified itself, in my judgment, as an honest piece of Christian scholarship.

Bits and Pieces

• "Don't quit your day job, Dad.  I need the tuition discount."  ― Nathanael  (When I talk of going to seminary.)
• "Before there was eHarmony.com, there was Mom."  ― Dick, in reference to Grandma Jean.

• I visited my mom and dad twice toward the end of the month and remarked how much mom looks like her mom.  I had fun asking her questions.  She knew she had four children and nine grandchildren.  She could not come up with all of the names of the grandchildren, not remembering Katherine and Debbie.  We are hoping to have her over here for at least a week before Christmas.  Dad had a serious series of bloody noses.  He will see his doctor on November 5th.

• Randy was the speaker at the annual P.E.O. "BIL Dinner" this year.  I helped prepare his PowerPoint and  introduced him.  He gave an interesting talk on water, mostly of the Seattle/Puget Sound region.

Quote from September

(My colleagues across SPU are a wise bunch, more often than not.)

“Humble science” is the joyful kind that actually likes to find that a theory is wrong if that improves our knowledge and wonder and leads to new discoveries. (And that is, after all, the paradigm for “science” that we’re taught!) “Humble faith” is open faith that never assumes to fully categorize God (or tell God how God must create!), that is founded in love and trust. Humble faith allows the joy of humble science to thrive, and actually helps maintain that joy in the face of opposition from vested interests in both science and religion. If humble faith and humble science seem to conflict, the “humble” part in both remains open for new understandings to emerge – as I have found they do, not only in the science, but also in the understandings of faith. I think a case may be made that this approach to science and faith strengthens both rather than weakening or destroying one or the other.

Dr. Doug Durasoff, Professor of Political Science
From an SPU !Facnet email, 9/24/07