This may have been one of the worst weekends of my life. I caught a cold/allergy that I can't get rid of. I thought it was gone this morning but as the day rolls on it's coming back. I'm taking everything I can to kill it, but no such luck.

It's been an interesting week of teaching. For one, my kids have been pretty good. Two, there are three kids in one of my groups that just arrived in the US from Thailand last week. They have relatively no English skills although have made huge strides in the first few days. It's pretty cool to be involved in something like that.

I was lying awake last night (not able to sleep due to the allergies) and kind of sulking on certain things that aren't going the way I want (kind of just feeling sorry for myself). The house is a disaster, school is good to be back at but in other ways kind of a drag, Lisa and I really don't have any friends and in some ways I feel I don't fit with a lot of co-workers at school (for some reason I feel very removed from the rest of the staff, I don't know if it's me or them), just an all out case of the blues. But then I began to put things in perspective: in Thailand a 12 year-old girl had just gotten done having sex with her twelfth person of the day, children were sleeping in Kenya with no blankets in chilly weather with malaria-carrying mosquitos buzzing around, those in LA and MS had nothing, a church in China was meeting under the threat of death if caught, etc. It was good to have a dose of perspective. I need that often!

My final thought of the day revolved around the question of whether non-believers should be invited to church. I'm torn on this issue, for one I know that there are times when believers need to be and worship together without worrying about who they are offending, watching their language, etc. On the other hand, Paul knew that there would be unbelievers present when thec church in Corinth met, that's why he scolded them on their misuse of the gifts, and I do believe that when people are allowed a glimpse of Kingdom living and have a chance to ask some questions rather than "Say this prayer or rot in hell!" they'll be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit on their lives and seek the things of God. For now, I'm leaning toward the latter in my approach to fellowship, gathering, and "church."