I've been traveling around Iowa testing lots of little preschool cuties. As fun as that is, it has been wonderful to have groups of students from my assessment class helping me. Here are four of the students that came with me yesterday. We are assessing children at all the Head Start centers under the umbrella of Mid-Sioux Opportunity, so we are getting to see lots of places in Northwest Iowa.
We have classrooms from 10 different centers participating in the project so the locations are quite spread out. Today I had to go to a center located nearly two hours away. Because of the distance, I went on my own. My students have been wonderful about helping me, but it would be hard for them to take such a big chunk of time out of their schedule. I left home at 6:15 this morning!
I drove a Dordt car out there, which was great, except that on the way back I got a flat tire. Of course, I was out in the country when it happened. I did call the Dordt maintenance staff, but obviously there wasn't a lot they could do to help me. Fortunately, I could see a couple businesses way off in the distance and it was an absolutely gorgeous day, so I walked down there to see if I could find someone to help me.
Now I know I should be able to change my own tire, but honestly I haven't had to do that for myself in at least 25 years. I did locate the jack, but it didn't even look the same as the one I remember using. So I set off to find someone who felt a little more confident about this task than I did. At least it wasn't pouring rain.
I found lots of people willing to help me, but because in each place they were the only employee working, they couldn't leave the store and walk back to my car to help me. Finally, a farmer waiting to get a part at an equipment supply place volunteered to help me. He said he had lots of time as he was "just waiting for the beans to dry."
The vehicle maintenance folks at Dordt had asked me to get that tire replaced right away rather than drive that far on the spare, so after he changed the tire the helpful farmer gave me directions to the local co-op. Amazingly, the co-op had a tire to replace the blown one, but they didn't take credit cards and obviously Dordt didn't have an account with them. So, the helpful man at the co-op just put the charge on his own account and asked if I could have the college send the payment in promptly.
I guess it could have been a frustrating and stressful day, and I did lose a whole afternoon that I had planned to spend testing, but I honestly didn't feel frustrated. The weather was too nice and the strangers far too kind to feel frustrated. This past weekend, I read the story of the Good Samaritan. It came up at both an immigration conference I attended on Saturday and in my class during Sunday School on Sunday. At the end of the parable, Jesus asks, "Who was the neighbor to the man?" Those folks out in Correctionville, Iowa, definitely acted as neighbors to me.
We have classrooms from 10 different centers participating in the project so the locations are quite spread out. Today I had to go to a center located nearly two hours away. Because of the distance, I went on my own. My students have been wonderful about helping me, but it would be hard for them to take such a big chunk of time out of their schedule. I left home at 6:15 this morning!
I drove a Dordt car out there, which was great, except that on the way back I got a flat tire. Of course, I was out in the country when it happened. I did call the Dordt maintenance staff, but obviously there wasn't a lot they could do to help me. Fortunately, I could see a couple businesses way off in the distance and it was an absolutely gorgeous day, so I walked down there to see if I could find someone to help me.
Now I know I should be able to change my own tire, but honestly I haven't had to do that for myself in at least 25 years. I did locate the jack, but it didn't even look the same as the one I remember using. So I set off to find someone who felt a little more confident about this task than I did. At least it wasn't pouring rain.
I found lots of people willing to help me, but because in each place they were the only employee working, they couldn't leave the store and walk back to my car to help me. Finally, a farmer waiting to get a part at an equipment supply place volunteered to help me. He said he had lots of time as he was "just waiting for the beans to dry."
The vehicle maintenance folks at Dordt had asked me to get that tire replaced right away rather than drive that far on the spare, so after he changed the tire the helpful farmer gave me directions to the local co-op. Amazingly, the co-op had a tire to replace the blown one, but they didn't take credit cards and obviously Dordt didn't have an account with them. So, the helpful man at the co-op just put the charge on his own account and asked if I could have the college send the payment in promptly.
I guess it could have been a frustrating and stressful day, and I did lose a whole afternoon that I had planned to spend testing, but I honestly didn't feel frustrated. The weather was too nice and the strangers far too kind to feel frustrated. This past weekend, I read the story of the Good Samaritan. It came up at both an immigration conference I attended on Saturday and in my class during Sunday School on Sunday. At the end of the parable, Jesus asks, "Who was the neighbor to the man?" Those folks out in Correctionville, Iowa, definitely acted as neighbors to me.
Great story!
ReplyDeleteI love the story, the name of the town, "watching the beans dry" and especially the fellow who put the tire on his charge! You could write this one up for a devotional; you already have the scripture!
ReplyDelete