Action Becomes Faith by Jim Weber  Sam bowed his head for the invocation at the student council luncheon yesterday. That may not seem like much, but his Muslim friend noticed and whispered, “I thought you were an atheist! What are you bowing your head for?” Sam didn’t say why, but I knew. Two weeks before [...]

Extra Help By Jim Weber I was in the middle of a CiViL Groups meeting when my phone rang, so I couldn’t answer it. Later, when I looked at my phone I saw who was calling, and I thought, “Oh, I wonder what the problem is this time.” It was several hours before I had [...]

Timing or Time? “Why didn’t I meet you three and a half years ago?” Timing is always an issue in life.  And usually things don’t work according to ours. When we were children, the voice calling us to leave our playmates and come in for the evening always came too early. And Christmas took forever.  [...]

A Place They Can Talk There were tears in T’s eyes. It’s pretty unusual for a boy to show that kind of emotion at school. Usually boys avoid subjects that make them feel too deeply. It’s not safe for a boy to feel sensitive emotions like sadness or loneliness or fear. In the dog pack [...]

Game Over? “So, if we choose your organization to receive one of our grants, what will the money be used for?” asked our on-campus visitor as we walked down the hall at Stratford High School. Before I could answer her question, I heard a student who was standing at my classroom door yell to me [...]

Hurt To Hope The halls were filled with students as they changed classes.  I was surprised to see Corie.  “Hey, I heard you had surgery on your eye,” I called to her.  “No, thank goodness,” Corie replied, “No surgery!” Corie had taken a nasty fall in the bleachers at a football game.  The injury was [...]

The Door to Change Neily Todd, a second-year teacher at Stratford High School, rolled up her sleeves and joined the students of CiViL Groups in their volunteer relief efforts after the devastating floods in Middle Tennessee in May 2010.  She found that working side by side with students had some unexpected benefits. Here they are [...]

The High Cost of Not Giving  Jim Weber  Solomon had everything and concluded that “life is smoke.” Paul lost everything and concluded that “to live is Christ.” Jesus never had much, but his example was love, giving itself away. Touchstone  Everybody knows that its not what you get, its what you give that really matters. [...]

Class of 2010: Our Fabulous Grads!        Beautiful Souls We do not run a modeling agency, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this gorgeous representation of our graduates. A great photographer like Tom Dahrens knows how to capture the unique souls of his subjects. We knew there was beauty in those students [...]

CiViL Groups Responds to Crisis! We’ve Got to Do Something! On the weekend of May 1 and 2, Middle Tennessee experienced 15+ inches of rainfall. As the water rose, creeks and rivers overflowed into homes and businesses. More than 2000 families in the Nashville area experienced flood damage. While the rain was still coming down, [...]