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January 2017

TEACHING OUR STUDENTS TO ADVOCATE AND MINISTER, IN JESUS' NAME, THROUGH THEIR WRITINGS

For the past fourteen years, I have been using my gifts of writing and teaching to advocate for and minister to the broken, afflicted and broken-hearted people of the world.  This has become Jesus' great calling of love and compassion for my life -- to advocate and minister through my writings.   As composition teachers, we need to recognize that we have students, such as myself, who both have a love and adoration for Jesus and a passion for social justice issues and making the world a more just and caring and compassionate place.  As such, we need to create composition courses that allow, encourage and support ministerial and advocacy writing on the part of students in our courses because this is the most valuable, in Jesus' eyes, writing that they can be doing and it is writing that makes a tremendous difference in the world and goes far beyond, in its impact on the world, than writing that is to be merely evaluated and graded.  It is time for a REVIVAL in composition studies and time that we, as composition teachers, change our focus from being taskmasters and evaluators to being encouragers and supporters of writing that ministers to and advocates for the oppressed, broken, impoverished and broken-hearted of the world.  We most definitely are capable of creating composition courses that allow students to use their God-given HEARTS and minds to advocate for social change and social justice in their worlds and to use their Jesus-given HEARTS to express love and compassion to the world and people around them.  These are the most valuable and worthwhile things that our students and ourselves can be doing with their/our writing, which is a blessing and gift that we have all  been given by God.  We do not need to be evaluators and taskmasters because that is not who we are and who we are supposed to be, in Jesus' eyes, when we teach writing.  We need, instead, to create writing assignments that engage students' HEARTS and minds in thinking about ways they can reach out to, re-envision and positively change and transform the worlds and people around them.  These are the types of composition courses that I would like to create, and I would still love to start-up A CENTER FOR COMPOSITION AND WRITING STUDIES that teaches advocacy, ministerial, visionary and social justice writings, and I know that there are other composition studies teachers that can join me in starting-up this center and teaching these invaluable forms of writing to students -- that passionately engage students in writing projects that make an impact on and inspire change in the people and the worlds that they inhabit.  If you are interested in teaching these forms of writings and have a passion for these forms of writing, please either email me at [email protected] or leave a comment in the comments section of this blog. MORE YET TO COME ON THIS BLOG ABOUT TEACHING THESE FORMS OF WRITING IN THE FUTURE.  LOVE ALWAYS, DIANE K. OLSON 


HERE IS ANOTHER ORGANIZATION THAT YOU, AS COMPOSITION TEACHERS, CAN ENCOURAGE YOUR STUDENTS TO GET INVOLVED IN TO MEET PEOPLE'S NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER

I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT MY WORK WITH COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL www.compassion.com IN SEPTEMBER ON THIS BLOG -- A HIGHLY WORTHWHILE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY THAT GIVES STUDENTS WHO LOVE AND ADORE JESUS THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPONSOR AND WRITE LETTERS TO IMPOVERISHED CHILDREN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.  I CONTINUE TO ENCOURAGE COMPOSITION TEACHERS TO GET INVOLVED WITH COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL AND PROMOTE THE MINISTRY TO YOUR STUDENTS WHO LOVE JESUS AND HAVE A PASSION FOR CHILDREN AND FIGHTING POVERTY IN THE WORLD.   TODAY, I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO ANOTHER NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION www.hands4others.org THAT YOUR STUDENTS CAN GET INVOLVED IN TO HELP BRING CLEAN, SAFE WATER TO IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD.  HANDS4OTHERS IS A NON-PROFIT THAT EQUIPS AND EMPOWERS STUDENTS TO BE GLOBAL LEADERS.   LOVE ALWAYS, DIANE 


JESUS CARES, VERY MUCH SO, ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN ACADEMIA TODAY AND THE SUFFERING THAT IT CAUSES PEOPLE

I am very glad to not be working in academia  -- although I still have a strong desire to teach composition and cultural studies and poetics, like I have for many years and am very gifted and passionate at doing, if I were receiving the proper and necessary support -- any longer because there are many people in academia who are suffering greatly -- many people with broken hearts -- from its artificial requirements and protocols and false promises -- that is why I have created and, in the past year, have written on www.compositionstudies.com, so as to lead some of those people back to Jesus and let them know that Jesus loves and cares for them beyond measure and is compassionately and lovingly there for them in their hurt and pain. I have also created a website called www.jesusstudies.org because we very much need -- more than anything else -- courses about Jesus and His LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR THE MOST BROKEN, MARGINALIZED AND HURTING POPULATIONS OF THE WORLD -- that is why I went into cultural studies because of my JESUS-GIVEN HEART for the OUTCAST AND MARGINALIZED, only that field has not been effective in the university -- it doesn't move people's hearts and feet to do something about the conditions faced by outcast and impoverished people. But now, I want to teach courses about Jesus and his great love and care for the outcast and broken of this world, such as I write about on www.jesusstudies.org that encourages students to become ministers and advocates to the world around them and use their love and adoration for Jesus -- their JESUS-GIVEN HEARTS -- to serve the worlds around them. I pray today to Our HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS THAT THEY PUT ME BACK TO WORK, LIKE I HAVE BEEN DOING THROUGH MY WRITING FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, TEACHING PEOPLE ABOUT THE GREAT LOVE AND COMPASSION OF JESUS CHRIST AND JESUS GREAT LOVE AND AMAZING GRACE FOR THEM. I PRAY THAT I CONTINUE TO MINISTER TO OTHERS THROUGH MY WRITING AND LEAD MANY PEOPLE BACK TO JESUS AND GROW THEIR FAITH AND THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRESENCE OF JESUS IN THEIR LIVES AND JESUS' GREAT LOVE FOR THEM. I PRAY THAT I GET TO START MY ORGANIZATION www.jesushearts.org THAT TEACHES CHILDREN ABOUT JESUS AND HOW HE LIVED IN THE GOSPELS AND HIS GREAT COMMANDMENT THAT WE LOVE AND CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER. Please pray for these things for me, if you will please. IN JESUS' BEAUTIFUL, COMPASSIONATE, LOVING AND GLORIOUS NAME. LOVE ALWAYS, DIANE