Since glass is not strong enough to make an entire building, they used some concrete to support the weight. But you cannot see the concrete, all you see is beer bottles. Some of the bottles are green and others are brown. The colors make beautiful patterns on the walls. Additionally, other decorations in the temple are made of old beer bottle caps.

And how about tires? Millions of tires are thrown away every year. They are a very good building material. They are tough and there are lots of them. Moreover, they can be stacked up like bricks to make walls. Rubber is very good insulation as well. Also, rubber houses are inexpensive to heat and to cool. Like the beer bottles in the temple in Thailand, tires need some extra support. That’s why some people fill them with sand. On the other hand, tires can burn, so if you are worried about the fire in your tire house, you can cover the tires with concrete and paint them.

Guess what! We want to hold a farewell party for you. I’m going to invite our teachers too. Do you have any plans on Sunday afternoon? Tell us your schedule.

Your friend,
Yun-ho

Hi, Yun-ho

Guess what! We want to __________ a __________ party for you. I’m going to __________ our teachers too. Do you have any plans on Sunday afternoon? Tell us your __________.

Your friend,
Yun-ho

Hi, Yun-ho

I enjoyed the event today. I’ve just tried some fair trade chocolate with my family. It was great. The children in today’s video don’t know that cacao is made into chocolate. They have never eaten chocolate themselves. I was surprised to hear that.

What can we do for those children? I think choosing fair trade products is one way to support them. Learning about the people behind the products is another. I was glad to learn about fair trade today. I want to learn more.

I enjoyed the event today. I’ve just __________ some fair trade chocolate with my family. It was great. The children in today’s video don’t know that cacao is made into chocolate. They have never __________ chocolate themselves. I was surprised _____ hear that.

What can we do for those children? I think choosing fair trade products is one way to __________ them. Learning about the people __________ the products is another. I was glad _____ learn about fair trade today. I want to learn more.

Hello, everyone. I’m Ando Saki. Look at this picture. This is Haruki, my brother. He lives in Australia. He studies at a university there. He speaks English very well. He sometimes teaches Japanese.

Hello, everyone. I’m Ando Saki. __________ this picture. This is Haruki, my __________. He lives in Australia. He studies at a __________ there. He __________ English very well. He sometimes __________ Japanese.

The architect Ban Shigeru uses paper tubes to make his buildings. It sounds like a strange idea, but he was not the first to build with paper. In 1922, an American named Elis Stenman built his whole house using newspapers. The house has a wooden frame, but everything else is newspapers. The papers are rolled up and painted to make them strong. The paper is excellent insulation so the house is cool in summer and warm in winter.

Stenman’s purpose for building with newspapers was to show people how much useful material we waste. Newspapers are not the only useful thing that we throw away. How about beer bottles? In 1984, monks at the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple in Thailand helped each other to do something about the pollution in their area. The monks talked to the people and the businesses to donate their used beverage containers. The reason why they did this was that they wanted to show people how even old beer bottles could be useful, so they built their temple using a million glass beer bottles.

Our house was directly across the street from the entrance of a popular hospital in the city. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful-looking man. “Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,” I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening. I’ve come to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus ’till the morning.” He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but he had no success as no one seemed to have a room. “I guess it’s my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments…”

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.” I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us “No thank you. I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag. When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him for a few minutes.

It didn’t take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.
He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going. At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair.” He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don’t seem to mind.” I told him he was welcome to come again.

On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden. Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.

Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts more precious. When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. “Did you keep that awful-looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!”

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude.

Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, “If this were my plant, I’d put it in the loveliest container I had!” My friend changed my mind.
“I ran short of pots,” she explained, “and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting out in this old pail. It’s just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden.”

She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. “Here’s an especially beautiful one,” God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. “He won’t mind starting in this small body.”

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer who grew high quality award winning corn. Each year he would enter in the state farmer’s fair and win a gold award for his exceptionally good corns. The farmer’s high quality corn was praised all around in the state. The success story of his exceptional corn reached the ears of a journalist and he wanted to interview the farmer. While he was learning about the agriculture process of the farmer, he discovered that the farmer shared his best quality seeds with his neighbors.

“How can you afford to share your best corn seeds with your neighbors when some of them compete with you in the agriculture fair?”, asked the curious reporter. “Why wouldn’t I Sir?” asked the farmer. “Didn’t you know that the wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior quality corn, cross-pollination would eventually degrade the quality of my corn too. If I am to grow high quality corn, I must help my neighbors grow a good corn too.” The farmer’s answer made the reporter realize how aware the old farmer was about connections in life.

It is the same with our life. Those who choose to live in peace must help others around them to live in peace too. The one who wishes to be loved must first learn to love others too. The one who chooses to live well must help to make others live well too, as the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. Those who choose to be happy must let others find their happiness as the welfare of each is intertwined with the welfare of all.

A young man was proud of his healthy and beautiful heart. One day, standing in the middle of the town, he proclaimed that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered to have a look at his heart. His heart was smooth, shiny and looked very healthy. Indeed, the man had the most beautiful heart in the valley, everyone agreed.

The proud young man felt delighted and boasted his perfect heart which everyone admired. Suddenly, a voice from the crowd said, “Your heart is not as beautiful as mine.” The young man searched for the person behind the voice and an old man appeared in front him.

“Show us your heart if you believe you have got more beautiful heart than mine.” said the young man. The old man carefully showed his heart. The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. The heart was beating strongly and healthily but it was not smooth and shiny as the young man’s heart. Instead, it had scars all over it. It had places where some pieces of the heart had been removed and other pieces were put in. The other pieces didn’t fit perfectly and there were several uneven edges. In some places, there were deep gouges where some pieces were missing.

The crowd laughed at the old man’s heart. “How can he claim that he has the most beautiful heart when it is all scarred and uneven,” they thought.

The young man looked at the old man’s heart and laughed. “You must be kidding. Compare your heart and mine. My heart looks perfect and smooth and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

“Yes, your heart looks perfect, but I would never trade your heart with mine”, said the old man. “Every scar in my heart represents a person whom I have given my love. I tear a piece of my heart and give to them. Often, my loved one gives me back a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart. Since everyone loves each other in a different way. Their piece of heart may not perfectly fit my heart, so you can see some rough edges. These scars and rough edges remind me of the love we shared,” he continued.

“Sometimes I would give a piece of my heart, but the other person may not return a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges. Although these gouges are painful, these remind me of the love I have for these people too. So do you now see what a true beauty?” asked the old man.

The young man and the crowd stood silently with tears running down their cheeks. The young man walked to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, ripped a piece out of it and offered it to the man with trembling hands.

The old man gratefully received is offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old heart and placed it in the young man’s heart.

The young man looked at his heart, it did not look shiny and smooth like it used to. But, it was now more beautiful because he could feel the love from the old man’s heart flowing into him.

They embraced and walked away side by side.

A professor entered his classroom with a glass of water. He raised the glass of water. Everyone in the room expected the “half-empty or half-full” question. Instead, to everyone’s surprise, the professor smiled and inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?” The answers called out for the range from 8 Oz to 15 Oz. “I need to weigh it to know exactly how much it weighs. But forget about the exact weight. The real question I really want you to answer is: What happens if I hold the glass up for a minute?” “I don’t understand your question exactly, but I think it is nothing to hold the glass for a minute,” one of the students answered. “Good. But what if I hold it for an hour?” asked the professor.
“Your arms will start aching,” answered another student. “You are right! But what if I held it up for a whole day?” queried the professor. “Your arm will feel numb, your muscle will get stressed, and your arm may even get paralyzed,” ventured still another student. “You are right!” exclaimed the professor. “So what should I do to avoid the pain?” asked the professor. “Keep the glass down,” answered a student. “Exactly!” said the professor. He continued: “In any case, the weight of the glass remains the same. However, the longer I held it up, the heavier it becomes. The stress and worries in life are like the glass of water. If you think about them for a while, nothing happens. Think about them for longer, they will start hurting. Think about them for even longer, you will feel stress and be paralyzed.” Perhaps you may replay a negative event (e.g., nasty conversation) you had with someone over and over in your head, and each time you replay your talk, you beat yourself up for something you said. Playing the same scene repeatedly increases your worry and distress. As you repeat the painful moments in your mind, you are magnifying your misfortune. As a result, your self-confidence dwindles and hopelessness becomes overwhelming. It is important to think about problems in your life. But you should not carry your stress so long that it begins to ache and paralyze your life. It is important to let go of your stress. Don’t carry your stress all day and always remember to put the glass down before you go to bed!