Success Stories

I am sitting at the GGCA front desk as I write this blog entry, because our faithful Anna Braganza called out sick today and Mr. McFarland is in the classroom teaching apologetics. It will be my voice on the other end of the telephone line if you call, and I will be the voice crackling over the speakers when people call the office to be buzzed into the elementary school or call to tell me that somebody is being referred to the office for disciplinary reasons. 

I get to sit and watch the parade of humanity that flows through the office. There goes Mike Veader, a smile on his face, Mr. Security himself. He does an awesome job watching over all of us. And there goes Scott Dubay, munching on something and flipping me a snack size Hershey's chocolate bar. I have known him since I was a young teenager and he came to visit my family at our rented camp in Maine. He had a true Maine accent, and I remember saying to myself four words I had heard him say - "It huhrts, because it buhrns the wurhm cause it wuhrks," - practicing to sound like an authentic Mainer. That skinny blond kid in the lime green bathing trunks is now the head of the handiest groups of handymen around, and he is one of the prime go-to guys for GGCA.

Mr. Pinkava is out here scrounging around for a document he has misplaced. No - it is not your homework, if that is what you are wondering, dear student. He is looking for a conference registration form. Mr. Pinkava is not the absentminded professor, but he may be in his dotage someday, doddering around looking for a pair of glasses perched atop his head. 

Miss Gabby just dropped by looking for lunch detention slips. I think that if I were in gym class, I would do my best to be on time and to have all my gym uniform pieces with me, since lunch detention is rather dull. Miss Gabby has a wonderful smile and she is a great teacher and coach.

Mrs. Lange came out to ask if I would like to be relieved from front desk duty, but I declined her kind offer in favor of remaining and writing this entry. Maybe I should have had her stay for a while, because I sense the call of nature, if you know what I mean. I will remain at my post and try not to think about things like fountains and rivers and such, so that she can finish her lunch and do the work she put off this morning in order to administer the PSAT exam to the junior class.

This class took the PLAN exam last year as sophomores. The PLAN and PSAT exams are preliminary versions of the ACT and SAT exams required by many colleges. We administer these preliminary exams because we want to expose our students to these kinds of standardized tests before paying and sitting for the "real" exams which may be used to determine whether or not they are admitted to certain colleges and universities. Although I do not believe that every person has to or needs to go to college, we try and prepare every student for that possibility. The fact is, many people need further education to prepare them for whatever God has called them to do. For some, that means another two years in a community college or technical school, or another four to eight years in a Bible college or university. 

Our goal here at GGCA is prepare students to lead successful lives, and we do not determine success the same way the the world does. The world sees gaining the whole world and losing one's soul as a triumph, but we see it as a tragedy. The true profit is not what can be gained in here in time, though those things are certainly nice, but the things that endure for all eternity. Jesus did not appear to lead a very successful life, but his life is the divine definition of success. The world rejected him, but his life made an eternal impact on every human being, past, present, and future. The richest, most famous, and powerful person in the world cannot make that claim. The Christian concept of success flies in the face of everything the world says and does, and it is the only success that satisfies the soul. That is the success we desire to impart to GGCA students, the success rooted in Christ no matter where he calls us to serve. 

Well, Mr. McFarland has returned and I can now go back and work in my office. It was a pleasure talking to you. Drop by again and say hello if you see me sitting at the front desk. Have a successful day. Like Mike Veader, Scott Dubay, Sam Pinkava, Paula Lange, and others I know.

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