It's Been So Long! What's New?

It has been so long since I have blogged here. I have been busy since my last posting, getting school up and running and teaching my Essentials of Teaching class on Friday nights at Maryland Bible College & Seminary. I have a blog going in that class too.

September was a month of activity. We started off with a Back to School Night spaghetti dinner, and then followed it with Picture Day, Spirit Day, two Pizza Fridays, along with all the usual office planning work for outreaches, field trips, the annual Senior Retreat, and the special Institute for Creation Research seminar on October 12. I felt the stress of doing so much with just the four of us here in the office, popping ibuprofen caplets for the pain in my shoulders and praying the staff would not mutiny and set me adrift in a dinghy.

October has arrived and I pray that the seas will be calm and the breezes mild so the Good Ship GGCA can sail along without fear of being capsized or driven upon some rocks. I look forward to the Senior Retreat this Thursday and Friday when our future graduates have an opportunity to commune with nature and fellowship with their teachers away from school. Each year God visits us at Camp Pecometh in a unique way through the challenging message brought by Pastor Brian Lange and the testimony time at the campfire. Our hope is that the class will come together on a deeper, spiritual level and commit to help each other finish the year and their high school lives successfully.

October also brings the first progress report of the school year, the first inklings of potential problems to be confronted and the first glimpses of incredible potential to recognized and developed. It is ever my prayer that in these first five weeks of school, God will give each teacher supernatural insight into each of their students' lives so that they can make instructive comments. 

Pray for our new staff members: Mrs. Krista Reagan in fourth grade, Mrs. Paivi Janssen in sixth grade, Mrs. Lynne Lincoln in the athletic department (and first grade helper!), Mr. John Cook in eighth grade Bible, and Mrs. Angina Whipp in the cafeteria. I want God to shower them with blessings for coming to serve at GGCA. Continue to lift up all the rest of us "veterans" too, for we sorely need God's wisdom and other provisions for our daily lives among your children.

There are some new things at GGCA this year, and I am not talking about vending machines. I am talking about high school elective classes - SAT Math, Ladies' Fitness (tae bo), Art, Newspaper, and Team Sports physical education classes. The electives, which meet for an hour on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, are the idea of the high school teachers who wanted opportunities to teach something fun to mixed groups of students. As a man of letters, I am especially excited by the Grace Chronicle online newspaper which should soon be accessible from the GGCA.ORG home page. We also have a new middle school chapel taught by youth leader extraordinaire, Pete Westera. I have attended all the classes so far and I am learning to look at Jesus in a fresh way. Pray with me that the middle school students become part of a Great Awakening in our school.

I am going to close now since the school day is near an end and I still have other things that need doing before I go home. Know that even as we ask for you to pray for us, we are praying for all of you, because we all need the Lord in this great endeavor!