GGCA 2015 Graduation Thoughts

I was just looking back at what I wrote about a year ago just before the GGCA high school graduation ceremony. It seems like so long ago and so far away. Yes, the Internet has made it possible for us to see and hear each other almost anywhere at any time. I was just talking to my parents from my living room here in Uijeongbu to their living room in Scarborough, Maine via FaceTime. I got to speak to some GGCA students via Skype last week and see their faces on Missions Day.

But it's not the same as being there in person.

I will admit that I do not miss dressing up in a suit and tie and marching down the aisle onto the platform and being the host of a graduation ceremony. I always felt someone else should be doing that and that I should be sitting in the back row on the platform, ready to announce the graduate's names or something useful like that.

But that's not what God had in mind.

If I may be allowed to say something to this year's graduating class here in my blog, it is this:

Get ready. 

God put you on this planet for a purpose and everything up to this point in your lives has been planning and preparation for that purpose. The parents you have? God planned them. The teachers you had? God put them there in your lives. All those moments of joy and sorrow, excitement and boredom, pleasure and pain? They were no accident. Those wonderful friends you've made and those people who have made you want to tear out your hair, punch a wall, and scream? All of them were for your sake to make you into the person you are becoming in Christ.

God is calling.

Don't worry about what God wants you to do. Just be who God is making you to be. Be Jesus Christ, live and in person. Not through anything you could ever do. Be Jesus just by letting Him live in you and through you in your everyday lives. Breathe Him in and breathe him out.  Receive freely then freely give. If there's one thing I hope you've learned in all your years at GGCA and in your church and your family life, it is how to receive the love and grace of God for your lives. You're going to need it because, usually, life turns out quite different from the way we planned or imagined it would. And I think it's best when we decide to go along with what God has in mind.

Success is being the person God has always had in His mind for you to be. 

How? Walk with Him, and He will be faithful to let you know. It's how I ended up being here in Korea instead of there in Baltimore with all of you on this special day. Jesus said, "Follow me," and I said, "Okay." It all begins by saying "Yes" to God.

Congratulations for all you've accomplished thus far on your journey, Class of 2015! 

Love, Mr. Dunbar 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IKEA Trip (For My Friends in GGCA's 7th Grade)

Image
Recently, I received a package of letters from the 7th grade students in Greater Grace Christian Academy in Baltimore. Their letters asked questions like, "Are you having fun?" "Have you eaten anything really weird?" "What is your greatest challenge living there?" "What are you doing for the holidays?" "How were your trips to other countries?" I sat down yesterday and wrote an email that included a response to each student's question or statement, and I promised that I would send them some pictures of the trip I had planned to the new IKEA store that opened in Gwangmyeong. Instead of an email to the class, I think it is easier to blog my trip, so here it goes... This is a picture I took in my room before I left the apartment on Friday afternoon. My orange inhaler and my gummy vitamins are on the bureau along with some other things I couldn't be bothered to clear away. I had my L.L Bean winter coat on with a pair of gloves
Read more

A Week in the Life...

Image
This is the house where I am living. I am on the first floor. That is the upstairs neighbor's dog. It is Thursday night here in South Korea, and maybe I should close my eyes and go to sleep, but I have decided that it has been too long since my last blog entry, so I am writing. This week marks my first full schedule of work here with Bible college classes, Bible studies, and services, and I am getting a sense of what a typical week will be like. Monday: Wake up, prepare for the day, head out the door at 8 AM to pick up a lady named Jenny to bring her to Bible college. Arrive at the church at 9 to prep for class and have a season of prayer. Teach Church History from 9:30 until noon. Eat lunch, then return to my office to read, preview video classes, perhaps nap, work on a message for Wednesday service, etc. Eat dinner and then teach the same class again from 7:30 - 10:00 PM. Head home and arrive my 10:30 PM (I hope) and go to bed by 11 PM. Tuesday: Same as Monday. Wedn
Read more

Days of Fog and Fruit

Image
What can I say? It has been too long since my last blog entry. Much has happened in the past month, and that is partly the reason for the delay in my writing. I will attempt to tell about the past month without writing something that will take you a month to read. Our church family members, some of whom you can see above, celebrated birthdays, first for the months of September and October... ...and about a month later, for the months of November and December. At the end of October, many church members went hiking on a nearby mountain after church.  I used the oven in my house for the first time and baked a blueberry-raspberry crisp. The weather grew colder and we had our first frost. I continued teaching Bible college classes. And then word came from our landlord that everything in our house had to be packed up and Pastor Sejun and I would have to move out while he repaired the leaky, inefficient ondol floor heating system.  Pastor Sejun a
Read more