Category: School

It’s Officially Summer!

Carolyn
2008 Field Day — Casted Arm

School ended today with what has become a tradition — field day followed by lots of food in the classrooms before noon dismissal, then the conclusion of parent teacher conferences. It’s a great conclusion to the year!

For those of us who work at the school, it’s a sentimental day, as well, as we realize some of us will now be parting ways, perhaps never to see one another again. It’s a day full of reflection on the past year and emotion in seeing what God has done in our children, in our school, the beauty of what He has brought together, and the hope that He will continue it despite change, which is unavoidable and even necessary.

Today reminded me of God’s faithfulness as I looked back to one year ago at this time. We finished field day, and I took my son to the orthopedist for a follow up visit to see how his wrist was healing. It had been broken 2 weeks before, but was not displaced and looked to be a simple matter. However, we learned at this visit that his wrist had become displaced in the cast and he would need surgery the next morning to try to correct it as soon as possible. The hope was he wouldn’t need an incision or pins, but those were feasible options.

Two days prior, at our teachers’ chapel where we shared Scripture and exhortations with the students, I had shared a special verse to me: Jeremiah 32:17: “Ah, Lord God, you have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched hand and there is nothing too hard for You.” That was the first verse I had learned in Kindergarten, and God had used it in my life as I had prayed for this school.

I shared with the children the power of God… that we sat where we were, had the teachers we did, had been blessed with this school because God was and is powerful. I encouraged them to trust Him and not put “God in a box” but instead believe that He can do great things.

So as I sat at the orthopedist’s office hearing his words “we need to do surgery, right away, tomorrow, ….. pins, incisions,” I could also hear in my head the words I had spoken in chapel, “God is powerful, trust Him…” I knew this was a chance for my son’s faith to grow, that God had allowed this for good.

My son was naturally nervous about the surgery. My husband had left town that morning on a 6 hour trip, and had turned right around to come back home. We went to dinner while we waited on his return. A song played on the way: “Your grace is enough, Heaven reaching down to us, Your grace is enough for me; God, I see your grace is enough, I’m covered in your love, Your grace is enough for me; remember Your people; remember Your children; remember Your promise, O God. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me.”

It was just a good song to remind my son that God loved him and is gracious. I told him to lay out his arm before God and ask Him to heal it. The sunroof was open and the sun was pouring in down on his casted arm as he held out his arm to God and gave it to Him. It did seem like “heaven was reaching down to us.” I loved seeing my son’s faith that He was willing to lay it before God. Before bed, my son told me he wanted to read Job “because it was about a man who suffered.” It was sweet to see him seek the Lord.

The surgery the next day went fine, and we were thankful to find the surgeon could shove the bones really hard back into place and did not need pins and incisions. However, he ended up with a much larger cast and sling for the next few weeks and we canceled summer camps and plans. But we saw in the midst of it again God’s goodness and grace.

Opportunities to trust Him. Steps in our journey. Stops along the way where we see God actively in our lives so that we can look back and remember what great things He has done and move forward with confident expectation that the God who has done great things can and does act on behalf of His people.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” Jeremiah 17:7

A Life of Service — to give LIFE

Carolyn

Today, January 22, marks the 26th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

At my children’s school, the Vision is to propel students for a life of service to Christ, and our hope is that these children will ultimately engage their culture for Christ with articulate, winsome voices of truth. William Wilberforce, who led the campaign in Britain to abolish slavery, is the example that we point to for a life of service to Christ. I cannot think of an issue in our day with more striking similarities to slavery than abortion.

I’ve been thinking about what this Vision looks like for me both as a Christian and as a parent who will set an example for my children. I’ve been praying for eyes to see God’s heart on issues in our world and the opportunities He has for me to engage the culture for Christ.

I was blessed with an opportunity this last week to spend a couple of hours at the offices of CareNet. CareNet has been working for 27 years in DuPage County offering pregnancy services ranging from abstinence education in schools to emotional, spiritual and practical help to mothers of unexpected babies, both during and after the pregnancy.

The statistics on abortion are staggering. The facts are compelling. Truly God’s Word is right and true when the psalmist declares in Psalm 139, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Perhaps much like Wilberforce in his day, we as individuals, families, or even a school, might find ways to engage our culture for Christ on this issue, to see our churches become more actively involved, and to support ministries like CareNet that are reaching out to help women and men impacted by abortion, while working to save lives and show that there is hope. We could start right now with a prayer and see where God leads.

Trust in the Lord

Carolyn

Psalm 118:8 “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.”

With school starting on Tuesday, and kickoff activities beginning tomorrow, I thought I’d share how it is we ended up on this road of helping start a school and being so involved in its growth. This is not something I could have ever imagined!

We had put our son in the public school for Kindergarten, but felt that it wasn’t challenging and I, having had Christian elementary education, missed the Christian foundation. We decided to homeschool for one year, but knew that we were not long term homeschoolers. In November 2005, my brother-in-law dropped off a packet of information about a new school. As I read the information about classical education (a model my husband and I both embraced and which I had gained more exposure of through homeschooling), I wondered if (and secretly hoped) this was the answer for our children’s education.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, a couple had felt called of the Lord to start this school and by themselves had put together this information packet, set up an informational meeting, and sort of laid a fleece before the Lord, asking Him to provide at least 3 other families by year’s end if they were to move forward. At their first prayer meeting on New Year’s Eve, they had 3 other families.

For us personally, we began to pray about it that Thanksgiving, but did not know how we would afford private education. We went to the first interest meeting in early December, even recruiting other families to come. We began praying.

Then one morning that winter, I woke up with the words “one eighteen eight” going over and over in my head. What did that mean? Since yielding my life to the Lord and seeking Him that previous April, there had been a couple of times like this where verses were spoken in my head in the night, and both of the other times, it was very clear what it meant. But in this case, I wasn’t as sure. I knew that there was only one book of the Bible with that many chapters — Psalms. So I looked at Psalm 118:8 “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” Hmmm. “That’s good,” I thought, “and I guess I could apply that to many things, but Lord, I’ll just wait for You to show me what it means.”

A few days later, I decided to go to the school’s webpage that had just been constructed. When it popped up, there was a tree spreading across the homepage. That was significant to me because during our year of homeschooling, our theme was a tree. We had memorized Psalm 1 (also a passage within the school’s website), and we had a tree in the yard named “Roots” that we watched throughout the year. My son would journal about its changes. We studied the fruit of the Spirit and hung fruit on our tree. We wanted our lives to be like the tree firmly planted by streams of water.

But not only did the webpage come up with the tree, it came up with a verse, Jeremiah 17:7, that slowly moved in and out: “Blessed is the man whose trust is the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” I knew immediately — That’s it! That’s the same verse as Psalm 118:8. In fact, when I looked it up in my Bible, to the side of Jeremiah 17:7, it said “Psalm 118:8.” They are the same thing. It’s better to trust in the Lord than put confidence in man! “Yes, Lord, I will trust You. I will follow You in this!!”

As we moved ahead, God graciously provided me a job at the school doing administrative work to help solve the question of financing private school education for our children. We met with the other “founding families” every Saturday to pray for the school. We saw God do amazing things with such specifically answered prayer regarding everything from teachers to location to curriculum.

Sometimes I think the call was so clear because the road would be so hard! At every point of doubt or discouragement, I could remember what He had shown us, and keep moving forward, despite the obstacles. And He met us every step of the way! He has used it as a means of our sanctification, too, which I had not expected.

We started in the fall of 2006 with 23 children, had 49 during our second year, and have 64 enrolled this fall in pre-K through 6th grade. We look forward with great anticipation to what God has in store as we continue to trust Him for what He has brought together.

To Know Him

Carolyn

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As we began teacher & staff orientation and training at school last week, we began by each of us sharing our personal testimonies of how the Lord had drawn us to Himself and to the school. What an amazing, beautiful thing to sit and hear testimony after testimony of what God had done in the lives of those around me. This was a great way to start our year!

We also reflected and remembered what God had done to start the school by hearing about its history and its vision. God tells us in the Bible to remember the things He has done lest things are going so well and we are so full of the good things that we forget that He is the One who did them (Deuteronomy 8). We stopped to talk about those “stones of remembrance” (as in Joshua 4) God has given us, while acknowledging that each one is to the praise of His glory, not to us (Psalm 115:1).

How was I drawn to God? The answer was so clear — through His Word and the power of His Spirit. As I have written before, when I began to spend time daily in God’s Word, I began to understand and learn, and over time, He began to change my heart. As He promises in Scripture, He will reward those who seek Him, and He did. In His perfect time, He revealed Himself to me in power, and I found a joy I had never known.

On April 27, 2005, we were concluding Women’s Bible study for the year at my church by having a brunch. At that time, women would be offered the chance to share what they had learned during the study of Mark and Judges that year. We were told in our groups for a few weeks in advance to be thinking about what we might share. I, of course, would never dream of sharing to several hundred women at once, so I never even considered that!

The day of the brunch came, and I woke up early and felt like I was supposed to speak. “But that’s crazy,” I thought. “I don’t speak publicly, and I have nothing to say.” But the sense was so strong, I decided to just go look at my notebook from the study and see if anything jumped out at me. Well, to my surprise, it was so clear exactly what I was supposed to say! There was a prayer at the beginning of the study that I had written, and an answer to a question at the end of the study, and that’s what I was supposed to share.

The gist of the prayer was something like, “I’ve wanted all of Your blessings and benefits and none of Your sufferings, all without seeking you daily and counting the cost. I’ve put other things in front of you, like my kids, TV, our health, and not been wholeheartedly consumed with You. I want to do what You’ve called me to, …” Then the prayer at the end was written as I considered the cycle of sin that the Israelites went through in the book of Judges. I wanted to change the way I lived and do what is right in God’s eyes, not mine, and move forward in faith, not fear.

I wrote these things down on an index card to further consider whether I should really share. God had never “spoken” to me in this way before (not that this was audible, but with this strong sense that I was to do this), so I wanted to know for sure.

As I began making my bed, there was a song I was singing — you know, the kind of thing where you’re singing and don’t even realize you are, but then you realize it and stop to hear what you are singing? I was singing, “Your grace is sufficient for me; Your strength is made perfect when I am weak. All that I cling to, I lay at Your feet; Your grace is sufficient for me.” So I wondered, “Lord, are you telling me that I am weak, but You will be my strength?” Again, I doubted, “no, He doesn’t speak this way to me.”

I went on with my morning. I was supposed to bring donuts to my daughter’s class that morning (both my children attended the children’s ministry that met while the women’s Bible study met). As we drove down the street to Dunkin Donuts, there was a song on the radio: “Give thanks, with a grateful heart; give thanks to the Holy One; give thanks, because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son…. And now, let the weak say ‘I am strong,’ let the poor say ‘I am rich,’ because of what the Lord has done for us; give thanks.” I pondered again this theme of His strength and my weakness. Different song, same message.

I went in Dunkin Donuts, and the same radio station was playing in there, and the same song continued. As I stood in line waiting, listening to, “Let the weak say ‘I am strong,'” I decided I would have to share. This was too convincing.

I went to drop off the children in their classes, and as I did, I turned back to my son and said, “Did you memorize your verse.” He responded, “Yes, Mommy; ‘this is love for God, to obey His commands.'” Aaahhh, that went straight to my heart — “this is love for God, to obey His commands!”

It wasn’t so much what I would share, as much as whether I would just stand up and say it! It almost seemed like a test of my faith — do I really believe Him enough to get up on my feet and speak? I had never had this kind of sense that He was leading me to do something so strongly, and if He does exist and is true, then He could certainly nudge me in this way. I almost felt that He just wanted me to obey Him.

By this time, I had entered the large gathering hall for the brunch, and was starting to feel nervous, but very convinced this is of the Lord. I nervously got my food, and sat down by myself at a table to think. As I did, I looked at the program that was sitting on the table. I flipped it over, and there on the other side was a printed song, Give Thanks! “… and now, let the weak say ‘I am strong‘; let the poor say ‘I am rich,’ because of what the Lord has done for us, give thanks.” Wow! 3 times, same message in 2 songs.

As the brunch began, I knew I needed to stand immediately as soon as they asked if anyone had anything to share. My legs didn’t want to stand — I don’t like public speaking — but I knew it was just my telling the Lord, “I believe You, I want to obey You.” I stood to my feet and with tears read my index card. That was it; nothing earth shattering; I simply said what I knew God wanted me to.

As ladies continued to share, a lady from my small group that year whom I had not seen that morning, stood up at another table. She said, “This is not what I had planned to share, but you know how sometimes, God just speaks to you and you know this is what He wants you to share. Well, I woke up at 3 a.m. last night, and this is what He said to me, well, you all know it, from II Corinthians 12:9-10: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness….'” Wow! Those are the words to the song I was singing when I made my bed, and God had spoken this to Jan in the night to speak today; I couldn’t believe it!

Another girl shared how it had been hard being a mother; at the end, she threw in the words as she sat down, “He’s strong when I’m weak!”

At the end of the brunch, we all stood to our feet and sang Give Thanks, the song on the back of the program. I was just stunned with this same message over and over. I went through the day pondering it, feeling so blessed. I took my son to afternoon kindergarten, then drove to Starbucks with my daughter to get some gift cards. As we sat in the car in the drive through, I put on a CD that a friend had given me a few months back, a homemade CD, one I was not familiar with, and not of the greatest quality. I couldn’t hear the song that came on, so I just hit the arrow button to jump to a new song. The car was dead silent as I waited for the song to come on in that drive through. Suddenly, it burst out into the car, “Your grace is sufficient for me; Your strength is made perfect when I am weak, All that I cling to, I lay at Your feet. Your grace is sufficient for me.”

I know these are not the kinds of things you can write about and it even make sense to the reader; it was one of those moments God had prepared for me, and I was stunned, in awe. I felt I had nothing left to do but give Him my life entirely. I had known all about Him all my life, but not really even known Him or what He wanted of me. But that day, after hearing the same message 7 times, I knew I needed to believe Him and follow Him fully.

The next morning, I knelt beside my bed, and I must say, I did think, “This is going to be boring” as I committed to give up TV (not because it’s bad in and of itself, but because I was addicted to it!), to seek to know and obey Him and His ways, to read my Bible and study it, and so on.

But the truth is, I’ve never been bored since! I haven’t missed the TV at all. Such joy poured out over me that I had never known in all my previous 35 years! The path of obedience and faith is the path of blessing. When I obey God by doing what He commands in His Word, I demonstrate that I love Him. But I won’t obey Him if I don’t believe Him. That day, I believed God, and by His grace, I pray I will the rest of my days!

From April 27, 2005 on, life has been an amazing adventure. I realized He rewards and blesses those who seek Him, not what He can give. He has revealed so much to me and I’ve experienced things that I never had before. I have found that God does speak and reveal Himself to His people, yes through His Word, but also through the indwelling Spirit! What a gift!

I am humbled to be His child, His servant, that He would save me through Jesus’ shed blood, and I want to live for Him. This is what the blog is really about, proclaiming who Christ is and how He can change a life. He is full of power and might and has done great things! I stand in awe of Him!

Waiting on God

Carolyn

I am too exhausted to blog, but too full of praises not to!

I’ve been running like crazy the last week getting ready for the new school year to begin. We have faculty/staff orientation and training beginning tomorrow. We have an amazing group of teachers joining us this year that God has faithfully provided. Several wonderful teachers trained in this classical model sought out our school without us having to even search! We have seen God’s hand of blessing on this endeavor since the very beginning, and those are stories I will love to share when I have time.

But for now, I have another simple praise. My husband has received an offer for a book contract! Though he has published an academic book (he is a theology professor), he started writing fiction on the side and began working on his first book. In God’s perfect ways and timing, a publishing house that he submitted it to wants to publish it!

We are excited to see how what we felt like was God’s leading in this turn into a reality. You pray and believe that you are moving where God is leading, but then there is often a wait in between the thought and the reality. And in this case, there was a long wait! But it’s a sweet time of excitement that his story and characters will actually come to life. We are thankful, and we know this is from the Lord. We want to give Him all the praise and glory!