March break is here and I am reveling in the quietness that comes when there are no other staff or students in the school. I am wearing jeans and and a roll neck sweater, I haven't shaved, and I rolled in to work when I felt like coming in after waking up when I wanted to. If only all work days were like this one...

We have been looking forward to this break for some time now since God has not seen fit to bless us with any snow days (or even snow delays) this school year. It is my hope that a week away from school will help the students grow less familiar with each other and that the teachers will catch a second or third wind, and that the stomach flu virus will run its course outside of the school walls.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and I heard a report about how in France the school all close down for two weeks around this time so that families can all go on ski vacations. Two weeks for skiing! I am thinking that if families are going to the mountains to ski, mothers and fathers must also be taking time off, and that the country must slow down a little bit to relax with all the schools closed and workers taking vacations.

Do we have anything like this in our country? We take off days here and there, one at a time, but we don't have any extended holidays where the country takes a collective break, do we? I remember a few weeks ago Pastor Schaller made a comment in a staff meeting about Presidents Day, how he woke up and then just sat up in his bed for an hour doing nothing and then spent another hour in bed doing very little, and then realized that he had no where he had to be and had nothing that he really had to do, and how relaxing that was. He asked, "Do we have to wait for next Presidents Day for that to happen again?"

Sometimes it is difficult for us to simply be still. There is an exercise that is done to see how people experience time. A leader asks a group to put their heads down and close their eyes and then tells them to raise their hands when they think a minute has passed. Most people raise their hands long before a minute has gone by, because being still can feel like an eternity when you are used to constant stimulation and doing things. We are uncomfortable being alone with our thoughts. Praying for five minutes can feel like five hours in a quiet room.

Jesus took time to be away from his disciples, spending quiet time in communion with God the Father. Jesus was a man on a mission, but he took time to fellowship with his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. He walked to get to where he was going. He sat beside a well to talk to one woman who happened along and when the crowds got to be too much, he hopped into a boat and went sailing with his friends. He was always about his Father's business, and it seems to me that part of that business included taking time away from public ministry to rest and conduct private ministry.

So that is why I am enjoying my quiet time here at school today, taking some moments to write this down for all of you who may be reading it. Don't be like me and feel guilty about not working all the time. Take some time to recharge your physical and spiritual batteries, time to be alone, time to be with those friends and family who need you, time to be around people you need too. 

We have much to accomplish between now and June 4th. Besides completing our academic courses and finishing sports seasons, we have concerts, a high school banquet, a spring fundraiser, several graduations, standardized testing, a field day, field trips, and  faculty professional development days to get through. Our plates are full. By the time school ends in June, we will be ready for a breather, so that we can recover and regroup our forces for the school year beginning in September.

Considering everything that needs to be done can be daunting if all these things are put on the plate at once, but the truth is that we only have to put a little on our plates at one time. Thank goodness I do not have to swallow all of these tasks in one sitting, and I don't have to dine alone. Life can be overwhelming if you think about it in its entirety. A person can get stressed out if he thinks he must bear everything alone and bear it all at once. Fortunately, we believers have God who offers to carry all of our cares for us, who tells us not to worry about the future, but focus on what He has given us to do that day with His divine provisions and strength at our disposal.

I think of students who, for one reason or another, fall behind in school and begin to wilt in the face of what appears to them to be an insurmountable mountain of schoolwork to make up so that they can be on par with their classmates. The unhealthy stress, the fear that all is lost and cannot be recovered can lead to meltdowns, shutdowns, and physical issues. It is very important that parents and teachers help these students to see that they, too, need God's help to get them through this difficult time, and that with His help and the help and encouragement of parents and teachers, the hard work will pay off. 

I read a quote from Zig Ziglar yesterday that said, "A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could." Encouragement is so important in our lives and in the lives of our children. Pastor Love has been speaking the past two weeks in chapel on the story of David facing the loss of all his people's women and children to the Amalekites at Ziklag. David, facing stoning at the hands of his own men in their grief, encouraged himself in the Lord. Pastor Love said that we all need to learn how to encourage ourselves in the Lord, since there will be times when there will be nobody else around who will encourage us.

As parents and educators, we need to be encouraging for each other and for our students, and all of us, students included, need to be learning how to encourage ourselves in the Lord, the same Lord who told Joshua, "Be strong and courageous." We need God's strength and courage to face difficulties and challenges in life. I think if we teach our children this truth, there is no telling how far they can go in life - they may go further than they thought they could!

First and foremost, understand that each GGCA student is an inestimable treasure, most certainly in your eyes, but also in ours, and we thank you for entrusting your treasure with our school. It is like you have entrusted us with your treasure and we are the stewards working to produce a return on your investment by investing in each child ourselves. We aren't going to be like the steward in the parable who wrapped the talent entrusted to him in a napkin and buried it. No. We are going to do our best with all we have to work in partnership with you to help bring you child to his or her full potential.

Of course, the difference between a financial investment and a human investment is that the human investment has a mind and will of its own and must actively participate to bring about the desired outcomes. Simple dollars and cents passively submit to whatever we choose to do with them and are more predictable than any complex, living, breathing child. As parents and educators, we have a great and wonderful challenge before us to train up children in the way they should go in the hope that when the children are older they will not depart from the character and truth we have tried to instill them.

We have come to that time of year where some students have become weary of school and have stopped actively participating in their education. For some, their poor habits have caught up with them and they are now experiencing the consequences of what they have and have not done. I was reading from 1 Samuel this morning about the coronation of Saul and king of Israel, and the people realized that God was displeased with their decision to have a human king reign over them, and they were unhappy and afraid. Samuel stood up and told the people that they had a choice; Either to turn their backs on God or to follow Him. We all have the same choice in our lives when faced with our failures and shortcomings: Do we get angry with God, our boss, our parents, our teachers, our spouses and turn our backs on them to pursue empty ways that cannot deliver us? Or do we humble ourselves under God's hand and serve Him with all our hearts and watch Him do great things for us?

I love it when I see a student who owns his mistakes and has a change of heart and spirit and allows himself to be taught the good and right way. That is what we are working to instill in every GGCA student - the Christian character that rebounds by grace and wholeheartedly strives for great things through Christ. I believe that GGCA is a place where lives can be changed - transformed - by the quality of academic, spiritual, creative, and physical education that is provided here. You have made a wise decision to place your child in this school and only heaven will show the eternal fruit of that decision. God bless you!

Pastor Schaller has been teaching us about how our God knows us and loves us deeply. John's gospel tells us that the Maker of the world came into the world, but the world did not know Him or receive Him. Pastor Schaller spoke about how how Joseph's brothers did not know him when they met him in Egypt, and how we, too, may not recognize God when He is right in front of our noses. 

My desire for this new year for me, the staff, and the students of Greater Grace Christian Academy is for us to  see God through the eyes of faith and desire to know Him much more. I would love for us to experience His thoughts and walk in His ways and become that much closer to heaven this side of heaven.

Yesterday  baked cookies for the staff. My Grammie Manzo's Ginger Crinkles and a recipe I got from America's Test Kitchen on PBS for Brown Sugar cookies have always been popular whenever I take the time to make them, so what better time to do so in order to show my appreciation for my staff than Christmastime? I was surprised this morning to discover that another Dunbar, someone in my brother Doug's family, perhaps Doug himself, had baked some Ginger Crinkles and other Christmas treats, because I found them on my desk with a photo Christmas card when I came back to my office after greeting students as they arrived at school. I should give you the recipe for these, but I can't remember what it is at the moment. Tonight I will be making a big batch of soup and cornbread to feed the staff lunch tomorrow. One of the keys to getting your teachers through the days before Christmas is keeping them well-fed, and fortunately, I like to cook and bake.

There's something about this time of year that is bittersweet for me. I am really looking forward to a little time off to be with my family in Maine, but that means leaving my school and church family, along with my brother Doug's family behind here in Maryland. And when it comes time to return from Maine, it will be hard to leave my parents and my sister Beth's and brother Tim's family behind there. I suppose I should be thankful that I have so many people to love and be loved by, but sometimes it makes me sad that we are not altogether in one place. Maybe that's one of the things that will make heaven such a glorious place to be. There will be a family reunion there and I will get to see my Grammy and Grampy Dunbar and my Pappy Manzo who have gone on before me, along with all the others God has taken home to be with him who have touched my life.

I hope at this season of the year that you find yourself with folks to love nearby and folks loving you in return, celebrating the birth of Jesus, the One who made a way for all of us who believe in Him to never be separated from each other for all eternity. Sometimes at night I pray, "God, you know I won't mind it one bit if you decide to call me home. There's nowhere I would rather be than with You." I think that's a sort of a spiritual homesickness that we as Christians can feel, knowing that as nice as our lives can be, by the grace of God, this world is not our home. Christmas is when we celebrate the moment when God took on human flesh and came into our world for a brief time. But the true gift of Christmas is that what he did for us, as us, here on this earth, has made it so that we can put off these bodies of sin and death and enter into His world forever.

Merry Christmas everybody! 

The weather has been unseasonably warm for December, but that has not stopped the younger students from asking almost daily, "Is it Christmas yet?" and singing songs like Jingle Bells as they trail along in their teacher's wake each morning from the Family Center to their classroom. The lower elementary child's sense of time is not highly developed. In their minds, December equals Christmas, and the idea of the holiday arriving nearly three weeks from now can mean anything from very soon to eons from now. As a boy growing up in Maine, December and June seemed liked the months with the longest days, for Christmas never seemed to draw any closer no matter how many days I crossed off the calendar, and the end of school and summer vacation were elusive dreams that wishing and hoping could not bring into my grasp. 

As someone who works in a school, it can still feel that way at times. The students' longing infects us adults too, and we find ourselves steeling our hearts against the fervent desire for school to end and vacation to begin, because we have jobs and responsibilities as educators, and we're not kids, for crying out loud! As a parent, you see your children grow up and outgrow some of the seasonal antsy-ness that come with Christmas, but as a teacher, especially an elementary teacher, every year you see the same excitement and anticipation, because you are always teaching students that are 5 or 6 or 10; the names and faces change, but the childlike thrill of the approaching holiday remains the same. It is one of the blessings of being a teacher.

Teaching is a hard job. If you are not called to do it, it can be an almost impossible job. It requires so much energy and creativity and enthusiasm to do it well, and love is a big part of it. You have to love middle schoolers to deal with all of their changes and moods and aromas, day after day after day as you try to help them learn to do math, understand science, appreciate history, and love literature and writing. You have to love first graders to help them learn to read as they learn the art of being good citizens and classmates and to not push and to share and play together nicely. Teaching can be so, so, so draining, but when you are a teacher, you can hardly imagine doing anything else for work, because there is such joy in the annual journey, shepherding students from September through June as they grow and become.

I could go on, but I have to weave my way down to the staff meeting now. I hope my dizziness doesn't send me lurching into a wall! By God's grace, all will be well. Until next times, God bless you.

By my count, there are sixteen and one-half days of school before the Christmas break if I include today. These are some of the most challenging days to teach for any teacher, the stretch from Thanksgiving break to Christmas break, because the peppermint and evergreen scent of the next big holiday grows stronger and stronger as the day draws nearer, and that aroma energizes children and can cloud their minds. May God help us if the skies should open and bestow upon us a blanket of snow, no matter how thin or temporary.

The elementary students are in rehearsals for the Christmas musical. This year's production will be something called, "Aaron, the Allergic Shepherd" and it should be amusing since Aaron is allergic to wool. We have some wonderful singers and actors in the elementary grades, so I anticipate a great performance which will usher in the presence of God as only the youngest among us can do.

This season also means it is time to once again prepare Christmas shoe boxes for the needy. This year, some shoe boxes are going to Haiti and some are going to Baltimore outreach areas to bless children. If you are reading this blog and wish to participate, it is easy to do. Take a shoe box, fill it with small gifts for either a boy or a girl, then wrap the box in Christmas gift wrap and bring it to the school by December 16th at the very latest. What should you put in the shoebox? Get a mixture of practical and fun things: toothbrush and toothpaste, washcloth and soap, a pair of socks or some mittens or a hat, some candy or edible, non-perishable treats, a book, some crayons or markers or colored pencils or pens, a little book of word find puzzles, a stuffed toy, a yo-yo - just simple things that would be stocking stuffers. Put a tag on your show box and label it BOY or GIRL and give an age estimate too, so that your gift ends up in the right hands.

Pray for GGCA. I know you do, but I am asking you to pray for protection from sickness, for safety in the parking lot and on the roadways, for God's blessings on moms and dads and marriages and home life. Pray for each teacher. Pray for the office staff. Pray for me. I need prayer so that I don't wear out, so I don't lose sight of what we're all doing. We need to be about our Father's business, just like Jesus was in Luke 2.

My thought for today is that Jesus has never stopped loving me and He never will. My soul sings that over and over again and I hold onto this truth for dear life. No matter what else comes my way, my God has always loved me and always will. 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know "thus saith the Lord."

 As Thanksgiving approaches, I think of the blessings we have here at Greater Grace Christian Academy. I am thankful for each and every student, from the youngest kindergartner, Sarduis Anderson, to the oldest seniors, Nicholas and Elizabeth Groenewold. They are the reason our school is here, our mission, our treasure. I am thankful for our amazing staff of teachers and administrators who love and have a vision for each of their students as they educate each one in and out of their classrooms. I am thankful for our faithful parents who support our school with prayer and encouragement, who are diligently training their children in their homes. We hope that the school is an extension and complement of the education work taking place in each home. I am thankful for Greater Grace Church for all the resources they pour into GGCA. We have some of the best Bible teachers on the planet because of this church, and I am glad we have a pastor, elders, and trustees that have a commitment to Christian education. 

I am thankful to a great, big God who covers us all with his grace and mercy and teaches us His thoughts and His ways, because we would never discover them on our own. I look forward to the day when we all sit down at the Lord's table in heaven for the greatest feast of thanksgiving of all. We are truly blessed, and I wish all of you the bounty of Christ's unspeakable, matchless joy and peace as you celebrate the blessings He has bestowed upon you and yours.

Forgiveness was the topic of a message spoken by Pastor Schaller a few Sundays ago, and it seems as though I have been learning it ever since. My blithe statement that I forgive others easily was put to the test later that week as I stewed over something someone had done that really bothered me; I kept my hurt to myself and couldn't seem to let it go. Eventually I did, and all is well now, but I really felt God provoking me to live that message. This morning I tried to mediate an unfortunate incident between two students that cries for forgiveness, true forgiveness, not the "sure, no problem" quick and easily forgotten brush off, but a deep, lasting, put it all behind us forgiveness that only God's love produces.

Sin is a disease, a sickness, that infects the entire human race, and the devil wants us all to live and die in its effects, like the lepers mentioned in the Bible. We sin, we fail, we disappoint others and ourselves, we hurt others and ourselves, because we have these bodies of sin and death that make us all fall short of the glory of God. We needed the ultimate price to be paid by God for our forgiveness, and we need forgiveness in our lives. Forgiveness is like a healing balm, a medicine, that restores relationships that have been devastated by sin and its effects. Without forgiveness, wounds and hurts fester and deepen, sickening the soul, sapping the life of a person.

I think that's what I hope to communicate in chapel today to the elementary students. I have one character say to another that when you forgive a friend, you keep a friend. We need to be forgiving people as believers, not clinging to our hurts and wounds at the expense of losing a relationship with a dear brother or sister in Christ. How does that old saying go? "To err is human; to forgive, divine."  God set the example for us to follow.

I am counting on God to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders, because, if Christ tarries, we are going to need them to replace those of us who are getting a bit long in the tooth. More than that, though, I believe that our young people can be leaders and have a ministry right NOW. Pastor Brian told our seniors on the senior retreat that if they were dropped as a group in a foreign country, they could turn that country upside-down for Christ because of the life they have inside them. I agree.

We ended the chapel with a time of prayer, and I hope that you will join me in prayer for a divine, Word of God, Holy Spirit-filled revival in the GGCA student body. Let's seek God's face together and expect that we will find Him and be blessed in both the seeking and the finding.

Amen.

I have written a skit that will be performed in chapel to illustrate the importance of diligence. I will be playing Dexter, a student who rushes through everything and ends up losing out on grades, understanding, and (gasp!) gym time. I will be supported by someone from the office staff playing The Teacher and a third grader named Nilufar Murodova playing the student I have creatively named Nilufar. She will teach me the importance of being diligent as a Christian.

The skits are a big hit with the elementary students because they are usually funny, and this year I have been using at least one student each week to play an important role. I like it that the student plays the hero of the play, the Christian who believes the Bible and tells it like it is as a friend. We all need people like that in our lives. 

Growing up, my mother was often the one who spoke truth when I needed to hear it, whether I wanted to hear it or not. I realize that moms and dads may be reading my blog, and I want to encourage you to make the time to tell your child what he or she needs to hear, even though their flesh may not appreciate it. I never wanted to go to the cross as a young person - fear and pride being two major reasons why - so I sometimes needed to be led there by one wiser than I. Dying to myself was never pleasant until it was over and the newness of resurrection life in my new nature became my experience. And it was also quite an unpleasant revelation that I needed to die daily in order to have Christ's life in exchange for my own.

Diligence is taking time to try to do things right. I need to be diligent in my walk of faith and we need to be diligent to help our young people establish their own personal walks with Jesus Christ. That can be hard to do in a culture that encourages us to do more and more, faster and faster. I comes down to making decisions as to how we spend our time. Let's spend our time wisely on the things and people that matter and show our young people what is truly valuable in the ways we spend our time.

Fortunately for me and for the students of Greater Grace Christian Academy, we have a bona fide scientist for a science teacher. Mr. Janssen loves science and loves teaching and loves students, so he is an amazing science teacher. He loves God too, so that makes him an amazing Christian science teacher, and that is even better, because the beauty of science can only be truly understood in the light of truth which is found in the Creator, without Whom there would be no science.

From time to time I wander into Mr. Janssen's classroom to discover something that I never knew. I love the way he shows how what he is teaching connects to the world we live in and points to the God we love. He has a great sense of humor and a strong desire for each student to reach his or her potential. With Mr. Janssen, as it is with our other teachers, mastery of the subject is secondary to development of the person. Pardon my paraphrase but, "What does it profit a student if he learns everything there is to know about science or math or history, etc., if he or she doesn't discover and fall in love with the person of Jesus Christ?" Answer? There's no eternal value in knowledge for knowledge's sake. There are too many "educated" people walking the broad road to hell who know so much about everything but the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

You can learn a lot of science in Mr. Janssen's class and you can learn a lot about being a man or woman of God from the lesson of Mr. Janssen's life. Why not be a wise person and learn both? (He sure looks like a happy guy, doesn't he?)

Mrs. Savonen reminds me of the two masks that you see symbolizing the dramatic arts, the one with the laughing face of comedy and the other with the weeping face of tragedy. She laughs and cries easily because she has a great heart and she relishes life. She is the first to laugh herself and she weeps like a mother for her child, for she truly loves and cares for each of her students. 

I admire Mrs. Savonen's commitment to learning. She reads with her students in mind, always working to improve herself as a teacher. I think of the Apostle Paul who in Philippians 3 spoke of not having attained, but pressing on toward the mark. He must have been a great teacher, because a teacher has to be student, always learning, to be effective. Mrs. Savonen even claims at times to be turning into a third grade student! And I thought the student was supposed to become more like his teacher...

Mr. Evans is a great teacher who grows from year to year in wisdom and experience. He has become our middle school's afternoon anchorman, teaching seventh grade science and either seventh or eighth grade math for the past two years plus monitoring the seventh grade study hall. He wears awesome neckties for which he says he never pays more than two dollars, and he has some pretty good stories and jokes to help make the afternoon's education as painless as possible. He is one of the most patient souls I have ever met (a pre-requisite for teaching grades 7 and 8) and he truly enjoys his students. He is anything but boring, he is consistent and fair, and he is a better teacher than he admits or knows.

Take a gander at Mr. Evans' necktie awesomeness!

The elementary students are likely studying either language arts or math this morning, since these are the prime teaching hours for those two subjects. The office is relatively quiet. Jen Lynch is answering the phones and clickety-clacking away on her computer keeping the school and its schedules up-to-date and informed. Paula has gone to sit in on the Ancient History class to observe Pastor Knight teaching, and you may have inferred that Mr. McFarland is at his Apologetics class. I have already been through the high school explaining the dos and don'ts of tomorrow's GGCA Spirit Day dress code, and I have posted today's lunch detention notices in the five usual locations. Nobody should claim ignorance of whether or not his or her name was on the list.

Lunch detentions are the consequence of three types of student misconduct: lateness to class, dress code violations, and coming to class unprepared. GGCA places great emphasis on the importance of being on-time and prepared and looking professional, three values that are also valued in the workplace. Lunch detention is served in Mrs. Colby's classroom for the first ten minutes of the lunch period. Students must sit without speaking, doing nothing, awake, until the bell rings dismissing them to the lunchroom. It is a mild enough consequence, but an inconvenient one for 7th-12th grade students who would rather be socializing with friends around the lunch table.

It will soon be Green Eggs and Ham day in the Greater Grace Learning Center. Every year that I have been principal, I have been invited to read the Dr. Seuss classic to the four-year-olds at the end of September before feasting on real green eggs and green ham. Because this event is near my birthday, I am usually crowned and treated to birthday cake as I sit in a chair designed for a much smaller person. It is always a blessing to be part of this annual tradition.

Well, it is time to make a delivery run to the mailroom and the finance office, and when I return I may write a few birthday cards for students whose birthdays fall between now and the end of the month. Perhaps I will walk down the sidewalk and bask in the glorious sub-70 degree sunny weather which reminds me so much of my childhood school days in Maine and Massachusetts.

It seems that I have been in school since I was five years old...

I remember watching a Saturday morning cartoon called Recess in which the kindergarten students were depicted as a tribe of uncivilized natives. To a degree, that humorous depiction is accurate, because kindergarten is the grade where students learn how to be "civilized" students. 

Miss Diane is one of the ladies who brings civilization to the kindergarten "tribe."

Miss Diane is a patient helper of teacher and students alike. Do you remember ever being sick or having an accident in kindergarten? Miss Diane is the kind soul who helps kindergarten students get through those times when they get hurt at recess, don't feel good, or don't make it to the bathroom in time. She is the like the Holy Spirit working in the background so that the classroom runs smoothly and Miss Anderson can teach. There's a lot of preparation for each day of kindergarten, and Miss Diane tirelessly helps make those preparations throughout the school day and after school hours.

Sometimes the teacher's assistant is overlooked and does not receive the credit she deserves. Sometimes only the teacher she helps realizes the tremendous contribution she makes to the success of the class. Well, I wanted to talk about Miss Diane first and foremost, because she does such an incredible job for which I am very grateful, and I wanted you all to know what a gft she is to our school. Praise be to God, for she is one of those spoken of in 2 Corinthians 1:24, a true "helper of our joy." Look at her smiling countenance!

Come rain or come shine, we're having school here at GGCA, and not only do we have beautiful classrooms, an excellent curriculum, and incredible, godly teachers, but we also have an amazing spirit and vision here in our school, the same spirit and vision that those first folks had when our school was founded twenty-five years ago. It is a spirit that says, "God has mandated Christian education, so we are going to have a Christian school for our children and for our families, and it doesn't matter where it is or how beautiful it is, we are just going to go forward by faith, trusting God to bless us in this great endeavor." And God has blessed us, and we are still going forward by faith and providing the most excellent Christian education we can.

It is Friday and tomorrow CYA soccer begins and our hard working teachers can have a day to rest as they build up the stamina required to teach and manage a classroom filled with eager young minds day-in, day-out, come rain or snow or sleet, or blazing heat, come colds or flu or chicken pox or head lice - whatever the Lord allows. Praise God for twenty-four great years. We are expecting that the best is yet to come!

My nephew, Cameron Dunbar, is seated on my right. He is a senior at Ohio University and he plans to graduate this year with a degree in journalism. Keep him in your prayers, if you will.

We are gearing up for school here in the GGCA office, but we are only in first gear for now, which is nice when you aren't in a rush to get somewhere. I have had time to do some reading for school and personal edification and here are three books I am recommending: Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones (great for teachers and administrators who want to learn more about classroom management and teaching); The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel (read it for your personal edification as a believer and share it with a teenager); The Prospering by Elizabeth George Speare (an adult novel by the two-time Newbery Award winner which is about the settlement of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It features a missionary to the Mahican Indians and I think Jonathan Edwards appears as a character later in the book. Great historical fiction, but a hard to find book.)

Okay, it is time to go back to school work, but I am going to put in a picture of me and my beautiful mother taken in New Brunswick, Canada at the Hopewell Rocks where the highest and lowest tides on earth can be seen. It is low tide in the photo, or we'd be immersed in water.

Hey! That's the checkered shirt I am wearing right now! Good memories. Pray for GGCA and have a great summer. Love from the principal...

School is very hectic and takes a lot of energy out of me each day. I realize this now that all the staff and students are gone, because I go home with energy to do things at the end of the day; I don't feel as though I need a nap before I can think about what the evening holds. Before school ended, the idea of mowing my lawn was inconceivable on some days, but now that school is over, I don't mind doing it and even find it almost pleasurable. Almost. It depends on the heat and humidity.

Next week, convention will be in full swing and Paula Lange and I will host a morning session for teachers again this year. Last year we had a great time discussing literacy, but this year we are tackling the topic of Christ in the classroom - Is it possible for a school to pursue both academic and spiritual excellence 100 percent? This should be a fun topic of discussion for all of the educators in attendance. It is what we are attempting to do here at GGCA. We don't believe in a 50-50 split. We want 100-100 and think it can be done.

Well, it is time to write out some birthday cards. School ends, but the students are still having birthdays, and we want them to know that though they are out of sight, they are not out of mind and they are much loved. Have a great vacation everybody! Do your summer reading! Don't have any? Assign yourself some!

This last week I have heard from some people that they have been reading this blog, people who do not have children in Greater Grace Christian Academy and have no intention of putting children in this school. One reader is a friend who says she began reading it at work and, once she got started, read every entry. Another reader is a friend of the family who now lives in Missouri. He came with is wife, a former student of mine, and his son to attend the graduation of Pete Westera from Maryland Bible College and Seminary. I had the privilege of being in the classroom where the graduates had gathered before the graduation ceremony and hearing Pete give a testimony to the faithfulness of God to the faculty and his classmates. What he said resonated powerfully with me, because I have known Pete since he was a high school student back in Massachusetts, and I have been a witness to the work of God in his life over the years. Among other great statements he made, he said, "God's plan is pathetic," and clarified this by saying that God uses all of us, no matter how weak and foolish we are. 

I thank God that he uses the foolish, weak, and despised to confound the wise, the strong, and the great of this world. It means that I qualify to be used by God. Grace is so GOOD! By God's grace, I can write a little and God can use it a lot. I am hoping that God is raising up some writers in GGCA, people who can commit their thoughts and ideas to paper (tree-based and electronic too) for the education and edification of others. We are working on increasing the literacy of our students, asking them to read more in and out of school, and now we are going to ask our students to write more. This world needs more godly writers, and I want some to be GGCA students.

Okay. My time is up. I am shifting to the front desk now to take some calls about whether we will close early because of the heat...

People who are not teachers or not married to teachers don't realize how important a day - or a couple of months - off for a classroom teacher. If teachers were cell phones, they would all be beeping right now, because their batteries are so low and need recharging. Our teachers are blessed in that they finish the school year, have a week to collapse, and then a week of convention to revive through the life of the Body of Christ.

If you see a teacher, make sure you take time to thank, to edify, to encourage, or, if nothing else, to pray for him or her. I wish I had the resources to send them all off on a cruise or somewhere away from it all to be pampered. Probably I will just end up buying them lunch on the last day of their school year, June 10th. It's the least I can do and also the most I can afford, though they all deserve more. I'm counting on God to bless them in all the ways I cannot.

Beep! Beep! Beep! I think I hear a battery running down...

Having said all that, here is the letter I wrote:

May 13, 2011

Dear Senior Parent and Child,

Bear with me.

One of my favorite books I read as a child was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, the story of a boy named Milo who travels to the Land of Wisdom and has all sorts of adventures in the kingdoms of Dictionopolis, where everything has to do with words, and Digitopolis, where everything has to do with numbers. One of the memorable characters in the book is Officer Shrift who is very short and finds joy in arresting people. I do not think I understood the significance of Officer Shrift's height at the time, but now I am aware of the phrase "short shrift" which means "little attention or consideration in dealing with a person or a matter." I know that I gave something short shrift when we met together last night for our "future seniors and their parents meeting."

Last night in our discussion of the future plans of our seniors, I gave short shrift to seeking the call of God upon one's life. I spoke as though everyone planned to go to a secular college when that may not be the call of God for every senior's life. I apologize, for I am deeply convicted about having spoken presumptuously. God may have already spoken to some of our seniors about attending Bible college or taking some time off from schooling to go serve on a mission field or to simply go get a job. Not everyone must go to college, or if they do, not everyone has to go to a secular college; the important thing is to hear from God about what his plan and his will are for your life.

I went to Bible college straight from high school and graduated. My final year of Bible college I also attend a community college, because I felt God calling me to become either an accountant or a teacher. Three days before beginning my college studies the fall following my graduation from Bible college, I felt God's call to take a semester-long short-term missions trip to Europe and the Middle East. It was my first trip outside the United States and it changed my perspective. The state college was still there waiting for me when I returned, and I enrolled in the spring.

When it came time to declare a major, I remember sitting down with my father in his office and asking him what I should choose - accounting or teaching - and his counsel was to ask God for that answer and to know that he and my mother would back me up 100 percent. It was godly counsel because it directed me to seek God's plan and will for my life, not what would please my parents, not what would bring me the most money, material possessions, and security, not even what would make me happy.

When I considered the choices my parents had made - to walk away from their secure, suburban lives in Maine and move our family to another state so my father could go to Bible college - and when I thought about all they had given up to follow Christ, I realized how vital it is to be like Abraham in Genesis 13 who allowed God to choose for him and received so much more than what he would have gotten if he had chosen for himself. God spoke to me about becoming a teacher, and I pursued that course of study with the express purpose of teaching in our Christian school for as long as He would have me there. I am still here, I am happy, and I don't think I lack for anything, even though I know that people with my education and experience make much more money elsewhere.

Let God choose for you. He's not crazy and twisted, so He's not going to ask you to become somebody or do something you cannot do or would hate doing. Maybe he has already spoken to you about something, like becoming a pastor or a missionary. These are not career paths to material riches, but if you follow Christ into full-time Christian service, you will have a rich life. If God is calling you to study business or engineering or a career in healthcare, then go after that with all you have to the glory of God. Don't choose your future plans to please others or yourself - please God. You are a Christian, a believer, and Jesus has commanded us Christians to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness knowing that God will add "all these things" unto us; God will supply everything we need.

I hope that I have redeemed myself, giving this viewpoint the consideration it deserved last night when we were all gathered together. Pray about God's plan and will for your life. He will answer, guide, and lead in His time.

Respectfully yours,

Daniel Dunbar, Principal