SCHOOL AGAIN!!!!
This makes for our 35th school year which follows a great and fast-moving summer. Two things stand out. First, was our trip to California with our two Navajo neighbor kids. We had great times with them at the ocean and Disneyland. And second, was the three weeks I spent in Spokane (Greg joined me for a week of that time) with our son Jonathan and wife Robyn as they welcomed a little daughter into their home and lives. Her name is Lillian Louise and everyone loved her immediately, especially brothers Micah and Zachary. If anyone’s interested, I have a few photos (like 50 or so).
If you recall, we lost several staff members at the end of last year and prayed all summer for the holes to be filled. August 21 eighty-nine kids sporting spotless new clothes and carrying soon-to-be filled backpacks got out of buses/and/or cars and filed into their respective classrooms. From the youngest kindergartner to the twelfth grader, there was an eagerness to see what this particular grade would be like. The Lord gave us three new teachers, Barbara and Darrell Valdois and Melissa Meinzinger. But we are still praying for one more teacher, a bus driver and a maintenance man. Our Principal, John Bloom, shuffled things around to make school work but we’ve learned from the past that it is not ideal for staff to be stretched too thin. It is very hard, for example, for a teacher to teach all day and then have to also drive a school bus, approximately an hour and a half twice a day over terribly rough roads. That is the situation now. So please keep praying for our staff needs. We are one of just a few remaining Christian schools on the Reservation. Most have had to close down due to dwindling workers. The Lord has been so faithful to us.
Soon we will also begin our Fall Bible Studies targeting men and women in the community. Some of our staff women are interested in forming relationships with community women and this shows wonderful growth. When living amongst another culture it is really tempting to do one’s job at school and then spend all the remaining hours with the white staff, never really entering into the lives of those we live among. It takes courage and hard work to leave our comfort zones and reach out.
In the men’s Bible Study Greg hopes to train young believers to take more leadership in the church fellowship. Recently, the Navajo pastor announced he will retire in a couple of months. If this does occur it will be the perfect time to allow the young men to begin exercising their spiritual gifts.
SCHOOL STILL!!!!!
School is where you go to receive instruction about life and are trained for particular occupations. Hebrews 12 says we can be encouraged with the Father’s training and Philippians assures us that God has begun the work in us and won’t quit until He is finished. Isn’t it such a great privilege to be in God’s school? No summer breaks, no holidays from His Holy Spirit. The lessons are the same for all of us–—-learning to know Christ and allowing Him to fill and flood us. Only the classrooms are different between one person and another. The classrooms with its particular people you and I rub shoulders with, the circumstances that run through your life and mine, are tailor-made to suit each unique personality. Schools brag about the student-teacher ratio. It is a good thing when one teacher has only as many students as he can give close attention to. You can’t beat the student-ratio in God’s school. One teacher per one student. It thrills me to know that my Father, my Teacher, knows all about me, what my weaknesses are, my sins, my blind areas………….and He is a good and able Teacher. I have His undivided attention and goodwill. And when I am slow to learn, as I most of the time am, He doesn’t grade on a curve, comparing me with someone else or impatient, calling me dumb. All He asks of me is that I stay in my chair listening to Him, the Teacher, with a heart to receive all He has to say and do in me. I’m so GLAD to be in school everyday of my life. And just as students are the first day of a school term, I’d like to maintain my eagerness to learn………..all the way through.
Once again we are so grateful for each of your prayers on our behalf and each of the gifts you have sacrificially given. We are in this together!
With love,
Greg and Kathy Staley