Talon Times

We have an incredible amount of activity at school this week.  It gets me fired up to see so many students, teachers, coaches and parents working together!  We just finished up Spiritual Renewal Week with four great speakers, including Pastor Bill Rose, Pastor Jonathan Smith, Michael Hamm and apologist, Tyson James.

Tuesday, we had three volleyball matches, a soccer game and youth sports practicing after school.  In addition, we had several students compete in the Spelling Bee at the Fair.  We had two first place finishes (Leah Mills, 10^th grade, & Samantha Macklin, 8^th grade), a second place finish (Emanual Newsome, 11^th grade), and a couple of third place finishes (Jason Mirus 5^th grade & Natalie Rheingruber, 9^th grade).  Not to mention that senior Grace Bailey was named Miss Congeniality at the Queen of the Fair competition.  That doesn’t even include all the other events in which we are competing!

We’re even going to crank it up a notch.  On Wednesday, Reggie Dabbs spoke to our 4th-12th graders.  Friday is Grandparent’s Day AND we are kicking off the Annual Fund Campaign with the Boosterthon.  This year, our annual fund goal is to raise $100,000.  We are working hard to raise $35,000 of it through the Boosterthon Fun Run and Color Run.  It’s going to take a total team effort to reach our goal, which is why our second goal is to have 100% of our families participate.  If we reach the $35,000 milestone with the Boosterthon fundraiser, my hair will be dyed WCS Red.

We plan to use the money raised through the annual fund to upgrade the infrastructure of our school to accommodate more and better technology for our students and teachers.  This will include items such as new laptops for faculty, more tablets for students as young as K4, increased bandwidth, fiber-optic cabling, switches, routers and more access points to increase WiFi capabilities.  We also plan to add playground equipment across the entire campus, improve the sound system in the gym, begin to replace old desks in the elementary classrooms, and add equipment for the fine arts department.

It’s an exciting time to be a member of the WCS family.  The best is yet to come!  We can reach these goals and accomplish a great deal if we work together.  We can also have a lot of fun!

September 27, 2018

I had the privilege of worshiping with our elementary students this morning during Chapel.  What a blessing it was to listen to them praise the true and living God.  They were singing “In the Eye of the Storm,” the same song that they sang in the video that went viral right before Hurricane Florence.  (If you haven’t seen the video, you should take a look.  Over 3 million people viewed it on Facebook and it was picked up by media outlets around the country.)

While sitting there, I was reminded of why I love our school so much.  Mr. Miranda talked about the morning they sang the song in the hallway.  He said, “We prayed like we always do every morning, then we sang the song.”  It hit me right then … he said “we prayed like we do EVERY morning.”

What a privilege to pray together every morning!

It was fun to watch the video go viral a few weeks ago.  It was heartwarming to listen to people tell me about how they cried when they first watched it.  It was humbling to read the comments (almost 3000) from people across the globe.

God took something small, something ordinary, something we do every day–and blessed millions.  Amazing!

I think I got a glimpse of how the little boy felt in Matthew 14.  The little boy offered his lunch to Jesus, and Jesus fed 5,000 with it.  This month, our kids offered prayer and praise, and Jesus used it to feed millions!

September 12, 2018

Tennessee doesn’t get hit by hurricanes, so this is new.

I’m sitting at my desk. We’re closing school. Hurricane Florence will hit us within the next 48 hours.

As I talk to folks about the impending storm, the ghost of Hurricane Matthew haunts everyone’s conversations.  Some here were without power for more than ten days after Matthew hit, so our community is taking  Florence seriously. I heard our local Lowes store sold one thousand generators over the weekend.  One gentleman told me he arrived at the store only to find they’d all been sold.  So, he got in line with over a hundred people waiting for an afternoon shipment.

People are worried.  I’m worried. Do we have enough water?  Will we have enough fuel if we lose power?   Will the school flood?  Will all of our buildings survive high winds?

Then, my wife shared a Facebook video of our elementary students praying and singing.  What a message!  While watching I noticed that 12,000 people had already viewed the video.  I jumped on Facebook again this morning.  Close to 580,000 people have viewed our children singing.  By this evening, the video has been shared my media outlets and individuals around the country; at last count, it had over 2 million views.  If you haven’t seen it, here it is:

We’ve spent the majority of our time over the past 5 days preparing for the storm.  We have gathered supplies, made plans, worked through contingencies … and worried.  But, in the midst of the flurry of activity, our children sang a beautiful truth.  The One who will carry us through the storm, is the One who can calm the storm.

I’m humbled.

I’m thankful for our teachers who demonstrate their love for Jesus every day.  I am thankful for our parents who have taught and modeled the love of Jesus.  I’m thankful for our churches who have shared the Gospel and cultivated the personal relationships with Jesus.

Mostly, I’m thankful that the God who left His throne in heaven to die on the cross for my sins can also command the winds to stop and the sea to calm.

Isn’t it just like God to use our children to remind our community – and this great  nation — of His great love and power?

 Luke 8:23-25

And as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”