Walking Through a new Assignment

Walking through a new assignment
 
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
2 Corinthians 9:8 (NASB)
 
In the fall of 1996, I went to an information meeting about a new Christian School that was forming the following school year. I was very interested in this new school, and I knew some people planning to start a “Christ Centered” Christian School. I inquired about the school and talked to the wife of the man who would be the new headmaster of the school. She encouraged me to send him a resume, so I did. I didn’t hear from the school, so I did what the verses in Psalm 27:14 said to do. Wait on the Lord!!!!!

Several months later on Valentine’s Day, 1997, I got a call from Chuck Johnston, the headmaster of the new Christ Centered School, Whitefield Academy. He apologized for not calling me sooner. The letter that I had written with my resume had been misplaced in the mail. It had slipped in among some magazines for a classroom teacher that was teaching in the school. The letter had just surfaced and given to Chuck on the very day that he was looking for a Librarian for the new school. I interviewed for the position as Librarian for grades (7-12) and was hired for the next school year beginning in August 1997. I thanked God for the opportunity to work in this new school and asked the Lord and His Holy Spirit to help me in this new assignment.

This new job would stretch me beyond my last assignment. Because the school was small and just beginning, I worked with students on many levels. I was not just a librarian, but I served as an advisor to a group of girls, grades 9-12 and led a group of students in community service. I prayed for the students in Whitefield Academy and for the students in my advisory group, for the teachers and leadership of this school.

I asked the Lord to change the hearts of the students at this school. I continued to ask the Lord to help me love the students with His love. Each morning, I had about 20 minutes with the small group of students in my advisory group. It was my responsibility to take attendance and give students announcements. 

That year I took a few minutes each morning to read aloud to my early morning advisory group. I chose the book Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story written by Dr. Ben Carson. The book was about how his life changed through his mother’s encouragement to read. One student in my group who was struggling to pass her classes and later told me this story encouraged her to keep studying and not give up.  

Each day, I asked the Lord for His guidance and strength to do the work that He called me to do in that school. Each day the Lord would give me just what I requested. There was an ongoing spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the students. There was also a spiritual battle for the school to remain “Christ Centered,” without compromise. Every teacher, administrator and board member of that school was aware of the spiritual battle. We were drawn together for a common purpose, and we would daily encourage each other to fight the good fight of faith. 

I also prayed each day for my husband, Jack, my daughter, Molly, and for myself. I prayed God would touch my husband’s heart and draw him closer, and that we would read the Word of God together. I prayed that my daughter, Molly, would learn the way of the Lord and hunger and thirst for His Word. I also prayed for godly friends for my daughter and a godly man that she would marry one day. I prayed I would be the wife and mother that the Lord would want me to be. I also prayed for strength and courage to live every day with the knowledge of commandments of the Lord.
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At the end of my first year at Whitefield Academy, I discovered the board, parents, and teachers depended on God’s strength to accomplish the tasks at hand, and we gave God the glory through the process. Teachers who came to Whitefield to teach were eager to be a part of what God was doing and had faith that God would provide and not depend on themselves. During that year, God moved in the faculty with babies, marriages, children, death of parents and moving to a new mission field. This was all part of life, and we recognized the need to support faculty and school families who were growing in the knowledge of Christ.