Middle School Chapel

Easter

I had a chance to talk to our students today about how we view God. Do you view God as an angry person? Do you view God as a being in the sky? Do you view God as a friend? Do you view God as a father? We all have a perception of God based on the way we have experienced Him & other Christians around us. Sometimes the greatest way to view God is to know how He views you.

I encouraged the students today as we enter into the Easter season to not leave Jesus in the grave. A lot of times we focus so much on the cross & the death of Christ that we forget to move onto the resurrection & rejoice in the beauty of Christ rising from the grave for us. Our Reedemer lives today!

My prayer is that you all enjoy your Easter week as we remember everything our Lord has done for us!

Spiritual Renewal Week

Eric Ivanitsky, former campus pastor at WMS, making his beloved coffee!

What an incredible school I have the privilege of working with. Last week was our annual spring Spiritual Renewal Week and we were blessed to have our former Campus Pastor, Eric Ivanitsky, speak during the week. Our theme was freedom. Our goal was to not create a sensational mountain top experience or an emotional week for the students, but rather an experience where they find God for themselves. We wanted our students to not hear about freedom or understand it, but to actually experience the truth & the life giving freedom that our God freely offers us.

Our campus was flooded with expectancy as the week approached. Our students were ready for a week of spiritual challenging. Eric did a fantastic job of connecting with our students & challenging their thinking. A lot of times we think & act as if we are free, yet we continue to walk in the bondage that holds us down sometimes. From big hurdles we come across in our lives to basic depression, we are a people who are called to live in freedom!

By the end of the week I believe freedom was not only understood, but experienced. We had people choose to give their lives to Christ for the first time & we had numerous people release bondage's they were holding onto. We had a great week & I am extremely excited about what God has in store for our school as we wind down an amazing & impacting year. We serve a big God who is greater than all of our "stuff". 

Continue to pray for our students to live out lives that are free in Him. Pray that their hearts & minds continue to seek out the truth & in that truth they will be free.

Fighting Cancer

The past few days we have had the privilege of having our International Club & Middle School Student Council adress the student body about cancer. It is a fight that many kids all over Oregon & around the world are facing. We have a wonderful hospital in our local area, Doernbecher, which works with children daily to fight against this awful disease. The Middle School Student Council is coordinating a "pennies for patients" campaign over the next 3 weeks (April 7-28) to help kids who suffer from Leukemia. Donations can be made in homeroom collection boxes. If you write a check, please make it out to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Below is a video that we showed in chapel to explain the program that we are doing. Kids like Elisa can use all the help that we can give. If you can't give, please take a moment to pray for families like Elisa's that are struggling through a very hard time right now. Prayer changes things & our God is the creater of perfect peace.