So much has happened this month, we had a spring high school retreat which I already told you about, I went to two graduations and two banquets, and now we are wrapping up the end of the school year with final exams this week.
Last Saturday was the GGIS graduation. It was probably the best one I have been to. This was also the first year I wasn't the photographer for the day since I taught a senior class and was sitting on the stage. Traditionally we have our graduates each give speeches (we have small classes). It was fascinating hearing the impact that this school has on the lives of its students. I think I still don't comprehend it fully, but this week I saw more and more how vital this type of ministry is. The other graduation I attended was much different. There seemed to be no connection between the teachers and students. I caught myself wondering if this was how school should be and that I am just too personable as a teacher, but then I realized how different GGIS is. I think of Acts 3:6 when Peter told the lame man that he had nothing physically to give but he had something far better. GGIS can't offer the extracurricular activities, honors programs, or campus that the other school has but we have something far greater, we have a ministry, a connection with students that goes beyond the human level. It's spiritual. Lives are changed, not just temporally, but eternally.
I must say that my life has also been changed being here.
There are quite a few staff members who have or who are leaving this year. As I think back on all the memories I've had with them, it's amazing that we have had the opportunity to be here as a team, doing this for this long. (I'm not leaving, but others are.)
One fantastic event we had this past month was a Middle School boat trip. This is a three hour cruise along the river with dinner and games. It happened a couple weeks after our High School Banquet so naturally the Middle Schoolers all called it their "banquet". It wasn't meant to be but it was kind of cute to see them all get dressed up and try to bashfully ask each other "out" (we all rode a bus together to the boat then sat at communal tables for the food).
On the boat trip there was a seventh grade girl who has been in our school for six months, she is not returning next year and is instead going to that other school I mentioned earlier. She is so depressed! She loves it here, but there is a perception based on outward appearances that the other one is a better school so her parents will send her there next year.
Outward appearances are deceptive. More and more I see it. When I look at certain students I often times see no outward change. Maybe their grades are bad, their attitude is bad, or they just seem lazy, but then all of a sudden they will tell you that they accepted Christ months, or even years ago, and they have been going to church, and want to grow as a Christian. It's incredible. This actually happened with a student this year. I didn't want to speak to him, I went to his study hall three times before I finally pulled him out to speak to him, and right away he told me he has been waiting for the opportunity to accept Christ. My how that young man's life has been changed in the months since then! Amazing.
Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. I look forward to being in Baltimore all summer before returning to Hungary for Camp Life in July.
