The First Day of School

I remember the anticipation of a new school year, the joy of seeing friends who were as close as siblings that I hadn't seen in several months because they were in another country for the summer and the excitement of what the school year would hold.

As one of the main high schools for missionary kids in Far East Asia, a handful of my classmates' parents were missionaries serving in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the various islands of the Philippines - so the return of school meant the reuniting with friends. The school's tradition was to gather the entire student body of 700 strong around the school flagpole for a brief ceremony of raising the Philippine and Christian flags and officially opening the school year with a word of prayer.

To my knowledge, no formal opening day ceremony is planned at Grace this morning, though I keep suggesting the idea, but I suspect the excitement is high among the students as they embark on the next year in their educational quest. When we last saw them the members of the Class of 2008 were screaming in the halls celebrating the fact that they were on the cusp of their senior year of high school as the 2007 school year drew to a close. Now they are all of 180 days away from graduation.

Join us in committing this school year to the Lord, that it would be a year full of both academic growth and spiritual growth for each individual and for the student body as a whole.

UPDATE: I didn't have anything to do with it, but the school year kicked off this morning with a 40-minute First Day Worship. Led by the students, we sang choruses, had a time of prayer and launched into the academic year focused on what God wants to accomplish in each of us this year.