This is the week before Spring Break.  The first full week since the last week in January.  There is a sense of relief in the air but also a sense of...spring?   

 The 16th Annual MLA Auction was held on Saturday (3/2) and God was exalted!  While walking around the auction I observed our guests were visiting and bidding.  Our students and their parents were doing a great job of serving our guests. There were many volunteers here to help.  The auction committee worked hard to make sure everything went smoothly. The Lord blessed us with hundreds of items for bidding. The class projects were beautiful, and the class baskets were unique and fun.  The Fund A Need for the science equipment went great, and there were some wonderful live auction items. Saturday night was a wonderful experience and MLA was and is blessed. Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  We pray that as we use what God has provided us through the auction that He is exalted in the earth.  

 Another reason for the sense of relief is that our accreditation self-study is about 98% completed.  The document started off at about 180 pages; some of the pages were instructions, all the pages needed responses.  The document right now is 134 pages long, completed responses, hundreds of links to evidence of our amazing school. The self-study consists of standards and substandard, evidence, and practices.  The document has been proofed, proofed and continues to be proofed. This document will be shared with the visiting team (April 23-25) who will join us at MLA to validate the information collected. Reading through this document, we can identify some strengths and areas of weakness.  A few of the areas of improvement are cleaning up our governance policies and establishing new ones. Another area of improvement will be utilizing our resources more effectively for the growth of our students. A strength is our faculty and staff. MLA has a wonderful faculty that have been teaching for about an average of 29 years all together.  Many of these years have been in Lutheran education. They demonstrate what it means to be a strong Christian educator in and outside of their classroom. The students graduate from MLA and attend high school where they are in National Honor Society, Baccalaureate program, National Merit Finalists and many other academically related achievements. Overall, this yearlong self-study has demonstrated to me, what a blessing MLA is to our community. Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  When I cannot see the end, I know that we have a Real Present God who can.