Principal's Pennings
Principal's Pennings
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.
My son has been participating in karate for about a year and a half now. Almost 6 months ago, he moved up to the “Leadership” class. It tends to be a little more intense with expectations of learning the form more quickly and adding a couple different forms. Since returning from Christmas break its has been challenging to keep him motivated and focused for class due to a lack of consistent classes. Between bad weather and my meeting schedule, he has not been able to attend as regularly. The last class he attended, it was really tough to get him there. Once he was at class, he focused, worked hard and as he said at the end, “it was a rough class.”
I sat and observed the class, like my wife & I try to do. It was a physical class but there were some thoughts that I walked away with and some that my son shared. I shared with my son that he showed great leadership when helping a younger classmate with her form. On the same note, I shared how, even though his form was not perfect, an adult in the class complimented him on this form. There was also some laughter in class as some of the adult classmates were laughing at their own mistakes, and in turn the class laughed with them. To a six-year-old, this is a difficult thing to understand. My son shared that he thought they were laughing at his classmates. As an adult I saw it as a way to laugh at your mistakes, learn from them, and do better next time.
Leadership can be a tricky thing. We all wear the leadership hat in some way or another. I have the privilege of wearing the husband, father, and son hat as well as principal, colleague, teacher, coach hat and many others. There are two bible verses that I share with others and work to keep in my head. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” The other verse is from 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” I try to think about whether my words or actions are building up or tearing down. Building each other up is one component of leadership. I pray at the end of the day that the Lord uses us to show and share with everyone the love that He has shown us by building others up. We are all leaders for Christ. As you serve the Lord, I pray that He uses your leadership to build up and encourage one another, so they may see and know the Lord of all.
We are blessed to have a Real, Present, God in our lives.
Mr. Scott Dixon
HOPE is a state of anticipation. Peace or shalom means completeness. HOPE
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
There are multiple examples of God’s people filled with JOY. His people did not find joy only in good times but in suffering as well. How is it that God’s people found Joy in suffering though? When we have Joy in Jesus, we are looking towards that future. James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure Joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” When we face trials, it doesn’t sound joyful. It’s easy for us to fall into this mistake. The trials we face as Christians, are not filled with happiness, but can be filled with Joy. King and Country has a song out titled Joy. One of the lines talks about watching the evening news and not being able to find their rhythm. They later sing that I Choose Joy. Joy is about having great happiness in the future and not necessarily right now. Joy to the World is about how Jesus has come but also how Jesus will return. True JOY is found in seeking His return.
We are told in the Bible to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What does it mean to LOVE though? I don’t know about you but I love bacon, but I also Love my wife. One, I would do anything for, the other I could do without. I would do anything for my wife. This is not hard to do. I could do without bacon. How do you LOVE our Lord? We Love Him by loving our neighbors. Your neighbor is not just the person that lives next to you but all people. We need to Love all people. By showing this LOVE we are showing how God LOVES us. We know that God Loves us because He gave his only Son to die for us. This same Son will return again to take us to heaven to live with Him.
Advent means the second coming of our Savior Jesus Christ! It makes sense that HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE all have a focus on the future. The future being His second coming. Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, King of Heaven and Earth!
Real. Present. God.
Over the past 12 months, the teachers and volunteers have been working diligently to prepare for an accreditation visiting team. They have been and continue to work hard to implement new programs, curriculum and technology in the classroom. They have worked extensively to complete seven accrediting standards that have short answer questions and substandards. Each substandard has to have supporting evidences to justify the rating that was given. Currently the document is about 170 pages long and when completed should be edited down to about 150 pages. Within this document there will be approximately 500 pieces of evidence to support the ratings given. Next week another committee will meet to verify the information, edit and revise the complete document. Then begin creating a school improvement plan. The improvement plan will be created using the self-evaluation and identifying areas of improvement. This plan will be used over the course of the next 5 years to provide direction and goals for MLA.
In about three months a visiting team will spend about 2 ½ days at MLA verifying the information provided. This team will be visiting with pastors, parents, board members, students and anyone else they can. At the end of the visit they will provide MLA with an overall score based on the evaluations of the seven standards. This is a daunting process but a very good process for schools and MLA. In the end, the National Lutheran School Association will confirm that MLA is a legitimate school and MLA will have specific, measurable goals that we will use over the next five years.
One of the great strengths of MLA is the community that is Martin Luther Academy. Families genuinely care about each other and want what's best. There are two ways that you can help right now; one way is by just asking the teachers how you can help. They may not have an immediate response so do hesitate to ask again later. Another way to pray for strength and perseverance as we continue to work through the process. We have about six more weeks of accreditation work that has to be completed.
Thank you for the support and prayers as we continue through this extensive process.
Real. Present. God.
Go to TADS to reenroll. It takes about 5 minutes to complete. This information helps for 2019-2020 planning.
6 December 2018
During the Advent season, there are generally four words of focus: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. This week during faculty devotions, Mrs. Haase shared about Hope and Peace. We all know what these words mean, but when looking at it from a Biblical context they mean so much more.
HOPE is a state of anticipation. There are three uses of the word hope in the Bible. In the Old Testament there are two different uses for the word hope. Yakhal is use to wait, as Noah did when waiting for the flood to recede. Qavah means to wait with tension as a farmer waits for the harvest after planting his field. The people of the Old Testament waited with tension in expectation of a Savior.
In the New Testament, Elpis means a living hope. A hope in knowing that Jesus died and rose again for our salvation. Our hope is in Jesus and His return when we will all be made free from the slavery of sin.
PEACE means the absence of war, but in the Bible, it carries a few more meanings. Many of us have heard the word Shalom, which means Peace in Greek. Shalom means much more than just absence of war though. Shalom means completion or whole. We live in a broken world that has been this way since the fall in Eden. We are constantly in search for “shalom.” We have moments of “shalom” when everyone is healthy, or the house is clean, but those moments are not lasting. Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Shalom (completeness). Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have shalom with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus birth, death and resurrection is the beginning of making our world complete again. The day of completion has yet to come. Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” During Advent, we not only are mindful of His birth, but also are mindful of His return.
This Advent season, I pray that we HOPE in anticipation of His return and are confident in the SHALOM that will come on that day.
Real. Present. God.