May 3, 2007

Christians

By Maya Angelou

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'."

I'm whispering "I was lost,

Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I don't speak of this with pride.

I'm confessing that I stumble

and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I'm not trying to be strong.

I'm professing that I'm weak

And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I'm not bragging of success.

I'm admitting I have failed

And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I'm not claiming to be perfect,

My flaws are far too visible

But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I still feel the sting of pain.

I have my share of heartaches

So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian"

I'm not holier than thou,

I'm just a simple sinner

Who received God's good grace, somehow!

New Hope Observatory Dates

The dates for numerous summer star parties are posted on our school website. 

The first two viewing nights are May 11^th and 18^th at 8:30 p.m. if we have clear skies. 

One parent after seeing the rings around Saturn, remarked how wonderful it was to suddenly realize that the Lord had seen that all the time, but now it was suddenly visible for her through the telescope!  Come join us. 

Music Trip to George Fox University

Today, Kim Kostrna, with a number of parents, is taking the following 4-8 grade music students to a great musical at George Fox University.  Pray for this excellent training and outreach opportunity.

Shyanne Barker            Bailey Bars

Alyssa Byrd                  Courtney Colvin

Andy Cooper                Cathy Cunningham

Joshua Goddard             David Johnson

Sarah Johnson               Chelsea Jones

Rachel Kostrna             Connor Lauffenburger

Dane Scott                    Brandon Seyboth

Barocha Stone              Caleb Stone

Alex Tobey                   Hope Budd

Mackenzi Bunnard        Brandi Ewart

Camryn Gotchall           Morgan Hansen

Mikaela Hauck              Chris Matthews

Cristian Padilla              Pierce Prozy

Megan Quaderer           Bryanna Moore

Justin Park                    Katie Cole

Gabe Kester                 Jonas Lundgren

Mandy Lanto                Nick Mellelo

Lydia Cunningham         Sierra Dirling

Sarah Kostrna               Adrienne Pinedo

Ricky Reebel                Dereak Sikes
 

Continue to Pray and Think about Gym Potentials

A Couple Code Modifications

1.      Appropriate modest plaid walking shorts are now permitted.  Pajama type material is still not allowed.

2.      Appropriate holding of hands on campus or at school functions is allowed, except during chapels or class when the attention needs to be focused on the presenter.  This applies only to high school students.

Visions

Repeating last week’s challenge:  What are my visions? 

Proverbs 29:18 states “Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keeps the law, happy is he”!

The Vision of www.athletic.net

            This track season, almost 3,500 coaches from about 2,000 schools are using this track website.  This helpful track site by New Hope teacher/coach David Bowdoin has assisted with easy entries made and results posted from 4,166 track meets. 

The user numbers increase daily, but at this time 97,439 track athletes have 576,852 track meet times or distances posted for this season.  With the current rate of growth in the site’s use, by this weekend, marks for over 100,000 track athletes will have been posted for this year.

So far David has not advertised by conventional means.  The growth for www.athletic.net has been by word of mouth from coach to coach. 

A few basics about his track coaching assistance site:

• Developed first for New Hope athletes.
• Made available for Oregon coaches.  Now, all but 3 Oregon schools have made use of it for track.  In the next two weeks those will have made use of the site also, since all the district championships and all major Oregon high school meets except for the state championships are now requiring meet sign-ups via Athletic.net.  This site not only saves coaches many hours of clerical time, but it also saves large meet directors DAYS of labor!
• Last spring www.athletic.net  was first introduced outside of Oregon to neighboring Washington.  A quick viewing of Washington shows 90+% of those schools already using this site originating from our school.  The same is true for northern California.
• 10% of the nation’s 20,000 high schools are starting to notice his site, use it, and are introducing it to neighboring schools.  About 30 new schools join each day.
• David and his brother-in-law, Dave Brown, are getting hundreds of e-mails each day.  Below is one sample recently received from a parent in Georgia:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 25 Apr 2007 07:36:25 -0700
Subject: Athletic.net Feedback

I just wanted to sincerely thank all responsible for this awesome
website. my son (Christian Croft) is just starting high school track
at Augusta Christian School in Augusta GA & I have been able to keep
up with his statistics along with many other athletes because of the
time and effort of those responsible for this website. I am going to
try to help the school with sending the results from the meets so that
they are up to date. Thank you so very much for your time and efforts.
Remember when the children see their names and efforts posted on such
a professional looking website it gives them encouragement. That must
be a spiritual gift that you are using and using well. May our Lord and
Savoir continue to bless all those at New Hope Christian & thank you
again for your brilliant, informative and highly effective site. 

Your brother in Christ,
Larry Croft

This ministry coming from this campus needs prayer support just as other aspects of our daily ministry.  Please, please remember to pray for the potential ministry of this site.  Not only is it great for thousands of athletes and coaches, it can be a great witness tool for Christ.