Blessings from god
6/9/10
What a blessing it was to watch the students and teachers as they ended their school year together. The middle school classes all had chances to get out on class trips including the final camp for the 8th grade. At the end of these trips, the students openly expressed their thanks to the teachers for a great year and the teachers also had opportunities to thank the students. This same thing happened in kindergarten through fifth grade in different age appropriate ways. It is truly a blessing to be part of a school where the students, staff, and parents all love God, the students and teachers love working together, and because of this, the education process works incredibly well. I praise God with filling Zeeland Christian with His spirit and developing positive relationships with students and teachers. I also pray that everyone will have a safe and blessed summer and will have an opportunity to bless those in the community around them.
6/2/10
God has blessed us with many great opportunities this year and continues to bless us with opportunities at the end of our school year. Students had the opportunity to thank teachers for a great year. Teachers have an opportunity to thank students. Parents and teachers alike have an opportunity to praise God that we can work together to raise God’s children to His honor and glory. In this last week of school, we also have the responsibility that is both a joy and sorrow to say goodbye to our 8th grade class. They have been excellent leaders this year and have truly blessed Zeeland Christian. As a staff, we look forward to praying a blessing over them at the end of their class trip on Wednesday. We pray that God will use them and all of our students both present and future as blessings in this community.
5/26/10
In last week’s Blessed to be a Blessing section, I talked about what a blessing it was to be able to go to 7th grade camp. Since than I have actually gone to the camp and am happy to report that the camp was a huge blessing. The theme the students picked for next year is “Priceless” based on Psalm 36:7 “How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.” I praise God for the leadership of next year’s 8th grade class and pray that God will bless them as He has blessed this year’s 8th grade class and their leadership role.
5/19/10
In last week’s Blessed to be a Blessing section, I talked about what a blessing it was to be able to go to 7th grade camp. Since than I have actually gone to the camp and am happy to report that the camp was a huge blessing. The theme the students picked for next year is “Priceless” based on Psalm 36:7 “How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.” I praise God for the leadership of next year’s 8th grade class and pray that God will bless them as He has blessed this year’s 8th grade class and their leadership role.
5/12/10
What a blessing it was to watch our band led by Mr. Brummel perform in Pella’s Tulip Time. The band did a great job not only in the parades but also as they wandered around town and made new friends and acquaintances. I heard many comments from merchants and people living in Pella about our students and one of them even called the school and left the message below. It was truly a blessing to watch our students and your children in action. I praise God that they were a blessing to that community and to each other.
5/5/10
What a blessing it has been in the last couple of weeks to talk to people who are interested in sending their children to Zeeland Christian. Without exception, the people that ask questions about Zeeland Christian come either because of our preschool program or because of conversations they’ve had with people in the neighborhood or at work. As parents and supporters of Zeeland Christian School you have been an incredible blessing to our school. I pray that Zeeland Christian will be a blessing back to you and to this entire community.
4/28/10
Within the last two weeks, Mr. Heeres passed out our 8th grade exit evaluations. I had an opportunity to read through them last week and was totally blessed by the responses of our 8th grade students to questions on their exit evaluation. Some of the most important things that students remember and some of the most important changes that they feel took place in their life over the last nine years are based on their faith in God and the examples they saw in teachers that they had here at ZCS. As a staff, we are blessed to have students like these, and we praise God for the opportunity that we and the parents of these students have had to be a blessing to them. In the question and answer section of this Blue Note, I will include some of the student responses for the next couple of weeks.
4/21/10
What a blessing it was to see all of the people at the auction last week Friday night supporting Zeeland Christian School. Your support is deeply appreciated and as a result of that support and lots of hard work by the committee and generosity of people in our community, Zeeland Christian was blessed with funds that will help us keep providing quality Christian education for children in this community. Please join me in praying that God will bless Zeeland Christian School and help us use the gifts that He gives us in the best and most productive way possible.
4/14/10
What a blessing it was for me to witness the incredible blessing that ZCS has been to the families and the community around Grace Christian School in Pasay City, Philippines. The thankfulness and appreciation for everything that ZCS as a school family has done for Grace Christian was expressed over and over every single day that we were there. The 10 students that traveled with us saw the big picture up close and personal and all 14 praise God that as a school system ZCS is making a huge impact. Steve Bouman, the 4th grade teacher who came along, said at the end of the third or fourth day, “This is the real thing. Zeeland Christian truly is being a blessing.”
3/31/10
The middle school classes blessed the team going to the Philippines with a chapel of singing and prayer. Mr. Lowe and the praise band lead the students in wonderful worship and then all of the middle school students prayed over the team that has gone to the Philippines. It is truly a blessing to be part of a school that can use praise songs and prayer to the honor and glory of God. Please pray that the Philippines team will use the power of praise and prayer on their journey to the Philippines.
3/24/10
What an incredible blessing it was yesterday to watch the attitudes of our students as they walked down to get water from the creek by Haven Christian Reformed Church and then carried the water a half-mile back to school and watched it get poured into a filter. After that the students had a meal of rice and beans and a tortilla. The students used this experience as a blessing to help them understand more about world hunger and the need for clean water. The students in turn are responding to that by being a blessing and taking a collection for the next two weeks to help supply clean water filters for households around the world. Praise God for the blessing of knowledge and the ability to use this knowledge to bless others.
3/17/10
What a blessing it is to live in a community where we can enjoy such a positive relationship with our fellow educators. Last week on Thursday night Gary Feenstra and Jim Camenga from Zeeland Public came to share information about Zeeland Public Schools. We also had an opportunity to talk about joint projects that we work on and to talk about what a blessing it is for both school systems to have such a positive relationship. I praise God for this and pray that this wonderful working relationship will result in blessing all the students in this community with a quality education.
3/10/10
What a blessing it is to serve a God who puts order into our sometimes confusing lives. The order that we see this time of year is spring approaching with longer days and warmer temperatures. Please join me in praising God for these blessings and let’s use the blessing of springtime to thank God for not only beautiful weather, but for sending His son, which we celebrate during this season also.
3/3/10
We were reminded at devotions this morning that there is one major reason why this community should be the first or second happiest place in the country and that is because of the hope that we celebrate during this Lenten and Easter season; the hope that we receive from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of eternal life. God has blessed us with this hope. He has blessed us with the promise of eternal life. As a school family, let’s continue to share that light with people here in our community and also around the world.
2/24/10
I was blessed this morning when I received a note from the Vander Ploeg family asking that I share their thanks with the people that supported them over the last few months through Paul’s surgery. Since so many people were involved, it seems that the Blue Note is the best place to share their thankfulness with you and to say what a blessing it is to be part of a community that reaches out as a covenantal family to people in need. I praise God for the Zeeland Christian School family and for the way you share your blessings with those in need within our community, in Haiti, and clear around the world in the Philippines. God will truly bless those who bless others.
2/17/10
What a blessing it was to watch one of our servicemen talking to over 600 students last week Friday. All of those students then went to their family groups made up of students in first through eighth grade and wrote cards to over 30 additional servicemen who are in the armed forces. We deeply appreciate the sacrifice the men and women in the service have made and this is just one small way to connect our students with people who are making these kinds of sacrifices. We hope and pray that our cards are a blessing and that our service men and women will continue to bless our country with their service.
2/10/10
What a privilege it is to walk into school every day and see 82 Filipino children looking back at me. These students at Grace Christian School are all supported by classrooms and families here at Zeeland Christian School. I just received a note from the first grade classes that they are collecting pop cans to raise money for their friend Lance in the Philippines. Our students have truly been a huge blessing to Grace Christian School, their teachers, and the students. Thank you so much for using your blessings to bless these families and this community.
2/3/10
I was very fortunate to be part of a meeting this morning with ten to twelve other staff members regarding how we as a school system can help our children become more aware of the difficulty people in the world around us have in finding clean drinking water. The staff members are planning some activities to help our children learn more about this problem and how we can be a blessing to people in our world in relatively simple ways. Please join me in praying that this unit will be positive and will help us learn how we can use our blessings to bless others around us.
1/27/10
This week got off to a great start at Zeeland Christian. We praise God for the blessing of two new families who stopped to walk through Zeeland Christian. Both of these families were very impressed, not only with the facility but especially with the students and the staff who were so friendly and also the spiritual emphasis and the spirit of God in this place. We praise God for blessing us with those gifts, and pray that we can be a blessing to additional families both this year and in the coming years.
1/20/10
Over the course of this last week we have received a flurry of emails filled with pictures of smiling children and happy teachers from Grace Christian School in the Philippines. The staff and students received the boxes that we shipped before Christmas. The items from the boxes were distributed in the school and in the community. You have truly been a blessing to Grace Christian School, the students, and the staff and they would like to thank you from the bottom of their hearts for being a blessing to them.
1/13/10
I would like to praise God for the amazing blessing we have of our facility and property here at Zeeland Christian. One of the great things happening here this week is Winter Olympics. Without our hill in the back of school, and the incredible dedication of our teaching staff, we would never be able to have something like these Winter Olympics. These Olympics involve many events on sleds that the students in elementary have a lot of fun with. Please join me in praising God for blessing us with a wonderful facility and property and thank God that we can also share this with our community in such a positive way.
1/6/10
In this first Blue Note of the year 2010, I can’t help but look back at how 2009 ended. It ended with all of our students involved in blessing other people in some way. Many of them gave to great causes in our community. Others went out and served by visiting senior citizen homes, helping in churches, working at second-hand stores, and a wide variety of other ways to bless others in our community. I praise God for students and a school system that takes time to bless others and pray that as a school system we will continue to use the blessings that God has given us to bless those around us.
12/16/09
In this Christmas season of the year, what an incredible blessing it is to see the incredible support we get from parents and grandparents. Examples of this are the concerts that we have had lately and the Jingle Jog that is going on this week. Parental and grandparent support at ZCS is one of the things that makes our school special. This is a blessing that many communities dont have. Please join me in praising God for this blessing, and lets make sure we share this love with the entire school community.
12/9/09
In this Christmas season, our students at ZCS are giving up the traditional gift exchange to instead be a blessing to people in our community. We are working on supporting these organizations over several years, not just making it a one time gift. Please pray that our students will learn how important it is to bless others and how God has given us so many blessings that we have an opportunity to share with those around us.
12/2/09
What a blessing it is to be part of Zeeland Christian this time of year. I just came out of a meeting where teachers shared what their classes were collecting money for during this Christmas season. All of the classes in our school have selected local ministries to support instead of the traditional gifts that students have exchanged in the past. It is truly a blessing to hear how excited the students are to share their blessing with people in need in our community.
11/24/09
If I started listing the things that we could be thankful for here at Zeeland Christian School, it would take this entire Blue Note. I praise God above all for the opportunity to work and teach in a school that is dedicated to His honor and glory. In addition to this incredible blessing, our parents, grandparents, and our community supports that same vision. As a school system, we have been blessed with amazing support and have received Gods blessing in so many different areas. Please join me in praying that we will use the blessings that God has given us to bless each other, others in this community, and around the world.
11/18/09
If you walk through the front doors of Zeeland Christian and go straight ahead, you will see pictures of 82 students from the Philippines that Zeeland Christian tries to sponsor. The good news that I received from Mr. Joustra last week was that all 82 of these students have in fact been sponsored by classes and families here at Zeeland Christian. We have truly been blessed as a community and I praise God that this community is also willing to share those blessings with our friends in the Philippines and with people locally. I would like to challenge all of us to continue to count our blessings and then pass them on to other people around us and around the world.
11/11/09
I had the privilege of attending the National Middle School Convention this last weekend. We arrived on Thursday night, attended sectionals all day Friday and Saturday and returned home Saturday evening. It was truly a blessing to attend this convention but what was even more a blessing was to see how the middle school staff took ideas from the best practices in middle school and how they plan to use the ideas to make Zeeland Christian Middle School even a better place to the honor and glory of God. I thank God for the blessing of the convention and pray that the teachers will continue to be an incredible blessing to the students and parents in this community.
11/4/09
Last week I talked about what a blessing it was to have Grandparents Day approaching. Now I can share what a blessing it was to have Grandparents Day. The grandparents were truly a blessing while they were here, and I had an opportunity to challenge grandparents to continue to be a blessing to their grandchildren by encouraging them to be everything that they can be to the honor and glory of God. I also had an opportunity to challenge grandchildren to learn more about their familys history and the amazing things their grandparents have done. I praise God for blessing us and Zeeland Christian from one generation to the next.
