High School Retreat

"Spent the weekend with 43 teenagers" is not a common a lead-in to a positive blog post... my bunk was in the back corner of this dorm room at the beautiful Young Life Camp in Jinotega, Nicaragua, and I did get a couple of hours sleep on the night this photo was taken.
The theme for the retreat was "Retados"... and they were... challenged to die to:

Self/Separation from God

Hypocrisy

Life without purpose

Teaching Trig

OK, so it is not in the typical principal's job description... not even in mine, but when the high school Math teacher is sick, and there are no qualified subs on the list, someone has to step up and cover, right?

Don't worry, though, kids... I've got this! SOH-CAH-TOA... It's coming back to me now! :-)

Giving Back!

Today was fun... the Valedictorian of our Class of 2004 was back in country with a medical mission team doing a clinic at a public school in our area... as Dr. Darling Jill Aragón!

The team provided a variety of medical services to the families of the staff at a coffee farm in La Dalia with the able assistance of the other three young ladies pictured, who served as translators.

5:30 Bible Fellowship

Not the best picture ever taken, but the ten of us did have a great time early this morning in
II Corinthians... "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." -4:16-17

L2R: Jeremy, Dennis, Ben, Leck, Nathan, Eric, Gary, Bill, Gene & Greg

Back to Work!

We kicked the new school year off with a conference for the staffs of our three campuses in the gymtorium of what we refer to as the "main campus" in Managua... it takes a lot of people to run three schools with a student population of around 1,100 (including teachers, bus drivers, guards, custodians, librarians, maintenance workers, office staff, food service people, board members and administrators.)  Great start!

Worship in song led by one of our alumni (Wendy Gómez, NCA International Class of 2009)

Christmas in Mississippi

We're celebrating Jesus' Birthday at Bonnie and Andrew's new home in the Magnolia State!

L2R: Nate, Nellie & Loren Strickland, Bonnie & Andrew, G&G

Staff Wedding

Grace and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of our P.E. teachers today!

Definitely a first for me to be asked to perform a service.  I certainly enjoyed the chance to invest in the life of one of our talented young teachers in the "pre-marital counseling".

None of this is on the job description of a school administrator, but healthy relationships are nonetheless foundational for our teachers to be free to minister optimally to their students.

I love this panoramic photo of the wedding reception dinner and especially the beautiful redhead in the foreground