Morning Glory Christian Academy – May 26 2015 – My Anchor Holds

    

My Anchor Holds
By Lori Nij
Director of Morning Glory Christian Academy
 

     The day started out as normal as any other holiday.  May first is a celebration of Labor Day in Guatemala; a holiday from school, a chance to sleep in and rest.  Rob was off to Antigua to do the traditional tourist day with our visitor Dusty Garrison, Tabi and the girls were off for a day of shopping in Guatemala City for Kenivan´s upcoming birthday and I was settled in for a morning of calm and quiet working on the computer in the solace of my living room.  I had just settled down to work when I heard a knock at the front door:  Nothing strange because people come looking for Queno all the time.  But this morning it was different.  As I looked up to giggles and laughter, a group of familiar faces came into my living room bearing a huge flower arrangement and a homemade banner.  They just kept coming until the room was completely packed with beautiful young ladies and young men.  The sixth grade class from 2010 was back to visit.  Some of the young people I quickly recognized having seen them at school with their younger siblings and through Facebook.  However there were other faces, oddly familiar but at the same time strangely different and grown up.  The skinny, insecure little girl from a mountain village was now a beautiful, well-dressed, confident young woman.  The young boys who had left the halls of Morning Glory as small twelve year olds were now muscular, handsome young men.

     And so began a couple of hours of visit: laughter, and reminiscing about times gone by, remembering old times, scoldings, and wonderful, warm memories of a childhood spent together learning and growing.

     They sang the old songs from Bible class, remembered dance steps of years gone by and laughed about how they tried my patience with their youthful exuberance.  My heart filled with joy and began to overflow.  Here, sitting on the floor of my living room were thirty-two teenagers who had decided to spend their holiday from school and work visiting Miss Lori and encouraging this old lady.  

     The tears began to flow as the conversation turned solemn and one by one each person began to express what Morning Glory meant in their lives.  One by one, each person spoke of the love, the consistent discipline, the lessons learned, and we remembered together.  They asked me about young people who had visited Morning Glory now grown and married.  Each one talked about things that had marked their lives forever and had laid their paths.  Two young boys from the village, from simple homes shared the news of having been accepted into medical school.  Seven young ladies are a step away from graduation as certified teachers, two young men studying to become music teachers.  Child after child they shared their dreams with me.  My heart sang.  Then one young man said these words:  ¨Miss Lori, Morning Glory is the anchor that holds our world together, when all goes wrong, when we are tempted to give up or do things that we should not do, we all remember the lessons that you taught us and think what would Miss Lori say and what would God want us to do and we find comfort in uncertainty and a way in the night.

                    

     Once again God blessed me with a glimpse of glory, a moment of eternity.  It is worth it, the sleepless nights, the frustrations, the battles trying to make the finances meet the needs, the endless scolding, and the lessons taught, exampled, and lived have given a safe, secure anchor in a broken and hurting world; something that never changes, solid and eternal.  Once again without each one of you none of this would be possible.  I am forever grateful and awed at how God continues to weave our lives together, with the threads of hundreds of lives of Guatemalan children to form the beautiful colorful fabric that has become the Morning Glory Story.