Morning Glory Christian Academy – When We See Giants

     My phone began to beep a half hour earlier than the accustomed six a.m. alarm. Half asleep, growling about teachers who don´t show up to work or moms that call at 5:30 a.m., I forced my eyes to open to check the insistent message that refused to let me get those last special minutes of sleep in the morning. What was on my phone caused me to instantly sit up.  It was a picture of what seemed to be a whole row of houses on fire. I quickly read the message, “Miss Lori, this is happening now. It’s Señora Olga´s house. There was an explosion.”  Horrified, I began to search for information.  We have two current students, and three former students who live in this row of houses just past the road to the school in the Llano. Olga´s oldest twin boys were in our very first six-grade class and now her grandchild, Angela, is in Kindergarten and her youngest child, Crisna was scheduled for graduation this week. Three homes were destroyed; Crisna´s father was severely burned and later died. Three families were left with only the clothes on their backs. Once again fireworks have stolen the future of a family.

     As I quickly dressed for school my mind kept wandering back seventeen years to that very first class of first graders at what was then “Agape.” I will never forget the look of apathy and despair on the faces of those children as I asked them to tell me their dreams. One by one those children whose clothes reeked of gunpowder and with skin marked by blemishes from the chemicals, shrugged their shoulders and answered, “saber,”or “who knows”.  One little boy said he didn´t know if he would even grow up because his older brother, a ten year old, had just died in a firecracker explosion and yet his family continued to make fireworks in their home.  Another child lifted his shirt to show me the scars on his chest from burns caused when the wicks that he was working with caught fire. I will never forget the sensation of the small hand calloused and rough that I took in mine to show how to hold a pencil and trace her first letters. The hand of a six-year-old child should be soft and smooth, not cracked and calloused. That day I came home with a broken heart and made a pact with God. He would supply the means and I would make the way. I resolved that these children would have a chance for a better life and their children wouldn´t have to sit on wooden stools braiding endless streams of firecrackers to be sold in the local markets. I would teach every child that God sent my way that there was a better way.

     The dream that would become Morning Glory was born that afternoon. A dream of a school where children would learn to dream, learn to reach for the stars, and become what God had planned for them to be. It was a dream of a new future, a future where five and six year olds didn´t have to work to put food on the family table; a dream of teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, bricklayers, mechanics, draftsmen, architects, pastors and leaders. It was a school that would be a safe place; a place where children could play and be children, a school where love shines out from every corner, and a school where laughter mixes with praise and children could learn to love God and love each other and love themselves. 

     Seventeen years have come and gone. God has kept His side of our pact. He has always supplied our needs. Hundreds of children have passed through the classrooms of Morning Glory. From that first class comes one of my teachers, graduated from the university with a degree in Math education and now a law student.  His brother holds a degree in business management and the family that struggled to buy simple notebooks and  are now owners of a prosperous business. From that class came teachers and businessmen and women, educated and successful: leaders in our communities and homes. 

     As I sat in the closing ceremony for kindergarten last Monday morning I looked around me and saw many familiar faces. There was Elvia and Judith, Lesly and William, young men and women from years gone by, now grown with children of their own who are now students at Morning Glory. In the meeting for new students, I recognized several moms from years ago, now grandmothers attending meetings once again at Morning Glory for grandchildren who start school in January.  As I met child after child and shook their tiny hands I realized, their hands were soft and smooth, exactly how they should be. 

     Last Tuesday brought the 2017 school year to an official close with the graduation of Secondary and our first class graduating with a degree in Computer Science.  This year I wrote a special note for each graduate. Most of them came to Morning Glory at three and four years of age.  My heart rejoiced yet the moment was bittersweet as I watched tall young men and beautiful young ladies walk across the stage and stand proudly with their diploma. I remembered the tears on that first day of school, the mischievous pranks, the bumps and bruises, the stumbles, the loving admonition, the firm hand of discipline, the broken hearts, the joyful victories and above all the moments in Bible Class when the Holy Spirit touched their hearts and they poured their lives and hurts out in tears and prayer to a Living God. 

     With graduation and the ending of the school year comes the inevitable time of planning for next year.  Our classes have been filled with early registration and once again every single classroom will be filled to capacity. We are turning people away because there is no more room. During the next few weeks while we finish up with summer school for the students who have to make up classes, I will be planning for 2018. 2017 has been a hard year. For the first time ever we confronted a significant devaluation of the dollar. Satan attacked us on every front trying to discourage and beat us down. Loved ones have gone home. We won battles but we lost a few as well.  I had to make hard decisions and hard decisions wait ahead.  The task is so big.  Our computer lab is over ten years old. We are looking at the need to replace at least the 18 old computers.  Desks continue to wear out. We have mended and welded over and over.  Our file cabinet is 14 years old and the drawers have totally worn out.  White boards desperately need to be replaced. I blush to even call them “white” boards.  We had to build an emergency wall to keep the water out of preprimary. Our sewer tanks are collapsing. All those things that I cover each year with the funds that were sacrificed to devaluation have been left to fix tomorrow.  It seems like every day Queno brings something else that needs to be remodeled and fixed.  I have to decide if the music and dance program continue and if we continue to offer English in pre-primary and primary.  Do I continue to pay a specialized PE teacher? Do I continue to supply transportation?  
     For months I have looked at the numbers, I have made pie charts and graphs. I have analyzed every expense and evaluated the cost effectiveness of each teacher and each program.  All of the “evidence” pushes me to pull back.  And to be really truthful that was the plan.

     But this morning that changed. This morning I was reminded about Joshua and Caleb. I realized that like the ten unfaithful spies my eyes were on the giants before me. I was drawing back in fear instead of walking forward in faith.  God has been incredibly faithful: through each one of you He has supplied our every need.  At graduation parent after parent bragged about their kids from years past. Now our mischievous Kids are at the top of their class in private and public schools in Guatemala City. They told me about medals and trophies, job offers and success. The list went on and on of Morning Glory Kids shining even after they have left the halls of our campus. The dreams?  Kevin wants to be a surgeon, Jorge an auditor, Pablo an architect. The list goes on to include teachers, lawyers, engineers, design artists, doctors and nurses. Now, they know.  They have big dreams all made possible through Christ.  Seventeen years have proven the model. 

     So I am throwing out the pie charts, I am returning my eyes and faith to the God of my dreams.  Big things wait in store. There will be more battles to be fought, giants to be conquered, discouragement and loneliness to be overcome.  There will be financial struggles. I will continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. The students and teachers will continue to try my patience. We will loose a battle here and there.  We will stumble and fall, but each time we will get up, brush ourselves off and keep going forward. 
     So today I ask you to stand with me and choose this path. Let us walk forward in faith, trusting in the provision of a God who could rain down bread from heaven in the middle of the desert, a God who could draw pure water from a solid rock and a God who could conquer a walled city with a shout of praise.  I challenge you to invest in the lives of the children of Morning Glory, lives that will change the future of their homes, communities and congregations.  I challenge you to stop looking at the pie charts and bank balance and begin to trust with me the God of Moses, Joshua and Caleb.   Let us walk and yes even run into 2018 in faith casting out all fear.  We need you more than ever before.  We need your prayers and yes, we need your support. Almost fifty families depend on Morning Glory for their monthly income. Six hundred and fifty some children depend on Morning Glory for their education. The giants before us are huge but our God is even bigger. 

      Will you walk forward with us in faith and become a part of the Morning Glory Story?  Every donation is significant and life changing.

     My phone began to beep a half hour earlier than the accustomed six a.m. alarm. Half asleep, growling about teachers who don´t show up to work or moms that call at 5:30 a.m., I forced my eyes to open to check the insistent message that refused to let me get those last special minutes of sleep in the morning. What was on my phone caused me to instantly sit up.  It was a picture of what seemed to be a whole row of houses on fire. I quickly read the message, “Miss Lori, this is happening now. It’s Señora Olga´s house. There was an explosion.”  Horrified, I began to search for information.  We have two current students, and three former students who live in this row of houses just past the road to the school in the Llano. Olga´s oldest twin boys were in our very first six-grade class and now her grandchild, Angela, is in Kindergarten and her youngest child, Crisna was scheduled for graduation this week. Three homes were destroyed; Crisna´s father was severely burned and later died. Three families were left with only the clothes on their backs. Once again fireworks have stolen the future of a family.

     As I quickly dressed for school my mind kept wandering back seventeen years to that very first class of first graders at what was then “Agape.” I will never forget the look of apathy and despair on the faces of those children as I asked them to tell me their dreams. One by one those children whose clothes reeked of gunpowder and with skin marked by blemishes from the chemicals, shrugged their shoulders and answered, “saber,”or “who knows”.  One little boy said he didn´t know if he would even grow up because his older brother, a ten year old, had just died in a firecracker explosion and yet his family continued to make fireworks in their home.  Another child lifted his shirt to show me the scars on his chest from burns caused when the wicks that he was working with caught fire. I will never forget the sensation of the small hand calloused and rough that I took in mine to show how to hold a pencil and trace her first letters. The hand of a six-year-old child should be soft and smooth, not cracked and calloused. That day I came home with a broken heart and made a pact with God. He would supply the means and I would make the way. I resolved that these children would have a chance for a better life and their children wouldn´t have to sit on wooden stools braiding endless streams of firecrackers to be sold in the local markets. I would teach every child that God sent my way that there was a better way.

     The dream that would become Morning Glory was born that afternoon. A dream of a school where children would learn to dream, learn to reach for the stars, and become what God had planned for them to be. It was a dream of a new future, a future where five and six year olds didn´t have to work to put food on the family table; a dream of teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, bricklayers, mechanics, draftsmen, architects, pastors and leaders. It was a school that would be a safe place; a place where children could play and be children, a school where love shines out from every corner, and a school where laughter mixes with praise and children could learn to love God and love each other and love themselves. 

     Seventeen years have come and gone. God has kept His side of our pact. He has always supplied our needs. Hundreds of children have passed through the classrooms of Morning Glory. From that first class comes one of my teachers, graduated from the university with a degree in Math education and now a law student.  His brother holds a degree in business management and the family that struggled to buy simple notebooks and  are now owners of a prosperous business. From that class came teachers and businessmen and women, educated and successful: leaders in our communities and homes. 

     As I sat in the closing ceremony for kindergarten last Monday morning I looked around me and saw many familiar faces. There was Elvia and Judith, Lesly and William, young men and women from years gone by, now grown with children of their own who are now students at Morning Glory. In the meeting for new students, I recognized several moms from years ago, now grandmothers attending meetings once again at Morning Glory for grandchildren who start school in January.  As I met child after child and shook their tiny hands I realized, their hands were soft and smooth, exactly how they should be. 

     Last Tuesday brought the 2017 school year to an official close with the graduation of Secondary and our first class graduating with a degree in Computer Science.  This year I wrote a special note for each graduate. Most of them came to Morning Glory at three and four years of age.  My heart rejoiced yet the moment was bittersweet as I watched tall young men and beautiful young ladies walk across the stage and stand proudly with their diploma. I remembered the tears on that first day of school, the mischievous pranks, the bumps and bruises, the stumbles, the loving admonition, the firm hand of discipline, the broken hearts, the joyful victories and above all the moments in Bible Class when the Holy Spirit touched their hearts and they poured their lives and hurts out in tears and prayer to a Living God. 

     With graduation and the ending of the school year comes the inevitable time of planning for next year.  Our classes have been filled with early registration and once again every single classroom will be filled to capacity. We are turning people away because there is no more room. During the next few weeks while we finish up with summer school for the students who have to make up classes, I will be planning for 2018. 2017 has been a hard year. For the first time ever we confronted a significant devaluation of the dollar. Satan attacked us on every front trying to discourage and beat us down. Loved ones have gone home. We won battles but we lost a few as well.  I had to make hard decisions and hard decisions wait ahead.  The task is so big.  Our computer lab is over ten years old. We are looking at the need to replace at least the 18 old computers.  Desks continue to wear out. We have mended and welded over and over.  Our file cabinet is 14 years old and the drawers have totally worn out.  White boards desperately need to be replaced. I blush to even call them “white” boards.  We had to build an emergency wall to keep the water out of preprimary. Our sewer tanks are collapsing. All those things that I cover each year with the funds that were sacrificed to devaluation have been left to fix tomorrow.  It seems like every day Queno brings something else that needs to be remodeled and fixed.  I have to decide if the music and dance program continue and if we continue to offer English in pre-primary and primary.  Do I continue to pay a specialized PE teacher? Do I continue to supply transportation?  
     For months I have looked at the numbers, I have made pie charts and graphs. I have analyzed every expense and evaluated the cost effectiveness of each teacher and each program.  All of the “evidence” pushes me to pull back.  And to be really truthful that was the plan.

     But this morning that changed. This morning I was reminded about Joshua and Caleb. I realized that like the ten unfaithful spies my eyes were on the giants before me. I was drawing back in fear instead of walking forward in faith.  God has been incredibly faithful: through each one of you He has supplied our every need.  At graduation parent after parent bragged about their kids from years past. Now our mischievous Kids are at the top of their class in private and public schools in Guatemala City. They told me about medals and trophies, job offers and success. The list went on and on of Morning Glory Kids shining even after they have left the halls of our campus. The dreams?  Kevin wants to be a surgeon, Jorge an auditor, Pablo an architect. The list goes on to include teachers, lawyers, engineers, design artists, doctors and nurses. Now, they know.  They have big dreams all made possible through Christ.  Seventeen years have proven the model. 

     So I am throwing out the pie charts, I am returning my eyes and faith to the God of my dreams.  Big things wait in store. There will be more battles to be fought, giants to be conquered, discouragement and loneliness to be overcome.  There will be financial struggles. I will continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. The students and teachers will continue to try my patience. We will loose a battle here and there.  We will stumble and fall, but each time we will get up, brush ourselves off and keep going forward. 
     So today I ask you to stand with me and choose this path. Let us walk forward in faith, trusting in the provision of a God who could rain down bread from heaven in the middle of the desert, a God who could draw pure water from a solid rock and a God who could conquer a walled city with a shout of praise.  I challenge you to invest in the lives of the children of Morning Glory, lives that will change the future of their homes, communities and congregations.  I challenge you to stop looking at the pie charts and bank balance and begin to trust with me the God of Moses, Joshua and Caleb.   Let us walk and yes even run into 2018 in faith casting out all fear.  We need you more than ever before.  We need your prayers and yes, we need your support. Almost fifty families depend on Morning Glory for their monthly income. Six hundred and fifty some children depend on Morning Glory for their education. The giants before us are huge but our God is even bigger. 

      Will you walk forward with us in faith and become a part of the Morning Glory Story?  Every donation is significant and life changing.