Today the bulk of our students will re-join us for the new year. Senior 1 and 5 students will not report for weeks or a month, but Senior 2, 3, 4 and 6 students will arrive by 2 pm today – at least in theory. We feel ill-prepared for this day, even after so much work and planning. It’s the first chance for our newly formed leadership team to put their thoughts and ideas to the test. The first chance for David to let them learn through both success and failure. We have also made it mandatory for a parent or guardian to accompany their child on-campus, so we have the added pressure and real blessing of sharing this experience with all of them.

Would you pray powerfully for us today?? There are so many details of entrance: checking trunks for contraband, taking note of parents names, villages and best contact (in a place where many people still have no cell phones, contacting parents in illness and emergency is not easy), assigning dorms, cleaning classrooms, signing student contracts – all of these are details but they are important ones. Most of all, pray that staff will be present and take ownership. Pray for dorm parents to welcome their students well. For the first time we have required dorm parents to be waiting in their dorms to welcome students and meet parents as they arrive. Pray for this to be a time of connection, a time of blessing.

I want to zoom into “take-care” mode and try to make all the details right. God’s forced me out of that by giving me only three hours of my day when my children will not be at home, needing my general presence. So pray for me to facilitate by offering prayers, courage, hope and confidence. And by leaving the rest to God.