NCCS Development Banquet

Friday night our school had its annual Development Banquet.  Our school is such a tremendous blessing to us.  It is the absolute perfect place for my Punkin and is made up of so many families who also homeschool.  I have said before that it is the best school on the planet, and I will say it again.    It's like a big family to us.

Our Headmaster, Mr. VanBemmel, spoke on "Unify for Success: Growing Strong Together."  He spoke from Ephesians 4:15-16, which speaks of the church: "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."  Christ is our Head; He is our true Head of School. For Him to be our Head means we take our orders from Him, through His word. We also seek to honor Him in all that we do, seeking a Christ-centered, Christ-honoring approach to everything we do. Having Christ as our Head also means that we trust Him to provide for us, to guide us, to protect us and to establish the work of our hands for His glory and purposes.

My Punkin and some of her friends sang several beautiful songs (and there in the background is our good friend Doug, who is INCREDIBLE on the piano!)

.....and for your listening pleasure...... be sure to turn your sound way up...

The girls choir

And, this would be the one and only Pastor Barker - I had the pleasure of sitting with Pastor and Mrs. Barker for the banquet - I had just commented to him minutes before about how one of the keys to great photography is all about the timing...... now he knows I mean it!! (He thought he could jump in front of the camera for half a second, but I was faster than him!!)

These two - my Punkin and Megan, were charged with taking over heading up the girls choir next year.  The two girls in charge of it now are graduating (the first ever graduating class at NCCS!!)  Did I mention that there is no adult leading this choir - these girls do this themselves.  Aren't they incredible?  These are the kinds of kids that make up our student body.  We are so blessed to be a part of them.  These girls range in age from 7th to 12th grade - they love each other and have so much fun, while honoring their Lord with their time and efforts.

And one of Punkin's best buds, Doug on the piano...

Pastor and Janet Barker

Great friends in our school and church family - our girls are all growing up together!!

This proud Mommy just had to show off my Punkin's first-term sophmore report card.  I asked Punkin if I had her permission and her answer was "If you must."... Well, I must.  She works sooooo very hard and I am so proud of her.  She has several extra-curricular activities outside of school, and even volunteers every weekend at the therapeutic riding center.  Not only is this school challenging her in the area of academics, I see her growing into an incredible young lady striving to be more Christ-like, challenged in such good ways by her peers.  I see her fellow students and friends daily knock my socks off.  These kids are truly developing into servant leaders with a biblical world view.  Their wisdom in ALL areas of life is simply astounding.  Such polite, respectful, intelligent, tender-hearted kids.    I was recently with Punkin and a group of her friends with one of my adult friends who is not very familiar with these kids.  After spending a few hours with them, with tears in her eyes she said "This is what the world needs, more kids like these, they are incredible".   I have to agree.