People of Order

Editor’s Note: In May 2021, Elizabeth Ochoa, the 11th/12th-grade Lead Instructor, gave the following speech at the Graduation Ceremony:

Let us begin with a quote from a book called, Not the Way it’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.:

“In the literature of Scripture, wisdom is, broadly speaking, the knowledge of God’s world and the knack of fitting oneself into it . . . In the biblical view, the wise are righteous and the righteous are wise: these are people who love and fear God, affirm God’s world, live gladly within its borders, and make music there according to divine time and key signatures. The wise are always “in order.” Insofar as they live right, they also live well.”

The phrase that captures the attention is: “The wise are always ‘in order.’”  I have had the privilege of spending time among various Christian communities, and I feel that the time I’ve spent alongside people who live in accordance with a true assessment of reality has given me a keener awareness of people who live from a place of internal “disorder.”  There is a certain instability in the thought patterns of those in disorder that leads to a general level of relational chaos in their lives.  They seem to trip over themselves constantly, turning normal, everyday interactions into instances of misunderstanding, overreaction, and conflict.  They are guided by vague principles that change with the ebb and flow of cultural opinion.  They are generally unaware of the emotions that are influencing their reactions.  They don’t know why they are angry, or sad, or jealous.  They don’t stop to ask why so many of their relationships are in disarray. They misread people, mistrust kindness, misjudge intentions, misuse gifts.  And while there are certainly people of this kind of general disorder, we can all relate to areas of disorder in our own lives. 

How is it, according to Plantinga, that the “wise are always ‘in order?’”  How does one live a whole life out of stability and peace?  And most importantly what can be offered to guide students to a stable path of rightly-ordered fruitfulness?

Consider two Biblical contrasts between order and disorder.  The book of Romans speaks about this contrast as both life vs. death, and spirit vs. flesh.  So we have two general categories: order, Spirit and life, on the one hand, and disorder, flesh, and death on the other.  A reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians is a passage in which he addresses the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.  According to the epistle, “. . . the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do . . . Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

When we pause to consider just a sampling of these works of the flesh, namely, jealousy, fits of anger, drunkenness, sensuality, it’s not difficult to imagine how they easily lead to disorder in a person’s life.  And when left completely unchecked over the course of a life, we can imagine them leading to death.

In contrast, Galatians tells us that the fruits of the Spirit are evident in these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  It is easy to understand how patience, peace, kindness, and self-control are stabilizing, order-creating influences in a person’s life. They cause flourishing both for the one who practices them and for those who receive the outworkings of these characteristics from the one who practices them.

Students, my advice to you as you embark on the next phase of your journey, as you seek out mentors, friends, and community, is to ask yourself this question about the people you invite into your life: Are they people of order?  Are they governed by principles that align with God’s revealed truth?  Do they make choices that promote life and well-being?  Are they peace-making and joyful?  Do they exercise control over themselves?  Are they kind? Do they keep their commitments and demonstrate faithfulness?  Are they dependable?  Do they seek your good?  Do they rejoice when you flourish?

The opposite question is equally important: Are they people of disorder?  What governs these people?  Are they led by their own desires and impulses?  Do they believe in subjective truth and the primacy of individual feeling and experience? Do they make choices that cost other people? Are they divisive and troublesome? Do they live from a place of cynicism and negativity? Do they master their appetites, or is the reverse true? Are they unkind? Are they unreliable and excuse-making?  Do they seek your good and rejoice when you flourish, or are they apathetic to your fortunes and jealous when you prosper?

Let’s dig a little deeper.  People can also be well-meaning, affable, kind, even good, and still living out of disorder.  They can have magnetic charisma, attention-grabbing wit, and humor, organization-changing leadership ability.  Like the rain, God’s blessings are universal; they fall heedlessly over the broad swath of image-bearing humanity.  Thus, many are intelligent, many are generous, many are compassionate, many are organized, productive, constructive, kind. 

The bane of youth is that you haven’t lived long enough to see where people end up.  The benefit of age is finally witnessing the outcome of people’s choices.  Everyone looks the same in college, and life rushes toward the young in abundance.  There is a season where most of your peers, whether their choices have been good or bad, grounded in faith, or grounded in self-interest, will begin down similar paths.  They move, they marry, they get promoted, they have children.  They influence, they dress well, they motivate, they attract.  And for awhile, you struggle to hold on to the promise that, “they are blessed who keep God’s testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.”

Consider our Romans memory work, which diverts us from thinking in terms of popular or obscure, relevant or obsolete, good or bad, but rather in terms of dead or alive, flesh or Spirit.  Jesus said a hard thing once (more than once).  He said: “Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me, scatters.”  And I challenge you with this thought: the greater the unredeemed giftedness, the greater the scattering.  Some of the most effective influencers in the world have inspired mass genocide.  Some of the shrewdest financial minds have bilked thousands out of their life savings.  It isn’t enough to have all the appearance of goodness.  There is a deeper substance demanded.

Galatians reveals that the life-giving characteristics already mentioned are fruits of the Spirit, arising from His influence, an influence that is exercised over a person who has submitted their very nature to the fundamental order of the universe: the order of the soul that is regenerated through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ.  

Attach yourselves to people of fundamental order.  Be yourselves people of fundamental order.  Gather with Christ, and seek out those who gather with him.  Order yourselves and grow in the fruits of the Spirit.  Be prepared to be different from the world you are heading into.  Don’t be surprised when your choices bring temporary loneliness or derision.  It is easy to be disordered.  One could say it comes naturally.  It is hard work to be ordered.  But that is where life is found, real life, true life, life that continues into eternity.

Keep God’s Word as the guiding light of your life.  Seek His wisdom in all matters.  Surround yourselves with people who encourage you in your faith.  Look beyond the glint and glitter of the latest influencer.  Measure everything against the Truth.  Don’t be afraid to stop and think.  Consult your conscience.  Grow in discernment.  And remember that, “the wise are always in order.”  Thank you.

Elizabeth Ochoa

11th/12th Lead Teacher

Why We Go Outside

“Every walk should offer some knotty problem for the children to think out –– 'Why does that leaf float on the water, and this pebble sink?’ ” (Charlotte Mason. Home Education. Vol. 1, pg. 153-154.)

I can’t imagine that anyone standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon wonders, “Oh my, the wonder and majesty of erosion!” No, when people enter into those ineffable natural spaces, the mind is drawn into the sheer magnitude and utter beauty of all that we can’t quite take in. Hopefully, those moments take us a step further and we enter into worship, not of the depth of the canyon or its various coloration in contrast with the bright blue sky, but of the Creator, who brought it into existence.

Our high school students recently stood on that very threshold, gathering up all that their finite optic nerves could translate. We orchestrate big trips like this for many reasons, but one of them is the cultivation of humility. You see, the natural world, as the expression of God’s mind, is infinite. We can not come to the end of it as we are drawn further and further into the detail of every element, both on macroscopic and microscopic terms. This is important because it teaches us to live life outwardly, rather than inwardly, and when we live in such a manner, we live humbly.

In the age of video games; on-demand, series binge-watching; TikTok, YouTube, and social media, living outwardly is becoming more and more scarce as people turn inward for answers, and, consequently, a humble appreciation for the gift of life is showing itself less and less. In short, our cultural, collective conscience tends to look inward for answers, for entertainment, for comfort, for wisdom, for truth; we worship economy, science, and industry, all seemingly derived from ourselves and our finite vision of the world, therefore displacing eternal God and enthroning our limited selves.

As parents and teachers, we are obligated to reverse this trend. As summer plans are made and time together is mapped out, plan to get outside often and in meaningful ways. We can all use a healthy dose of the infinite, that our hearts and minds remain connected to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Russ York

Head of School

Nature Walks

Every walk should offer some knotty problem for the children to think out –– ”Why does that leaf float on the water, and this pebble sink?” (Charlotte Mason. Home Education. Vol. 1, pg. 153-154.)

“I know that many parents feel handicapped…by their own defective education in nature knowledge…they must dismiss from their minds any idea that it is the quantity of knowledge acquired that makes a nature student. It is rather the particular habit of mind induced in the act of acquiring such knowledge which is of the most value to us and our children.” (Alfred Thornley, PR 19, p. 722)

A nature walk is simply stepping outside to marvel at God's creation. It can be a walk in your backyard, a walk in your neighborhood, a walk to a local park, or a planned and special nature excursion to a state park. If possible, a daily walk should take place, but for some families, perhaps once a week, or every other week. There is not a set parameter, but time in nature be customized for each family. The idea is to stay consistent and keep up a habit of nature walks so they may become part of your life.

Charlotte Mason believed that children should be familiar with the common species of plants that grow in their own neighborhood.

Sometimes, it is wise to go alone with just your immediate family, and sometimes it’s fun to go with a small community of family and friends! Occasionally, take a small walk around the pond or take a long half or full-day excursion. There are no hard and fast rules.

An extension of the Nature Walk will be to come home with a specimen and watercolor the objects found and observed. We can learn so much from common objects such as twigs, wildflowers, leaves, acorns, rocks, or bark.

It is a good idea to have the children self-direct the walk. Adults are more of a guide than a teacher. Let nature be the teacher. One thing that makes Nature Walks successful will be the parent and teacher attitude toward nature. As we marvel with curiosity about nature and God's beauty, so will our children!

“As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child. Every day’s walk gives him something to enter: three squirrels in a larch tree, a jay flying across such a field, a caterpillar climbing up a nettle, a snail-eating a cabbage leaf, a spider dropping suddenly to the ground, where he found ground ivy, how it was growing and what plants were growing with it, how bindweed or ivy manages to climb.’” (Charlotte Mason. Home Education. Vol. 1, pg. 54.)

From A Delectable Education

Randi Tatsch

Editor/Fourth Grade Teacher

Attention

"Of course, the most obvious means of quickening and holding the attention of children lies in the attractiveness of knowledge itself." (Charlotte Mason. Home Education. Vol. 1, pg. 145.)

From Home Education by Charlotte Mason

What is the natural consequence of work well and quickly done? Is it not the enjoyment of ample leisure?

Good marks should be given for conduct rather than cleverness - they should be in everybody’s reach: every child may get his mark for punctuality, order, attention, diligence, obedience, gentleness. As a matter of fact, marks of any sort, even for conduct, distract the attention of children from their proper work.

First, we put the habit of Attention, because the highest intellectual gifts depend for their value upon the measure which their owner has cultivated the habit of attention. Attention is the act by which the whole mental force is applied to the subject at hand. This act, of bringing the whole mind to bear, may be trained into a habit at the will of the parent or the teacher, who attracts and holds the child's attention by means of a sufficient motive.

Let him know what the real difficulty is, how it is the nature of his mind to be incessantly thinking, but how the thoughts, if left to themselves, will always run off from one thing to another, and that the struggle and the victory required of him is to fix his thoughts upon the task in hand. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the habit of attention.

It is to quote words of weight, “within the reach of everyone and should be made the primary object of all mental discipline”; for whatever natural gifts of the child, it is only in so far as the habit of attention is cultivated that he is able to make use of them.

The child who has done well gains some natural reward (like that ten minutes on the garden) which the child forfeits who had done less well; if the mother equalizes the two children she commits a serious wrong, not against the child who has done well, but against the defaulter, whom she deliberately encourages to repeat his shortcoming.

Randi Tatsch

Editor/Fourth Grade Teacher

Living Books

Characteristics of Living Books

"Ideas must reach us directly from the mind of the thinker, and it is chiefly by means of the books they have written that we get into touch with the best minds." (Charlotte Mason. School Education. Vol. 3, pg. 177.)

From Living Books Library: Characteristics of a Living Book

Favorite living books inspire students to request chapter after chapter after the lesson is finished. They are the type of books that help them to retain the facts, details, and storyline, often many days, or even weeks, after we have read it. Teachers are often surprised at the extent of what is remembered. A living book allows learning to take place; not just learning is happening though, a lifelong love of learning is also fostered.

Literary Power: When the language itself is worthy of notice, the words are so perfectly chosen, the mind takes hold and images are created —true literary power. Charlotte Mason said that a book without literary power was like having beautiful pictures painted that you could not see because your eyes were covered or being introduced to people who do not live and act in your thoughts—lack of literary power is crippling for our intellect because it lacks the “Beauty Sense.”

Living ideas capture the imagination by planting a seed that germinates in the mind, causing one to continue to wonder and ponder it, and to pursue further knowledge about the subject. There are so many books full of living ideas, and what is even more wonderful is that different ideas in the same book grab hold of each of us in different ways.

Living books are those that exemplify virtuous living. The characters, like us, struggle to make the right decision, but ultimately do, or dire consequences occur. Characters don’t always make the right choice or emulate virtue in every circumstance.

Living books are inspiring when the author is passionate about their subject and they transmit that passion to the reader. A passionate author does not water down or pre-digest their subject as they write it for the reader, they want to pass on their own knowledge and do it in such a way that their interests become ours.

When we think of books that are narrative we think “books told like a story.” This is indeed the case of many excellent living books, both fiction as well as non-fiction. The use of wonderful language and imagery can evoke such vivid pictures in our mind’s eye that we see what is being described and understand it better than if all the facts were just listed. When narrative quality is present we are able to comprehend, organize the material we just took in, and relate previous knowledge and experience to it, and then are able to tell others about what we read or heard.

Finally, living books are generational because they are enjoyed over and over throughout life and from one generation to the next. Most classics got to be called such because they have been enjoyed by people over and over throughout history. They speak to us because they contain a bit of the truth of the human condition, and so different details like dress and technology don’t stand in the way. The essential truth conveyed in the ideas remains ever relevant to us.

All of these six tests of a living book can be distilled into the one overarching principle: Living Books capture our imaginations. We are changed and moved by these books so that after reading one, we are never exactly the same again.

Randi Tatsch

4th Grade Teacher/Editor

A Servant's Heart

From: In the Name of Jesus by Henri J. Nouwen

“In all truth I tell you

When you were young you put on your belt and walked where you liked;

but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands

and somebody else will put a belt around you

and take you where you would rather not go."

(John 21: 18)

These words touch the core of Christian leadership and are spoken to offer us ever and again new ways to let of power and follow the humble way of Jesus. Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go. The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross.

The downward-moving way to Jesus is the way to joy and the peace of God, a joy and peace that is not of this world. Here we touch on the most important quality of Christian leadership in the future. It is not a leadership of power and control, but the leadership of powerless and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest. I am speaking of leadership in which power is constantly abandoned in favor of love. It is true spiritual leadership.

Powerlessness and humility refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with him, they will find life and find it abundantly.

As servant leaders, we will become dependent on the positive or negative responses of those to whom we go and thus be truly led where the Spirit of Jesus wants to lead us.

The Christian leader thinks, speaks, and acts in the name of Jesus, who came to free humanity from the power of death and open the way to eternal life.

How are we to become more like Christ as a servant leader?

Randi Tatsch

4th Grade Teacher/Editor

Maturity

A Passage from Ann Landers

"There is nothing which a mother cannot bring her child up to." (Charlotte Mason. Home Education. Vol. 1, pg. 105.)

At Ambleside, students are gently guided in the direction of developing maturity and growth. Growth is the fulfillment of living things. It is what is intended for us as human persons. Physical growth is seen through height and weight differentiation; whereas, intellectual growth, spiritual growth, and relational growth are seen through changes in behavior and thinking. They result in skill development, in the ability to talk and write about a subject, and in the pursuit of further knowledge.

Maturity is many things. It is the ability to base a judgment on the big picture, the long haul. It means being able to resist the urge for immediate gratification and opt for the course of action that will pay off later. Maturity is perseverance - - the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging setbacks, and stick with it until it is finished.

Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction. The mature person can face unpleasantness, frustration, discomfort and defeat without collapsing or complaining. He knows he can't have everything his own way every time. He is able to defer to circumstances, to other people -- and to time.

Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, "I was wrong." And, when he is right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so."

Maturity is the ability to live up to your responsibilities, and this means being dependable. It means keeping your word. Dependability is the hallmark of integrity. Do you mean what you say -- and do you say what you mean?

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. Immature people spend their lives exploring endless possibilities and then do nothing. Action requires courage. Without courage, little is accomplished.

Maturity is the ability to harness your abilities and your energies and do more than is expected. The mature person refuses to settle for mediocrity. He would rather aim high and miss the mark than aim low -- and make it.

Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed, no matter what it takes, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-07-17-9907170129-story.html

Randi Tatsch

4th Grade Teacher/Editor

Three Questions

Kindergarten with Mrs. York:

Christina Rosetti's poem, "Love Came Down at Christmas" poses two questions: "What is Incarnation?" and "What is Divine?" Perhaps the full depths of these questions are too deep for us to fathom in one week of time together in the Kinder House, but we have pursued great discussions surrounding these questions this week as we anticipate the coming of Christmas. It is beautiful and good to see the divine in our relationship with numbers and letters, his daily incarnation amongst us! He truly is Immanuel, God with us! All around! We have also been considering Leo Tolstoy’s "Three Questions", by John Muth. He asks, “Who is the most important one?, What is the best thing to do?, and When is the right time to do things?” Although all the students claimed Jesus as "the most important one", we were able to discuss how we can honor Jesus by honoring the people who are made in his image. We put this into practice during our time at Celeste Care where we joined residents in singing carols and making cards together. During our time together, the "most important one" became the person we were with, the "right thing to do" became to talk with them and make cards with them, the "best time to do things" became right then. May we all remember to ask these simple and profound questions during our busy waiting for the advent of the Savior.

Brain Gym

Ambleside families frequently ask the question,“What exactly is the Arrowsmith Program?” No, it’s not a tutorial on Classic Rock, but a cognitive program based on the principles of neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity, is essentially the brain’s ability to change by reorganizing itself through the formation of new neural pathways. Through targeted cognitive exercises tailored to each individual student, areas of cognitive function are strengthened and allow students to overcome their learning struggles. Just as no two students are alike, neither are their strengths and weaknesses. The goal here is to strengthen the capacity of the student to learn, understand, absorb, retain, and process; thereby laying the foundation for learning. The Arrowsmith Program targets the specific areas of struggle, so through daily cognitive exercises learning can take place more easily. Often people hear of the Symbol Relations class or “Clocks” exercise taught on our campus. It's one of 17 cognitive functions addressed within the program. In layman’s terms, it’s the critical function that helps us understand the world, oneself, and others. It's involved in processing concepts across all academic areas, such as understanding quickly what we read or hear, gaining insight, reasoning logically, seeing connections between ideas, processing cause and effect, developing flexibility of thought, and mathematical reasoning.

In essence, if we were to imagine a “brain gym," this exercise would be the heavy barbell working out the higher order “muscles” of our brain. You may consider the Arrowsmith classroom that "brain gym."

Born Persons: Week 1

Children are born persons

Have you ever wondered what makes Ambleside such a special place? I often ponder that question and have since I first stepped foot on campus some six years ago. I didn’t know half of what I know now, and I still don’t know half of the whole, but have come to know more about what makes this place feel different. I would like to use this column over the coming weeks to highlight some of the truths I have come to know that explain how Ambleside creates an atmosphere where people see education, and children, differently.

In each of Charlotte Mason’s six volume series she begins with a brief outline of her 18 principles of education. Her first principle states that children are born persons. This principle, so simple, yet so often trespassed, is the foundation on which all the others find their bearing; it is the solid rock upon which stands Charlotte Mason’s house of education and it is the principle that makes Ambleside different from many in the realm of education. CS Lewis echoed this sentiment when he reminded us that, “[we] have never talked to a mere mortal.” We are both material and immaterial beings. We possess characteristics of the finite and the infinite. We are are more than animals. We are not just our brains.

You may ask, then, why does the immaterial component of persons have relevance in education, and not just in the church or in the home? The answer is this: the notion that children are born persons relies on the existence of the mind at the time of birth. The mind is a component of our spiritual being that, from the very beginning, instructs our material being (such as the brain) in the truths we were made to know, thus making it the conduit for the Holy Spirit and the chief instrument of education. Educators must see this reality in order to respect personality.

The practical consequences of adopting this view of persons necessarily restricts the way we can, with respect to personality, interact, teach, care for, and bring up our children and students. More succinctly, if we are to adopt this notion, there are things we must do and things we must not do. I will tackle the practical application, or musts and must nots next time. ~Mr. York

Los Pollitos to El Colibri

"There is a subject or class of subjects which has an imperative moral claim upon us. It is the duty of the nation to maintain relations of brotherly kindness with other nations; therefore it is the duty of every family, as an integral part of the nation, to be able to hold brotherly speech with the families of other nations as opportunities arise; therefore to acquire the speech of neighbouring nations is not only to secure an inlet of knowledge and a means of culture, but is a duty of that higher morality (the morality of the family) which aims at universal brotherhood; therefore every family would do well to cultivate two languages besides the mother tongue, even in the nursery."- Charlotte Mason

From singing "los pollitos" in Kindergarten, to reciting the poem 'El Colibri' in first grade, from speaking different series in 2nd and 3rd/4th grades to unfolding the beginnings of Spanish Grammar in 5th grade, we have delightfully begun to be acquainted with the language of Spanish. Through song, recitation and conversational series, the children's eyes and minds are bright and open to the beauty of knowing and speaking a foreign language. We continue to speak and discuss how knowing Spanish creates an avenue for us to know our "foreign neighbors" and how the door of hospitality becomes an open one to our neighbors. We remain so very grateful to be exploring the world of Spanish!!

~Mrs. Acton

Our Town

In one month, our high school students will perform Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Before creating the cast list, building the set, and performing before an audience, the high school students read the play in order to understand the important messages that Thornton Wilder implicitly weaved in the dialogue of each character. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs, an important couple of the play, tell us that they had never seen each other before getting married. Mr. Gibbs explained to his wife that he worried they would run out of conversation, but they never did. Even after many years of marriage, they still find conversation that bonds them together. We stopped and discussed what we can learn from two people who had an arranged marriage. We realized that sometimes people view getting married as the end goal in a relationship; we find a person we like, date, and marry! Sometimes people do not think about life after marriage but assume everything will work because two people love each other. What Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs taught us is the wedding day is only the beginning of a beautiful journey. Our happiness or goal is not about the perfect wedding but about the years and years of endless conversation and devotion we promise to give to our partner on our wedding day. The wedding is only an official start to a prosperous life of building love, a home, and a family. ~Ms. Dickens, Grades 7 &

Campus Dedication

"But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.”

In his book, Mere Christianity, CS Lewis draws our attention to the nature of this quote from 1 Chronicles 29:14. He says, “every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given to you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already.” The author goes on to illustrate his point by telling the story of a young boy who asks his father for “sixpence” in order to buy him a birthday present, pointing to the fact that because he has essentially purchased his own birthday gift, the father is sixpence none the richer. Similarly, all we have to offer God is from Him and we do well simply acknowledge the nature of the relationship and offer thanks.

Last Saturday, we gathered together to acknowledge that reality- that all we have, and thus all we have to give back, is from His hand. The Lord has been the sustaining force behind Ambleside in all its endeavors, and Saturday morning we paused to contemplate the nature of this arrangement and to give thanks for all of the things, people, places, and ideas, which have come from His hand, then we offered them back to Him.

It was such a joy to be together as we sang Be Thou My Vision, prayed from the four corners, and over each place of learning and living. Each day is a new day of discovery and thanksgiving on this campus, and ceremonies like the one we engaged in on Saturday will further solidify our new home, in our minds, and in our hearts, as truly a gift, a miracle.

Furthermore, as the Lord did in the beginning, and always over the years, he continues to use the gifts, talents, resources and wisdom of committed, thoughtful, and faithful teachers and parents here at Ambleside who work hard to give this gift to their children and to the children of others. I want to extend a special thank you to Brittany Durst for coordinating more than we know and for getting all the food and refreshments just right, the school board members who got here especially early to help set everything up, and all the wonderful folks who volunteered their time getting the school looking great for the event. It’s a joy to be a part of such a fantastic community. Have a great week! Mr. York