Along the edge of my driveway, between the cement and the fence, there’s a small strip of dirt. It’s pretty unassuming, and I remember looking at it after the last snow had melted and wondered if anything could grow from that humble soil. My wife, however, is an avid gardener and had eyes to see more than me. She planted seeds, and seedlings, and pulled weeds, and watered and then, almost overnight, it burst into bloom. Life! Beauty! Joy!
God blesses us with such a rich and vibrant natural world, at least in part, to teach us about who He is and about how we are to act out our faith. Looking at that growth, looking at the strength of those once feeble plants, and looking at the change that the growth has had on our little house, I started to think about Lutheran East.
If there’s a collective mindset at Lutheran East, it’s all about growth. The mind of Lutheran East is set on the belief that we can grow, expand, develop and mature into the future. The growth is evident in numbers, most notably the 248 students we welcomed to school on August 24th. It’s evident in the twenty-first century learning and technology that’s integrated into every class as each of our students use their Chromebook laptops to research, write, and learn. It’s evident in our building as we converted two computer labs into classrooms that are now used throughout the day and our library which has been transformed into our Academic Success and Tutoring Center.
Numbers do such a good job of quantifying growth, but they don’t tell the whole story. They don’t tell the story of students hearing about Jesus’ love for them for the first time at Lutheran East. Numbers can’t tell the story of a student that now has a safe school in which to grow and learn who in turn blossoms with that new freedom. Numbers can’t tell the story of a parent’s joy when they get a positive call from one of their student’s teachers for the first time. The growth at Lutheran East is in the numbers and in the stories between those numbers.
As we look forward, we know that there will be challenges. There will be good days and days that are less than good. We’ll approach those challenges with the faith and knowledge that we can learn and grow, not only in spite of the challenges, but because of them. As we pray and work towards continued growth at Lutheran East, may our faithful God continue to receive the glory and the praise.
-Andrew Prusinski