Spiritual Stirrings At Franklin Pierce High

Wow! We had a great time walking the campus of Franklin Pierce High School on 9/29. The Holy Spirit is at work among the administration, faculty and student body of this school, and so it was a joy to join in His work by praying for the growth and success of spiritual projects already under way. (Remember you can click on these photos for higher resolution.)

Thanks to the prayer team fourteen who came from as far away as Seattle to join us on this prayer walk. We enjoyed a blessed unity as the FP instructors led us in praying for the unique and special needs of their campus. The morning ended with a joyful sense of excitement about what God is doing and will do at Franklin Pierce High this school year. Hallelujah!

Thanks to the anonymous FP students who painted the Unity poster gracing one of the buildings. It captured our mood!

A Divine Call To 6th Grade

Katie, a 6th grade teacher in King County shared this great testimony last week:

Being a Christian educator in a public school is a unique opportunity to minister to others. I truly believe that we are here because of a divine calling. Of course, sometimes not being able to directly talk and discuss Jesus with students makes me frustrated. Fortunately, the Lord has taught me how I can strategically pray for my students....

Last [year] and this year I did this, praying for wisdom, guidance, and discernment as I teach each child. I then also walked around my room and prayed for a hedge of protection and offered this learning space [as] a gateway for connections into each child's life. Not every day is easy, or free from frustrations, but I can honestly tell you that I have never experienced the kind of connection with students as I did last year and this year. There is a sense of peace that is present every single day. God has been amazing in providing wisdom and guidance as I teach. I would encourage each one of you to daily ask that you be led by the Holy Spirit, and to be effective and deliberate in how you teach. By offering each day unto the Lord, I am finding blessings and rewards that can only come from him. May you truly be blessed and renewed daily from his powerful hand in your classroom.

Why Is Atheism Foolish?

Passage Of The Week

Psalm 14.1: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

We know that atheism is foolish (in spite of the recent popularity of books promoting it), but why is it foolish?

Here are some reasons. Atheism is foolish because:

1. It posits the illogical eternity of matter or the appearance of the universe as an uncaused effect.
2. It can offer Darwinistic explanations for many biological phenomena, but it cannot explain the origin of life nor even define life.
3. It reduces mind and “soul” to chemical reactions, and ultimately undermines human responsibility, love and meaning.
4. It erases all objective morality; though many atheists live by socially accepted moral standards, their worldview provides no compelling reason to remain faithful to those standards when tempted to break them.
5. It risks eternity in the face of endless historical evidence for the reality of the supernatural realm.

Yes, atheism is foolish because “the Bible says so,” but it is important to recognize that entirely apart from our Christian metanarrative the theistic worldview is a sound philosophical choice for which we need not be ashamed.


Strategic Prayer Walk at Franklin Pierce High School, Sept. 29
Please mark your calendar and plan to join us at 10 a.m., a week from this Saturday, for a strategic prayer walk at one of our Tacoma high schools. Meet us at the main entrance of Franklin Pierce High School, located at 11002 18th Ave E, Tacoma, 98445, near the Portland Ave exit of Hwy 512. Christians who work at FP will be there to guide our walk and intercession around this school. The walk will probably last until noon, so bring a friend that you can invite to lunch afterwards. OR, come at 10 and spend as many minutes as you can spare to pray with us. This is a great opportunity to express our solidarity with the FP High Christian educators, and to join them in the spiritual battle for this important school. Join us; you won’t be sorry!


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The Weapons of Our Warfare

2Cor. 10.4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

18 people (shown here praying at the office windows of principal Roger Samples) gathered for our prayer walk at Spanaway Junior High. The Holy Spirit gave wonderful discernment as we spent a powerful 2 hours encircling the school with warfare prayer. We may not be able to initiate oral prayers in the classroom, but nothing bars us from praying for the classroom. Veteran missionary, Dick L., who joined us for this prayer walk shared with me from his own experience how prayer at strategic locations perceptibly decreases resistance to the Holy Spirit’s work in Muslim countries. If prayer can do that in Muslim lands, it can certainly render our schools more responsive to the Spirit’s influence. Prayer is one of our mighty weapons. Prayer will remain the key factor in taking captive the wayward thoughts of our culture, and bringing them into submission to the Truth who is Jesus Christ — whether in the marketplace or in the classroom.

Please email me if you would like to schedule a Saturday prayer walk around your school.

Lynn Graciano, Band Teacher, Spanaway Jr. Hi.

Teacher Recognition & Commissioning
As the new school year begins, some of your church congregations will recognize your strategic work as missionaries to our needy culture, and pray a commissioning prayer for Public School Educators during a Sunday service. Whether or not you get to attend such a service, I want you to know that pastors in Pierce County recognize the strategic nature of your work in the community. You are just as much a true minister of Jesus Christ as any ordained clergy. While we eagerly welcome your every involvement on the church campus, it should not be necessary for you to feel that you have a “real ministry.” You have been called and anointed by the Holy Spirit to be salt and light on the school campus; that is your vital ministry and calling, and we in your community are eternally grateful.

Bethel School District Needs Our Prayers
You’ve seen the news: Bethel District teachers opted to strike, postponing the start of their school year. This puts some Christian educators in an awkward position, and they covet your prayers for a speedy resolution of the issues. Let’s support them in this way.

Praying for you!
Roderick

Summer Intercession

Passage of the Week:

1Tim. 2.1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Great News of the Week:

As our academic year ends, our opportunity to do a very special work begins. We can now focus our intercession upon next year’s students and coworkers. I would like to see a supernatural visitation of God in my classrooms next fall; I know it won’t happen without many people joining me in prayer for that very thing.

On Memorial Day Monday, my friend Marcus Smith joined me in walking a circle around and praying for Truman Middle School (pictured above) in N Tacoma. This quote from President Truman is written above one of the entrances of the school building:

“The fundamental purpose of our educational system is to instill a moral code in the rising generation and create a citizenship which will be responsible for the welfare of the nation.”

Harry S. Truman left us a wonderful mandate. Sadly, federal law now asks us to do this with one hand tied behind our backs. Nevertheless, the Creator is infinitely creative. As we pray, God will show us legal, appropriate and tasteful ways to not only “instill a moral code” in the rising generation but also to help them understand that the welfare of our nation stands or falls with our faith. Let’s pray!

If you would like me to pray with you on your school campus after school’s out, just e-mail me and let’s set a date.

Let’s Help One Another:

If you have a testimony of something God did in your classroom or school this last academic year, please e-mail it to me and I can forward it to our fellow educators!

Well-Driven Nails

Passage of the Week:

Ecclesiastes 12.11 (NKJ): “The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.”

Great News of the Week:

Your opportunity is almost here to give your students a thought to ponder all summer, and perhaps for the rest of their lives. Good preachers and public speakers end their presentations with a “punch,” a pithy and memorable statement that their audiences will remember and ponder long after the meeting is over. Your opportunity to make that “punch” comes right before you tell your students, “Good-bye, have a great summer!” It may be the last chance you have to speak into the lives of this year’s students, but the right words can stick like a well-driven nail.

I’m 54 years old and I can still remember a single line from my 7th grade health teacher. One day, as an encouragement to humility he said to us, “Remember, no matter who you are there is always someone greater than you.” Now, that’s not an end-of-the-school-year statement, and I can’t explain just why it stuck with me, but the point is that a well-chosen, Spirit-led remark can follow your students for the rest of their lives.

So I’m your sticky-note reminder: start thinking and praying now about the well-driven nail you’re going to leave your students with on the last day of classes.

Let’s Help One Another:

If you’ve got a great end-of-the-year saying for your students, please e-mail it to me and I can forward it to our fellow educators!

Please Help us Expand the Fellowship:

Please help us encourage Christian Educators in our public school districts. You can do this by sending us your insights about teaching in public school. Please also send us the e-mail addresses of teachers who would be willing to get networked with us.

We will never try to sell you anything, we will never ask anyone for money, and we will never share our mailing list with anyone who would.

Greater Love Has No One Than This

Passage of the Week:

John 15.13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Thought of the Week:

By now you’re familiar with the story of the Virginia Tech professor who gave his life for his students. As reported in the L. A. Times:

If you were lucky enough to have a choice, there were only two ways to go Monday morning on the campus of Virginia Tech: away from danger or toward it. Seventy-six-year-old engineering professor Liviu Librescu chose the second option, saved a classroom full of students and became a hero — at the cost of his life.

As a child, he had survived the Holocaust. As an adult, he had survived persecution for defying Romania's brutal Communist regime during the Cold War. With their children grown, he and his wife, Marlena, had spent a quiet two decades on a peaceful university campus in rural Virginia.

But Monday, trouble found him once more. With bursts of gunfire rattling through the second floor of Norris Hall, Librescu closed his classroom door, giving his students time to escape through the windows, recalled senior Caroline Merrey of Baltimore, the third student to jump.

"He saved my life," Merrey said.

As they fled, Librescu held the door shut with his body while the gunman, 23-year-old Tech senior Seung-hui Cho, tried to force his way inside.

Moments after the last student leapt to safety, Cho apparently forced the door open and shot Librescu to death.

I will remember Liviu Librescu as the kind of teacher I want to be: one for whom teaching is the students more than the job — even when caring becomes costly.

Encouragement for the Week:

We in the general populace have not forgotten that you are serving our children and our community, sometimes at the risk of harm, and often at the cost of very little recognition or appreciation. We want you to know that we are deeply grateful for what you do!

Praying that God will constantly be the Shield around you at school (Psalm 3.3),
Roderick