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It is the first day of school for me–Orientation Day. I met all the staff and teachers for this upcoming school year. I wasn’t sure exactly where I would be placed. I just made myself available to wherever the Lord leads. Today, I found out that I’ll be working with Kindergarten in the morning and possibly teaching Art in the afternoon. In addition, I am also going to attempt to Direct the Before and After School Care program with the Lord’s help. It was a great day and you can feel the excitement. The Pastor and Chancellor of the school lead in prayer and devotional. I know that the Lord will bless the school because in my prior experience when Christ is at the center of the school, he will certainly pour His blessings on it. One thing that was shared with us today was that ECS stands for “Excellence in education from a Biblical world view, Caring (showing the love of Christ to our students), and Spiritual integrity (we won’t be ashamed). You can’t ask for a better place to work! I am certainly proud to be a part of the Emmanuel family.

As I discussed yesterday, we were discussing the distance to Lynchburg. Today, I went to mapquest to figure out the distance between home and Lynchburg and here it is: Total Est. Time: 3 hours, 18 minutes Total Est. Distance: 161.49 miles. Of course this is at 55 miles per hour and the speed limit was changed to 60 in most areas. You be the judge.

It’s back to school time. This weekend we took our daughter back to Liberty University. We went a few days earlier which we’re glad we did. We stayed at a hotel and just relaxed the whole weekend–going to the pool, out to eat, and getting her situated back in her dorm. Of course, I can’t leave Wal Mart out. Where else would you go to do all your school shopping but WalMart.

Today we went to Highland Heights Baptist Church for the contemporary service. The worship experience was awesome. We left that afternoon shortly after we had brunch and got her situated in her dorm. On the way home, we discussed how long of a drive it is to take her to college–we think it’s 3 hours. However, if you ask other members of the family, it’s 3.5. Next time we’ll pay more attention.

It’s that time of year again when we take our daughter back to Liberty University. We’ve had a wonderful summer but I’m sure that she’s anxious to get school out of the way, so off to school she goes. As always, we have to take two vehicles down with all the stuff she has. It seems like we’re packing her entire room. She has a new roommate this year so it will be an exciting time for her. We would like to request prayers for her safety throughout the school year while she is away. We will certainly miss her around the house.

I can’t close without sharing one thing that I’ve read today in one of my books “A Journey Through the New Testament” by Elmer L. Towns. It talks about when Jesus is at the well with the Samaritan Woman and Jesus is teaching His disciples about Ministry. In the book it mentions “Ministry is what God does through a person rather than what a person does for God.” It really spoke to my heart because so many times we focus on what we do for God that we forget that it is God who works through us to reach someone at their point of need. Not sure why I wanted to share this but God knows.

Down our road, at approximately 3:30pm, the street began to bulge and water was coming out everywhere. We found out that there was a water main rupture. Our neighbors called the Water company emergency number and guess what?–they’re in Ohio somewhere. They ended up calling the County Police to report the problem. The water authority came out and started barricading the road. A car stopped in the middle of the road to find out what was going on. When he started moving his car, a big chunk of the road caved in about 5 feet.

We were out of water for approximately 6 hours. I had managed to start filling buckets and my bathtub. However, the tendency to go to the faucet and wash my hands was still there. I was reminded of the early settlers having to boil the water to do dishes and cook. Thank God we never had to go without the shower. We were so thankful to have our water back. We take everything for granted and when we are without, we really notice and almost cannot function.

It’s that time of the year when kids are preparing to go back to school. Today, we had our physical and while we’re sitting in the Dr’s office, waiting, we heard the song “Do the Hustle!.” For those of you that don’t know, the song is a 70s song that we used to enjoy when we were growing up. If you have watched the new show “70s House”, whenever the song “Do the Hustle” plays, everyone, no matter where they are, have to get up and “Do the Hustle” dance. Anyway, when we heard the song in the Dr’s office, I got up and started doing the “hustle” dance. No one saw us, though.

As you read before, my daughter will be starting private school in a few weeks and yes, there is a dress code. All this week, I’ve been shopping through all kinds of malls and stores trying to find khaki or navy blue long skirts. Just so you know–there are no LONG khaki skirts out there. The dress code states that it has to be mid-calf and cannot have patch pockets which limits my search. This is a call to all clothing manufacturers out there–hello!!!!! Make some khaki skirts for school teens. I could make a lot of money if I was in that business. Anyway, the only place that I could find was LL Bean online.

Today, my daughter finally got the courage to drive daddy’s truck. We’ve tried one time before but she almost managed to take out the mail box. It is a rule in our house that before you can get your driver’s license, you have to learn to drive a manual (stick) car. We started off in the neighborhood and we have a lot of stop signs. Whenever she had to stop and started back up, the truck would jerk. We had two kids in the car and they thought it was fun. It was like a ride at King’s Dominion to them. Every time, we the truck jerked, the kids would just laugh. To me, it felt like the little dogs with the bobbing heads in the car. Hopefully, she’ll get better–we’ll let you know.