At 7:00 tonight, ten students will arrive at New Song Mission to begin the 2023-24 school year. Five boys (three returning) will move into the Boys' Home with Jacob, Nicky, and their 3 little boys, while five girls will move into the Girls' Home with Jeremy and Maddie. All ten of these students came for camp this summer and are already familiar with the home they'll be living in and the houseparents that will be caring for them. Tomorrow morning they'll show up in the classroom to begin a new school year together. These students encompass grades 1-8 and include several sibling pairs and other familial relationships. This will be the most students we've ever had at New Song at one time.
Please be in prayer for all ten students, a first grader, two third graders, two fourth graders, a fifth grader, three sixth graders, and an 8th grader. They will stay at New Song all week, return home on Friday, and will then come back again the following Sunday to repeat the cycle. They will all go through many different emotions ranging from excitement, nervousness, separation anxiety, and grief. Mondays are usually a hard transition day after leaving home on Sundays, and Fridays are just as emotional as they are very anxious about going back home. Sometimes that's a good anxiety, sometimes it's a really hard anxiety. Sometimes they can't wait to get home, while sometimes they hate leaving the safety and security that they find at New Song.
Please be in prayer for Jacob and Nicky, who are starting their second school year as houseparents at New Song. They did a phenomenal job with the boys and are excited to welcome three of them back, along with two new students. Please also be in prayer for Jeremy and Maddie, who are going to be houseparents for the first time. They both come with tender hearts for the Lord and a deep compassion for children. Jeremy also has a fun sense of humor that can lighten the mood in any situation. They will be welcoming five girls into their home coming from a wide age range. Pray for their patience with the kids, with themselves, with our team, and with each other. Being houseparents wasn't anywhere on their radar, but it's been so clearly evident that God had this planned for them to do this year. We are more than grateful to God for bringing them and for Him opening the door to having girls back on campus.
Please also be in prayer for me and Julie, their teachers, as we attempt to guide these kids to grow academically in a room full for so many different grade levels, amidst many different voices of helpers rotating in and out of the classroom. It's definitely a big learning curve for me to not only have so many grade levels together, but also to not be the only one in charge.
Please keep our New Song founders, Bob and Lisa, in your prayers to have constant wisdom and discernment about decisions needing to be made, good relationships and communication with donors and our surrounding community, and filling in any gaps that happen on a daily basis. Pray for Bob as he takes the students back home every Friday and then picks them up again on Sundays. Pray for Lisa as she temporarily fills in for our vacant office manager position, and pray for God to bring the right person to fill that position quickly.
My chosen classroom decoration this year is a butterfly, with the theme verse being Romans 12:2 about being transformed by the renewing of our minds (transformed coming from the same word as the metamorphosis/complete change that a butterfly goes through). At New Song, our focus is heart transformation through Biblical discipleship rather than behavior modification. The butterfly is the symbol for the Biblical Counseling course I've been going through, so that's why it inspired my classroom decor for the year.
