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Hi everyone! I trust your week is going well. Can you believe we’re into the last week of August?! There’s still plenty of nice weather to come this year, but I’m always amazed (and just a bit saddened) by how quickly July and August slip into September.

This past week Diane and I were browsing through some old family photographs, and we ran across some absolutely adorable “first-day-of-school” pics of our kids. It seemed appropriate given the season. Of course, the pics were especially adorable because they were taken back when our kids were 6, 7, and 8, and full of excitement at the prospect of starting into school. We don’t have any “first-day-of-school” pics from the teenage years. Those would have looked much less happy and excited. But the images we do have brought back all sorts of wonderful memories of the growing up times with our family. And they reminded me that in this next few weeks many of the families in our congregation will be very busy with preparations, start-of-school activities, new relationships and situations to navigate, and the launch of new academic adventures at various levels.

I imagine we’ll focus on back-to-school themes when we pray together this coming Sunday. Meanwhile, I’d like to encourage us all to be much in prayer for our school-age kids, our older children attending various versions of college and university, for parents and other family members, and for all the folk who are involved in the larger education system as teachers, administrators, assistants, etc., helping to make the wheels go around.

Our modern education system is a huge blessing. It’s really quite amazing that so many educational opportunities are available to everyone, that our society invests so much energy to equip our young people (and sometimes also our older people!) for careers and social engagement and for life skills to help them grow and thrive. I’m grateful for the education I received at every level, and all the ways it has enriched my life. I’m glad I live in a place where it's pretty widely available, not just reserved for a few rich individuals from a certain social class.

At the same time, we live in a broken world, and that system also presents many challenges. As in all areas of life, our kids will meet up with peers who are positive influences and peers who are actually very bad influences—and parents have limited control over the friends our kids make. The system is managed by people who represent different value systems and worldviews, and the majority of decision-makers today do not reflect all the values and beliefs that I hold as a Christian. So public school curriculum is rather like the programming we get on TV or on the internet: lots of very good things, and also some things that may not be at all helpful. This continues into the higher education system, where faculty who are supposed to teach critical thinking are very good at pushing students to deconstruct their prior belief systems, but not always so good at helping their students to build constructive new ones.

So the education system presents challenges to our kids and their families, from one end to the other. It can be a huge blessing, and also something of a battleground of ideas, values, relationships, and directions.

That means we need to be much in prayer. In prayer for our kids, that the Lord will protect and guide them, lead them into good friendships, give them understanding beyond their years, help them to discern what is helpful and what isn’t, allow them to succeed in the right areas and to stay away from what will undermine faith and push them away from the healthy paths. We need to pray for parents, grandparents, and other family members, that they will be wise, patient, courageous, gracious, and godly in the example they present as well as the words they offer. May they know which battles to fight and which things to “let go.” We need to pray for the teachers and professors and others who make the education system work, that they will be led in the right direction, and used to led others in the right direction. In particular we need to pray for Christian brothers and sisters who serve within the system, that they will know how to stand for what is right in wise ways, and that their influence will multiply.

We sometimes need to get involved directly as well, of course, where it’s appropriate and as God guides and gifts us. But we certainly need to pray. Today’s education system shapes tomorrow’s world.

Please pray also for the folks who are involved with our kids and young people and families here at West Van Baptist. Our educational ministries aren’t just a way of keeping the kids entertained while the rest of us worship. Our goal is to help families with the incredibly important task of teaching and modeling the “Jesus Way” to our young people, so that when they are confronted with different options and possible paths at school and elsewhere, they are able to compare genuine and life-transforming Christian faith with the other options. I’m so grateful for everyone who teaches classes, who helps to organize, who spends time with our young people showing the love and care of Jesus. They deserve our appreciation and support. And they really need our Lord’s grace. Please be praying for them.  And please pray that God will tap others on the shoulder, whispering that they should consider becoming involved, investing a little time and energy in the lives of our young people in a way that will bring eternal dividends in the long run.

There’s lots to pray for. I’m so glad that in the arena of our educational system, as in all aspects of our culture, God is alive and working and making a difference.

Oh, and while we’re thinking about prayer for schools, please remember to pray for the folks who were affected by this morning’s shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. It was terrible news. May God pour out a spirit of calm and healing and help there.

Hmm. You can tell that I continue to care deeply about educational issues, even though that’s not the world where I serve anymore. I’ve gone a little long. Sorry about that. Quickly, for those who are reading ahead I’ll add that this Sunday we’ll be looking at Psalm 25. This Psalm tells us that God is a worship-worthy Teacher who cares about us and instructs on the right paths for our lives. So I suppose it’s an appropriate back-to-school psalm for the week.

See you soon! Meanwhile, have a wonderful last week of August. Richest blessings!

—Pastor Ken