2.1.12   Harvester 2011 Valedictorian Kelsey Dobbs continues to excel while serving others as a college student at Auburn University.  Still seeking to improve the world around her, Miss Dobbs was involved in two Feed the Hungry food drives for underprivileged families in her area and a Support the Troops campaign to gather and send comfort items for military personnel overseas.

Volleyball MVP while at HCA, Kelsey Dobbs became an official member of the Auburn volleyball roster as of January 1, 2012.  Balancing academics and athletics has proved challenging, but for Kelsey is a dream come true.  Having the opportunity to play at a Division I school is quite an accomplishment for this Harvester graduate.

The all-around dedication is obvious academically as well as Kelsey brought home a 4.0 GPA for the fall semester.  She has the distinction of being ranked the top female in the class of 273 Auburn University pre-med chemistry students.  She performed so well that her chemistry professor allowed her to exempt the final exam.

Kelsey Dobbs has the long range goal of a doctorate in Pharmacy and is well on her way to achieving that.  She hopes to intern this coming summer in the Douglasville community.  Congratulations Kelsey from your Harvester family!

January 25, 2012.  Among the best privileges of my career is participating in the Van Lunen Center’s Executive Management for Christian Schools.  Twenty-four Christian School leaders gathered at Calvin College last July for our first week together.  We began as strangers and departed as close friends.  Last week we reconvened in Scottsdale, AZ, for another week of study, prayer, and laughter.   After climbing Camelback Mountain, enjoying after-hours fellowship at the local cantina, learning from the genius of John Cissell and the faculty, and being engaged by the never-ending joy of David Hahn, we left as an even closer group than before.  While being in Arizona during January is certainly among the benefits of being a Van Lunen Fellow, that pales in comparison to the relationships and the content.  Our worship times were also exceptionally rich during this particular week.

Beginning with the plane ride home, processing began and will continue for a while.  It may take until our next meeting in July to even read all the material provided.  We considered big ideas such as sustainable business models for private schools, marketing strategies, conflict resolution, and the implications of serving a new generation of parents and students.

Yet two things that continue to cycle through my thoughts happened on our last day … Having been provided an opportunity for prayer and reflection, I walked around the desert labyrinth in the Franciscan Retreat Center praying and gazing at the landscape.  Having never been to the southwest before, I was taken by the terrain and its features.  The great desert of the southwest stands in a stark contrast to the great forest of the southeast, or the great plains of the Midwest, or even the great mountains of the west.  The diversity of the creation struck me as a reflection of the amazing depth and breadth of our God.  He is vast and detailed – creating amazing things.  What is man that you are mindful of him?  Somehow seeing that brought assurance – we have a really big God!

The other was prompted by John Blumenstein’s parting thought (he is one of our faculty members) as he shared Proverbs 14:4 – “Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty” (or tidy is another translation).  Ordinarily I don’t think of myself as an ox (however other animals do come to mind) but the notion is that education, people, relationships, schools, students, and parents is a messy business.  If our manger (school) is empty, then we aren’t really accomplishing much.  It was a reminder that Christian school work is a challenging affair (and no I didn’t call you an ox either).

I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Van Lunen program and look forward to our next meeting in July which fortunately is not in Arizona in the summer dry heat or not and can’t wait to see what God does in the meantime.

Please enter your email below to receive email notifications of future posts.

Luke Eichelkraut, Class of 2010, earned the distinction of Faculty Honors for fall 2011 at Georgia Institute of Technology.  Luke earned a 4.0 academic average for the semester to gain this honor.  Michael Forlaw, Class of 2007, made the Dean’s List for the Fall 2011 semester.  Undergraduate students earning a 3.00 or higher academic average for the semester gain the distinction of being named to the Dean’s List at Georgia Tech.  The Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, is one of the nation’s leading research universities, providing a focused, technologically based education to more than 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Georgia Tech has many nationally recognized programs, all top ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked in the nation’s top ten public universities by U.S. News and World Report.

Caitlyn Duvall, Class of 2008, completed courses with exemplary marks and made the Dean’s List for 2011 fall semester at Georgia College in Milledgeville, Ga., announced Interim President Stas Preczewski. Georgia College, the state’s designated Public Liberal Arts University, combines the educational experience expected at esteemed private liberal arts colleges with the affordability of public higher education. Its four colleges – arts and sciences, business, education and health sciences – provide 6,600 undergraduate and graduate students with an exceptional learning environment that extends beyond the classroom, with hands-on involvement with faculty research, community service, residential learning communities, study abroad and myriad internships.

We are proud of our Harvester graduates for their achievements at these highly respected universities.

Sign up to receive email notifications of future posts:

12.21.2011

Jessica Saylors, with the help of students at Harvester Christian Academy, raised over $400 in honor of a Georgia child who died of mitochondrial disease in 2009.  Brody’s Dream is an ongoing fundraiser at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Scottish Rite, to build a playground in this child’s  memory.

Harvester designated two days in December when students paid $1 and wore school spirit clothes and jeans to raise money for this worthy cause.  The money raised through Brody’s Dream will fund the building of a playground where kids with complex and serious medical issues can play freely without restrictions.
Saylors reports that HCA is the first group outside of the hospital network to participate in this project.

Artist renderings of the playground were revealed in late December. Jessica Saylors attended that ceremony and presented the check from money raised by HCA students to Brody’s mother, Kristi Cole, during the ceremony.  Jessica was thrilled to be one of the first to see drawings of the proposed playground.  Another fundraiser at Harvester is in the works for February.

Photo – L-R: Terilyn Walton (CHOA Foundation), Kristi Cole (Brody’s Mom), Jessica Saylors (HCA), Denise Swords (Vice President of Operations, CHOA Scottish Rite)

Sign up to receive email notifications of future posts:

Your email:

 

HCA Beta Club Students

12.8.2011

Beta Club members spearheaded a drive at HCA for students to donate necessary items for a Christmas “shoebox” in conjunction with the international relief organization’s Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child program.  Students worked during the month of November putting out the word with a goal of collecting 400 shoeboxes.

Harvester students from all grades contributed boxes that will go to needy children all over the world.  Basic items such as a toothbrush, comb and soap were included, along with toys, school supplies, stuffed animals and small clothing items. Sophomore students worked together as a class to make several boxes and
included a class photo and a personal note in each of their boxes.  “It is humbling to think that children don’t have these items that we take for granted, but more exciting to imagine their faces when they see the stuffed bear or markers after they unwrap a box,” said sophomore Kassie Satterly.

Collecting shoeboxes each year has been a long-standing project for the school.  “For seventeen years HCA has participated in Operation Christmas Child.  HCA has filled, collected and sent thousands of shoeboxes during that time.  We are thrilled to exceed our goal this year,” reported Shari Whittle, this year’s adult sponsor. Students collected and counted boxes the week before Thanksgiving.  Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes contributed by Harvester students went to minister to children in Haiti.

Photo: seated – Becca Whittle,Josh Leonard, Brooke Maupin, Keith Blankenship, Kayla Arnold, Devyn Springer, Josh Townsend, Alicia Sipe,
front – Annah Griffin & Andrew Boyer

Sign up to receive email notifications for all posts:

January 2, 2012.  Timing is everything they say.  Gandoff in Lord of the Rings tells us that wizards are never late or early, they are always on time.  Personally, I like to be on time.  In fact, I am one of those folks who believe that early is really on time.  I do not like to be late.  I don’t think that makes me a wizard, just a little too focused on that invention of the industrial revolution – the clock.  Which, in turn, provides an area for sanctification, especially as I fret others inattention to time.

I suspect that there is wisdom in considering the benefit of impeccable timing.  A joke doesn’t work without the properly delivered and timed punch line.  Music sounds out of sync without appropriate timing – and I should know because I really don’t have any sense of musical timing.  Our cars have timing belts – not exactly sure what they do but they don’t work without them.  Plans fall into place as the result of perfect timing.  When timing works, it is a beautiful thing.  It brings about harmony and melody.  Stuff works as it is supposed to work.   As Hannibal Smith of the A-Team says, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Sometimes my timing is off – especially when I try to keep pace with music or when I try to engage relationally.  It makes things awkward when my timing is poor and I often worry about timing things well.  Sometimes it works and others it doesn’t, but I take great comfort in this – God’s timing is never wrong, it is always perfect.  That is part of His nature – He is sovereign.  Timing is one part of the miracle of Christmas.  Historians remind us that the period called the Pax Romana provided the perfect setting for the coming of the Messiah.  We are told that Jesus’ birth was foretold by the prophets and that all of these matters were completely fulfilled in His coming.

Yet consider the words of the apostle Paul as he wrote to the church in Galatia about God’s sense of timing … “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (4:4-5).”  This is the gospel.  There is power in timing, when it is God’s timing.  These verses capture the miracle of Christmas and proclaim the truth of the gospel.

Perhaps as we turn the calendar to a new year, we should rest in God’s timing and ponder the wonder of His gospel for us.

Sign up to receive email notices for additional posts:

Your email:

 

11.17.11  Senior Maggie Satterly had lunch with University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto in Atlanta.  Invited as part of a select group of Atlanta-area students to See Blue, Maggie was pleased to attend this recruitment luncheon.   Although accepted to other universities, Maggie is hoping to be a legacy student and to return to her birthplace for college as a nursing major.

11.10.11   Families gathered in the Harvester gymnasium for BBQ dinner and evening of fun that included square dancing, a cake walk, and line dancing.  Many contributed to this worthy cause – the school Booster club organized the event, high school students served, parents baked cakes, local businesses contributed food and paper products to help offset costs – so that with more than 300 attendees, HCA was able to raise over $500 to present to A Gift of Love.

Kindergarten students were able to deliver the check on their annual field trip to the charity the next week.  Way to go Harvester family!

Jeremiah Burroughs was a first rank English puritan pastor who led churches in the clearly 17^th century.  His classic, The Rare Jewell of Christian Contentment, affords great insight into the Thanksgiving season.  Burroughs writes, “Since God is contented with himself alone, if you have him, you may be content with him alone.”  In other words, since God was enough for God, He certainly should be enough for me.  All of the things we are thankful for are gifts from the king’s table, offered from his affection for us, and as a reminder that he is king.  It is because they come from our king that they are good and on that basis we enjoy them.  Consider that the Godhead opted to create out of their contentment, not out of their need.  We are a product of that great love and affection and as such can turn to the Creator for the full measure of our contentment.  And for that, we give thanks.

It is because of that reality that then we can think about secondary blessings – family, friends, and provision.  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  I enjoy the time of food and fellowship, the changing season, and it is also when college basketball begins.  This year we had an extended time of thanksgiving as we travelled to be with friends and family in Kentucky and then hosted friends from out of state.  We shared stories and laughs, celebrated a milestone birthday, and even included a college visit.  Like many of you, we shared thanksgivings around the table and even around the fire with smores.  I ate way too much, especially lingering too long over the dessert table, and really enjoyed the fried banana peppers at Joe Bologna’s in Lexington.

But, it wasn’t until returning and digging into Burroughs’s book with my men’s group that I really began to think about thanksgiving.  Again, he writes, “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”  I might add that Christian contentment suggests a posture of thanksgiving.  While we are reflecting about the good gifts from our Father’s hand, let us also consider how He pursues us with the aim of bringing us to a place where we celebrate thanksgiving every day.

    Subscribe to our blog:

Harvester Lady Hawks Volleyball 2011 State Tournament Final Four

Harvester Christian Academy Lady Hawks Volleyball, 5-5 in regional play, made it to the final four of the state volleyball tournament for Georgia Independent School Association (GISA) on Saturday.  Playing their best volleyball of the season on Friday, October 28th with team total of 21 aces, 18 kills and 11 blocks, they first knocked off Region 1 #1 seed The Weber School of Atlanta 25-16, 21-25, 25-23, and 25-17.  In the next round they scored a decisive win over Westminster Christian Academy of Watkinsville in straight games 25-18, 25-13 and 25-17. Harvester Headmaster Joel Satterly stated “This is one of the best seasons for volleyball in school history.  I’m proud of the accomplishment for our school.  We were an underdog going in and our girls did amazingly well playing against higher seeds and larger schools.  For me, it has been an added bonus as a father of two varsity players.”

Advancing to the state semi-finals at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta on Saturday, Harvester the Region 4 #3 seed going in, faced two-time defending state champs and Region 5 #1 seed Calvary Christian School of Columbus.  Harvester suffered a heartbreaking loss 25-19, 25-15, and 25-10.  Athletic Director Greg Forlaw stated “We are very proud of our volleyball team and coaches for making it all the way to the final four in the state tournament this year.”

Harvester Christian Academy has only been playing in GISA volleyball for three years. A previous runner-up in ICSGA play, this is the deepest run for the Lady Hawks since playing GISA volleyball.   Head Coach Debra Adams, in her second year of coaching at Harvester, was encouraged by the team’s play “The team was energized coming into the tournament and we played great volleyball on Friday.  We finished strong and now we are looking forward to working together in the off-season to get a head-start on next year.”

Overall Adams considers that HCA had a successful volleyball season.  They added eight young players to their roster and welcomed an exchange student from Germany to fill out their squad.  Battling injuries of key starters Maggie Satterly and Abby Johns however, was a hindrance.  Senior Kayla Arnold, hoping to continue play in college, led the team this year in aces (82), kills (171) and digs (223), while Molly Brown controlled the floor with 288 assists.   On the offensive side, senior Maggie Satterly contributed 57 kills, junior exchange student Jil Spittler showed her skill with serving 35% aces and 37% kills per attempted hit.  New to varsity this year, sophomores Kendall Powers and Kassie Satterly added 94% serving percentage and 73 digs respectively to their team play for the 2011 season.

Subscribe to Our Blog