They said the very first blog post of the year should not<\/u> be depressing. It\u2019s a good rule to follow, but one I decided to break anyway. And while this might seem like a downer of a way to start, this post is going to get inspirational, I promise. So, stick with me.<\/p>\n
First, allow me to introduce myself; my name is Mike Riezebos and I\u2019ll be serving as your interim Executive Director until June. This marks my 16th<\/sup> year at ACS, and I\u2019m excited to serve alongside the board, leadership, and admin staff. I have three daughters, one at each campus, and my wife is a teacher at the elementary. We\u2019re \u201call in\u201d as a family at ACS.<\/strong><\/span> This school and community have a special place in our hearts.<\/p>\n This year, our leadership team chose Hosea 6:3 as our theme verse:<\/p>\n \u201cLet us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tied to this, our theme song is Battle Belongs<\/a> by Phil Wickham. I think the image of pressing on to acknowledge him and the reminder of God\u2019s assured faithfulness is something we need to lean into as a school, and as Christians in this world.<\/p>\n Personally, this is something that resonates with me a lot.<\/p>\n Reflecting on this past season of my life (the last five years or so) have left me feeling powerless, and helpless at times. Leading our secondary campus through COVID, educating during the TSI Building Project, societal division, changes in leadership roles, the sudden death of my mother, and a recent cancer diagnosis within my family. It feels like a season of battles that are beyond me.<\/strong><\/span> I need to remember that the battle belongs to the Lord.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s been a difficult season for many of us.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m honest, I don\u2019t see a lot in the world that makes me think that this challenging season is over anytime soon\u2026I know this is true for many of you who have been impacted by personal loss, COVID, societal and family divisions, polarizing politics, flooding, avian flu, interest rates, inflation, and I\u2019m sure the list goes on. For many of us our relationships, finances, and feeling of stability have been significantly impacted.<\/p>\n I\/we often feel powerless\u2026maybe that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be\u2026.<\/p>\n I read something recently from a devotional from the Fuller de Pree Centre:<\/p>\n \u201cWe all experience times when we feel as if our labour is in vain. It may be that the work for which we are paid is not going well. Or perhaps our efforts to raise our children feel painfully fruitless. In times when our labour seems to be in vain, we remember that we work for God\u2019s purposes and pleasure.<\/strong> <\/span>We entrust to the Lord the results of our work, knowing that we will be rewarded, not for our success but for our faithfulness to God.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n We work for God\u2019s purposes and pleasure; he will appear as sure as the sun will rise and the rain will come.<\/p>\n Press on towards God, because he\u2019s inviting you to be driven closer to him.<\/p>\n Yes, I said, I was excited about this school year\u2026. It\u2019s not because of the hardships we\u2019ve gone through or are going through, it\u2019s the reminder and perspective that we need to acknowledge God and to press on in the assurance that he will appear just as the daily sunrise and the Fraser Valley rains will come.<\/p>\n So, will you join me in pressing on this year? Pressing on, not just to make it through, but to be reminded and take comfort in knowing God will appear.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t wait for the next rainy day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They said the very first blog post of the year should not be depressing. It\u2019s a good rule to follow, but one I decided to break anyway. And while this might seem like a downer of a way to start, this post is going to get inspirational, I promise. So, stick with me. First, allow […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":7185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,16],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-7184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-school-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7184"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=7184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Season of Battles?<\/h2>\n
The Sun WILL Shine<\/h2>\n
\n\u201cNot a very inspiring first post, Mr. Interim Executive Director.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cWhere did you find this guy?<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/span>\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n