We Have Contact...

Today, this project took a huge leap: We made contact with Principal Dan Kittle and I am pleased to say that he has been most gracious in allowing us, a group of young people, to come and help out Mount Vernon Academy this coming fall.

While details are scarce plans have been laid to have a follow-up conversation this coming Monday to narrow down our list of goals. It is so exciting to see God working and bringing this all together. While I have to admit that I have been worried about all of this, it is good to see that God's timing is and always will be precisely when we need it.

Continue to keep this project in prayer everyone. 

Change...

I suppose a blog post is better late than never. I'm sorry this took so long to create. Much change has taken place since the last time I posted here on this blog. I'll try and keep this brief and update you on what is happening.

First, as I am sure you have heard by now, MVA has suffered another great loss in the resignation of a long-time teacher and strong supporter of the Academy, Pam Castillo. Please keep her and her family in prayer and be sure to thank her for the incredible contribution she has made to this school. MVA could never have stood as strong as it did without her amazing gift of service.

Secondly, Dan Kittle has officially begun his tenure as the new Principal of MVA. While we are still working to contact him directly, we are looking forward to collaborating with him as we move forward on this project.

Additionally, I would like to mention again the Devotional Book library we are trying to get started in both dorms (more information can be found on the "Projects" page of this website). Adan Rodarte has already contacted the Pastor of the Garden Grove Church in California soliciting help for this project. If any of you are able to contribute towards a devotional book library in the dorms of MVA, we would greatly appreciate your assistance.

Furthermore, it should be noted Pastor Fred Shoemaker of the Mount Vernon SDA Hill Church (the Academy church) has agreed to work with us improve communication and the relation between the church (which, should be noted, maintains a strong support for the Academy) and the school itself. We are working on possibly finding more ways to involve church members at the school and also involve the students in church functions such as Wednesday night Bible studies.

Another item we would like to bring to those following this project, particularly those in Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, is to keep us up to date on any students that you believe could benefit from being a part of the MVA family. We are trying to narrow down places we would like to visit while we are in Ohio, and we would love to be able to share with these students about the opportunities that Mount Vernon Academy provides.

Lastly, please continue to submit this project to God in prayer, because without Him, it is doomed to fail. Thank-you for your continued support. We look forward to seeing God's leading as we near the time for this project to truly begin.

Prayer, People, and Spiritual Goals

Forgive me, but this will be a longer post:

If you look at the "How You Can Help" tab of this project, you'll notice that the list begins and ends with a solicitation for prayer. Ricky Woodruff and I were chatting today about the spiritual projects we want to try and do in collaboration with the new chaplain at MVA (the new chaplain who we both have yet to meet I should add). One of the things we both gladly reiterated to each other was this project cannot succeed without prayer...lots of prayer, so much prayer that the project is saturated with it. I once again, as I did in the first blog post, want to put out a call to all of you to pray for this project and the people involved. In Psalms 127 we are reminded that

"...unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain."

We desire not to labor in vain but instead to labor under the guidance of the Lord, without whom this school would have no purpose and would not even exist.

Ricky Woodruff is just one person I had the privilege of communicating with today. I also had the privilege of talking with Aaron Myers, the IT director at Mount Vernon Academy. I am so grateful for people like him who dream big dreams for MVA. Without people with vision like him, MVA would never have existed in the first place, nor remained open for what has almost been 120 years. His ideas along with Ricky Woodruff's now appear in the revised "Project Goals" section of this blog.

For those of you that are involved in this project, be it in Ohio on your feet or from a distance on your knees, I want to let you know that my friend, Ricky Woodruff (also an alum of MVA) will be contacting you to organize a vibrant prayer group for this project. Without the Holy Spirit, we are sure to fail. Without God's guidance, we are sure to fail. But, as the scriptures say:

"if God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)

A New Volunteer

As I sit here in Kirkland, Washington preparing to head to camp for the summer, I reflect on how it is always amazing to see how God sends people your way. I have seen through this project that God had picked out the team this would need even before I started looking for volunteers. Having Adan Rodarte, a theology student at WWU, commit to coming to Ohio with me was a tremendous blessing. Hearing from people like Pam Castillo, Ricky Woodruff, Pastor Fred Shoemaker, Ashley Evans, Alex Roddy, Dr. Linda Felipez, and others who want to help has increased my faith. Finding support from people like Megan Morton, Ian Bilinowich, Macy McVay, Cody Clifford, Brittni Bryan, Sara Mayne, Raj Attiken, and others has been uplifting and encouraging. Today, however, I was blessed again by the incredibly generous offer of a young man named Joe Gutman, who has volunteered to help redesign a promotional website that was created for MVA last year (www.mva.freehostingcloud.com). The new site will continue to feature student testimonies about MVA and will also have a place where others can share their story about what MVA did for them. I am forever grateful for the incredible generosity of Joe Gutman, a WWU design major and native of Battleground, WA. God continues to bless in amazing ways through the generous support of people, too numerous to name on this little blog. It's good to know we serve a God with a master plan even bigger than the feeble efforts we attempt to offer Him.


"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'" (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

Keeping You in the Know

As many of you know, I've started working on a project to help out one of our academies. It's not coincidental that it also happens to be my alma mater, Mount Vernon Academy in Mount Vernon, Ohio. This is a blog to keep those of you that will be supporting this project from a distance in the know about what is going on. As always, one of the most powerful and profound ways you can support us is prayer. Pray for this project. Pray for Mount Vernon Academy. Pray for Adventist Education. And pray that God leads us in our every step, our every action, our every word, and even our every thought.