Did you know that I was kicked-out of high school when I was a teenager? Yep. That’s right. When I was in high school I threatened the vice principle at Norcross High School and was permanently expelled from the public school system. Awesome, huh? I was such a punk! I had to go to night school to get my diploma and everything. What’s up with that? (Don’t judge me... that was before Christ, lol! And, I did end up going to college, actually 2 colleges, and graduating so I’m not a total moron.) Anyway, I hated school growing up. I was suspended so many times that it’s not even funny. I can remember being suspended from middle school in Florida and my Mom having the awesome idea that if she sent me to a “christian school” that I would do so much better. Well, they actually kicked me out of the christian school too because when they took our class picture (of the entire school at the same time) I thought it would be a great idea to flip a bird during the photo. You know, the middle finger. The problem is that they didn’t catch it until after the yearbook came back from the printer. And there was little Jimmy Dunn giving his version of “our school’s #1!” haha! They weren’t amused and they had to go through every yearbook and take a black magic marker and scratch out my little hand gesture before they gave them out. That was what it was like for me and school... never a good partnership.
That’s when our family moved to Georgia and I kept the streak alive by getting kicked out of school there too. I was more interested in partying than I was being “normal” and actually getting an education. I was so bad that they actually banned me from coming on the school property. It’s like I had behavioral leprosy and couldn’t interact with the rest of society (at public school). I guess they thought I might contaminate someone with my idiotic shenanigans. So I was banished to the dark world of “night school.” Where all the rejects were. It was horrible but I deserved it.
That was over 30 years ago (and all before Jesus). A lot has happened since then too. Fast forward to today. Today we had all the high school and middle school teachers and administrators at the camp. Yep, you heard me correctly... 30 years ago I was despised by teachers and today I was hanging out with every middle and high school teacher from our community! Ha! Who would’ve thunk it? God definitely has a way of turning things (and people) around, huh?
Anyway, let me tell you why they were here. One of the things that we feel like God wants us to do is use the camp to leverage the Gospel. So we’re offering the use of the camp (to the school ) as an incentive for the students to improve on their grades and increase attendance. It’ll work like this:
The students who have good attendance and maintain good grades will be brought out to the camp and get to experience all the stuff we have to offer from a activities standpoint . We’ll also have food, live music and stuff like that (kinda like a mini-christian camp). Then we’ll honor them for their achievement and during the presentation we’ll also share the Gospel with them. It’s definitely a win-win. The students win, the teachers win and the Kingdom wins. So I guess it’s actually a win-win-win. Cool, huh? We’re very excited about the opportunity to partner with them. So please pray that God is glorified and that Jesus is lifted up as we endeavor to serve God and the people of our city.
Back at School,
Jim
PS- The pics up top are of the 45-50 teachers, administrators and faculty of the Middle and High School in Terra Boa as they visited with us at the camp. They were pumped to hear and see what we had to offer. It was a great day: )
PSS-And if you (or somebody you know) has a student who may appear to be a blight on society and never do anything but be a problem... don’t stop praying for them. Because that’s the exactly the person that God is looking for to do something in that nobody else could even attempt to take credit for (I Cor. 1:26-31) just like He did with me.
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