Every Monday, I send the Monday Memo to friends of Oakdale who want to be kept in the loop about happenings at Oakdale Christian Academy. If you do not receive the Monday Memo and would like to, click here.) Students receive, every Monday, what might be called their "Monday Motivation…

Recently, Mark Driskill, pastor of the Oakdale Free Methodist Church, talked about the difference between saying prayers and actually praying. He talked about how if we think of what we are doing in our lives as "good enough," then it isn't "God enough." He said that what we ask for…

For 99 years, Oakdale has been defying the odds.How so? Twice we nearly closed, in 1968 and 1987. Since then, we have thrived in ways that small schools simply don't. We've added accreditations, new buildings, increased our staffing, and grown our enrollment to 65 students. By all reason and logic,…

As we end 2018 and begin 2019, I want to take time today to pause, reflect, and renew, and I invite you to do so with me. Pause We benefit from an occasional break in the routine to take stock of our lives and the world around us.  The Christmas…

Fifteen years ago, less than 10 percent of our students were adopted, but in recent years that number has grown to 50 percent! They come to us from wonderful, loving families, adopting them sometimes from birth, sometimes through an international adoption, sometimes through the loss of parents, and sometimes through…

In my early professional career, I worked in the development office at Greenville University. Among the outstanding people I worked with was Howard Krober, who had worked in development for decades and often shared bits of wisdom over coffee. I'll never forget him saying, "you don't want to build the…

Is Oakdale unique? So much so that I contend that Oakdale is unlike any other organization! Such a statement requires justification and support, and you can read here about Five Points of Distinction that make Oakdale Christian Academy unlike any other school. Christ-Centered Community. Oakdale makes Christ central to its…

This was news we had been anticipating for months.  The day could not have ended better, and I could not close the book that night without telling the staff! The email came from Tim Shuman, Regional Director for International Schools of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) at 9:52…

Teenagers today have been hearing voices their entire lives - too many of which are speaking falsehoods that destroy their hearts and minds. The voices of culture tell lies about what is good and honorable, about what is right, about where to focus their attention, about what is important, and about who God is.…

The other day I was tidying up my home office, and I ran across an issue of Light & Life (the Free Methodist monthly magazine) from 2009.  I wondered what reason there might be for keeping that particular issue. A quick glance at the table of contents helped me realize why it had…