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 and New Year season is […]

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 abandonment. What a joy to […]

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 barn and lose the farm.” […]

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 mission and activities, but many […]

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 PM on Friday night, July […]

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. They hear inner voices echoing harmful […]

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 been meaningful enough for me […]

A lively and entertaining presentation of the Peter Pan story was given last night by Stephen Coates’ Intro to Acting class. Many of the students had never had the opportunity to participate in a theater production, and they did great! Following the production was a reception, at which time one of the actors gave tribute […]

When confronted with a soft truth or low expectations, where rejecting or accepting that truth requires no real life change, rejecting or accepting it costs little or nothing. If a young person is asked to never be caught speaking profanity, to be reasonably kind to others, and to attend church on Sunday, those will be […]

One of the realities that Oakdale students face is the dimensions of “smallness” that come with being an Oakdale Christian Academy student. Certainly, there are hindrances to being small – few athletic offerings, limited fine arts options, and not as many electives – that larger schools can provide. For a school our size, that we […]