"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 hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
One of the most fascinating aspects regarding working with children is watching God grow and cultivate their individual gifts, talents, and personality traits throughout their lives. Often, teachers will notice certain qualities and wonder how God is going to develop and use that characteristic in the future. For example, we've watched students fascinated with science and space grow up, attend MIT, and work for NASA. We've watched children who were fabulous at fixing broken items around the school grow up and become engineers or accomplished mechanics. We've had students, who were wonderful tutors, attend the Concordia colleges and now are high school math teachers. We've had kids that were fascinated with dissection become surgeons; while one student who was famous for doodling is now employed as an animator for Sony and Play Station.
During my middle son's parent/teacher conferences we would often hear, "Justin enjoys being the class clown. His passion for Destination Imagination often emerges his classroom assignments. If only he'd apply the same amount of attention to his homework as he does studying sports statistics!" "Justin is compassionate, creative and very funny. However, he just needs to learn when it's appropriate to share the humorous thoughts that are going through his head!" So when Justin decided to go into nursing, we all thought this vocation would be a great fit for his sensitive and caring heart, as well as provide an extra bonus of entertainment for his patients!
A few years ago, Justin's career path took a little more adventurous turn when he decided to become a "Travel Nurse", and now he enjoys designing clever ways of announcing the new destination of each of his three month assignments using his dog, Finnegan, as his model. In the past, we've had illustrations of Finn running in the Kentucky Derby as he announced his job in Louisville. We've also seen Finn's head in Mt. Rushmore announcing a job in Rapid City, South Dakota. Last week, he sent the above photo to our family group chat with the text "Finn and I just accepted a position in Tennessee if anyone wants to come visit." Each time one of these creative "we're moving" announcements arrive, previous teachers will remark, "Yep... that's Justin for you!"
Next week, St. Matthew Lutheran School will host Parent/Teacher Conferences, where our staff will have the opportunity to share a wealth of information and insights regarding your child's unique and God-given gifts and talents.
Conferences will be held on Wednesday, November 6th from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m., as well as Thursday, November 7th, from 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. Parents need to sign up online for a conference and can do so by clicking HERE.
We pray that the Lord will bless each of these conferences and allow them to be an effective avenue of communication where valuable insights will be gained.
In Jesus' Love,
Mrs. Palka