This week begins the official lead-up to the 2025-2026 school year. On Monday and Tuesday, our new staff will be on campus for orientation. This is an impressive group of educational professionals who I am excited for you to get to know. They bring hearts for Christian education and many God-given talents to share with our community. If you want to read more about them, please see their introductions on our Denver Christian Facebook and Instagram accounts. Our whole staff will be back on campus beginning Wednesday for a week of reconnection, training, and preparation. Please be in prayer as you are able for our work.
No doubt, these weeks begin the transition period out of summer for us as parents, too. The end of summer brings anticipation, nerves, and excitement for our children (and us!) for the year ahead. In the stories of scripture, transitions are often rich moments that God uses for growth. As Joshua leads the Israelites in the crossing of the Jordan toward the promised land, God calls them to take stones, to make a monument, and to remember. At the end of John, after his resurrection, Jesus appears to Peter and other disciples as they are fishing, recreating a scene from their initial calling, even as they are waiting in hope for the Holy Spirit to come at Pentecost.
I invite your family to try this practice of remembering and waiting in hope during this back-to-school transition. Take a meal time, a car ride, or devotional and ask your children to remember with you what God has done in your family’s life this summer. What did they enjoy the most about being with family? What did they learn about themselves? What do they want to remember about this past summer? And then asking what your children are hoping for in the season ahead. What are they most excited about for the fall? What are they most nervous about? What are they asking God for in their start to the year?
Finally, use the opportunity to engage this season of transition into the new year with our DC community. Take advantage of the number of “preseason” divisional school events, practices, and orientations in your child’s area. These are intentional times designed to help you get information about the year, reconnect your children (and you) with friends in the DC community, and begin to normalize a return to school. I am grateful for those of you I had the privilege of meeting at our summer socials over the past few weeks, and I look forward to meeting more of you in the days, weeks, and months ahead as we begin the year together.