Pat's Return

What a week it has been for our South Side family. Our prayers, thoughts and conversations have continued to circle around Pat and her family. She reassures me that she and her family continue to feel God's presence and strength through this first week without Jay. As the Psalmist also knew well, "The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Wednesday, as you know, marked a week. Her kids have begun "dipping their toes" back into the work schedule. There is both comfort and another new sorrow with the return to the "normal" routine of life. Pat is planning to return on Monday. Please pray over her this weekend. Let's cover her with our love, hugs, reassurances and expressions of sympathy on Monday. We have missed her smile, laughter, wisdom and experience in the office. It will be good to have her back as much as she feels able and ready for, but we acknowledge this day will also be uniquely difficult as all of these "firsts" will be. I know we are all eager to welcome her back with open arms and offer her a soft place to fall when we see it in her eyes and heart.

Grandparents Day Practice on Wednesday
In order to allow the kids to be somewhat accustomed to standing on the risers and being on stage, can we hold our Grandparents' Day practice next Wednesday, October 11 from 2:15-2:55? Let's meet in the gym and we'll arrange our students on the risers. I will provide a map (roughed up) and put it in your box. Please arrange your students so that our busy bodies are placed next to students who may be able to help them sing well and stay focused.

Grandparents Day on Thursday
As we have in the past, students will begin in the classroom with their grandparents/friends. From 10:15-10:45 they can engage in desk activities together and show Grandma and Grandpa the ropes. Grandparents will move to the gym at 10:45 and be seated by 11:00 for our program. First and second grade hallways classes have exited out the playground doors and entered in the kindergarten door in order to get into the gym. This allows us to avoid the grandparents' traffic. After the program, we'll exit stage left and have a little lunch! PHEW! October has a lot of biggies to take off the list! :)

Chapel Change
The tech team at Beautiful Gate is in transition and unsure that they can meet the October 18 date as was originally scheduled. THEREFORE, we will hold chapel at the regular time on October 18, 11:00-11:30. Sorry for the reroute. They are hoping to Skype with us in January.

Eagle College Banquet
You are invited to hear the God's story of faithfulness that continues to unfold at Eagle College. On Thursday, October 12th at Immanuel Church, 325 104th Avenue they will share some exciting updates! Punch begins at 6:00. Dinner is at 6:30. If you are able to attend, it is a joyous event for our sister school in Mexico.

Q Commons

A note for your consideration:

We wanted to take a moment and make all of you aware of a special event coming up later this month at Holland Christian. On Thursday, October 26, we will be joining over 150 other cities around the world to host Q Commons. This marks the first time that Q Commons will have a Holland location in its 10-year history, so we're pretty excited to be the place where our community can come together for some engaging conversation.

If you aren't familiar with Q Commons, the best analogy might be that they are like Christian TED Talks. For a sense of what Q Commons is all about, check out the 1 minute video on our official city website: http://qcommons.com/holland.

The event will be from 7pm - 9pm on Main Street at HCHS, and the theme for the evening is Healing our Divided Nation. The conversation will feature three global speakers:

• David Brooks on Cultivating Virtue
• Kara Powell on Confronting our Technology Addiction
• Propaganda on Our Complicated Moment

and three local speakers:

• David Ryden (Chair, Political Science Dept. at Hope)
• Hugo A. Vásquez (Pastor, Eagle's Wings Church/Iglesia Alas de Águila here in Holland)
• Karyl Morin (Formerly of CultureWorks but now doing independent work in art, design, and education)

Normally, Q Commons recommends a fee of $29 per attendee, but we will be charging only $10 per person. Register here if you are interested in attending, and feel free to spread the word with your friends, at your churches, and anywhere else you think people would be interested. We will be featuring the event on our Holland Christian social media accounts as well, so you'll have the ability to share it that way too.

November PD
Breakfast begins at 8:00. Our training on The Differentiated Classroom for K-12 begins at 8:30. We plan to close by 11:30.

October 23 & 24 will be hearing screening for our students. 

Report Cards 
They will go home for everyone on Wednesday, October 18. Please let Miska know when yours are completed so the mass printing and folding can begin. :) Thank you!