A word from the President

By Howie Wall

Many things have happened this summer at the college and in my day-to-day life that have caused me to stop and like Mary the Mother of Jesus, "ponder these things in her (my) heart." NIV translates Luke 2.19 as "but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often." I suggest this is an understatement, but it does describe a return of these things to Mary's thoughts on a regular basis.

This summer my wife Judy and I had the chance to fulfill one of our dreams which was to go to Paris, France. While there, we enjoyed going to art galleries, seeing historic monuments and sights, and touring some of France's oldest cathedrals and churches. We had the chance to climb to the top of Notre Dame de Paris and view the city from high above, climbing to the top of one of the cathedral's bell towers. On the way up, we were able to enjoy face-to-face contact with some of the many gargoyles that adorm the exterior. This gargoyle is said to be the most photographed gargoyle of the cathedral, and probably in the world. This gargoyle has watched over Paris from this spot for several hundred years. It has seen the day-to-day comings and goings of life in Paris and the plaza below, along with many monumental events including the terror, anarchy, and strife of the French Revolution, but also seeing celebrations including weddings and coronations of royalty and emperors.

Spending time in Notre Dame de Paris, we saw that Mary the Mother of Jesus is highly revered not only in this cathedral named in her honour, but also in most Catholic churches throughout France. France is described as a formerly Roman Catholic country, where now, the church has little or no influence in the lives or affairs of people.

This summer, like this gargoyle, I have been watching the happenings going on around me. In the last four months, I have seen God work miracles in terms of provision for the college. As a family, we are experiencing the miracle of life anticipating becoming a grandfather of a granddaughter before you return in September. I have been hoping for, but not seeing, a miracle of reconciliation in friends' lives and in their marriage that is rapidly breaking apart. I have discovered that there has been a lot of healing in my family's life over the loss of our son a number of years ago during a time this summer where I was praying for and empathizing with a family, who too experienced the loss of a young adult child.

God continues to work miracles today, and like the gargoyle watching over the city of Paris, I find myself watching day-to-day life around me, and like Mary, considering all these things. I find myself saying frequently, "Isn't that interesting how God is working?"