The Lord certainly blessed us in 2015, and I’d like to highlight some of those blessings with our year in review.
January: 1. Our girls’ basketball team made the Class A Regional championship game for the first time ever. 2. Our dean of students went to be with the Lord. Her funeral was a celebration and a reunion of many past Oneida folks. I’ve always wondered why we most often wait until someone is gone before we show our love, respect and gratitude.
February: 1. As we neared our spring break, we went two days without water. Food and drinking water were not a challenge in those two days. We were well stocked and prepared. Dorm life was the challenge. We had kids melting snow to use for bathing and we hauled buckets of water from our swimming pool to flush toilets. If we had gone another day or two without water, I probably would have sent our kids home for an early spring break, but the Lord saw us through.
March: When spring break did arrive, we had snow, ice and flooding. A church in Lexington housed our kids scheduled to go home by plane for two days. Many of our kids stayed with us a day or so longer due to bus cancellations.
April: Our Board of Trustees voted to allow me to expand our K-5 to include local, commuting students. They also voted to add a classroom portion to our new boys’ dormitory.
May: We sent 51 graduates off to meet the world.
June: 1. We had 60 students work diligently in our summer work program. This teaches our young people the value of hard work and a reduced-tuition education. 2. Carnahan Hall was demolished.
July: 1. Construction began on our Carnahan-Daugherty facility. 2. Summer school saw 75 kids recover credit or get a jump start on the 2015-16 school year.
August: 1. The new school year opened with the most students we’ve had on opening day in many years, and also more local students than we have had in two decades. It marked the first time since the 1950’s that we had an elementary school with local kids. 2. Many young people gave their hearts to Christ during our first week of school.
September: 1. Both of our soccer teams won Class A regional championships.
October: Hundreds of guests flooded our campus for homecoming. This marked the first time in decades that homecoming had been held during the school year.
November: Our volunteer season wrapped up. We were blessed by 529 volunteers this year.
December: We celebrated our Savior’s birth with an International Christmas Around the World, A Walk to Bethlehem, and Hanging of the Green.
Thank you, Kentucky Baptists, for helping make 2015 a banner year for our ministry.
Larry Gritton is the president of Oneida Baptist Institute.
Larry Gritton