Easter – proclaim the good news
We keep our students pretty busy most of the time, and that is certainly by design and intentional on our part. There are many things that we require our students to do, such as going to classes, going to church and chapel services, doing daily chores and much more. However, for a young person to thrive and be successful in our school, he or she really must get involved in voluntary activities.
Larry Gritton
At Christmas time our campus is full of activities and celebrations, but oftentimes we have just as much going on at Easter. Some of what went on when we celebrated the resurrection not many years ago is still fresh on my mind.
On that Good Friday, we had a special chapel service during our school day, and then that evening we had a cross-carrying and communion service at our local church, Oneida Baptist Church, that lies just at the base of our campus. That Saturday involved our normal activities, and then on Easter Sunday we had a sunrise service on our track, followed by a wonderful brunch in our cafeteria. To finish off the weekend, we transported all of our boarding students to a local church for an Easter passion play. Transporting the kids took some doing and involved multiple 20- mile roundtrip efforts by nearly all of our bus drivers and available buses.
Why would we have that much activity and more on one weekend? The answer is simple. It’s because we want to show our students the power of new life. We want them to know that God created them, Jesus died and rose again for them, and that they can live eternally with God our Creator and Jesus our Savior if they will place their faith and trust in Him.
This Easter might not be the same whirlwind of activities that I previously described, but I promise you our students will hear the good news of Jesus proclaimed. This good news is not only proclaimed, but is demonstrated each and every day by each and every staff member and through each and every activity that takes place on this little campus. The love of Christ compels us to show our students what it means to know and love Jesus.
As you celebrate this Easter, I would encourage you to make Christ preeminent in all things in your homes, places of work and everything you do. I would also ask that you take a moment and pray for our young people who don’t know Christ, and that they would come to know Him before leaving us.
May God bless you as you celebrate Jesus’ rescue mission for each of us.
Larry Gritton is president of Oneida Baptist Institute in Oneida, Kentucky.
Larry Gritton