Gearing up for Thanksgiving Break 2021

It was such fun to have our 2021 fall fundraiser in tandem with the book fair this year. I loved seeing our community excited about books and enthusiastically supportive of our vision for the OCS library — the Pinterest board was especially popular as a way to show you what we want our library to be. Thanks to you, we raised $12,415 to be funneled directly into library renovations and the purchase of new books. 

Thank you to everyone who donated to the 2021 Library Fundraiser! Over $12,000 was raised for the renovation of the library. We will continue to foster a love of reading in every Eagle student.

Reading is formative. We want our young people to be spiritually robust, culturally savvy, and ready to respectfully present a defense for the Christian faith they call their own. It was a privilege to spend time at the Biblical Worldview Institute this past week with a group of high school students. They were presented with compelling messages centered on Colossians 4:5-6. They heard solid biblical insights and practical strategies of how to walk in wisdom as followers of Christ. Our sophomores attended the DBU Student Leadership Conference this past week, and both groups of high school students engaged with powerful truth and enjoyed the special opportunity of learning from extraordinary Christian leaders. These sorts of experiences have a tremendous formative effect on students. 

I am so proud of our Fine Arts students who traveled to the TAPPS State One Act Play competition this week. Our three-time state championship women’s volleyball team is reaching for a fourth by playing in the regional playoffs this Saturday. That same day, the Eagles take the field in Marble Falls in the football area playoffs. Before Thanksgiving break begins, the Eagle Showcase will spotlight our elementary students in three separate shows for an audience of parents, grandparents, and friends. Our Eagles are soaring high this semester! 

Spend some time during the upcoming break to carve out rest amidst the frenzied pace that our days demand. Set aside your devices and spend time with family and friends, perhaps with a good book or two thrown in the mix. My to-be-read pile has grown quite a lot since the semester started!

Penny Hayes, M.Ed.
Head of School

Eagle Pals

This week, our students are learning the names of their Eagle Pals. The older students, in grades 6 and up, write letters to their bright-eyed pals in grades 5 and below, who look up to them and watch their actions. Little ones are awestruck when a high schooler knows their name or offers them a high-five in the hallway. We pair these students together to purposefully foster community at OCS, but the benefits do not lean in one direction. Older students shoulder the responsibility of having younger eyes on them, watching them interact with each other and modeling their own reactions on what they’ve seen.

Parents are, in turn, modeling life for their children. More often than not, they will do as we do even if it contradicts what we say. Do your reactions to life’s circumstances bear evidence of the Spirit’s work in your heart or are they like bitter fruit from malnourished, thirsty soil? You see, you should not be the highest rung on this ladder of discipleship. You should also have someone “older” to follow, a pal who is a few steps ahead of you in this Christian journey.

Local churches provide the structure necessary for discipleship relationships so that you can look up to someone, watch their lives, and grow in your faith and knowledge of the Scriptures. If you are not part of a church, please consider visiting us at Ovilla Road Baptist Church this Sunday. We have Sunday school classes at 9:00 am for all ages that are going through Dane Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly for the next several weeks. The worship service begins at 10:30 am. 

The OCS Board, composed of the ORBC Elders, recently gifted a copy of Gentle and Lowly to OCS faculty and staff for the purpose of encouragement. Pick up a copy and dive into it with someone at your church. May you, together, discover how tender is the heart of Christ toward sinners and sufferers. He delights when you come to Him in repentance and in need of forgiveness.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

We want your family to flourish. We believe this happens best in the context of the local church, where parents learn to model the heart of Christ for their children to witness.

Penny Hayes, M.Ed.
Head of School

Community on Purpose

Mrs. Penny Hayes, Head of School, addresses the faculty during the first day of in-service in August 2021.

Welcome to the fall semester and the first half of the 2022-2022 school year! It is sweeter than ever to see the students fill the halls, classrooms, and athletic courts and fields. Our faculty members have been praying and diligently prepping for the return of our students.

I want to share with you some guidance I gave to our faculty during in-service last week about how we at OCS think about training students in the Word of God. This year, we are focused on weaning students off spiritual “milk” as described in Hebrews 5:11-14:

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 ESV; emphasis added)

Kids can handle more than moralism. Kids can handle more than behavior modification. They can handle the deeper things of the gospel and glimpse the glory of God. The community around them will either teach them to conform to this world or model how to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. If we want the latter, we must begin by training our individual minds to be transformed by the Scriptures.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1–2 ESV)

I challenged the faculty to ask themselves: are you setting up your classrooms with Spirit-filled direction, centered on the outrageous work of Christ, or as mere humans (1 Corinthians 3:1-4)? Are they working to increase their Biblical literacy so they may contribute to the health of the OCS community and the local churches our students represent? 

The individual mandate in Romans 12 leads directly into the next passage where we are instructed to use our gifts within the community of believers, diligently applying and purposefully contributing to the health of the whole body. A healthy community doesn’t happen by accident; it is a result of the contributions of each of the members. Our theme this year is “Community On Purpose”, which reminds us we all have an active part to play in the type of community we build.

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…” (Romans 12:4–6 ESV; emphasis added)

You, parents, are a vital part of this school community. You are responsible for your individual walk with Christ so that you can contribute to the health of this community. This happens not only through your children but also your personal integrity when you interact with other parents from your student’s classes. If there is a conflict, go to the person involved. If it’s not resolved at that level, take it to a principal, have a conversation. Together, we purposefully create OCS community, so let’s make it one where all students flourish.

Penny Hayes, M.Ed.
Head of School