High School Graduation Class of 2023 | Special Event

High School Graduation Introductions and Character Sketches

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the grand finale of high school years. Tonight's special event, high school graduation. First up, we have Amelia Taco Titan Black. As much as I would love to do this intro, I'm calling in some air support.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, let me introduce to you Amelia Black, aka the Taco Titan. With a fierce appetite for victory, this relentless fighter knows no bounds when it comes to her culinary preferences.

If she were stranded on a desert island, you could bet your last dollar that Amelia would be feasting on tacos till the end of time, and perhaps a little honey marfar sauce on the side. But don't be fooled by her love for tacos alone, for Amelia possesses a that has brought both triumph and turmoil to her journey.

This girl is as stubborn as a mule, whether it's arguing with teachers, mom and dad, defending her opinions, or just being true to herself, Amelia's unwavering determination has landed her in both trouble and triumph.

She's a force to be reckoned with on and off the graduation stage. Now let's talk about Amelia's bravery, or rather her limits. She's a fearless warrior, but when it comes to creepy crawlies, she draws the line.

You could offer her her fortune, fame, and everything in between, but no amount of riches can ever convince her to chow down on a spider. However, if you ever stumble upon a pool filled with Jell-O, you can count on Amelia to take the plunge into its jiggly, wobbly goodness with goujedo.

With her love for tacos, her unyielding stubbornness, and a fearlessness that excludes arachnids but embraces Jell-O, she's ready to conquer the world beyond high school. Give her a round of applause, everybody, but this young graduate is about to make her mark one taco at a time.

Amelia Taco Titan Blast!

Next up, we have Ellie Harrytoes Cave. Ellie is not your average graduate, folks. She's got a knack for spotting unpleasant-sounding words like seepage and moist. Hey, she doesn't make the rules, she just tells it like it is.

Now, here's a fun fact about Ellie. She completely dislikes hairy toes, and guess what? That's why it makes for such a perfect nickname. We all have our quirky preferences, and Ellie's aversion to those fuzzy toes takes the cake.

But let's not forget her cheesy side. She's got Justin Bieber's pop hit, Baby, locked and loaded in her memory. Prepare yourselves for an unforgettable performance later tonight during refreshments. Now, here's the real kicker.

Ellie has a love-hate relationship with mushy cooked vegetables. Carrots and zucchini in particular get under her skin. She wishes she could love them, but alas, mushiness is a deal-breaker. Perhaps it's because they're too moist or there's too much seepage when trying to eat them with a fork, but who knows?

And if Ellie was invisible for a day, well, let's just say her mischievous side would come out to play. Haunting her family would be at the top of her invisible to-do list. Watch out, loved ones. Ellie's invisible antics are sure to keep you on your hairy toes.

So let's give a thunderous round of applause to old hairy toes, the graduate with the keen ear for unpleasant words, a cheesy anthem in her repertoire, and a hatred for mushy vegetables and a mischievous spirit.

Ellie hairy, hairy toes cake. Next up, we have the extraordinary graduation, and it is extraordinary, of Hannah drive-thru duco. Now picture this, folks. If Hannah weren't visible for a day, she would wreak havoc on the unsuspecting world.

She'd play pranks at drive-thrus, leaving the generally overpaid workers confused, perhaps dazed, and scratching their heads, kind of like what happens when Joe Biden is asked, uh, well, just about anything.

And that's not all. She'd set off metal detectors and alarm systems just for the sheer thrill of it. Invisible mischief at its finest. Now let's talk about a hypothetical scenario that would send shivers down anyone's spine.

Picture this, an animal the size of an elephant, but not just any animal. According to Hannah, the scariest creature to reach that colossal size would be your family's evil house cat. Yes, you heard that right.

A feline with the strength and magnitude of an elephant. Time to reconsider that litter box. In the words of infomercial icon Ron Popeil, but wait, there's more. If Hannah had a warning label, it would read, caution will spontaneously combust if asked to make a quick decision.

Oh, the pressure of choices. But that's not all. Hannah's distractibility has gotten her into some trouble along the way. She's a master of getting sidetracked. With her mind wandering in a million different directions, you never know where she might end up.

Huh, kind of like what happens to Joe Biden. Congratulations, Hannah, and may your future be filled with laughter, epic pranks, and maybe a few moments of focused decision making. Give it up for Hannah Drive-Thru Duco.

Now last and certainly not least, let's give it up for the one, the only, and by the only, I mean the only guy graduating tonight, Nathan's famous McOwey. Yay! This graduate has a taste for unique experience and a mind full of curiosity.

Nathan, the elevator enthusiast, knows exactly what song he would choose if ever stuck in one, none other than The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. Imagine him, folks, riding up and down in that elevator, serenading the walls with his rendition of this timeless classic.

Perhaps it would be preferred if he did this instead in the cone of silence. I'll let you be the judge. We'll have two performances now during refreshments. But hold on tight, my friends, because Nathan has a recommendation that's bound to raise some eyebrows.

He believes that everyone should try eating a hot dog sideways at least once. Yeah, you heard that right. Forget the traditional way of devouring a hot dog. Nathan's got a whole new perspective. Who knew a simple change in eating orientation could bring so much excitement?

We should believe him, though. After all, they've named the hot dog company after him. Nathan's famous. Now let's dive into Nathan's imaginative mind. If he could be any person alive or dead for a day, he would choose Methuselah.

Why, you ask? Well, to experience firsthand what it truly feels like to be a senior. And let's not forget Nathan's fascinating take on time travel. If he had a time machine, he'd venture back to the pre-flood world, driven by a thirst for answers.

How tall were people? Did they have hairy toes? How far had humanity spread from Eden? And what did they do for hobbies? I'm guessing they never experienced eating a hot dog sideways, the pure joy of Taco Tuesday, or even had any drive-thrus or drive-ins, regardless of what you may have seen on the Flintstones.

But congratulations, Nathan, and may your future be filled with exciting experiences, unorthodox food adventures, and maybe even a trip back in time. Give it up for Nathan's famous McElwain. This concludes the introduction of our graduates, and it's brought to you in part by the amazing Chat GPT, who knows more about these graduates than have probably ever cared to know, and a special appearance by Sergeant Noah Black of the 170th Airborne Unit.

Let's give him a hand. Would you all please stand as we sing, Christ's our hope in life and death. What is our hope in life and death? Christ alone, Christ alone, what is our only confidence? That our souls to him belong, who holds our daydreams apart from his command.

And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ in which we stand. Oh, sing, eternally content. Life and death is his greatness. Know who stands above the stormy trial, who sends the waves that bring us nigh, unto the shore, the Christ, our hope in life and death.

There we will... You may be seated.

A Graduation Charge from 1 Timothy 4

All right. Today marks quite a transition for you guys. The marking of the end of a lot of work, and the beginning of a lot more work. I remember how it was when I graduated from high school. I thought that the worst of my life was behind me, and that everything ahead of me was rainbows, and roses, and puppies, and unicorns, and lollipops.

And those were good times, weren't they, everybody? You remember that? You're 18, the world's ahead of you, and you think the most difficult thing I've ever had to endure, 12 years of that insufferable experience is now behind me, and all that is ahead of me is good, and fun, and enjoyment.

Yeah. Now listen, by this point in your life, the world has told you tens of thousands of lies. You are inundated by lies constantly and always in media, in academia, in culture, in pop culture, in music, in arts, in entertainment, in literature, in the news media, from the White House, from Congress.

Everybody is always lying all of the time. In fact, my operating assumption is that, assume you're being lied to, and you're probably going to be okay. They have lied to us about the meaning of life. They've lied to us about what is real.

They've lied to us about the nature of reality, the nature of truth, the nature of humanity, the nature of human sexuality. They've lied to us about everything, and you have heard tens of thousands of lies by the time you get to this point, and that's not going to stop.

Now, right now is about the time that you would expect, many of you would expect, that I would start on my typical rant where I remind you that one of the lies that you've been told is how great you are, and how your generation is the best generation that's ever graced the face of the planet, and that you are going to be responsible for leading us into the great American utopia that is to come.

You're going to heal the planet. The sea levels will stop rising, and all the problems are going to be solved, and everything's going to be fantastic because of you guys and your generation. I'm not going to mention any of that.

I'm not going to go off on how that is not true. You're not all that in a bag of chips. You're not the greatest generation that's ever lived. Most of you will probably live and die and be forgotten. I'm not going to mention any of that.

Instead, tonight, I would like to do something far more positive and uplifting from Scripture. So, I want to share with you a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes. Amelia, that was for your sake. It's not the book of Ecclesiastes.

It's from 1 Timothy chapter 4. This is Paul's advice to young Timothy. Now, he was young in the sense that he was older than you, but he was not as old as me. So, he's younger than me, but I would consider him young.

You would consider him old. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 through 10, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women.

On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance, for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Now, in that passage, Paul is writing to a young pastor of a church.

He had left Timothy and Ephesus to deal with some false teachers who had crept into the church and some men who had made shipwreck of the faith and were leading other people astray. And Paul knew that Timothy was in for some difficult times.

He was in for some very challenging days ahead of him. And he is giving Timothy some advice to strengthen him, give him a right perspective. He's giving him instructions on how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.

He says that in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And in chapter 4, he's giving a list of advice to a young minister. And we could probably draw out 10 or 12 items of advice from 1 Timothy chapter 4, and even maybe just from those words that I just read to you.

But I want to focus on three things, three things that you must do, or three attributes you must have, three disciplines you must cultivate if you are to be a good servant of Christ Jesus. And that's what Paul says, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.

And then he gives them a list of things that he has to be mindful of. So here are the three things. Number one, to be nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine. Paul says that. You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine.

Second, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. He says bodily discipline is of little profit, but godliness is profitable, much more profitable because it holds benefit not just for this life, but also for the life to come.

And third, fix your hope on the living God. Those are the three things. Be nourished on the words of the faith and of sound doctrine. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness and fix your hope on the living God.

I'll give you all three of those. Paul says that Timothy, if he is to be a good servant of Christ Jesus, must be constantly nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine. Now these two things go together.

They're not the same thing because somebody can take in words of the faith, can take in scripture, somebody can teach scripture, and yet their doctrine can be completely wonky. So there are two essentials here.

Not only that you be nourished on the words of the faith, that is scripture itself, what is given to us in this faith, once for all delivered to the saints. You be nourished on these words, but also on sound doctrine.

So you as a young adult, from this point forward, if you have not yet, you must have a disciplined regimen of reading and taking in scripture, meditating upon scripture, studying scripture, learning scripture, and conforming your life to the truth of God's word.

You must be constantly nourished on this book. Do not allow yourself to become malnourished in the truth. It will be a lifetime discipline of you taking in truth, taking in the word of God, and appropriating that into your life.

And never give that up, never lay it aside, never make excuses. Make that a focus and a priority. And not just that, but sound doctrine, Paul says to Timothy, sound doctrine which you have been following.

But Timothy had already been following sound doctrine, and this rings especially true in Ephesus. Remember, that was a church that was full of people, or full of teachers, who had led the people astray and gotten them off on all kinds of rabbit trails into false doctrine and made shipwreck of the faith, Paul says in chapter 1.

So he says a good minister is one who not only takes in the words of the truth, but also is nourished on sound doctrine. Meaning that your diet must consist not just of the word of God, but your diet must consist of good sound teaching on the word of God.

Keep that in mind and do not allow your soul to be led astray by podcasts and false teachers and charlatans and hucksters and any old quizzling who steps into a pulpit and thinks that he can teach God's word.

You must be nourished on not just the words of but sound doctrine as well. Which means that you should not ever move to a city for a job without knowing that there is a church there. You move to a city for a church, then you find a job.

And not just a church, but a church that will accurately and faithfully teach and preach and honor God's word at all times. If you will not do that, you will be malnourished in the truth. You do not want to be malnourished in the truth.

You move into an area and you think, I'll just get the job and then I'll go looking for a church and you're going to find out that solid churches where that is done are very rare. Now it would be my preference that none of you would ever leave this church, but in the event that you do, in the event that you do, your number one priority moving anywhere else is to find a place where there is sound doctrine and the words of the faith are constantly preached and taught accurately.

Second, Paul says to Timothy, you must discipline yourself for the constantly nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine that you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women.

Now that's not a slight against old women, unless you are an old woman who constantly gives ear to and circulates worldly fables, in which case that she who has ears to hear, let her hear. But he says, on the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things.

Paul doesn't say bodily discipline is of no profit. There is profit in bodily discipline, in exercise, etc. There's profit in that, but that profit holds true for this world, not necessarily for the world to come, because if you're in Christ, you're going to get a glorified body and it's going to have nothing to do with how you treated your body in this world.

So there is some measure of benefit to physical discipline. You understand this as a good servant of Christ Jesus. You have to be disciplined, but spiritual discipline, Paul says, that's where it's at, because spiritual discipline holds the promise not just for this life, there's fruit in this life to spiritual discipline, but also for the life to come, meaning that bodily discipline, it doesn't translate into the world that's to come.

There's no rewards there, but spiritual disciplines that you adopt in this life, habits that you form, spiritual habits, spiritual disciplines, the constantly being nourished on the faith, the denying yourself, the serving of others, the giving of your time, talents, and treasure to the Lord's work, the exercise of your spiritual gift and service to the body of Christ, those kinds of spiritual disciplines, the spiritual discipline of mortifying sin and putting to death the deeds of your body and turning and becoming slaves of righteousness, those kinds of spiritual disciplines produce fruit, not just in this life, abundant fruit in this life, but also for the life that is to come.

That's where you reap the rewards. So constantly nourish on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, and third, fix your hope on the living God.

Paul says for, it's verse 10, for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially believers. Now he's talking there about fixing our hope in a salvific sense, which is why he says God is the Savior of all men, especially believers, and when he says God is the Savior of all men, especially believers, he's not suggesting that salvation is ultimately going to come to all men, but simply that God as the one who is Savior is presented to all men, he's the Savior offered to all men, and those men who will not embrace his salvation but instead respond to him in impenitence and rebellion will themselves suffer damnation, but it is especially, that is in a spiritual sense, that God is the Savior of believers.

So there's a sense in which God delivers all men from the eternal judgment of their sin that they are due right now for their rebellion against him. He suspends that execution of justice. He is delivering them temporarily from that, but for the believers, he is the deliverer, the Savior of believers in a special sense, namely that because of the work of Christ in bearing the wrath for our sin on the cross, God is able to forgive fully and freely all who place their trust in Christ and Christ alone, upon whom God has poured out all of his wrath for their sin, so that on the day of judgment, when we stand in the presence of God, we stand forgiven and completely clothed in his righteousness, not because of any work that we have done, but because of the work of another, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world to pay the price for sin, died on a cross doing so, suffering fully the wrath of God for all who will believe.

Then he was buried and he rose again the third day, and listen, he is coming again, says, to judge the living and the dead. And so our responsibility, your responsibility is to make your own calling and election sure by seeing to it that you have repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ, because there is only one sacrifice for sin and only one name given among men under heaven by which we must be saved, and that's Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

So Paul says, it is for this reason that we are nourished on the faith and sound doctrine. We discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness because we have fixed our hope for salvation on one person and one work and one thing only, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he commands you this day, if you have not yet, to repent and to turn to Christ, for God loved the world this much that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have life everlasting.

He is the savior of all men in a temporal sense, but especially of believers. So those are the three things. Are you constantly nourished on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine which you have been following?

Are you disciplining yourself for the purpose of godliness and have you fixed your hope on the living God who is the savior, especially of believers? It is my prayer that that will describe you for and that you will not squander the life that God has put ahead of you.

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your gracious righteousness, your gracious goodness, and the love that you have shown us in Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that any who are here who have never trusted Christ for salvation may see in him the only hope and savior for their sin, lest they suffer your wrath for all of eternity.

It is my prayer that these four graduates know you, that they trust you, that they love you, and that they serve you with their whole lives and fulfill their highest calling, which is to live for your glory and for your sake, that they may receive the reward on the last day.

So I pray that you would strengthen them, strengthen them to this end and for this purpose, and that you would be honored and glorified through them and through their lives in all of their decisions as they seek to be nourished on the truth and sound doctrine, disciplining themselves for the purpose of godliness and fixing their hope on you, the only true and living God and our savior.

We thank you.

For these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, a couple of days ago your aunt and uncle came to deliver a fifth wheel for us. There we go. A couple days ago your aunt and uncle came to deliver a fifth wheel for us, and I was fretting a little bit.

Am I not holding it close enough? There we go. Okay. Fretting a little bit about the fact that I was told we had to fill 10 minutes of time. I was thankful that there was six minutes of video that we will do, so I have to fill four more minutes with talking.

Wayne, hi Wayne, give credit for this. Uncle Wayne there, he told me about Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers would sometimes take a minute, and he would encourage people, take a minute and think about all the people that have loved you.

And have been instrumental in your life. I have my timer set for four minutes, so for four minutes.

I would like for all of you to think about those who have been influential in your life and those who have loved you. So I'm going to start it right. Let's make sure I find not the seven minute timer.

Four minutes. All right, here we go. Ready? That's only 15 seconds. That's a long time. I don't think I'm going to do that. So since last year's graduation ceremony, I have been stressed out about what in the world am I going to say to you.

Well, there's one verse that just comes into my mind every single time I think of it, and it's 3 John 4. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth, and that I can say I have no greater joy than you walking.

In truth. I had no ideas, so I just thought, well, in my daily reading I'll see if I find something,.

And so I was in Proverbs 25 on the 25th, and I read it. Great stuff, but nothing stood out. Then I was in 1 Corinthians 11. Now that talks about men and women in church and head covering, shaving your head, and then goes into the Lord's table, and I just didn't think that was fitting unless you're going to shave your head.

No? Okay, good. Then we don't need to talk about that. So at one last place in my Old Testament reading, I was in the last two chapters of Ezekiel. Now those deal with the future Millennium Kingdom, and you're not Jewish, so I don't think the borders of Israel probably apply.

Thankfully, right after Ezekiel is Daniel, and there's no better illustration I can think of of a child walking in truth than the book of Daniel, where you have four men, four young men that were brought into Babylon, and they were called to be trained, and so they were brought the king's delicacies before them, and they were trained in the ways of Babylon.

First, Daniel says in Daniel 1, 7 through 8, to them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies.

As the story progresses, you see that they didn't compromise with the king's delicacies. You see that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were willing to be thrown into a fiery furnace because they would not compromise the truth.

You see that 60 years later, and I love that it's over 60 years later, Daniel still would not compromise the truth when being threatened to be thrown into a lion's den, and that's my desire for you, is that you would be one who would always walk in truth, and that we would be always in joy because of what you do.

And so I want to conclude with Proverbs 23, 23, for the class of 23, buy the truth and do not sell it. We love you. We're proud of you. Continue to walk in truth and seek his face. I misread the directions.

I thought we could take up to 10 minutes, not had to.

Take up to 10 minutes, so I'm going to let you out early this evening, but I just wanted to take a minute to talk about Ellie. It's been a great year, been a very busy year between work and school, and then on top of that you decided you're going to try out for a swim team and basketball, and then you still did youth group and what's a Friday night thing, adventure club.

So I haven't seen her much this year. It's good to see you again, but we are just so proud of you. When you try something, you put your whole heart into it. We're proud of you. Through the magic of our educational system, she's been homeschooled throughout, but the last two years she's been enrolled in dual credit, so not only is she getting the high school diploma, but within a semester-ish of an associate's degree in communications, so we're very proud of you.

Don't know what God's future is for you, but I'm excited to see, because throughout all the things that you do with sports or school or adventure club, what's most important to you is the Lord and sharing him.

The rest of the time I will relinquish to the gentleman and lady from Sandpoint for the next child, but thank you all. The church has been so supportive, and we appreciate each one of you and all you mean to us.

The opportunities you give for the youth, not only to be taught, but to teach, that's vitally important, so thank you. Congratulations.

I said I was not going to cry tonight, and I'm not going to. I mean, I've done that earlier today,.

Although Noah, whoever coordinated that, no, I did not know about that. Quite the surprise, so thank you for that. That was very special. First of all, Rich and I are very thankful to be up here standing with Amelia tonight.

We do want to say thank you to all of our friends and family and church family. All of you have played a role in our life and Amelia's life. We've really appreciated the youth ministry and the girls Bible studies here at KCC.

They've just been very invaluable, and they've spurred on a lot of good conversations at home, and we are thankful for that influence for Amelia. Also, I want to mention my mother-in-law, Amy. She lives in Tennessee now, and I know she's watching this, but I want to recognize her.

Early on when we started to homeschool, they were with us, and she was very instrumental in helping me. She actually did a lot of the homeschooling for me with the kids and just assisted me tremendously, and I'm just forever grateful for her influence in our life and our homeschool.

Amelia, your dad and I are extremely proud to be standing here with you today, and we are pleased to present to you your high school diploma. You have had a unique journey that has not been without its challenges, whether it's through mastering all those words on those spelling tests through the years, adjusting to the changes of living in a new state, working through a new curriculum, or just the challenges in your everyday life.

Through the various challenges along the way, we have watched you persevere and work through them, sometimes with some feistiness and stubbornness, well-mentioned earlier tonight. However, we are most proud that you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and that you can call him your Savior.

It has been a joy to our hearts to watch you grow in your faith and through some of the most difficult circumstances choose to trust in God's sovereignty over your life. I have loved walking into your room and seeing you on your bed with your Bible open, studying God's Word.

This is going to be the most important education you will ever receive. The next chapter of life may cause some anxiousness to you as you begin finding your way. However, as you continue to study God's Word and grow closer to him, you can rest in this plan for you.

As we now conclude the last years of your formal education, we can truly say it's been a pleasure and a joy to watch you grow into the young woman you are becoming, and we are grateful that we've had the opportunity to homeschool you.

Always remember that God is good, he is faithful, and he will hold you fast to the very end. We have just a few scriptures we just wanted to share with you. Colossians 3, 1, and 2. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above and not on the things that are on the earth. And Colossians 2, 6, and 7. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude.

We love you very much. We're very proud of you. Congratulations.

Nathan's Story, Providence, and a Charge to Walk in Truth

Oh. You can't stop us. On the road of freedom. You can't keep us. Well, we've learned from watching superhero movies.

That everybody loves an origin story. And I've got a little bit of a story about Nathan that tells you a little bit about us, our family, and where we came from when we just appeared here in Sandpoint.

Somewhere around 2017, I came home from work and Nathan, who has always loved maps and atlases, was sitting at the kitchen table, the big atlas in front of him, and he said, Dad, I want to move there.

Where? He said, Sandpoint, Idaho. I'd like to move there. And I had no idea where that was. It's kind of far north. And he said, Well, Dad, it's got a lake, and it's got a ski mountain, and it's really far north, and we should check it out.

So one thing that I've learned about Nathan and my wife is that if Nathan makes a suggestion, it's not a small thing. Nathan has thought it through, and Nathan has a good reason for telling you about it.

So we came here around 2017. It's actually a pretty nice place. And it took us a few years, but come 2020, we moved here, and we appeared in your church, and you welcomed us, and you welcomed our sons, and you became family to us.

So I just want to share a short scripture, Proverbs 14, 26. It says, In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. So Nathan, keep your confidence. That suggestion you made became our life.

I'm going to get there, and his children will have refuge. We were just talking about this today. Nathan, as you were preparing to leave home, you're not leaving. You will always have a home here and in our family,.

As far as I can get. So the beginning song in our slideshow starts with all the cliches about.

How fast kids grow up are true. I woke up this morning eye to eye with you. Well, we know that that wasn't this morning for us, but as you have grown physically and also as a person, it has been my very deep privilege to be your mother and teacher, Nathan.

And I think that events like this are wonderful because it gives us a chance to do what Psalm 78 says, which is to recount the deeds of the Lord. In our homeschool, the Lord has been compassionate and gracious and faithful.

Both of us came as sinners day after day, and the Lord met us. He instructed us. In our weariness, he gave us strength, and in our ignorance, he gave us wisdom. At every turn, the Lord was faithful to us because our God is faithful.

Psalm 78 says that we will not hide from our children the wonders that he has done. And a pastor early in your homeschool said that a God-centered education teaches us to kneel, not only to learn to read.

And that has been the focus of our homeschool. We have seen every subject of study as an opportunity to be instructed by the Lord. As Isaiah 28 says, that the Lord instructs in even practical things, how to scatter dill, how to sow cumin, and how to put wheat into rows.