Liberty Christian School Blog

Thank you to all of the RoboLion friends, family, and supporters!

             This has been an incredible year, considering we didn’t begin our season until the end of October.  God has blessed us every step of the way. We were able to support four teams this year and what a challenge that was  

 at times, but we persevered. Many of our members had no clue what they were getting themselves into, but they came and they learned a little along the way. We cherish the hard work and dedication all of our teams put into this season. As many of you know, two of our teams had the opportunity to participate in the Robotics World Championship.

        We traveled to Dallas, Texas the first week of May to represent our school, our state, and our country. It was a great honor for all of us. We were given an exciting engineering challenge in the form of a game. Competing in a VEX sponsored program, students design, build, and program robots to meet the game requirements and compete all through the season. We competed in local/regional tournaments that feed into the state tournament, and the season concludes with a select few from the state going to a World Championship event. The VEX Robotics World Championship, presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, brings together the top VEX Robotics teams from around the globe to celebrate their accomplishments and participate to be crowned champions  At the championship we participated in a total of 10 teamwork challenges, 3 skill challenges, and one of our teams participated in the autonomous programming challenge.  That means they programmed their robot to drive on its own without a person controlling it.  Our teams accomplished this with courage and hard work.  They displayed good sportsmanship at all times, even when they were feeling discouraged. 

We end our season in the top 600 in the WORLD.  Not in the state, not in the country, but IN THE WORLD. That, my friends, is something to cheer about!

       Our children came home having experienced a life enriching experience. They came home with bigger dreams and a vision of larger scale competition!  At the end of the school year, we had to say goodbye to many of our graduating members. They will be greatly missed but we are glad to have had the opportunity to learn, build and compete together!  We look forward to the returning members and to our new friends that will be joining us in the next challenge of “SLAPSHOT” for the 2022-2023 season!

The trials we have faced over the past two years has disrupted so many aspects of life inside and outside of our school. This has been difficult for all of us, but mostly our students.

LCS has been searching for a resource to help the faculty, staff, parents and mostly our students navigate this new normal we are facing and are pleased to announce that Candice Walker will be re-joining LCS in a part time counseling capacity.

For those of you that did not work with Candice previously, she returns to Liberty Christian School after over a decade.   Although not a native of the Baltimore area she calls it home, because she met her husband, Lawrence here. Soon after marriage, they became members of Liberty Church in 2004. In 2011, the Lord directed her family's path to move to western Pennsylvania and now back to Maryland.

She was a former public and private middle school teacher, and even taught middle school science at Liberty Christian. She was the Director of Middle Grade Partnership and former LCS Board Member. Most recently, Candice worked as a counselor at Life Counseling Ministries at Chapelgate Christian Academy. Candice holds degrees in Psychology and Sociology and training in Biblical Counseling. Her oldest son, Molek still resides in western PA and was a former student at LCS. Her youngest son Jonathan is homeschooled – her full time job. Candice loves watching Jonathan on the tennis court and watching a good documentary with her husband.

Candice is excited to help students navigate social, spiritual and cultural concerns by being a bridge to Christ. She will focus on Jeremiah 29:11 -

^“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

       I sat parked in my car near the lake, watching the water while trying to shut down thoughts about the “problem of the day.” I didn’t want anything or any power to distract me from missing what God had for me in the present moment. And then I saw him. At first there were two and I had been watching them play without REALLY noticing them, without REALLY seeing them. He was just a little squirrel, plump and playful, in the leaves. Squirrels love to find treasures. They will work very hard to reach their treasure only to bury it and forget it. Yet God cares for that forgetful little creature.

       How squirrel- like I can be at times? I run in five different directions trying to store up all that I think my children will need... only to bury it. We buy that game, but we bury it because we don’t have time to play it. 

We see our child’s talent, but we bury it because we don’t know how to support it. We give our children all the right tools, but they too end up buried. Simply because we don’t know how to teach our kids how to build the Godly character they will need to use those tools, without the support of a community. We work hard to get all the right material items and sign up for all the right activities. Still we aren’t perfect parents and we don’t always feel like we have the time or support needed to do all of the things we think our children need, and we bury it. I thought about how God cared for that little squirrel and Matthew 6 came to me:

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” 

Suddenly I could hear the birds chirping and I felt embraced by God’s promises.  Why then do I worry about storing up riches? Why do I squirm around like a squirrel burying treasures for my children that we will soon forget?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children’s inheritance in my squirrel-like hands. No much better that they, like their inheritance, are in God’s hands. Of course I want to give my children good gifts, but I don’t need to worry about what they will lack or who they will lean on. I don’t have to worry about them having the best clothes or a trust fund to draw from. The Lord goes with them. He will provide for them. I’m grateful that God sees my squirrel-like hands and looks on them with love. He takes them in His powerful hands and whispers “You can trust me to take care of your children, for I made them and loved them before they were born.”

      Through faith in the hands of God, I can give my children the gift of learning to trust Him. Learning To Lean on Him.  So, I can loosen my squirrel-like grip on the buried treasures of  the top ten summer camp sign ups, posh playdates, and world class vacations. 

 I can shift my gaze to the One who made my children and thank Him for teaching them His word through their Christian  education. I can store up the treasures of hearing my children speak about the Lord’s plan for their life with confidence. I can store up the treasures of hearing my children pray through their problems and love others like Jesus. These treasures are stored in the eternal home of my children’s hearts. And that heavenly treasure won’t be lost among the squirrel treasures here on earth. Every moment of time I invest in pointing my children toward Jesus is stored up, and I am so glad I don’t have to do it on my own. The Lord works through his people in the Christian community and Christian education to help me when my squirrely hands need a helping hand. 

As the nurse here at Liberty Christian School, I've shared a lot about the biology of Covid-19. However, I think one of the things that needs our attention as this pandemic drags on is the emotional and mental toll this is taking on all of us, including our children.

Many of you may not know this but I volunteer as the Parish Nurse at my church in Reisterstown. I’ve been a volunteer Parish Nurse since 1990, which spans my entire career as a medical professional. I worked in the ICU full time for most of my career and saw so much suffering, therefore I was drawn to what Parish Nursing is: treating the whole person: Body, Mind, and Spirit. The premise is that when one of these is out of balance, so are the other two. I’ve found this to be very true personally as well as for those entrusted to my care.

Included are some tips below that will be helpful for at least one of these three entities and in turn they will positively affect the other two.

Mrs. Antoine and I had the privilege of meeting with Dr. La Keita Carter via zoom only a few short weeks ago. Dr. Carter founded The Institute of Healing AKA “iHeal” located in Owings Mills and was recommended to us by a parent who recently participated in a post doctoral internship with Dr. Carter and iHeal. The institute offers community outreach and can do group education about various topics. They also have several mental health counselors (as well as evening and weekend hours) and most importantly they see ages 4 and up! iHeal takes many forms of insurance while also having resources for pro bono work! Mrs. Antoine and I are in the process of exploring how we may partner with them in the coming months, so stay tuned!

If you’d like to read more about iHeal this is their website:

https://www.myiheal.com/

Though it is a goal for LCS, at present we do not have a mental health counselor on campus. I had been looking for a way to care for our community from the perspective of mental health. When the recommendation to iHeal came from one of our parents, I decided that God was urging me to look into this as a potential option for our community. Both Mrs. Antoine and I were very impressed with not only iHeal’s capacity to care for mental health, but also their education and outreach for groups. 

Now, below are some things you can do for your Body, Mind, and Spirit. 

**It is always a good idea for you to check with your doctor when adding any vitamins to your daily regimen. These are suggestions based on what most adults can tolerate, however every person is different.

*Drink -  Masks are a hindrance to this health goal. I believe it's the reason why more people tend to have sore throats. Further, stay hydrated at home so you don't become dehydrated. I’ve spoken about this idea before, but check out: liquidiv.com - they now have some new flavors like orange and pina colada. It’s loaded with vitamins, non GMO, gluten free, soy free. Putting one of these in your drinks is the same as drinking 2-3 bottles of water. Note the sodium content and match that with your health history to be sure you stay at the proper amount of sodium per day.

 *Vitamin C - I use Airborne for the Vitamin C** and the other good things in it to boost my immune system. High dose Vitamin C has also been linked to good results early in COVID-19 illnesses. As always, discuss your personal health with your physician, but even normal doses of Vitamin C will help give your immune system more "muscle" right now.

 *Vitamin D - this is exciting. LOTS of new research has linked Vitamin D** as a key, consistent factor in those with COVID-19 illness. Those with more severe illness *started* with low Vitamin D levels. Your doctor can send you for a quick blood draw to see where you stand and you can go from there with regard to dosing. In the past when something "tries to chase me" I always increase my daily dose of Vitamin D to 15,000 IU (milliunits) from my typical 2,000 IU. It helps knock out whatever it is and keeps it from taking hold of me. Now it makes even more sense with the new studies surrounding vitamin D and coronavirus.

 *Try to keep some sort of a schedule - This has been a tough one for me. We are all home more and maybe even working from home - so perhaps now our home space and work space have blended together? Try to find a work space that’s separate from your living space if you can. This goes for the kids “school time,” too. Then, close the door (I.e. close down the work/school) at a certain time. Pick up a good book to read or play a game with the kids/family. Redirection toward positive things helps our spirits.

*Sleep - Please get rest. Your body heals itself from the daily insults when you sleep. If you need some help, use Melatonin** if your health history allows it. I take 10 mg but there are 5mg doses as well. You may notice your body needs to absorb it several hours before your actual bedtime. Play around with timing and dosages on the weekend first in order to see how your body responds.

*Manage stress - in appropriate ways. Only you know how to best "fill your cup." I'm just saying now, more than ever, we ALL have to be doing that. This is a hard school year for all of us. Try to use your weekends to have time to reset. Do what fills your soul.

*Be in prayer - Look, we can't do what we are doing alone, friends. This is taking supernatural guidance - I've seen God at work throughout the process on numerous occasions dating back to February 2020 when things really started ramping up. So, this tells me that we need to remember and accept that we *must* rely on Him in all things right now. We are only human. Once we have done all the "humanly things" - God will come alongside us!

*Go easy on yourself and others - We simply cannot raise expectations so high of ourselves or others that it creates even more stress. It’s ok not to be perfect (I’m talking to myself here, too!) This can be a big source of stress if we expect things to be “normal” in an “abnormal” situation.

*Remember we are all on the same "team." Our frustrations with masks or other mitigation measures, processes, or technology are symptoms of a frustration with a virus/a pandemic - not with one another. If we keep that in mind, we will stay cohesive as a community during this time.

*Speak positive and thankful words - We have so much we can complain about, so take a minute to speak out loud about a few things (or people) you are thankful for. It's impossible to stay unhappy when you are in an attitude of gratitude and counting your blessings. A counselor once told me, “If you only have ONE thing to be grateful for, keep speaking *that* thing. Pretty soon as you start to feel better and circumstances improve, you will see that you have many things to be thankful for, they were just “covered up” by the heavy stuff. I’ve found this to be true time and again since they spoke those words to me.

*Know when you need a time out - Refrain from answering a phone call, email or text (as I say to myself “Tracy, back away from the keyboard!”) until your spirit needs to be in a better spot. A delay in reacting almost always works out well if we are in a tough spot emotionally. 

*Limit news and social media - This is a BIG one for me. I’m a “scroller” when I’m idle. I find it helpful to put my phone out of reach so that I can’t just pick it up and start scrolling. I’m finding it soul filling to be “less connected.” There is plenty of angst in our country about many things and for me? Well, I’ve found that the more I consume, the less settled my spirit is, so perhaps less consumption of news and social media will help your spirit, too?

*Stay in the word - Do an online Bible Study with friends and/or family. Grab a daily devotional. What I find uncanny about devotionals is that often the passage I’m reading for that particular day is *exactly* what I needed to hear. I also get a daily scripture text from 95.1 Shine FM and it starts my day off on the right foot 9 times out of 10. 

*Always remember, God sees around corners and works upstream. Let Him lead you. Some of the best journeys I have been on were when I fully surrendered to where He wanted to use me and my talents.

LCS Family, this is tough stuff. It’s hard. It’s not pleasant all the time. There is stress. However, God created us to be in community and just know you are not alone in how you feel. There is always someone to reach out to here. I’m here - and you know where to find me.

May God’s blessing sustain and protect you.

In His Service,

Mrs. Tracy Tambaoan, BSN, RN

LCS Nurse