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. 

The men and women at Liberty Christian School who are called to the ministry of education, need our support. With little to no notice, they were catapulted from classroom educators, to virtual reality stars. The dual roles of teaching in the hybrid environment are nothing short of exceptional. 

As believers, we should support, uplift, pray for and encourage one another. Speaking into the lives of God’s children, is an awesome responsibility. We must keep in mind that teachers have families and lives of their own. More often than not, they’re teaching our children, as their own children are learning at home. 

Here are a few ways to offer encouragement to your teacher: 

Send a dojo message or email to brighten their day!! ((Or go the extra step and send in a hand written card!))

Keep the lines of communication open to ensure a collaborative approach to your child’s education. 

Promptly pick up and drop off materials. 

Lastly, extend the grace and love of Christ, that you expect in return.

Ardena Henderson

Mother of Current LCS 1st Grade Student