Chickenpox Update

January 8, 2013

A case of chickenpox (also called varicella) have been identified at Hillcrest Academy. If your child has received the varicella vaccine, he/she is much less likely to get chickenpox. Vaccines are not 100% effective at preventing disease, so it is important to be aware of the symptoms of chickenpox.
 
Chickenpox usually develops about two weeks after an exposure in persons who are not immune to chickenpox.  Symptoms include low-grade fever and tiredness, followed by a blister-like rash in which new blisters develop in crops.  When chickenpox occurs in vaccinated children, the illness is usually very mild. Children who have been vaccinated may have fewer spots that do not develop into blister-like lesions. Children with typical or mild chickenpox may be infectious to others until all blister-like lesions have formed scabs, and no lesions are developing.  All children who develop chickenpox, including those who have been vaccinated, should stay home during this time to avoid spreading the disease to others.
 
Please determine whether or not your child is susceptible to chickenpox. The Minnesota Department of Health recommends that your child receive the chickenpox vaccine at this time.  If your child has already received the first dose of chickenpox vaccine, the Minnesota Department of Health recommends they receive a second dose (provided their first dose was given more than 3 months ago).  Please contact your healthcare provider for information on vaccinating your child.  
 
Pregnant women who are not immune to chickenpox and persons with weakened immune systems are especially cautioned to contact their health care provider; varicella immune globulin may be administered to help prevent disease in persons who have been exposed and who cannot receive varicella vaccine.

Please view this document for more information on Chickenpox. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Hillcrest Academy or the Minnesota Department of Health at 651-201-5414.

Sincerely,

Jeff Isaac

Hillcrest Academy

218-739-3371

Living in Favor

Defining Favor from Geoff Schultz on Vimeo.

Bruce was a 19 year-old Jesus freak. Convicted of his sins through reading the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, Bruce traveled to South America to serve God's people, the Motilone Indians. Enduring dysentery, hepatitis, and a chronic problem with parasites, Bruce didn't have the backing of an international mission organization, but instead felt the Lord's favor on his work, compelled to take joy in the seasons of suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

Bruce's suffering eventually won the favor of a native he later named Bobby. Despite being shot with an arrow and almost losing his life to a ritual sacrifice by the chief of the tribe, Bruce continued to minister to the tribal village and work to establish a Christian church in the middle of a godless place. 

This young man's story continues to live on in the book Bruchko. Bruce is known to receive requests to tell his story in college and university settings. Despite Bruce's middle-class Lutheran upbringing, he feels out of place returning to his western homeland, longing to return to the seemingly uncomfortable lifestyle he's adopted in South America. 

Bruce's story reminds me of a passage of Augustine's City of God in which the Saint comments:

A good servant would regard the will of God as his great resource, and he would be enriched in his mind by close attendance on God's will; nor would he grieve if deprived in life of those possessions which he would soon have to leave behind at his death...I enjoin the rich of this world not to feel proud, and not to fix their eyes on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God who supplies us liberally with all things for our good enjoyment.

Saint Augustine emplores his reader to take the many good things for enjoyment God has given and do good works that will establish a solid foundation that gives a foothold for true life, focusing on God the Giver rather than the gift.

This is what we believe it looks like to live in God's favor. Not allowing pride to dominate our motivation in service, but simple humility driven by a realization of the One True God. This is the aim of Hillcrest in the second semester, providing students with an education of who God is, what Jesus Christ has done and how the Holy Spirit is empowering us to live a life of significance in humble service of Jesus Christ.

A Historical Lesson Revisited

This blog is a reposting of a classroom session Gregg Preston conducted with his Advanced Placement class last year. I was reminded of this blog post and class as I thought of the historical significance of the birth of Christ and the bravery of the men and women surrounding the historical occurance. Enjoy this reposting as we look forward to students returning to Hillcrest and continuing their Biblically-based Christ-centered education.

What makes western civilization significant? This is a question addressed recently in professor Gregg Preston's Advanced Placement European History class. Pointing the students to recognize how anti-climactic their book paints the time of European expansion, Mr. Preston drew students to realize the impact a Biblical view of the world had in guiding the progress and expansion of western Europe.

Rodney Stark makes a similar point in his book The Victory of Reason: 

When Europeans first began to explore the globe, their greatest surprise was not the existence of the Western Hemisphere but the extent of their own technological superiority over the rest of the world. Not only were the proud Mayan, Aztec, and Inca nations helpless in the face of European intruders; so were the fabled civilizations of the East: China, India, and even Islam were backward by comparison with sixteenth-century Europe. How had this happened? Why was it that although many civilizations had pursued alchemy, it led to chemistry only in Europe. How had this happened? Why was it that, for centuries, Europeans were the only ones possessed of eyeglasses, chimneys, reliable clocks, heavy cavalry, or a system of music notation? How had nations that had arisen from barbarism and the rubble of fallen Rome so greatly surpassed the rest of the world?

The impact of a Biblical perspective led Europe towards innovation and expansion that was never considered in the expanse of people throughout the world in the dark ages and Renaissance. Mr. Preston's class is not only taught the Biblical perspective of this time period, but they are also interacting with a text that works to explain the development and expansion of the world as if God is irrelevant. Mr. Preston takes time within his class to challenge the ideas foisted in the secular text with logic, reason, and the Bible.

Mr. Preston's class is another example of how Hillcrest students are being equipped to live a life of significance; understanding the motivation that led great people to great discoveries which led to a greater understanding of God.