Join the Journey... Read thru the New Testament

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time, but when was the last time you sat down to read it straight through? Have you ever read the Bible from cover to cover? What about just the New Testament? This year, the RCA community is endeavoring to read through the entire New Testament from Matthew to Revelation together... won't you join us?

Go to our new blog, http://thentchallenge.blogspot.com and you'll find resources to help us do this together, keeping ourselves accountable and making the journey through Scripture come alive, as we seek not only to read God's Word, but to live it every day. We want to encourage each other and your thoughts may help somebody else understand something a little bit better. We invite you to post your thoughts and comments as we read together. Go to the link "Reading Plan" to download a copy of our schedule. We'll be reading about 3-4 chapters a day... Monday - Friday with breaks during the weekends and week-long holidays (Fall Break & Thanksgiving Break)... you can use those to catch up if you get behind!

We also invite you to subscribe to the blog so that you'll recieve e-mail notifications as new articles are posted. As we go, book introductions will be posted, providing some background information on each of the 27 books of our New Testament. Also, you'll find study guide questions which our Middle & High School students will be discussing in their Bible classes at Riverside. These will also include "journaling thoughts" questions which are intended to help our students apply God's truths to their real world situations.

In addition to our Middle & High School students, we are inviting the entire faculty, staff, Board of Directors and RCA families to join us in this challenge. Won't you read along with us?

Congratulations to Riverside Christian Academy!

This week we want to send our congratulations to our friends down at Riverside Christian Academy. They were recently recognized by the Elk Valley Times as the #1 school in the county. They also received... #1 Principal, Daniel Eldridge; #1 Jr High Teacher, Erika Konyndyk; #1 Pre-school; High School Teacher, Amy Finch; best Pre-school teacher, Heather Smith. While I don't suppose that the Elk Valley poll is exactly "scientific" it does reveal a tremendous amount of support from members of the community as well as school spirit from those who are a part of RCA, both things to be proud of in my opinion. What makes this recognition even more significant is the fact that RCA has only been around for 8 years! They had just opened their doors the year Celeste and I moved to town and had only about 50 students at the time. I remember walking through their first make-shift campus of portable trailers that year. Enrollment is now up around 375. Wow... how far they have come. Most of you know (because I talk about it all the time) that I have been privileged to be a part of RCA's ministry for the last several years. They let me teach Bible to their High School young people... can you believe it? It has been a blessing to me to be able to watch so many young men and women grow in their understanding of God's Word and God's plan for them on a daily basis has been such a blessing. I've also gotten to serve on the board and have seen first-hand the commitment to spiritual priorities that the Board and Administration bring to their work. Of course we have many of our own members who are also a part of this wonderful work at RCA as teachers, administrators and counselors including, this year, my wife, Celeste. (Maybe I'm a little biased, but I think they've got a great faculty and staff!) This special honor given to RCA this week only reaffirms my commitment and appreciation for what they are trying to do. They are making a difference in the lives of families in and around our community and God has truly blessed them. I feel privileged to be a part and am glad that the community has recognized their efforts. RCA is an outreach ministry of the Riverside Church of Christ and as such deserves our prayers and moral support. Let us all send congratulations their way and keep them in prayer regularly.