June 1st was the day our school/church celebrated our 150th year of existing. The day was a bit rainy, but that didn't stop us from celebrating!
Sunday morning, I drove up to church and saw that the school parking lot had been blacktopped! Woohoo! Finally! We've been waiting almost a year for this project to be completed. I didn't have time to drive on it before church (the choir was practicing), but I did get a chance afterwards. Oh, it was heavenly! No more jarring potholes! Mr. D said he'd made some facebook posts about the pavement. His friends asked him, "Are you really this excited about asphalt?" His reply, "Yes, yes I am."
Like I said, I got to church way early to practice with the choir. There were already tons of people there! I got a special nametag since I'm a teacher. Everyone was supposed to wear nametags; the teachers (present and former) had special ones detailing their years of service.
The service lasted from 9:30-11:45. The school children sang "Built on the Rock" with a mixed choir of adults from Immanuel (myself included). Although I had a cold and my voice sounded very strange, God was good and I was able to sing somewhat normally! There was also communion during the service. Three teachers spoke about their time at Immanuel, two former teachers and our principal, Mr. E.
After the service, Pastor asked us all to have a seat as there were a few announcements to be made. He took a look at the ushers standing in the aisle, ready to dismiss us and said, "And ushers, you will also want to have a seat as there are quite a few." The two boys looked at each other (in disbelief) trying to decide if Pastor was joking. He wasn't. So they had a seat and Pastor read a letter from the Minnesota government recognizing our 150th year. Then he read a letter from a former teacher unable to attend. Then the son of a former pastor came forward to read a letter from his father. And then Pastor said there were a few more announcements to be made. And that's when his son (one of the ushers) put his head in his hands in exasperation. It was quite entertaining. Anyway, by the time all the announcements were made, it was 12:00. So we prayed and the shuttle over to school began.
Since there were so many people at the celebration and not much parking space at school, we had a bus available for people to be shuttled over to school. Some people walked. I drove over because I wanted to test out the new pavement.
My classroom was still clean when I popped in to open the shades. It was being used to house the cake as it is the only room with air conditioning hooked up. No one wanted the cake to melt! There were also two roasting pans plugged in. The menu of the day was pulled pork sandwiches, chips, beans, and cake. The gym was packed with folding tables and chairs. There were even ushers directing us to the next open seats.
There was a ton of media coverage at the event! The following link is to the page on our school website with all the media links for the 150th celebration: http://www.immanuelcourtland.com/?page_id=3174
Here are some of the links to online versions of the articles/video: KEYC coverage, New Ulm Journal, Mankato Free Press, St. Peter Herald, and AgriNews.
A journalist from the New Ulm Journal was doing "on the street" interviews about what you've learned this year at Immanuel. And I was one of them. It was difficult to put into words all the things I've learned this year. Should I talk about the content we've learned in class? The relationships that have been developed? What the students have learned? What I've learned from them? I ended up saying something about God using anyone, big or small, to do his work. My inspiration came from this poster my students and I put together to decorate our room for the celebration.
