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Dear RTCS Family,

It is an honor to be serving as your principal for the 2021-2022 school year.  Since I am new to the RTCS family, I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce myself to you.  My father, Walter Kenyon, was a PCA pastor, and he and my mother raised eleven children (I am number ten of the eleven).  I was born in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, but I have spent the past 28 years living and serving in Jackson, Mississippi. I attended Belhaven University, where I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. I have completed the coursework for my doctorate along with the first three chapters of my dissertation, but I am not yet a doctor. 

During my time in Jackson, I worked in the field of education in various ways.  Here is a brief list of my educational positions:

Classroom teacher (I have taught at elementary, middle, and high school, levels),

College professor (I have taught and continue to teacher undergraduate and graduate level education classes for Belhaven University),

School principal (I have been responsible for K4-12th grades at two separate Christian schools in the Jackson area),

Special education teacher (for the past 9 years I worked as the lead teacher in a facility for students with Autism and behavior issues), 

Seminar speaker (I have presented educational workshops on several different topics), and

School consultant (I was hired by my church in Jackson, Redeemer Church, to start a Christian school, and I have been instrumental in helping to start three separate Christian schools in the Jackson area).

I am excited to be working with the staff at RTCS to help them educate your children from a Christian perspective.  

It has been a rough year and a half for all of us, and I would like to include with this letter a devotional that I wrote for my college students in March of 2020.  I think that it will give you a glimpse into my thoughts, and I hope that it will be an encouragement to you as we all go through these uncertain times.  And, again, I look forward to meeting you and working with you for this coming school year.

In Christ,

Mary Kenyon

Our Good God

Last night I was reading Psalm 8 and Romans 8 in my Bible.  It was unintentional that I was reading them both on the same night, but they complemented each other beautifully. I was encouraged and uplifted by what I read.  God has a way of bringing to us what we need when we need it!  In Romans, Paul writes, 

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words….And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:26 & 28, English Standard Version).

In times like these when our world seems to be tumbling down around us, this is difficult to believe.   And people often flippantly quote verse 28 to us when we are struggling.  I am not trying to be flippant.  I am truly humbled to know that He, whose fingers set the moon and stars in place (Psalm 8:3), cares enough about me to order my steps and walk with me through these difficult times.  

It is easy to become inwardly focused and dwell on negatives when things are beyond our control.  We look around us and see the hurt and suffering, the death and destruction, the anger and sorrow, and we cry out and say, “God, where are you?  Why have you deserted us?”  This reminds me of the poem “Footprints in the Sand”.  The poet describes walking along the beach with the Lord.  As they walk together, scenes from the poet’s life flash before him.  As the poet looks back at the sand behind him, he notices that sometimes there were two sets of footprints in the sand and at other times there was one.  And it seemed that it was when he needed the Lord the most that he only saw one set of footprints.  The poet cried out asking why God would leave him alone when he needed God the most.  The Lord replied to the poet’s cry, “My son, My precious child, I love you and would never leave you.  During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you” (Carty, 1963).

As you go through the next few weeks and maybe even months, I encourage you to remember that our Heavenly Father has not forgotten you or left you; He is carrying you.  Rest in the confidence that He will work all things out for our good.

Carty, C. (1963). Footprints in the sand poem. Poetry for today. Retrieved from

          https://poem4today.com/ footprints-poem.html