Dear ACA Families and Friends,
As we launch our end-of-year giving campaign for 2020—a time when we ask you to prayerfully consider a financial gift to Augustine Classical Academy—I have this thought to share: My children are like some Hobbits. Yours are, too.
You might think that I’m referring only to children’s eating habits, which at my house mirror the six-meals-a-day regimen Hobbits hold dear. (One of my children often asks, without a hint of irony or even humor, for “second breakfast.” Beware of great literature: It can make children hungry.)
No, I’m referring to the training dear Frodo and his friends receive on their quest to destroy the One Ring and save Middle Earth from the evil Sauron. At the end of their epic journey, the Hobbits learn that all is not well in the Shire, their beloved, quiet homeland, and Merry, one of the adventuring Hobbits, tells the powerful Gandalf that it’s OK: The wizard will help clear things up.
Not so, Gandalf says. “You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for. Do you not yet understand? My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you.”
The lesson is clear: The adventure the Hobbits have undertaken has equipped them. They’ve learned the ways of heroes by doing hard and dangerous things, by leaving the decent and dull Shire (where respectable Hobbits look down upon adventure, curiosity, and stories) and figuring out how to fight for good and overcome darkness. When the Hobbits return to the Shire, we learn that Gandalf was right: Frodo and his companions are up to the task of giving hope to the oppressed and ridding their homeland of evil. And they don’t stop there: Instead of leaving the Shire as it once was, they restore, build, tell stories, have children, and create beauty. Samwise even becomes mayor! (I’d vote for him.)
At a time in our culture when fear dominates and courage seems scarce, the education our students receive at Augustine Classical is like the adventures the Hobbits undertake (thankfully without the actual risk to life and limb). ACA provides an education that equips students for lives far from their comfortable armchairs. It teaches them the ways of heroes and then points, over and over, to Christ, the Ultimate Hero of the best story ever written. It reminds me that one day, I’ll be able to echo Gandalf’s words to my children, knowing they’re fully ready for the life to which God calls them.
This is why I invite you to join me in making a tax-deductible gift to ACA between now and December 31. This year, ACA has:
Its largest enrollment in its 11-year history
A new homeschool co-op program
An expanded Rhetoric School curriculum and classrooms
Met 100% of families’ demonstrated need for financial aid
And we will confer our first high school diploma in May!
Our goal for this year-end campaign is to raise $120,000, and we start with a matching challenge: The first $30,000 we raise will be matched by donors who have pledged $30,000!
Please join us in thanking God for a tremendous academic year thus far and asking Him for more provision--so we can serve not just this generation of students, but also those yet to come. Our prayer is that God sustains and grows ACA so we have a city full of students who 1) know the goodness of a (perhaps too long) Hobbit-inspired analogy and, more important, 2) go courageously where God calls them, fully equipped for the adventure and the work ahead.
Grace and peace,
Hilary Oswald,
On behalf of the ACA Board
Ways to give:
Write a check to “Augustine Classical Academy” by December 31, 2020
Donate stock by going to stockdonator.com and clicking on “Augustine Classical Academy” from the list of available recipients. (Our stock donation policy is here.)
Check in with your company’s HR department and ask if the company matches employee gifts to 501c3s.
Help us build our donor base! If you have a friend, family member, colleague, or church leader who might find our classical, Christian model of education compelling, please contact Justin Riley, Board Chair, at justin.riley@augustineclassical.
Or give online here.