Blumenhof High School - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Blumenort, Manitoba Canada)

Page 11 text:

I wou’d like to thank those responsible for editing this yearbook for the invitation to contribute a message. Also, because this is always a matter of great importance at this time of year, I want to wish all of the students of Blumenhof High School success in meeting the tests which determine the extent of your achievement during the year. Right now you will be receiving much good advice about applying your energies towards passing your grades. Before you also there may be a considerable amount of guidance material tha,t will help you in choosing a vocation suitable to your talents, and capable of providing you with a good living in the future. All of this is important. Ours is a complex world with a confusing maze of paths along which we may suggest that you move. Those of us who are most concerned with preparing you for life have a responsibility, along with you, of seeing that the direction in which education leads you is a right one. We are prone, I think, because of our con¬ cern for your material success, to stress things material. We are prone, because ours tends to be a materialistic age, to stress things material — wealth, prestige, superficial pleasure. What we may not stress enough, I believe, is the solid fact that life’s real return to us is a measure, not of what we may get from it, but of what we give to it. Any superiority that our way of life has over ways of life that threaten it lies no longer in material things, if it ever did. I lies, rather, in moral nation¬ hood, the product of Christian people. There is a great cry today for scientists who can help compete in the race for space, for engineers who can match the might of Soviet missiles, for every variety of educated person who can match or bet¬ ter the achievements made elsewhere in the world. True, we need these people; we need their contributions. But, above all, we need men, real men, with minds dedicated to right and justice and morality. Upon this depends our preservation. Will you be among them? K. R. Jasper I I I Inspector’s Message K. R. Jasper. 7

Page 10 text:

Challenge Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy command¬ ments; for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vani¬ ty; and quicken thou me in thy way. Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear. Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good. Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments. So shall I keep thy law continally for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy command¬ ments which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up unto thy com¬ mandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. Psalm 119 verses 33 to 48

Page 12 text:

Gerry B. Doerksen From The Principal’s Desk The word “one” seems to have lost much of its value and prestige in our modern world. Weekend fata 1 ities are counted by “hundreds”, a certain number of “thou¬ sands” of immigrants are allowed to enter the country per year; people’s possessions are frequently counted by “mil’ions”; while the human body is said to be composed of approximately “so many billions” of cells. Certain of the political leaders of today seem to look at the people in their coun¬ tries and see only a “mass”. Is that the correct evaluation of humanity ? A stranger, when seeing the number of students in our school would certainly feel that we were only a very small “mass”. He might see that the enrolment in our high school is “only fifteen”. I have not found it to be so. I have found that this “little mass” is composed of individuals, individu¬ als who are facing a single whole life as their very own, individuals who are or will be personally making decisions about their eternal destiny and even the destiny of others, individuals who have decided to face our modem civilization with an education that will help them to be successful. May I give you graduates and students this challenge. Think of minutes as single units which you may spend at your Mas¬ ter’s bidding. Think of work as made up of individual pleasures so that you may do it lovingly and with joy. Think of people around you as individual hearts that are longing for at least one cheerful word or one act of kindness from you to make their pathway through life more pleasant. Think of your life as one life that shall be totally surrendered to God. Then, I am confident, the One “who seeth not as man seeth” will give a smile of approval upon your life — one life that will be really worthwhile. Gerry B. Doerksen 8