Dear Families, Students, and Supporters of CHESS,
Seven and a half years ago, I walked through the doors of CHESS for the first time, wearing my student uniform, carrying a hefty Swiss Army backpack, and nervously anticipating my first semester as a freshman in high school. Little did I know just how special CHESS would become to me in such a short time, and the large impact this comparatively small school would have on the rest of my life. Many of you have similar stories, and I have loved getting to know you and hearing how God has worked through CHESS. It is, therefore, with equal parts sadness and sweetness, that I write this letter to tell you that I will be moving into the next chapter of God’s plan for me.
Many of you know that I am in college. Lord willing, I will graduate from Aims in May with my Associate’s Degree in Elementary Education. This fall, I plan on pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with plans to earn my Master’s degree in Counseling after that. These (good and exciting!) plans and changes are what caused me to talk to Principal Aden and several of the Board members about leaving CHESS and moving towards these next steps, and I am very grateful for their kind support and ready help as I make this transition. Although I will be doing much of the graduation planning, my last Wednesday in the office is this week, January 31. I will miss "CHESS days” greatly. As always, I would greatly appreciate your prayers as I move through these months – there are many decisions and details to work through, and I will need plenty of support from my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I am also excited to introduce Deborah Silva, our new office manager, to you. Deborah is originally from North Carolina, but has lived in Colorado for several years and knows many CHESS families (and is engaged to a CHESS graduate, Josh Martin!). I have greatly enjoyed getting to know Deborah over the last few months as we’ve worked in the office together, and I am fully confident that she will serve you with kindness, skill, and enthusiasm. She already has! I ask that you give her as much support, encouragement, and prayer as you have freely given to me, as I know you will. (Hint: She LOVES coffee!)
The year and a half that I have worked in the CHESS office (six months as office assistant, one year as office manager) has been an amazing experience. I have learned countless necessary lessons about life, work, and ministry. I have enjoyed, from the bottom of my heart, the duties involved in ministering to all of you, and I have enjoyed even more your friendship and support as I did my best to carry out the functions of my job. Truly, you have been a blessing from God to me, and I thank Him for all of you. Your encouraging words, freely given fellowship, heartfelt prayers, sweet patience with my mistakes, hilarious sense of humor, and willingness to help mean more than I can say. Thank you for showing me Christ’s love.
I’d like to close with these words from the Word, first from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 (ESV):
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—
even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—
so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And also from Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV), a passage read at my graduation from CHESS in 2014:
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
To God alone be the glory,
Charity Brown
Outgoing Office Manager