On May 13th, 2016 I stood in a choir room beneath the stage at Trietsch Memorial 
United Methodist Church with a group of over forty students who were about to graduate from our Flower Mound campus. We read through Psalm 121 together,just as we had done every day during their Senior Theology II course that year. Then we prayed together, and I shared with them a traditional Irish blessing (I’m not Irish, but the blessing is beautiful).Then I started to try to tell them how much they meant to me, how much they had changed me for the better over the years, and how much my family and I will miss them. But as I started to speak, my voice cracked and tears started to form in my eyes. Humor is a great coping mechanism, I reminded myself. So I told them “You did this to me!” We all laughed, hugged, and then walked upstairs to begin the Commencement ceremony. I began teaching at Coram Deo Academy in the Fall of 2010. I previously worked for Young Life in the Richardson area, but after starting seminary I knew I wanted to get back into teaching. Over the years I have found Coram Deo Academy to be 
a perfect combination of both pastoral ministry and teaching. I didn’t know much about classical education when I first came to CDA. My wife and I didn’t have children of our own yet, either. Over the next several years we grew to appreciate the model. When our oldest daughter was born I was already counting down the days before I could bring her with me to school. Next year she will be in 2nd grade, and our son will be in Pre-K.A few years after I started teaching at CDA, I also began the process of ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Even 
after I completed my seminary degree, this process was a long one that challenged our family’s collective patience more than a few times. It involved a period of hospital chaplaincy, and an extended time of study in Wisconsin during the Spring of 2018. In all of this, our CDA Community was incredibly supportive. I was ordained a Priest in September of 2019 and serve part-time at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas. While serving in both roles is tiring at times, I also find that they complement each other greatly. I am a better Pastor because of my work at CDA, and I think I am a more faithful administrator and teacher because of my Pastoral ministry. In addition to serving as a place to train the minds and hearts of the next generation of Christian leaders, CDA has also proven to be a place to build relationships that will last a lifetime and beyond. This March we welcomed our third child into the world. She was named, in part, after a former CDA student who graduated in 2016. As every parent knows, something special happens when you spend significant time with students as they grow during these formative years. And whatever it is that happens, it is a two way street. It can be a frustrating, annoying, and confusing time—full of hurt feelings and unmet expectations. However it is also full of moments of joy, progress, and 
mutual encouragement. It is exactly the type of experience that shapes both parties for the better. I think this represents one of the wonderful things about our school that doesn’t fit neatly on a brochure. It is the type of thing that you can only really experience once you are here. It isn’t something that can be quantified or measured on a survey. But it happens every single day in a thousand tiny ways. And, as I have found, it is the type of thing that continues to happen even once our students and families leave the school. The joy that I experience each year with the seniors in the moments before they graduate only increases as our alumni 
head off to college, or take their first job, or start a family. The years spent with them at CDA have a sort of ripple-effect as our graduates continue to learn, grow, stumble, and succeed. Reciting the opening lines of Psalm 121 with a student in the classroom is special. Texting those same words to them years later when I hear that they have experienced a loss, and having them respond instantly with the next line of the Psalm is that next step beyond special. I thank God for placing me in a community like CDA.