Mondays with Mike: A Quiet Word of Hope for Christmas Week
A Conversation with David Moore, Middle School Chaplain
Blessed Christmas PCA Family,
As many of you receive this, we are officially on Christmas break. The campus is quiet, families are gathered, and after last Friday’s thaw, we are expecting fresh snow to renew our winter landscape. It feels like the right moment to pause.
In this special Mondays with Mike episode, I sit down with our chaplain, David Moore, to offer a quiet window into the hearts of our students. David walks closely with our children, listening, praying, and noticing. He shares what he is seeing beneath the surface—the real questions students are asking, the pressures they are carrying, and the steady ways the hope of Christ is meeting them.
This conversation is not a report. It is an encouragement. As we celebrate the true and deep meaning of Christmas—that God has drawn near in Jesus—my hope is that this episode brings you peace, perspective, and confidence as you rest with your family this week.
As a heads up, Mondays with Mike will pause next week between Christmas and New Year. We will resume on the Monday we return to campus. Until then, may your homes be marked by rest, light, and the quiet joy of Christ’s nearness.
Mike Runey
Head of School
Portsmouth Christian Academy
“These aren’t little kids’ Sunday school questions that they’re asking. These are questions where I’ve sat with seasoned saints.” – Chaplain Moore (on the depth of your kids’ thinking)
Key Takeaways
- Our children are thinking deeply about faith. Students are asking real, thoughtful questions about God, Scripture, and belief—questions that reflect sincerity, curiosity, and growing maturity.
- Pressure is real—but so is resilience. Students are carrying challenges, yet they are doing so within a community marked by care, prayer, and patient guidance.
- God’s work is often quiet. Spiritual formation rarely announces itself. Much of what God is doing unfolds beneath the surface before fruit becomes visible.
- The hope of Christmas is tangible. Students are not only learning about Christ—they are responding to Him, seeing Him, and wrestling honestly with what it means that He has come.
- Families are not alone. PCA partners with parents and local churches to shepherd children with humility, wisdom, and shared responsibility.
Chapter Timestamps
0:00–1:30 — A Christmas-week invitation: slowing down and listening
1:30–3:00 — Reintroducing David Moore and his pastoral calling
3:00–5:00 — Why PCA has a chaplain (and what the role is—and is not)
5:00–8:30 — The questions students are really asking about faith
8:30–11:00 — Pressure, resilience, and how students are carrying heavy things
11:00–13:30 — Where encouragement and spiritual fruit are showing up
13:30–15:30 — Christmas hope: seeing Christ in the season
15:30–18:15 — Families, church partnership, and a closing Christmas blessing
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