Nathan Murray, the current Director of Valley Hope remembers how God led him to this role and how God has allowed him and others at the school to minister to the local families of the Clarence Valley region. He shares his journey. “At the beginning of 2018, after 11 years working in a Queensland State High Special Education Program consisting of about 120 students out of a total population of 1800, I was open to where God would lead next in relation to work and for our family. I was ready for this to be in a teaching context that was more mainstream ie. Teaching PDHPE/Geography/Maths/Science. Prior to a holiday in the Lower Clarence area, I had discovered that a previous family acquaintance was the recently appointed Principal at PVCS - Scott Logan. I visited him at the school while on holiday to hear his story and he mentioned they were seeking staff for the ‘Hope’ school for students with autism/intellectual disability. I let him know that I was looking for something different and was not interested in that role. Shortly after speaking with Scott, Dr Boyce (Exec Principal of our group of Christian Schools), met with me (at Yatala Pie shop near the Gold Coast) and outlined how he thought my educational experience and involvement with Cornerstone Community would set me up well for a leadership role in Valley Hope. I informed him that I was not wanting to take up such a role and had no interest in leadership. Although somewhat frustrated, I acknowledged I would be willing to pray about it more. After starting out distinctly against the idea, when I prayed and discussed it over the next few days, God gradually began softening my attitude towards it. By the third day I was open to it and by the fifth day I began to be excited by it. Dr Boyce was delighted to hear back from me. With this new role in mind, we sold our house and moved our family with four children aged 4 to 12 from Ipswich to Gulmarrad in December 2018. I joined VHCS in 2019 as Head Teacher. With Dr Lamont’s instigation, the preceding principal, David Johnston and head teacher Liz Latham had followed the Lord’s guidance and had set the school up well, supported by Fiona Turner, Pauline Montgomery and many PVCS staff. Other significant supportive staff included Kara Lenord, Josh Jones and Shannon McWilliams. Vince Lenord was also instrumental in many of the facilities and logistics in those very early days. In the first year at the school, I continued learning to be a leader of a fledgling school with fourteen students and five staff (directly employed by the school). We had excellent support being so closely connected to PVCS (onsite and relationally) and from the wider group of Pacific schools. Throughout that first year, I was involved in all the Principal/Director gatherings and soaked up as much as I could from the teaching and sessions provided as well as excellent peer support at the Valley and other schools. In 2020, accepting the Director role for Valley Hope was not a major change, as I realised I had been doing most of what was required already. I also discovered how much I appreciated working in a Christian community and being a part of a purposeful team to create a context for students to grow in character towards Christ. I had previously worked towards developing students holistically, but did not have the opportunity to do it so explicitly and with colleagues who shared this same purpose.” 33
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