Brethren...
This Monday morning, a good friend of mine will be taking his GED exam in order to obtain his high school diploma. He has already passed every section except for the section on Mathematics.
This man is a non-traditional (older) student. He dropped out of high school during the early 1980s due to excessive drugs, alcohol and parties. During his 20s, he gave his heart to Jesus. He began traveling with a missionary throughout Mexico and Central/South America. However, he never really had the opportunity to build himself a home or a life.
After about 15 years of traveling, the head missionary and this man parted ways. This man moved back in with his mother and worked odd jobs and as a cashier earning minimum wage. His employment opportunities were greatly limited due to the fact that he didn't have a high school diploma. I encouraged him to try, but he didn't think that he would ever be able to pass the tests -- especially since he had been out of school for so long.
Two years ago, I mentioned a new program available that allowed him to live on a college campus (in a dorm) and earn his GED. The other students wouldn't know that he was attempting to earn his GED (unless he told them). He would receive his room and board through a grant, along with GED classes and tutoring. In fact, he also would receive a weekly stipend to pay for gasoline, school supplies, etc... Once he heard about this, he agreed.
He went through the program for one fall semester. He did very well, and received awards in his class. When the time came for him to take his GED tests, he did very well on all of them EXCEPT his Mathematics section. He wanted to get into college immediately following the GED, but it didn't seem like this would happen. I prayed with him in December 2006 about the direction his life would take.
We needed to find a location that would offer the GED test before the January college semester began, so I called the state's education offices located in the State Capitol. A kind lady informed me that no other tests would be offered before the middle of January 2007. However, she asked if I had contacted the Dean about the possibility of accepting my friend on a probationary basis. I had never heard of such a thing. She admitted that it was rare, but a college dean sometimes will admit a student even WITHOUT a high school diploma.
The University in question (where I work) had recently raised their standards considerably. A person could not be accepted with an ACT score lower than 21 (or 24 if the student didn't graduate in the top 25% of his high school class). I feared that my friend's chances were slim-to-none. However, we prayed before going to speak with the Dean.
To our surprise, the Dean accepted this man. He wrote a letter to the Admissions Department that accepted him on a probationary term. This man simply needed to maintain a GPA above 2.25 -- which is usually pretty easy. In addition, this man needed to enroll in the University's remedial non-credit Math course. We thanked the Dean and registered this man into college.
Since then, this man has done extremely well in college. He is nearly a Junior now and has passed every course EXCEPT the Math course. This is of little concern, because he simply needs to pass it before he graduates -- and his major only requires a single college Math course (Basic Algebra). He is doing extremely well in all of his other courses. In fact, his GPA is currently near a 3.0. Unfortunately, the Admissions Department has now required that he submit the scores of his GED.
This man has taken the test three times -- but he hasn't passed it yet. In fact, his scores have been fairly low (the best being 360 our of 800). He needs a score of 410 to pass.
My wife and I have been tutoring this young man for a week, but we are concerned that he is very much behind. Since he only asked for helped recently, we had little time to prepare him for the test. We have made some progress, but I am still gravely concerned. If this man does not pass the test, he will be rejected from any sort of classes in the Summer or Fall. If he passes it, he will not only be a Junior by the Fall -- but he will receive a new scholarship that is currently reserved for him.
This man is scheduled to take his test this Monday, April 28th at 8 A.M. (central time). Please pray that God will help him in this endeavor. He is a very godly man and he visits this website often (even though he hasn't become a member yet). He asked for me to request prayer from everyone that I know. In particular, this man needs for the LORD to help him with his "word problems."
Please pray for this man. He is extremely worried about his future. I told him to rest assured that his future is in the hands of God. However, his mother is nearly retirement, and he doesn't want to continue being a financial drain on her. Please pray that this man not only passes -- but passes with a very high score.
Thank you! I will post an update once his score comes in (about three weeks following the test).
:-) _________________ Christopher
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