Sleeping bags, fishing rods, mosquito spray, and a great appetite for adventure were all on board the bus early this morning. I had the opportunity to pray a blessing over our grade eight class and wish them well before they left for an adventure of a lifetime. Three days at a Muskoka sports adventure camp in the beautiful “near north” of Ontario started today for them. May God go with them.
Among the many activities they do on this trip, some involve risk. Trained staff and safety equipment ensure that risk is done within a safe setting, but regardless students are challenged to face elements of risk and perhaps push themselves to do things they may first shy away from. One of the most dramatic has the significant name of “The Leap of Faith.” With helmet donned and safety harness double checked, students have the challenge of leaping off the safety of a precarious platform 35 feet up into nothing but empty space to ring a bell or hit a ball that is just out of reach. I’ve made that leap myself years ago at this camp and can attest that jumping into a “free fall” becomes a mind-over-body matter.
While this class trip is underway and details are nearing completion with our upcoming graduation, new risk takers are being organized at the other end of the school. A “test run” portion of a day for our future JK and SK students is being organized. It asks them and their parents to make a “leap of faith” into a new stage of life with so many implications.
Our staff, board, and even the larger provincial organizations supporting Christian education are all
poised to make new beginnings and “leaps”. Before them are new areas and ways of working that
they don’t have experience with or an entirely clear understanding of. Being intimately connected
with the Bright Futures Campaign this year has given me a new appreciation for the “leap of faith” of those who first organized LCES, and for our campaign venture that seeks to also make the equivalent leap into our future that God is showing us.
During chapel this morning I noticed a student’s T-shirt that proclaimed Psalm 145:4 - “One genera-
tion commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” Recounting the might acts of
God in the past and present allows us to make these “leaps” into the future with confidence. May we
continue to leap forward in faith in all we do! SJ
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