Friday, December 17, 2021

A Letter From God At Christmas At Our Christian School

 A few years ago one of the focal points in kindergarten at this time of the year was mail and the activities of a post office. Imaginative “letter and parcel mail” had been moving around the building, including several staff members who had special mailboxes which were regularly filled with proud notes and letters sharing their developing printing and writing skills. 

On one occasion Ms. Stortz had given me the happy responsibility of delivering some pieces of group “mail” to arrive during lessons. I played the role of delivery person with a baking recipe for this morning’s class in a large envelope. One of the students saw me with the large letter in hand and said, “Maybe it’s a letter from God!” 

A letter from God. What a wonderful way to think about the focus of this unique week of school! Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). Immanuel – God with us! How precious is that Word enabling us to receive God’s gift of grace. That Bethlehem baby became a living letter to us of God’s unfathomable love and paved the way for us to a new covenant of grace. 

As we celebrate, may we have the quickened steps of the shepherds who, bursting with joy cried "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." (Luke 2:15) The LCES board, staff, and students wishes you all a faith-filled, safe, and memorable break. 

Merry Christmas!

SJ

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Passionate for Peace At Our Christian School

 

Hearing a primary student sing “Sleep in heavenly peace” might be best sermon you hear this advent season.

U Thant, then United Nations secretary general from Burma, addressed 1600 delegates from 42 nations in the late 1960’s with a question. “Why is it for that, for all our professed ideals, our hopes and skills, peace on earth is still a distant objective seen only dimly through the storms and turmoil of our present difficulties?``  Translation:  Why haven’t we figured this out already?

The rage of the nations (Psalm 2) can feel like a forest fire of hatred that leaves behind the scarred remains of hope the world over. COVID has been ruthless it seems. Families are torn apart, people are displaced, and suffering and disillusionment pulls our hearts through the images of war we see.

Where do we go with our craving for peace?  God’s word. David’s mention of raging nations isn’t the final word. That is found in the book of Revelation where John proclaims “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ.” (Revelation 11) The nations rage, but without any absolute effect. The battle has already been won.  Our task in Christian education is to so capture our student’s hearts with the peace of Christ that they are compelled to words and action to secure peace for all.

May peace abound in the hearts of our students and transform them as they pronounce Christ’s kingdom that will come, and has already come.  SJ

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Anticipation For the Right Christmas At Our Christian School

The first moments of advent are exciting at a Christian school – but is that because it is familiar and comfortable like a warm cozy blanket, or is it a rush of hope in a bruised, sometimes dark world? Are we excited about Martha Stewart moments, or is it anticipation of Jesus Christ’s second coming that draws us to Christmas?

Consider the following:

“….faces and hands pressed against the frosty window, our kids keep watch for that first glimpse of red brake lights lighting up, while Grandma’s Honda slows, making the turn into our driveway. Any moment they will abandon their post in a flurry of singular delight: “Grandma is here! Grandma is here!” The ensuing mad scamper of children dashing through living room and dining room, then kitchen and back hall will leave couch cushions crumpled, once neatly folded blankets askew, and our pets in a confused scurry, unsure of whether they should hide under the table, join the joyful delight, or courageously defend our door. 

 

In a way, our kids’ anticipation, rooted in the memory of Grandma’s previous visits, fills the Advent season as we both remember Jesus Christ’s birth and anticipate his second coming. These rhythms of remembering and anticipating provide the primary cadence for this season. Advent is neither a nostalgic longing for a past that has been lost nor a naïve fixation on a utopia that remains always out of reach. Rather, by looking back at what God has already done and looking ahead at what God has promised yet to do, Advent roots us deeper in the assurance that God is with us – even here, even now.”                                                                                                                    (http://muddiedprayers.com)

Our participation in all things Christmas at LCES is so much more than snow, lights, carols, and chocolate. We celebrate the gift of a first-born son, given to redeem this world that our students study.  We praise God for the gift of a Saviour whose grace allows them find their place on earth to use their gifts and talents. We delight in promise that he will come again and that he makes all things new. (Revelation 21:5) Hallelujah!

Now is something new worth celebrating!  (SJ)

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Our Hope Filled Christian School

Hope is the first bold candle of advent that many church traditions will light to pierce the darkness next Sunday.

“I hope you remember to wear your snow pants.”

“I hope we have pizza for supper.”

“I hope that treatment will work for her.”

“I hope tomorrow will be a snow day.”

“I hope that the groceries last to the end of the month.”

It seems when we use that word, it shares a desired outcome or wish but doesn’t communicate confidence in a certain outcome at the same time.  A biblically grounded concept of hope runs deeper than a strong wish. The Bible assures us that our hope is a sure thing. Jesus has already won, and we are renewed creations! This world belongs to God, in its entirety and we are assured that there is nothing we can do and nowhere we can go that we can escape the Love of God. (Romans 8) What else do we need to know?

Christian schools, like ours, are places where that kind of hope is the anchor. Our Christian school teachers don’t see a group of students to manage for the day or even year, they also see future mechanics, engineers, mothers/fathers, social workers, electricians, politicians, web designers and accountants. They see them all with a grand vision implanted of hope for a world that is entangled with sin, but redeemed by Christ. Woven into the fabric of how the board and administration sustains this school is confident hope that God will provide for our parents, and as result bless our school with all its needs. Our children are free to embrace a certain hope in learning in these things: that this is God’s world, that Christ is enough, that they belong, and that they have a purpose in God’s kingdom.

We know the future will be great, because Christ is already there!

SJ


Thursday, November 18, 2021

Teachable Moments At Our Christian School

Teachers, like parents of young students, listen to a tidal wave of questions and observations. Some of them amuse us, some challenge us, and sometimes the frequency of them can overwhelm our patience. Some perplex and surprise us, and some even sadden us as we realize that our students are meeting the reality of a fallen world in a new way. Other times we realize that we are challenged to reshape our own thoughts by the jubilant and faith-filled way our children respond to God's call. All of them are worth responding to; these are young minds looking for ways to unravel the truth found in God's world.

“But did it have to be like that? Couldn't God have made it work differently?” Why did God have to leave the possibility open for Adam and Eve to fall into sin? This was the classroom topic that I was privileged to hear concluding moments of. I'm convinced that many students left the class thinking differently after the teacher made the wise choice to pursue this “teachable moment” that arose spontaneously from the day's lesson.

There is so much more than skill development and content delivery going on in your child's classroom! Woven through the sum total of up to ten years of LCES education from K-8 are teachable moments that shape a child's worldview in ways that have implications through to eternity. I'm grateful that our qualified, Christian teachers seek out these opportune moments to help our students develop a discerning mind, a compassionate heart, and a willing spirit for service. Pray often for your child's teacher in this vital role they play in “equipping them for a life of faithful, Christian discipleship.” LCES Vision Statement


SJ

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Guiding our Children: Remembrance at Our Christian School

 


Sometimes an unexpected moment gives you a visual that will last you a lifetime.

While leading a grade eight class through the Ottawa area, a scene captured my full attention. In his youthful exuberance and innocent lack of awareness of its significance, a kindergarten-aged child was taking great delight in jumping and climbing all over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in its prominent spot near parliament hill. My first response was one of shock at the seemingly brazen disrespect of the sanctity of the place. But how could he possibly understand where he was and what as beneath him? I could not see a parent in sight as I watched this young child trace the edges of the bronze helmet and sword atop the thick slab of cold granite. His eyes wandered up to the group of war-weary soldiers watching from high above on the monument. His boisterous activity immediately stopped as he stared intently at the figures. It was plainly clear that he was trying to figure out what this was all about.

The act of remembrance, deliberately choosing to tell the stories of sacrifice and the often hard-won gift of peace, is so very important. We do so to recognize, honour, and thank those who have given of themselves in the past. We do so in order to remind ourselves of what we personally don’t experience daily. We do so because the next generation, like the young boy at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, won’t “just know” on their own what this is all about and why it matters.  

With help from their teachers, our students will be offered the chance this week to step out of regular routines and the familiarity of their predictable, safe lives. When we pause during Remembrance Day for a moment of silence we meet the devastating extent of sin, the world’s need of a Saviour, and the hope of renewed creation where all wars will cease. I’m thankful our students were given this opportunity to say “I choose to remember.”

SJ

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

A Place At The Table: Hospitality At Our Christian School



I have a childhood memory of Sunday visits between two church services. For about half the day between and morning and afternoon worship services on a Sunday, I would have the chance to “swap families” and be a guest in different home. I recall that as being a time that I was not only visiting with a friend, but actually being welcomed as a guest of the entire family since it involved two car rides, a meal or two, and being included in the family’s devotion patterns. It was a chance to be a guest of honor.

Later in life I was also invited into homes as a university student as part of a travelling choir. Usually for a late evening snack after a concert, an overnight sleep, and then a morning breakfast routine – I was invited with no context, no previous relationship, and no understanding on either side of what the experience might feel like to be guest and host. They were almost always very warm and memorable times of being welcomed as strangers, and then leaving as someone known and loved. (Except for the time someone’s basement flooded, but that is a story for another time.)

Teachers will be participating this Thursday in a Edvance Christian School convention for educators. We will focus on hospitality in communities. I’ll share two sentences here the presenter gave us in advance:

Start from the image of God as banquet host, of Jesus as the one declaring the arrival of God’s hospitality, God’s welcome. How might this shape the way you imagine what makes your school or your classroom or your curriculum Christian (Christ-following)?

I’m looking forward to a reflective time of encouragement with the LCES team as we link in virtually to this event. I’m thankful for the chance for our teachers to continue to grow in their beautiful craft of Christian Teaching for two days. Pray we are blessed as we gather.

SJ

Friday, October 8, 2021

Multi-Grade Learing At Our Christian School


“Happiness is not found within us, but rather between us.” 

The last time that an in-person educator convention was held (October 2019) in Ancaster, nearly 1000 Christian educators explored this concept from a British researcher, Rob Loe. (Hard to imagine 1000 maskless people in one auditorium today!) 

Depending only on self-help books, mindfulness to find your inner “you”, and other such activities is not the route to happiness, he proposed. His interesting research of measuring relationships in organizations indicate that people flourish when strong connecting relationships exist. The most vulnerable are taken care of best in communities were connecting relationships are strongest. He presented some “threats” to relationship health in our culture and context. Bees in a bee hive with unique but connected roles was offered as a visual to ponder. The hive thrives when relationships between the bees is healthy. 

At LCES, we believe relationship is the foundation of learning. Jesus showed us this in the way in which he announced a new covenant and the coming kingdom. He lived and taught in an intensely relational setting with his disciples. Can you imagine the talking on long walks, mealtime conversations, and lingering campfire debates?

This is why students and teachers at LCES begin the day with deliberate greetings, listen to each other about silly things and serious things, and spend time restoring relationships when they are struggling. This is why we have reading buddies, bus buddies, and STEM friends (grade 7&8 and kindergarten). We strive to have students who are seen, known, and loved every day they come to school learn of God’s truth.

 It’s great to be in the hive at LCES every day. 

SJ

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Technology in a Christian School: One Tool of Many

 

“Technology is only very good if it can help us become the persons we were mean to be.” Andy Crouch

I remember the day a Commodore 64 was wheeled into my grade five classroom for the first time, the start of when computer tech was a new ingredient in my education. The teacher didn’t really know what to do with it and it didn’t really become much more than an indoor recess occupier of students for many years. As I watched another filing cabinet leave LCES for good last month, I though about how technology has changed the way we learn.

We know that all of God’s world belongs to him, and all of it can be used in faithfulness or disobedience. Technology doesn’t live outside that truth. Our task is sorting out the difference and being intentional about choosing wisely. It also seems true that technology is challenging us and our children and we don’t have a long history to guide as we wrestle with what a faithful response looks like. The pace of new developments is faster than our understanding of how it is shaping us in many cases. (eg. watch “The Social Dilemma”)

I heard an excellent podcast last week that proposed technology is a possible accelerator of good teaching and learning, but not the author of it. I like that idea. Technology of any kind will never replace the value of excellent teaching and leading by parent or teacher. The presence or absence of technology alone in a classroom or home doesn’t indicate students will learn any better, or becomes wiser as they grow up. The value of a skilled and committed teacher who can match learning methods well with student’s abilities, interests, and development is key here. LCES is very blessed with such exemplary educators.  I’ve often thought that when technology enables us to do something we couldn’t otherwise do, then we’re accessing more of its God-created potential for our benefit.

SJ

Friday, June 11, 2021

Peculiar Peacemakers At Our Christian School

(picture pre-COVID)
“Blessed are the peacemakers… for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9 

I’ve heard someone summarize Christian Education as an unending effort to raise peculiar people. Not peculiar in the sense of being odd, standing out for reasons that are ego-building, or people who “find their own groove” in ways that fill up social media accounts. Instead, peculiar describing people so motivated by their love of God and desire for the Kingdom that they are compelled to serve and love without ceasing. It is their unending commitment to love in determined ways that gives way to the descriptor of “peculiar.” 

Peculiar people build the God’s Kingdom every day: 

When peace and reconciliation overcome conflict, the Kingdom is built. 

When grief and sadness are chased away by faith-nourished hope, the Kingdom is built. 

When loneliness and desperation are washed away by communal joy, the Kingdom is built. 

When apathy and disillusionment are replaced with passionate purpose, the Kingdom is built. 

When division and hatred are replaced by justice and righteousness, the Kingdom is built. 


The world cries out for those who are peculiar. 

SJ

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Finding The Most Important Work At Our Christian School

 "Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work."

-CS Lewis-

While the intense tornado of COVID may feel like it is starting to move off, there is no doubt that we are still dealing with the thunderstorms that are lingering far longer than we wish. Many of my conversations in the last month have started with a wondering question about how COVID will have impacted childhood and learning for all students.

There are two ways to answer that question:

There is a diagnostic response, which is important and can focus our efforts and revisions to education in the next years as we resume something closer to our former academic life as a school. I am very convinced that our teachers can adapt this fall, and in the years to come. In part, this is why students in grades five through eight will be taking the Measure of Academic Progress test in the next nine days. We are keen to measure what they have learned and what they are ready to learn next so that we serve them well. We believe that students within this age group can take these tests successfully and the results will be credible.

But there is also a relational response, which starts with the bold declaration that our children belong to God before they belong to anyone else, and that the Lord will sustain them (Psalm 55:22). God asks us to be part of those efforts. A “COVID booster” response of emphasizing to our children that they are known by name by God, and that we know and love them seems more appropriate than ever. They will have a lifetime among other faithful people to figure out grade specific details that may have been delayed due to COVID, but knowing they are loved can’t wait. One of the ways our children come to know that they are loved by God is that they are loved within their family. When we build a shed, read a book, try out a new recipe, or repair a bike – deliberately with them, that is part of God sustaining them.

And in the end we come to realize its good for us as parents too.

SJ

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

A Post-Easter Walk and Our Christian School

 “What are you discussing as you walk along?” (Luke 24:17)


Jesus joined the two walking along in their despair. They were lost, not on the road way – but entirely lost in thought. The kind of conversation where one isn’t really aware of one’s surroundings. I can picture repeated questions between the two, with no clear answers as they were reviewing harsh words, piercing accusations, and swift actions in Jerusalem. It had all happened so fast that while they knew the sequence of events, they could not make sense of it. So, the resurrected Jesus walked along with them, started over again with Moses and walked through God’s story so that they could understand. It was only after they broke bread together that they realized who was giving them such council – Jesus, the living Lord! 

There is much in this story for us as a community of learning that is also a community of faith. The kind of understanding the two travelers were looking for was found in connection and relationship. Jesus walked with them, and went about a daily pattern of life with them – eating a meal. Meaning came from prolonged period of relational connection. 

LCES staff spend up to 10,000 hours with our students from JK-8, living in a connected way with them. Formal instruction, personal conversations, shared trips and shared meals offer the stage for wise council. Spirit-led moments of discovery are formative as our students make sense of a world that is often harsh, inconsistent, and confusing – but ultimately is loved and redeemed by Christ. May our children also recognize Jesus along their road of life. 

SJ

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Teaching and the Timing of Easter at Our Christian School

I heard an intriguing question this weekend: What does it tell us that Jesus lived among his people and taught about the kingdom for more than three years before he bore our sins in the Easter events that we are about to travel through in remembrance next month?

It’s hard to conceive of a timeline of Jesus making his entrance, unannounced, to earth only a few days before Easter, saving us by grace on the cross and then, like a hurried traveler connecting to the next flight, leave abruptly and not be seen again.

There were three years of deliberate conversations, long walks, and seaside lessons of pacing with the Son of God.  The people had lost their way and their hearts had been hardened. Their downtrodden, hopeless, and in some cases legalistic souls were places that needed to hear about the kingdom of God. This kingdom was so upside down from what they expected that they learned that even children who approached could sit on the lap of Son of God and be blessed by him. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Jesus had to teach us, as one of us.

One of the things I appreciate about a Christian elementary school pathway for a child is that the years of JK through grade eight have so many places of opportunity for this kind of pacing. What joy that there can be lingering conversations about the love of God, deliberate focus on recognizing God at work among his people, and longing for the perfection of that kingdom when it will be fully restored. When a teacher sits on the carpet with the students or pulls up a chair around the circle of students, they are teaching as one of them. It is a beautiful sight.

May God’s kingdom come this week at our Christian School.

SJ

Thursday, February 25, 2021

How Big is Creation: Perspective in our Christian School

There was some excitement among staff and students last week with the latest expedition to Mars. It is fascinating to see images from 500 million kms away being streamed back to earth. It seems amazing that we can communicate that far, and it works! (Even though areas of Ontario still don’t have great cell reception and rural internet isn’t great, but we’ll leave that alone today). A distance that large is something that we can’t really make sense of since it is so far beyond our daily, earthly experience of space and time. I figured out this morning that it is roughly 12,000 times around the equator. Somewhat helpful, but still hard to comprehend. 

As much as we can accurately know, that six month trek of the expedition is 0.0000000005% of the way across the Milk Way. Our little home here on planet earth is pretty small, but our God is very great. 

What joy there is to be able to teach our children that as large as all this is, there is a creator who made it, sustains it, and knows every miniscule detail of it. We get to teach students at LCES that that the same creator who made Mars knows them by name as they rise each day and explore his world. What an opportunity! 

SJ 

P.S. Check out Louie Giglio preaching about Stars and Whales Singing God’s praise here.

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Of Greenhouses and Students at our Christian School

 “How do your students do when they enter the real world?” 

The question implied that what we do at LCES isn’t linked in a direct way to what happens outside of the school day for our students. 

The goal of Christian education is not to isolate students from life, but to enable them to fully understand what they are actually seeing. We seek to have students be able to peel back the confusion and distortion of God’s good creation that is caused by sin to see creation as it was originally meant to be, and one day what it will become again. The “real world” without the story of the mighty acts of God isn’t real at all, since it tells an incomplete story of what life is really all about. As C.S. Lewis said through one of his characters, we seek to provide students ample opportunity to “…go further in and go further up” as they deepen and widen their understanding of all things. Mixed in between math facts and poetry, gym class and art, Christian education fosters the ability to discern truth, seek reconciliation, and share love. 

I like to think of the students in our school as seedlings in a greenhouse. We shelter them, but never with the belief that is where they will permanently stay. We do it to give them the best means to grow and flourish where God plants them. Just like the wise gardener starts the seedlings in cold January under glass to give plants the very best chance of being healthy outside in June, we nurture our children in the wonderful space of a Christian school where we grow in wisdom and love each day. 

Bring on the warmth (eventually) of spring!

SJ

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Learning at Our Christian School: What's your cornerstone?

 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” Psalm 111: 10

Some of you may know that this text is built right into our building in the form of a keystone installed as part of a wall. It is located immediately outside the kindergarten classrooms. At one point that text was actually outside our building; now it is inside our beautiful facility that the Lord has blessed us with to live out our vision statement which states  “To educate children, equipping them for a life of faithful, Christian discipleship.”

I echo the strong emphasis that the founders of our school placed by choosing this anchor text for our anchor stone in 1962. We can’t truly know anything rightly unless we begin with God. For instance, consider two viewpoints from which to view life:

Lense A

Lense B

What do I get?

Motivated by personal gain

Live for yourself

Truth is relative, you decide

You are what people say about you

Fulfill your dreams

Motivated to do one’s best by fear of failure or rejection

Things happen by random chance

How can I help?

Motivated by advancing the kingdom of God

Lose your life, they you will find it

Truth is absolute, we pursue it together

Identity comes from what God says about you

Fulfill your calling

Motivated to do one’s best in gratitude to God as a faithful response

The world is ordered and upheld by a living God

May God bless our very important work of nurturing biblical wisdom in His children everyday at LCES!

SJ