Amazing Peace

I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play;

In music sweet their tones repeat,

“There’s peace on earth, good will to men.”

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor does He sleep,

For Christ is here; His Spirit near

Brings peace on earth, good will to men.”

                                            -Henry W. Longfellow –

The journey to the manger in the school Christmas concert can be anything but peaceful. Where are those props? How do you set up those risers again? Do we have enough programs? It’s not hard to end up in a spot where singing “peace on earth” feels like a living contradiction to what we feel. Perhaps that is because of the tyranny of the urgent that can consume us. Or, perhaps because we watch the “nations raging together” (Psalm 2:1) and our doubtful hearts worry that dark skies and dark hearts are winning the day.

Christmas in our Christian school ought to remind us that our faith is characterized not only by the “Amazing Grace” we sing of often, but also “Amazing Peace.” Though they may be fleeting, the moments in our lives where we experienced that peace are worth pausing for. Quiet snow falling, a sleeping infant, a musical moment of awe and reflection, or the hum of the road in a darkened car returning from a family outing - these all are a foretaste of the “perfect peace” that will one day characterize every day, every place, for every one of God’s children. I think peace is something you feel more than you understand.

May God grant us moments of that “peace that transcends understanding” as we tell the most amazing story: God took on flesh and became one of us. Now that is a source of amazing peace!

SJ

What gift to give?

A bedtime Christmas family favorite is “The Crippled Lamb” by Max Lucado. It tells the story of Joshua, a lamb who didn’t fit in, was broken, and he had nothing of value to offer the newly arrived King. I won’t share his gift so you can enjoy the story for yourself if you haven’t already, but the gift was one that he hadn’t even considered to be valuable.  

Perhaps the most true delight of Christmas gift-giving (not gift-getting) is in recognizing the ability to give something that resonates with who you are and what you believe is important, and then imparting that gift to someone else in way that is a rich blessing to them in ways they didn’t expect. 

We are so grateful at LCES for the many gifts we receive year-long. Time is one of the greatest gifts we are given by volunteers who offer the work of their hands in support of who we are and we what we stand for; we teach children to acknowledge and follow the Lord as they learn.

We’re also thankful for students sharing their gifts and talents. I can’t wait for the Christmas conert on Dec 20. Let’s rejoice together over the gift of God with us – Immanuel!
 

SJ

Hope and our Christian School

Did you know that two billion of the eight billion people on this planet don't have access to reliable electricity? Fuels for light are expensive, so darkness is part of their life in a different way than ours. It seems their reality is perhaps closer to the world of the people of Israel as prophecies of Isiah mentioned "for those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine." (Isaiah 9)

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

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! That is what we celebrate this Christmas.

SJ

Walking Straight and Christian Education At LCES

I listened to a humorous podcast that talked about a series of experiments that were conducted in 1920’s and 1930’s about the ability of humans to walk straight without the benefit of sight. While blindfolded, and in several different locations, repeated attempts were made to have someone move straight from fixed point to fixed point without curving off to the side. Most test subjects were able to start off very accurately but, without a visual reference point, would veer off and eventually find themselves close to where they started. Results were much better when there was someone else speaking to them to give them an auditory reference point to gauge their progress.

What a great illustration for living together and having a place to belong as a part of learning. We need each other! Without the gift of others, we can easily veer off and find ourselves off track, or even worse, not make any progress. God’s gift of community is a blessing to us when we feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit though the words of others and feel comforted or inspired by their actions. We come to realize that we need one another more than we might have known, and are surprised by joy and the coming kingdom when we feel God working in us through others.   

May our children learn to walk well as they listen to voices around them at LCES.

SJ 

The Pain in Remembrance

On behalf of the school, my family and I laid a wreath at the downtown cenotaph last Saturday during the Remembrance Day proceedings. Gratitude for service and the high cost of freedom were certainly foremost in our minds as we wore our poppies and bowed our heads. The tears, barren tree branches, thousands standing in silence reminded us of the raw reality -wars and fighting remain, guns have not been silenced. We lament that conflict abounds nearby and far away from our home and native land. 

The grade three class led a service in in our school gym on Friday. Spoken words, songs, and visuals during the student-led chapel affirmed that we need to  “let the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” (Colossians 3:15) 

That peace seems very elusive. Human suffering continues in the hands of tyrants, and so many wait for the kind of justice and peace that Christ commanded. Is there hope?

Yes! That peace of Christ comes to us as we pattern our lives after his gospel. I’m so thankful that the “message of Christ” is part of life here at LCES in the devotional and learning parts of every day. The coming kingdom of God with justice and peace for all is what we work for every day in each lesson and conversation, each challenge and success. May our students grow in wisdom that propagates peace and returns our world back to way God originally created it – beautiful, perfect, and filled with peace.  

The hope of advent is just around the corner.

SJ

Silent Guests in Grade Three

Grade three has been excited to have "guests" with them for much of this fall. These guests turn waste into something of value? Students check in on their guests frequently to see how they are doing, but never hear a peep from them. 

Who are these guests? Worms!

A worm hotel of sorts has been active in grade three this fall. Students are adding scraps, moisture, and are  turning the soil from time to time to watch how these decomposers work. This is an ongoing effort while students have been deep in the study of the distinction between dirt and soil as they learn about how God designs soil systems to work, and how we have responsibilities to be wise stewards. 

This is memorable learning that links students to God's amazing world. I can't help but wonder if this will be one of the things they recall later in life about their elementary school years. I'm thankful for these tangible, hands-on ways in which our students have the chance to grow. 

And I'm thankful for God's gift of worms. 

SJ

Bold Learning in Kindergarten

Our teachers have been deeply immersing themselves in professional development this year. One of the areas of exploration has been connecting our students with meaningful learning that solves a real problem, for real people. 

Notice (below) some of the amazing aspirations that our kindergarten team has for their students this year. So far, examples of them include creating the backdrop you see below (beautiful work), shared soup with people outside their family (building community), working through outdoor centre social realities (solve problems), and visiting the forest (explore God's world). This is high quality learning!

I'm very thankful for my parent's choice to invest in Christian education by sending me to the schools I attended. I am also thankful to see that Christian education continues to expand - both in terms who attends Christian schools and in terms of quality and value of what it has to offer to the next generation.

I'm filled with gratitude for the pioneering efforts in Christian education, excited by the courage and innovation of our professionals today, and have confidence in our schools' bright future. 

SJ

 

Noun Town and Soup for Friends: Connected Learning for our students

It's always rewarding to see the kind of learning our students are experiencing on any given day at LCES. Pictured right is grade one working on a gigantic map of "Noun Town" where they were energetically placing as many "person, place, or things" on the map. Discussion about which should be capitalized, what was/wasn't a noun, and where to place them were full of energy and student engagement. This is learning that draws students and teachers together. 

Later the same day I saw kindergarten students printing labels for jars of soup they had made earlier that week to give to someone they know that wasn't from their family. They were practicing letters, but more than that they were practicing hospitality and valuing relationships with people. 

These were two examples of the kind of excellent learning experiences our amazing LCES team of teachers design for our students. 

We are very blessed at LCES.

SJ

Cells: The Building Blocks of Life

With great pride, our grade eight students have recently brought in 3-D models of plant and animal cells that they have created. Take a look at the pictures below - they have used all sorts of different materials to show their understanding of these two important basic building blocks God uses in all living things. 

There is much to admire and be grateful for in this. 

First, that students at LCES are being given yet another opportunity to understand God's amazing world. God reveals himself through his son Jesus, the Bible, and his amazing world.  

Second, that students are fulfilling their own calling by God to be creative as they learn. Students flourish when they create as a way to learn and/or give evidence of what they have already learned. Notice the variety of materials and designs and their colourful displays!

Third, students are creating beautiful work that creates memorable learning. We love it when our students have the opportunity to follow an extended process for some parts of their learning that helps consolidate their own learning and extends learning into other parts of the school. Students in the rest of the school are walking by the display of cells with great interest today!

Learning at LCES is amazing!

SJ

Big Things in Learning: What our guides our learning?

Big things in learning….

As every school year begins, I am always delighted in watching our students notice God's amazing world. In the first 1.5 months of school, we've had students notice the season changing with a pond walk, witnessed the beauty of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, and even create beautiful models of God's building blocks of animal and plant cells. "It's all brand new to them" I remind myself often, and there is joy in witnessing their fresh delight. 

How do we shape learning at LCES? We're doing a lot of thinking on this question this fall at our school. Here are some ideas we are talking about:

Connectedness We aim for our students to see God’s creation as an intricate, complex, and amazing example of how purposeful God is. God’s world is something to be studied as a whole, as well as in parts. 

Discernment We want our students to develop tools and have opportunities to practice, under the watchful idea of a passionate educator, figuring out what is God’s truth and what is means for them. God’s world is designed around God’s truth.

Service We strive to have our students live out the truth of biblically knowing. As they study the Lord’s handiwork, they are directed to love their neighbor in every way, in everything they do and say. Community is God’s good gift to us.

Wonder God’s world is a thing of beauty and we wish for our students to meet God in new ways as they learn. God’s world speaks of God's greatness and faithfulness.

Big things guide our learning!

SJ

Noticing God's World

These are two moments that were exciting for our youngest learners last week. Making apple crisp in kindergarten and releasing a butterfly in grade one. 

Students live in a dynamic learning environment at LCES - there is so much to notice and try in God's amazing world. Every one of these memory making  moments is also a chance to tell students about God as the source of all this goodness. Something to be thankful for!

SJ

Truth & Reconciliation @ LCES

I'm so grateful for our staff who lean into challenging topics and meaningful learning for our students. Our LCES team is amazing!

Our students were challenged this morning to process "National Day for Truth and Reconciliation" in their crew chapel groups. (This means they sit in groups of about 10 students, one from each grade). 

It reminds me that community and relationship is the best context for learning. 

This is a blessing for our students, and the world who needs to hear God's story by them today, and in the future. 

 

To Be Noticed and Known

One of many things I am grateful for at LCES are when a student gets some individual time with an adult. It may be just a few moments as our staff move through their responsibilities, but these are very influential parts of a day where our students are being noticed, which confirms they are known and they matter at LCES. This is a beautiful thing and I'm grateful that we can support relationships as the core of learning in this way. 

 

Moments of Gratitude

I'm thankful for many things at LCES. Here are four I noticed in the first week of school:

At our school students see themselves first as God's children. That's beautiful. 

Relationships are important and are the context of learning. That's life giving.

Students respect and love their teachers at LCES. That's beautiful. 

Innovation and change are part of LCES. That's exciting!

It's going to be an awesome year. 

SJ

A New Year Begins: Our Place in God’s Big Story

By God’s grace, for the 63rd time in our school’s history a community of parents and school staff are ready for a new year of learning and living by faith. We’re so thankful for the work of school custodians and maintenance volunteers who have cleaned, painted, and spruced up our building. Our teachers have been working for weeks to get ready to welcome more than 190 students today. God is good and God is faithful!

Schools are placed of relationships and stories, and we’re excited that both of those can be rooted in God’s truth at LCES. This year we will be exploring our place in God’s Big Story (Psalm 89:1-2) as His people who live connected to a grand story that connects us all the way back to creation and all the way forward a fully renewed creation. Knowing where we are in that story guides our learning, strengthens our connection to others, and draws us deeper into God’s beautiful world. We’ll share more on this as the year progresses. 

Whether it is your first year or you’ve lost count, we are glad you are here for this next chapter of God’s Big Story. Please join our staff in praying for a wonderful year of growing together. 

SJ

The "Real World": Learning, Home, and Refugees

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

The manner in which the question was asked suggested that at least to some degree, the inquiring family presumed that the learning journey for students at LCES is not linked in a direct way to what happens in the broader world outside of the school day. I firmly believe it does. 

Take for example our student service project this spring. After wrapping up our learning connection with Indwell, our students are being challenged to learn about what “home” means, especially to those who don’t have one. LCES will be learning about refugees throughout the world, but also locally right here in our city as they read through books specifically chosen to help them understand the journey of those who have fled their home. 

Christian education has as its goal not to isolate students from life, but to enable them to fully understand what they are actually seeing around them: God’s amazing world! We seek to have students be able to peel back the confusion and distortion of that good creation caused by sin in order 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 grounds students with the chance to sort through a messy world to find what is real, true, valuable, honorable, faithful, and praiseworthy. 

SJ

Wonder: Sleeping With One Eye Open

"Mr. Janssen, did you know that dolphins sleep with one eye open?

Frequently, I have reason to speak with our students. In most of the occasions I have the pleasure of celebrating things with them; a birthday, a recent creation or project, a story from their life outside school, something they have just recently learned, or something they think is “amazing” about God’s creation.

Loose or missing teeth, holiday plans, counting in French, and many other parts of their lives are readily shared with joy and excitement. Life at every turn offers something new to take in. This is the joy of the Christian elementary educator: we pace with our students who are seeing God’s world as something brand new, like an undisturbed field of snow they have never visited before.

Life is amazing. Though our often-jaded attention as adults tends toward areas of frustration, worry, or lament faster than it goes to wonder – our world is an astounding place. Your child’s days are filled with seeing, appreciating, and attempting to understand many brand-new things for the very first time. “Wonder creates awe, and awe creates worship” a friend of mine used to say. While eyes and ears are focused to see these things, what a perfect opportunity to be telling the mighty acts of God and answering the big questions of life like “Who am I?”, “Where am I?”, “What’s my purpose?”, and “What is this world really all about?” This is one of the ways that we attune our students to the kingdom that Jesus taught his disciples about.

I’m thankful for Christian education which not only draws our children’s attention to an amazing creation, but also to worship its creator. All of life (including learning at London Christian Elementary School) is sacred.

Praise God!

SJ

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

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

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)