Parenting and Responsibility In Our Christian School

I took a picture of this sign on a family camping trip this past summer. There is a touch of humour in the large ominous font, since it would seem that the message is implied and shouldn’t need to be stated. Of course they are our responsibility! We meet the weight of that responsibility every day. Their appetite causes them to eat us out of house and home, they go through clothing faster than we can find the next size, their choices bring us joy and frustration – sometimes immediately following each other. We have hundreds of pictures of moments when smiles of contentment make it seem all is well, but we also know clouds of deep worry, doubt, or even fear are part of being a parent. Parenting is anything but simple, easy, and guaranteed.

As a father, four times I have had the immense joy of receiving in my arms God’s gift of a fresh newborn wrapped up in a hospital blanket staring out at a wide new world. What precious moments those were! Deep longing had met deep love at the sight of a person so new and so beautiful. With toes and fingers all counted, life seemed wonderfully simple and absolute clarity was felt about what really mattered, and where to invest in their future. Lofty goals and dreams were easy to make, genuine as they were wrapped up in the moment. I always felt “…and God wants me to be in charge of all of this?”

Fast forward to the complexities of a school-aged child and what it takes to nurture, guide, inspire, admonish, instruct, and discipline. No preset path or child-specific owner’s manual was provided! The immensity of the task of parenting is daunting when we meet the unique nature of each individual child and the ever changing world they live in, even more so when we consider their future in it.

Parenting is no easy street, holy work that it is as we watch newborns becomes adults in twenty years. I’m grateful for Christian Education as one of the voices in our children’s lives, rounding out the efforts of a Christian home and Christian church. I continue to be delighted at seeing the impact that three can make together. May the Lord guide our efforts and lead our children through us, and sometimes in spite of us. 

SJ

The House That God Built

Welcome to our “house”! At the front doors of our school in black granite you’ll find the words “God is the builder of everything” (Hebrews 3:4) What a joy to have that as our sure foundation for each school year! We hope you will find our house a place of growth, joy, discovery, and warmth this year.  

Our “house” has been a flurry of activity this summer. Painting, playground updates, HVAC repairs, and the delivery of new school furniture took place. Truckloads of gravel, mulch, and topsoil have added function to our yard. Teachers have created inviting places of learning and community. It was a joy to watch today as many of the classrooms continued that process of making a house a home as students were staking their claim with visual displays and classroom covenants.

A spirit of thanksgiving and praise has certainly been felt through the community with the launch of a new year and the return of familiar faces, as well as the abundance of new people to meet. 17 new local and international families will join us this year, with more still possible. Five new staff members are joining us this year, Ms. Bethel in the front office, Ms. Funes in JK, Ms. Versteeg in grade five, Mr. Kraal in grade seven, and Ms. Stalhbaum in French. Our welcome mat is going to get a workout!

New things bring change. While change can bring uncertainty, we certainly know we can count on God’s provision for all we need in our house.  We aim to be found faithful with how our household functions, even as we adapt and renew it yearly. May all who dwell here be richly blessed.

If you are one of the many new parents reading this Weekly News, welcome!  This weekly publication goes out electronically and is a great spot to read up on the happenings of our school. I encourage you to read and pray your way through it each week. Feel free to contact me at the school if you are in need of answers or details that you have not been able to find elsewhere. It’s going to be a fantastic year of “Seeking Justice, Loving Mercy, and Walking Humbly” Micah 6:8.  

SJ

Living And Learning in the Last Week of School at Our Christian School

Here are some scenes from the last week of school. God blessed us richly with a wonderful year and we are so grateful for demonstrations of his care that we experienced ever day. 

Grade seven decorated another ceiling tile in the classroom, recording this year's school theme and adding it to a growing visual history of our years of learning on the ceiling. We are thankful for God's care yesterday, today, and tomorrow.












The students' collective JK-8 efforts for our student service project resulted in a gift of $2310.81 to LaGosette Christian School in Haiti. We pray these funds will be a blessing to that community and their future. God's blessings are meant to be shared.








A new bus arrived just in time for the last week of school! We are grateful for our bus driver team and all they do each day to get so many students to school.










Because we just had to pack in a little more fun before the year was done, a mini slip n' slide was a great way to spend a warm afternoon for JK & SK. The joy shows in the laughter and smiles.










Graduation was a highlight of the week, including unique cupcakes. It was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate with our graduates and their families. May God bless them where he takes them.

Our staff have completed the wrap up activities after students left. They are headed to a time of rest & renewal, learning, and eventually getting ready for a new year in late summer. We are so thankful for their love, commitment, and care for our students. 

We planted a tree! The wall in The Hub was decorated last week with a tree, the leaves of which were all of the hand prints of the staff and students. We are thankful for a community to connect with during our learning, serving, and growth.

A S'more is nutritious isn't it?

Coloured tongues are evidence of year-end celebrations. It's good to stop, take stock, and recognize we have much to be grateful for. God's mercies are new every morning. 


















JK and grade seven had a special relationship all year in many learning tasks. The last one was to trace their outline and see just how much they had grown. We are thankful for meaningful ways to link old and young students together.

On the last day of school grade 2/3 revisited an ongoing experiment in the front garden. They studied soil composition this year and decided to try out a challenge they found of burying an item of clothing to see what happened to it after two months. We are thankful for the curiosity of our students and where it takes them. 



The joy of fellowship is a blessing everyday. 



















That's a wrap! The classrooms are empty and the hallways are filled. Our custodian will go to work later this month to give the whole place a new glow and get it ready for the fall. They give us a fresh new school every summer and we are thankful for their efforts. 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. 


SJ

Grace Filled Growth: The Finish Line!

My friends may you grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour

Our staff, parents, and student body said farewell to our grade eight class in a special chapel this morning. Original poems crafted by the grade seven class about our graduates were read. They were playful and fun, but nonetheless showed that our oldest learners were well known by their peers and the LCES staff. It’s a fun LCES tradition that brings smiles and laughter from the audience.  We closed with another tradition, singing the above song while they left their last chapel.

So begins a week of celebration and endings, including recognizing where this year has taken us. If I had to summarize some of the things I will remember about 2017-18, here is my top five:

1.  God’s favour – So many times this year we have been challenged and faced unknowns, but have been reminded that God’s love and provision never cease. We are reminded of a wider group of non-parent supporters who pray, give of time and money, and tangibly support what we do.

2. Growth – We are excited to see a strong show of parental interest in our school, in several cases from families whose children are not yet school aged.  We had a record number of families join us within this school year. There will be at least ten new families, likely more, starting this fall. It’s also exciting to see grades four through six return to single grades this fall.

3. Changing spaces– The Hub was a hit this year for our students. With the portables gone, and the area cleaned up, we are excited about doing something new in that area. Dreams and first steps exist for other changes in and out of the building to make us efficient, innovative, and effective.

4. People – There will be a significant change in the mix of people leading at LCES. A new board chair, and three new board members take over. Five new people will be part of our LCES staff this fall. It’s been an exciting journey, but there too we meet God’s wisdom and provision “for such a time as this.”

6. Student Growth – Between report cards and graduation, it is my delight to read many things this week that point to the fact our students have grown physical, mentally, socially, academically, and spiritually. Praise God for a new generation growing in wisdom each year!

The LCES Board and staff wish all of our families a pleasant summer of work, rest, and play. May the Lord be faithful to you and yours until we meet again in September.

SJ

Daybreak and Transitions: Telling Our Christian School Story

“The Lord wakes me up every day with a plan for the day. It’s my job to listen and act.”

With a smile and evidence of a wistful journey through memories, these were the words of an unexpected visitor I had last week. A school newsletter prompted a visit from someone part a group for whom LCES first existed only as a dream, a wish that wouldn’t go away, fueled mostly by determination and trust. Sounds like exciting times, but I’m sure it wasn’t that simple.  

Our school opened its doors here at this location in September of 1962, but that isn’t really where the story begins. There were other more temporary locations, and, before that, early meetings when there was no school, just a series of discussions (and not always agreement) about the why, how, and when of starting a Christian school here in East London.

I heard just enough of the story shared with me that it was obvious challenges were present when forming and maintaining our school in those infant years of the institution. Where will the money come from? How will we convince others to join us? Who should be on staff? How will students get to school? What should be studied? How should we grow? Who do we serve?

These questions sound familiar. I was struck by how, 60 or more years and two generations later, school leadership also wrestles with the same set of compass orientation type checkpoints. I’m glad that we still ask them and look for what our faithful response will be today.

I deeply appreciated the way my visitor described the first thought of the day as being a response to God’s call, and the trust that there already is a plan in place that Lord has prepared. We pray and work, but God’s work among us is greater still.  “Pray yourself into the center of God’s will” were wise words shared with me years ago.

As I think about new board members joining us and others moving on, grade eight students ready to transition to broader horizons, family transitions, and staff members preparing to leave with others taking their place, it is good to be reminded that there is a story and a plan that is much larger than we are. May that be the first thought we meet each day with as we keep LCES moving forward.

SJ

Communication and Isolation: Our Children and Their World

I’ve been listening in on discussions in the last month of the outcome of a study by Cigna, a US health company. Among many things, it shares data on what appears to be “the loneliest generation,” largely as result of a way of communicating and thinking very different from generations before them.

An edgy public speaker I follow that talks about communication, writing, and media threw this out in a recent presentation: “I’m convinced that one day we will look back on adolescents and pre-adolescents having free range access to devices and data access without limits in the same way currently think back on the days of kids wandering around moving cars without seat belts.”

Clearly, this is a relatively new matter in the world of parenting and education without years of experience of how to put things in their rightful spot. At minimum, the growing consensus among is that technology not only changes how we connect, but more significantly how we think. As we track a generation of learners who progress through childhood, adolescence, and young adult years, information is surfacing about trends we need to pay attention to.

Some good questions for all parents to consider:
• How much time does my child spend with all of the “screens” in their life?
• What’s the ratio of real-life interactions vs. e-communication in my child’s life?
• When are they consuming vs creating?
• Is there sufficient downtime in my child’s life when they don’t have to be socially “on”?
• Are there understood boundaries, limits, or other constraints about how much, where, and about what that they communicate?

Do we talk about these things in our household and check up on habit the same way we check
for other signs of health (or lack of it) in a child’s life? Our children are waiting for us to help them through this very recent cultural change. Parents and educators alike are  quick to tell you they have personal experience that proves they can’t do it on their own. Let’s commit ourselves to
watching carefully and using faithful discernment of how to live life God’s way.

SJ

P.S. On this topic, I highly recommend The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch.

Walking Straight And Our Christian School

A humorous CBC radio documentary on the weekend talked about a series of experiments that were conducted in 1920’s and 1930’s around 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 significantly 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 living out our school theme of One Body, Many Parts, We Belong.  We need each other! Without other people, we can easily veer off and find ourselves off track, or even worse, not make any progress. We realize that God’s gift of community is a blessing to us when we feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit though other’s words and feel comforted or inspired by other’s 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.  

Our school staff, the board of directors, and our parents are thankful for the hundreds of hours given to the school each year in the form of volunteer efforts. They help us to keep costs in check, but more importantly, those hours become part of the tapestry in which God blesses our organization with refined traditions, new ideas, connections, well-made decisions, and confirmation we’re on the right path. It’s part of what helps us “walk straight.”

SJ