Leaving to Learn at Our Christian School

As principal, I’ve seen a steady stream of class trip planning sheets coming across my desk in the last months as teachers anticipated May and June. As I read them and consider the unique experiences they will be for our students, I can’t help but be excited for them. Each one opens wider a world made for them by the Lord’s hand.

God formed sky, land, and sea;

stars above, moon and sun,

making a world of color, beauty, and variety—

a fitting home for plants and animals, and us—

a place to work and play,

worship and wonder,

love and laugh.   Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony

The length, educational focus, and structure of the class trips are always different, but one thing remains the same. These memorable experiences are highlights of learning. Why does LCES send students on class trips? I can think of several reasons:

·         These experiences help our students to see God’s world as a place of beauty and offer experiences to develop wonder and praise for an amazing world of people and places.

·         Taking the classroom on the road creates invaluable “touchstone” moments for our students to connect previous learning or prepare working examples for future learning as they see God’s world as a connected, purposeful, and intricate place prepared for his children.

·         Students see their teacher, classmates, and even parents in a different way as they respond to different topics and ways of learning. They understand each other’s interests, passions, and talents more fully, and emerge a stronger community.

·         Students can see the world in its brokenness, and yet see hope in the ways to redeem it.

Taking the classroom on road is part of the bold assertion that indeed, Our World Belongs to God!   SJ

"Lack of Inner Compass"

While working this weekend I heard an amazing tale to learn from via a radio interview.

Leo Koretz was a financial wizard who “made” 400 million (in today’s money) around 1910 by convincing people to invest in worthless Arkansas rice farms, Panama timber operations, and then later Panama oil extraction. He was so persuasive that people begged him to take their money to invest in his financial empire. One person even threw a bundle of money over an office wall, with written instructions pleading for him to invest the funds! Every bit of the operation was fake, however, as investors who travelled to Panama found out when they showed up expecting a bustling oil empire and found nothing there. The entire operation was a fraud. He “hid” in Nova Scotia for a time before being sent back to face charges in Chicago.

The interview with the researcher got very interesting after the story was told. How could someone so talented and effective go so far astray? The response was “the lack of an inner compass” that didn’t guide him correctly. Abruptly, the interview ended to my dissatisfaction. So, why am recounting this to you

on our Christian School newsletter?

First, it is essential to realize that we aim to much more than deliver the content of learning. We seek to impart knowledge that is always accompanied with wisdom. Wisdom orients action. Our present students will eventually be charged with key leadership pieces in their life that offer, much like Mr. Koretz, the opportunity to use it for God’s kingdom or for something else. We are the training grounds for making future decisions well.

Second, the need for our children to be equipped with discernment and critical thinking to choose well in a sometime confusing world of choice and “opportunity” is essential for their future well-being. Unlike the many who were duped and hitched their dreams to Mr. Koretz’s imaginary wagon of success, we want our students to be critical thinkers with good questions that pursue truth and God’s kingdom.

What a joy that we can give our students more than a compass to find their way. 

SJ

Walking On The Road After Easter At Our Christian School

Luke 20 tells us that two disciples were walking on the road, heads hung low in disappointment as they trudged along. What to do now? This so called Saviour they had was dead, crucified by an angry mob. They were no doubt overwhelmed with the events of a week of swift progression that ended in despair. I picture them visibly shaken and disillusioned and feeling very alone.

Then Jesus, very much alive, came to join them on their plodding journey to Emmaus. Their cloud of grief and shock didn’t allow them to recognize him for who really was, and they told him all of their troubles presuming he was a talkative stranger not aware of what happened in Jerusalem.

As a child I couldn’t understand how they so easily missed him – he was right there! As an adult it is easier to understand how that happened. The story hadn’t unfolded the way they had it all figured out and they had their hopes dashed to the ground in only a few days. Their focus on the immediate had made them see the event unconnected to bold prophecies and clear promises from the prophets of old. Being so consumed with their troubles also caused them to fail to recognize God’s presence – Jesus – right there with them.

As a school that also walks a road each year with plans, there is an application of sorts for us. We organize and plan things as they make sense to us. We may find ourselves focusing on the immediate when we get tired and disillusioned. Yet God journeys with us, listening to us tell him what he already knows and has full solutions all planned our, and blesses us anyways because He knows what we need and His love knows no end.

On the roads we (and our children) walk, may we recognize our Risen Saviour. Praise God that we practice that walk every day at our Christian school.

SJ

The Resurrection and Our Christian School

“How deep the Father’s love for us,

how vast beyond all measure,

that He should give his only Son,

to make a wretch his treasure.”

Our families and our churches have already begun reflection and observance of the narratives and faith rituals of Easter. The familiar grooves of the above refrain were with me this weekend as I worked. It left me with this question in my mind:  What does the resurrection mean for the Christian School?

The gift of grace that comes from our resurrected Lord means that all of our students are not defined soley by their weakness, shortcomings, or failures.  God promises that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6) which for us and our students is a source of great encouragement to remain steadfast in our pursuit of faithful living and learning – even when success is not immediately apparent.   We are dearly loved people, all of us, and even in our brokenness God promises to do great things with us. He is our God, we are His people.

Riding a donkey, washing feet, and serving the Last Supper to his disciples – these are images for us today that ought to cause us to reflect. For us and our students, Jesus’ death and resurrection plants a vision in our minds and hearts of a radically different kingdom where power is not equated with wealth, power, or prestige. We direct our students to a kingdom that has come and is still coming that. We see evidence of it as students serve, forgive, seek justice, praise, and show grace as Christ modeled them all for us. The Christian school is a place where we look to help plant and ignite that longing to follow Christ in all areas of life, capturing the “first love” of our students and orienting it toward their creator.

In the hope of the resurrection,

SJ

Twin Giraffes and Knowing Your Name

While on bus duty before school last week, I was introduced to a giraffe. A pair of them, actually, that were peering out from under the flap of a backpack of a kindergarten student bringing them to school for a visit.  I asked what their names were.

“Gerald the giraffe” was the quick response.

“What about the other one?” I asked.

“They are both Gerald, that way I won’t forget the other one’s name and don’t have to worry about which one is which.” 

Some more questions and giggles followed as we considered the laughable idea that everyone should have the same name for sake of efficiency and ease of remembering.

What a blessing that our children are not one indistinguishable being among the world’s 7.5 billion, but rather were uniquely and specifically “knit together in [their] mother’s womb” (Psalm 139). Along the journey of childhood, we strive for them to hear and understand that God claims them as he did the people of Israel: “I have called you by your name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). Beyond marvelling at mountains and delighting over dandelions with children, it is a responsibility and a delight as parent and educator to share with a child who they are. The same God who made the earth, the skies, and giraffes – knows them personally, loves them specifically, never forgets about them, and claims them as his own. (This is one of the reasons that prayer requests for bandaged thumbs and sore knees are important and need to be understood as faith formation!)

Praise God for the unique opportunity to teach our children this truth at home, church, and LCES!

SJ

Beaver Teeth and Wonder at Our Christian School

 “Mr. Janssen, did you know that a beaver’s teeth never stop growing?”

Frequently, I have reason to speak with our students. On the vast majority of situations, I have the pleasure of celebrating things with them; a birthday, a recent creation or project, a story from their life outside school, stitches or a broken arm, or something they think is “amazing” about God’s creation.  Recounting a recent class trip, inspecting a loose or missing tooth, hearing of family adventures, or describing a new game they made – all of these are joyful conversations. Sometimes I forget how new all these experiences are for them – they are encountering “firsts” nearly evey day.

Life is amazing. Though our attention tends to wander toward areas of frustration, concern, worry or lament faster than 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 “Where are going?”.

“There is wonder all around us, and it is God’s will to fill us with that wonder that makes life enchanting and sacred.”  Ravi Zacharias

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 for that eyes that see and hearts and minds consumed with awe and wonder!

SJ

Valuable Questions At Our Christian School

“Does it weigh more than a soccer ball?

To pass the time on a long family road trip last week, I introduced my children to the game of twenty questions. They quickly learned the value of a good question when they used up ten questions and were not much closer to correctly guessing the object I was thinking about.

Contrast that with the stories of Jesus’ ministry we’ve been reading at our supper table. It stands out to us how many times Jesus gives a stunning question that reveals truth as a reply to a question intended for undermining authority, attacking character, or achieving malicious objectives.

I’m convinced excellent questions lead to excellent learning. In a culture of information flow that leans much further toward passive consumption than active creation, it is exceptionally important for us to grow students’ capacity to formulate questions that do the following:

Connect. When students ask questions that attempt to see how one part of God’s world is connected to another, they understand more of how majestically it was created and appreciate it at a deeper level. A recent example of a question heard in a primary question recently was “What happens to all the leaves in the forest? Where do they go if no one rakes them up?”

Renew.  A deeper level question that asks students to see what God’s original plan was for a part of creation, how very good it was, and how they might be part of renewing it is transformational for their future communities. An example I heard of this recently as “Why are bee populations in decline and what can farmers do about it?”

Discern. Learning to ask as much about what isn’t being said as what is, what justice looks like in an area of life, and digging deep with questions to identify bias and perspective is powerful. An example I heard this week is “What is the author presuming everyone agrees about?”

I’m thankful for Christian Education at LCES that challenges our children to delight in God’s world and ask quality questions that leads them further in to it.

SJ