Reason to Celebrate

A decorated tree in the hallway and Christmas songs being practiced just outside my office this morning remind me that only three weeks of school remain before the end of the year. I’ll easily admit it is a special time in the cycle of our school year that, although it tends accelerate our pace of activity, is a highlight that brings deep satisfaction. Having the opportunity to celebrate Christ’s birth and what it means for our world and specifically for us is a source of great joy in a Christian school. Christ is the center of the reason we exist as a school, so it is fitting that students help us to marvel at the awesome gift of Immanuel – God with us and radiate the joy that gift brings as they worship alongside the angels, shepherds, and wise men of old.

Here are few ways in which we will be celebrating the birth of Christ:

Christmas Around the World for grades 1-3 is teacher-led cultural “excursion” during which those students travel around to different classrooms to learn about how Christmas is celebrated in other places. We are reminded both of the diversity and unity of God’s people globally as we notice these cultural responses to Christ’s birth.

Our Christmas Program has been months in the making and takes place on December 16. New this year is an extra afternoon performance which we hope will allow more to come to the event. This is a fantastic event to bring someone to who you know is curious about what we do at LCES or someone who would like to get re-acquainted with us.

Pasta Lunch will be a new thing for us at LCES this year as we share a festive communal meal organized by grade four, benefiting our Student Service Project linking us to Compassion Canada. The family of LCES will gather in the gym and give thanks over this special meal which will ultimately bless others.

A Christmas Carol Sing-A-Long will take place on the last Friday. It allows us to enjoy the gift of the wonderful music by which we can celebrate Christ’s birth and proclaim him King.

School Skating for our LCES happens on the last Friday afternoon before we leave for our Christmas break. At the close of the week, this is a fun afternoon of celebrating community and good cheer as we finish out a busy month of learning and week of special events.

SJ

Our Christian School: a place of many spinning plates

I’ve often used the analogy of “many simultaneously spinning plates, all moving in the same direction” to try to describe life at LCES. Here is a snapshot of just some of the things that happen in a typical week that I notice:

• A staff member will start Monday morning with all staff by reading a Psalm and praying over the week ahead. God’s name will be praised in chapel. 
• Grade seven will collect compost school-wide and help us divert organic waste from landfill. Grade eight will collect all recyclables school-wide and ensure they get to the curb.
• A parent will walk around the perimeter of the building praying over its inhabitants.
• Our resource teacher will meet with teachers, parents, and staff to attend to the needs of students and plan the best path forward for learning. Volunteers will come alongside classroom teachers to make great learning available for all and help with the intensity of tasks. 
• Our building will be cleaned thoroughly by our custodians giving us a clean, orderly place to live and learn.
• God’s creation will be unpacked in new and creative ways for students, inviting a response.
• Many, many times a staff member’s words and actions will respond to a student who is sick, injured, sad, overwhelmed, confused, or lonely.
• A student will come to the principal’s office with an eager invitation to “come and see” the results of classroom learning. Laughter, singing, and smiles will be noticed in the hallways and classrooms.
• A volunteer will come in to install, repair, or maintain some part of our physical building. 
• A busy evening parking lot will be evidence of board meeting and/or several committee meetings where the school’s needs are being attended to. 
• Poorly made student decisions will be responded to with both justice and mercy, on the way to restoration and renewal. A class meeting in most grades will address current successes and challenges that the community of learners needs to respond to. 
• Several grades will spend time helping other students practice reading.
• A generous donor will choose to bless the school with unexpected funds to keep us moving forward. 
• On Friday afternoon, ready for rest and renewal, staff will meet again to close the week in prayer and ask the Lord to bless their words and actions with students all week. 

As principal I feel privileged to have so many of these windows on life at LCES that show our community’s desire to educate children for life in biblical wisdom, and see God’s incredible faithfulness in blessing the school with the means to do so. May God be praised by the many spinning plates of LCES. SJ

Creating vs Consuming

I was invited last week to share in the joy of being able to create something. A class was incredibly excited to share with me the results of their pumpkin-pie tart expedition into baking.  From whole pumpkin and raw ingredients through to the warm, pleasantly smelling and tasting finished results, they were able to share with me the step-by-step process that led to the finished product. The end result was that they ate them and proclaimed them to be the “best ever!” This was no doubt because they participated in their creation. They were tasting the process as much as the finished result in their exuberance.

We live in a culture that seems to be satisfied with consumption more than it promotes creating things. We consume products by the Costco-sized value pack, our devices consume data by the hour bringing us media with blurred lines of what is information, entertainment, and communication.  Our vehicles consume oil, or Keurig machines consume coffee pods, and the pattern goes on and on. We generally live a long way from a life where everything that you need or want comes as result of us creating these things. Not always a bad thing, but over time, those patterns do affect the way we think of and respond to God’s world.

This leads me to wonder; do we participate in culture more as consumers or creators? What should we be doing? God placed humans as his image-bearing creations in a position to be in authority in creation, with the task of co-creating with him. We were designed for more than consumption alone. The delight and deep satisfaction found in creating things, whether a pumpkin tart, a quilt, a computer program, or a tree house mirrors the delight and love with which God made us and our world. We find satisfaction in creating because that is the work God equipped us to do. Let’s make room for the messiness of creating for our children – they are following the lead of their creator!  

SJ

Wisdom and Remembrance: We Will Remember

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” N.Postman

Camp Westerbork in the Netherlands was originally a safe haven for Jews fleeing Germany just before WWII. After Germans took hold of it, it became a gateway for Jews and others to be moved through to other concentration camp locations throughout Europe. Desiring compliance and control, an illusion of a good, civilized life was created by music, sports, a school, hospital, and more. Each Tuesday more than a thousand left the camp by rail and eventually died at the hands of those who
believed absolute power and tyranny could create a better life for some. It was a place of deceit that led to death for more than 100,000.

When the camp was torn down, a decision was made that the railway line that carried so many in, never to return, should both stand as a memorial and act as a public statement to the future. The two rusty railway tracks were visually made impassable by bending them up to the sky in memory of the loss of life, and so badly mangled to say “this will not happen here again.”

There is great pain in remembering the high cost of peace and the atrocities of war each Remembrance Day. Those who have personally and directly felt those costs have experiences that awaken remembrance within them all the time. Those who have not, which includes most of our students who have no such direct connection or experience of present or past pain, depend on others to prompt them to listen to the stories of sacrifice and the gift of peace. Growing in wisdom means teaching the value of remembrance for our students, who will live in a time we will not see. Remembrance Day reminds us of a world torn apart by the depths of sin, and yet entirely loved by its creator and rests in His care.

We will remember.

Students from JK-6 will participate in a special assembly of remembrance at the school from 10:45-
11:15am on Wednesday. Grades 7 & 8 will travel to the downtown area of London to participate in
the cenotaph proceedings. The LCES community is welcome to come and join us in the school gym.

We will remember.

SJ

Power in a Christian School

"I am stunned by the ability to care for the whole person seen in Christian education" A.Crouch

Power in organizations and human relationships is a word some first associate with misuse and heavy-handedness. Many creation stories in religion begin with conflict and absolute power being used at great tension resulting in chaos and violence. The creation account in the bible records something different – power given in order and abundance for the flourishing of human life. Like all aspects of the perfect original creation, power was first intended for good and was a part of God’s design for how our world should work. Granting power and authority to humans was part of God’s plan to see a flourishing creation – where every creature of God comes to the fullest realization of its created possibilities.

Big ideas to consider on a Monday morning, and even more challenging perhaps to bring them back to our school and meaningfully connect and apply them. They are from the Edifide Educator’s conference last Thursday and Friday which our teaching staff attended. Encouragement, networking, spiritual nourishment, challenging ideas and specific training filled the days for the close to 1000 attendees. A highlight for many was the singing with treasured colleagues aligned in purpose and mission with great solidarity that raised the roof in the auditorium. The privilege of attending such an event with this large group of professionals committed to kingdom education was both memorable and helpful as we aim to offer quality Christian education at LCES.

Our school is a place where there are many “power intersections” that have the ability to cause tension or growth, friction or flourishing, pain or healing, isolation or community, stagnation or greater wisdom. Our days are filled with these opportunities and their outcomes shape our students' futures. LCES students, parents, teachers, administration, board and more all create a web of relationships  with power running through them. One of our main speakers, Andy Crouch, challenged us that leadership in this area might best be described by noting where power is exchanged and acting in those areas with intentionality and purpose. Jesus modeled for us power fully rooted in divine authority and absolute vulnerability – our pattern to emulate as his dearly loved image bearers.

We pray for God-given wisdom and spirit-led follow through in using power for His glory and praise
at LCES each day. SJ