But Do You Love Me? : Aiming For More Than Obedience

I may be dating myself, but I can clearly recall watching the musical Fiddler On The Roof about Russian Jews at the turn of the 20th century. The main character, Tevye the milkman, asks his wife if she loves him. Her rather dry, irrated response was to name all the things she has done for him: milked his cows, cooked his meals, cleaned his house, had his many children, ate with him, starved with him.  “If that isn’t love what is?” was her quick answer in a dismissive tone. What Tevye was asking for, and eventually got, was an answer that communicated love was the first, rather than the last, principle that defined their relationship.

Teachers will become students this Thursday morning as they travel to Ancaster to be part of a gathering of hundreds of Christian educators for a two-day conference held at the Redeemer University College campus. This annual conference has always been a highlight for me as an educator. It comes after about seven weeks of school and offers a chance to leave the classroom to be challenged, encouraged, and energized for the return back the following Monday. Being with that many educators in workshops together affords us times of collaboration, innovation, and professional networking with people from across the province and beyond. It is a wonderful time of growth and learning. The singing is often a highlight for many.

“Leading with  Love”  is the theme chosen for these two days this year, with two presentations husband and wife team Steven & Joanna Levi. Their message will remind us that Jesus became the new covenant and declared that he was making all things new, and that “in him all things hold together” ( Colosians 1:15-17). Believing that everything we do finds its purpose in God, and in light of the new covenant of God, we wish to challenge ourselves to go beyond obedience and toward love.  

What does this mean for us at LCES? We want to challenge students to go beyond simply following in obedience and be compelled to do what they do because love takes over. Love for Christ, love for God’s amazing world, and love for each other. When love has taken over and “we have to”  is replaced with “I want to”, we know we are getting there.

Praise God for an opportunity like this for our teachers. SJ

A New Playground, 15,000 kms Away

If our students graduated after grade eight believing that every other school-aged child in the world lives exactly as they do in their school-home-church universe, we would be missing an opportunity. Similarly, if the only mention of money and fundraising in their elementary years at LCES were efforts to direct funds back toward themselves and/or their school, something would be missing. 

With the LCES goal of facilitating a grateful response to God by using mind and body to serve others, we challenge our students to be a faithful presence in a broken, but dearly loved world.  As an expression of thanks and in response the instruction to be a blessing to “all nations” (Genesis 12:2), students participate in a Student Service Project each year.  Each class invests time and effort in some kind of initiative that generates funds that support the chosen project. Examples of this include selling smoothies, a fun fair, ice cream refreshments at the Shakespeare play in May, and much more.

We’ve chosen to continue with the organization we chose last year, Compassion Canada, who links us to “..the developing world to end poverty in the life of a child, in Jesus’ name.” 

 (www.compassion.ca)  Two specific projects we have chosen for 2016-17 are in the country of Indonesia. One goal is to equip a classroom with the books necessary for learning because they lack these basic tools to study God’s world. The other project is to create a play structure for students to use, allowing them the joy of play (a child’s community) and the refuge of safer place to play than the playground of the city streets.

It has been our experience that these service projects offer unique opportunities for learning. Students are challenged to meet the brokenness of this world in ways that are not otherwise familiar to them.  They can see themselves as part of returning this world to the way it was intended to be by God’s design and for his glory. Economic, cultural and geographic differences that become clear in unique ways and empathy for others and recognizing the call to be of Christian service (see LCES Graduate Profile) are valued outcomes.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to witness belief shape action in the lives of our students. May God be praised and may his kingdom come. SJ

Spider-Man and Pine Cones: The Joy of Lists

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”   K.Barth

I’ve commented many times in my years at LCES that having an office across the hallway from the JK and SK classrooms is often a helpful experience for me. I remain convinced that while our youngest students have much to learn, they also have much to teach us about how to respond to God’s world. Their joyful response to a world of discovery can cause us to stop and take stock of what actually lives around us and what is important.

Last week the JK class spent some time working on expressing what they are thankful for. Here is a combination of a number of their sentences:

I’m thankful for all of the kids in my class at school today.

I’m thankful for a drink.

I’m thankful for Spider-Man.

I’m thankful for going outside and play.

I’m thankful for laughing.

I’m really thankful for mom and dad.

I’m really thankful for school.

I’m thankful for pinecones.

I’m really thankful for that it could be winter.

I’m really thankful for my mom.

But most of all I’m thankful for God.

Indeed, we have so very much to be thankful for. I’ll take my cue from our students and create my own list of things I am thankful for:

I’m thankful for committed, industrious, and innovative staffs who work at LCES.

I’m thankful for the Psalms we read every Monday morning before the students enter.

I’m thankful for the freedom and opportunity of Christian Education in Ontario, and for the exciting larger picture of organizations like ours across Canada and the world.

I’m thankful for missing-tooth smiles and birthday treats students share with me.

I’m thankful for the symphony of colour I see this morning outside my office window.

I’m thankful for the abundant blessings received through the Bright Futures Campaign.

But most of all, I’m thankful for continual reminders that God is at work in our school.

May our thankfulness turn to joy every day. God is very good to us.

SJ

Carnivals and Kingdoms

Thankful is a word on my mind this morning. We were blessed with a break from the wet, cool weather on Saturday long enough that Fall Fest was able to proceed as planned. The hallways and gym were places of delight as students revelled in their jar room finds and our community took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the event that reminds us it is truly fall.  It is a wonderful thing to see people chose to come together around not only an interest, but an underlying commitment to the value of living in connection with neighbor, and the great worth of Christian Education. I’m thankful for the countless hours of work completed by willing hands. Beyond the funds raised, we were immensely blessed with opportunity to connect.

I’m not sure carnival is the right word, but certainly the atmosphere of the day is tangibly different as everyone arrives and is caught up in the activities of the day.  It is still the same building, many of the same people, but of course all seen in a totally new way.  Furniture is moved, rooms are re-purposed, and decorations go up. Everything is different enough that we stand up and take notice.

This connects well to our chapel this past Monday Build you Kingdom Here.  A primary student proudly recited memory work to me last week. “In God’s kingdom, here is what matters:  a right way of life, peace and joy, all from the Holy Spirit.” We are blessed with these gifts of the Spirit every day as we learn and grow along with our students. God’s Kingdom is coming, and is already here.  God has done the work; our job is to stand up and look around us and see how all things are being made new again. What do we see changing? Our task is to share the good news of what see!

morning which took us deeper into the concept of our school theme,

I’m thankful our student’s eyes can be challenged to see God’s kingdom every day at LCES. May we never cease to notice and give voice to our gratitude.  SJ