Faithfulness in a River of Change

I recall a grade ten English class in which we considered the following truism:

“Change is like a river; you’re always in it.”

No doubt true, but we don’t always stop to consider it. In many ways, this week is about deliberating noticing change. In chapel this morning, we recognized our grade eight students who will change from being elementary to high school students very soon. On Friday we will recognize a change in staffing as we will see Mr. VanHarten (Grade 4/5) depart from us to follow the next steps of his career.  We know that some families are very soon heading toward a change in the form of a move related to work, family, health and other situations. Report cards distributed to our students on Friday will suggest a grade change to a new opportunity of learning in September.

The pace of daily life with pressing tasks, the important but not necessarily remarkable, call for our attention, and even sometimes in our own short-sightedness we are not reflective about what is changing around us and what that change means.  Often change tends to frighten, worry, or even frustrate us because it reminds us that we are not able to fully control our world as we might like to do.  And yet, in change we also often meet some of the plans the Lord has for us that are perfectly timed and masterfully created for our good.

At our closing assembly on Friday we will be reminded of the ways 2016-17 has been a year of God’s faithfulness and blessings experienced as a community of learning.  Indeed, we easily and boldly say “…the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:5) Praise God for that!

Have a rejuvenating summer filled with many safe memories as you rest, travel, and work, and play.

After a rest, we can’t wait to see what the Lord has ready for us around the bend.

SJ

Road Trips and Responsibility

“Your word is a lamp for [our] feet, a light on [our]path.”  Psalm 119: 105

I've just returned from the “near north” of Ontario with our grade eight students who took in an outdoor adventure camp for three days.  I can assure you our students were outstanding in their attitude, conduct, choices, and supportive efforts to ensure everyone had a great time. One of the things they did was to learn a new skill of finding their way from place to place using a hand-held GPS device with very specific longitude and latitude coordinates. 

Paths will diverge in just a few weeks. Many of our families have shared with me details of summer travel plans that are in place. People pour over travel brochures, websites, maps, and talk to others who have already traveled to desired destinations to ensure the experience will be all that it can be as a family holiday. There is joy in preparing for an experience that one knows will go well when adequate preparations have been made. There is also joy in finding unexpected treasures, spontaneous opportunities, and memorable coincidences along the way.

A school’s path might also be compared to a journey with bends, turns, unexpected challenges and delights. We are nearing the end of multi-month planning process to ensure that 2017/18 will be added as another great year of living before the Lord as a school committed to biblical wisdom. We know full well that we have responsibility to make steps to prepare for a great year; we also realize that we need to leave room for the Lord’s provision and the Spirit’s prompting to direct us on the right paths, some of which we don’t even know exist yet.

Please join me in praying for God’s provision of a great meeting in which we can move forward the vision of the school, “To educate children, equipping them for a life of faithful, Christian discipleship.”

SJ

Children as Living Messages: Christian Schools and the Future

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

Neil Postman penned these words in 1982 in response to what he believed to be the disappearance of childhood as result of media influence. If I think of the era my elementary years in Christian Education, and then the reality of the world I now live, work, and am busy raising children in today, I am quite sure my own teachers back then could never have predicted many parts of daily life in 2017. A connected global world, technology innovation and the deep challenge that comes with it, population surges, global water shortage and excess, and so much more. Even though the world has changed a lot since my last day of being an elementary school student, the education I received then has been one of my greatest tool in making sense of my world today.

So how does Christian education help, if we are not so sure about what the future will look like? Consider these statements I have heard from our teachers as I joyfully visit classrooms throughout the week:

“Things are beautiful and valuable, because God made them, not because we like them.”

“Language helps us value each other.”

“Compassion means that we suffer alongside others.”

 “Helping others helps us understand how we were made by God.”

“Better things happen when we follow what God asks us to do.”

“All truth is God’s truth.”

These are the building blocks that are universal for your child’s future! Know that your children are being encouraged and prepared to think deliberately, carefully, and faithfully about life. Join us in praying that the Lord will lead us as we aim to train our children to “acknowledge him in all [their] ways and make [their] paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:6)

SJ