Travelling In The Most Excellent Way

There is more to a race than finishing first. Sometimes finishing alone is an accomplishment.

Imagine racing across the US for 4800 kms on a bike, all alone without a support team. Coast to coast through all the weather and terrain extremes you can imagine. The winner of last year’s Trans Am race did it in 18 days, 10 minutes. (https://transambikerace.com)

How does one go about preparing and training for such an event? Endless practice to develop physical stamina, mental resolve, and deliberate strategy were no doubt involved in making it to the finish line. It is a truly amazing story that makes you stop and consider what one can do when perseverance and dedication are applied to specific goals.

Perseverance and dedication. These two admirable and valued character qualities are a requirement
for biking, but even more so – for life. Throughout the year I’ve heard these words frequently at LCES.

When those two qualities are matched with an intentional, worthwhile purpose – like easing the burden of those around us, being a faithful presence in all circumstances, an being an encouraging force, an agent of blessing by choice -  then we truly have travelled the road in the most excellent way. In doing so, we aim to “…use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace.” (1 Peter 4:10)

How good it is that we can teach our children in this most excellent way at LCES each day! May we
seek the kingdom (Matthew 6:33) with perseverance, dedication, and purpose in all we do and say
this week.

SJ

Making it Work: Moving Our Christian School Forward

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill -

What does it take to make our Christian school work? Essentially, I would propose three things:

a) The Lord's gracious provision of committed teachers and staff, a great student program, and building that enables it all to come to life.
b) A strong sense of community.
c) Financial means to support all of the above. A number of weeks ago many friends of LCES gathered in the gym to enjoy an evening of food, fellowship, and fund raising at our spring auction.

There is something intensely gratifying about being in the company of people who share the same vision and are willing to release funds in a positive, happy atmosphere. For those who bought items or services, realize you got more than you bargained for; you advanced the cause of quality, Christian education at LCES. Thank-you for one of the most successful auction results in recent years!

In two weeks our annual golf tournament will see a group of golfers enjoying the late May outdoors, chasing a white ball all over the Forest City golf course. It too is a situation where people in our community come out and willingly give funds that enable the school to carry out its mission and vision. Who do you know that might be interested in coming? It is always a fantastic day outside connecting with friends and making new connections.

And there is more. We have volunteers who work in our thrift store, and those who pickup items to be sold. We have grandparents, some whose grandchildren have already graduated, that continue to come to the school to purchase gifts cards. Our Bright Futures capital campaign has connected us to many who have overwhelmed us with their gifts.

We are thankful for these expressions of support!

SJ

Leaving for Learning on Field Trips

With the return of favourable weather and an eye to the remaining months of the school year, our fleet of yellow chariots will soon take our students to all sorts of unique places. Although these are memorable excursions, there is more than memory making going on. Consider:

God formed sky, land, and sea;
stars above, moon and sun,
making a world of colour, 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

Class trips happen throughout the entire year, from JK through grade 8. The length, educational focus, and structure of the trips is always different, but one thing remains the same. Why does LCES send students on class trips? I can think of several reasons:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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. We build community when we become a community in a different place.
4. Students can see the world in its brokenness, and yet see hope in the ways they can be involved in redeeming it.

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

Built Right In: Words Etched in Stone

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” Psalm 111:10

I showed a potential new family through our school this morning. The joyful discovery of this text above by the parent just outside of my office started a significant discussion. Engraved in hard black granite, it was built right into our building in 1962 in the form of a keystone just outside the former front doors. That “home” of LCES has expanded over the years, now placing this keystone inside our beautiful facility that the Lord has blessed us with, where we work to sustain our vision statement: “To educate children, equipping them for a life of faithful, Christian discipleship.”

“Wonderful! What a statement!” was the reaction of a different parent earlier this spring after seeing
most of the school, watching teachers and students interact, and seeing how we teach, and most importantly how a student is viewed by everyone participating in his/her education. “Knowing, loving, and serving God is built right in here, just like that stone is built right into this school.”

“I want my child to be seen as I see them, a gift from God, a precious person, someone God watches
over. My child is God’s child before they are anything else. That’s missing in their education right
now.” I’m unsure how those words affect you, but I found them to be encouraging, humbling, and invigorating.

We have important work underway in this place - the care of God’s children. Young minds and hearts
being nurtured in the Lord in the habits of faith are growing in wisdom in an encouraging community.
How many students and parents have walked past that keystone through its many years of prominent
position? Thousands, I’m sure. I appreciate its message every time my eyes are drawn to it in my hallway travels.

SJ

A “Good News” Day

As principal, I have many opportunities to talk with students, staff, and parents on any given day. It is actually one of my favourite parts of the job. Sometimes it amazes me how comments made in separate conversations about different aspects of LCES life actually sound remarkably alike.  

Here is a set of three comments shared with me in the last week:

“It doesn’t matter what happens, I’m going to have a good day!”

“It is going to work out perfectly. I just know it. It’s not even a question in my mind.”

“I’m glad I get to come to my school today. We're doing awesome stuff.”

While I suppose one could state that we have an overabundance of excessively optimistic people, I would propose that this is evidence of people in our community deliberately deciding to have a “good news” day. I was introduced to this term years ago by an author who reminds readers that the word “gospel” comes from the Greek for “good news. The gospel does not promise a worry-free life. Instead, it urges a stance toward life that sees patterns of faithfulness before needs, opportunities before problems, and hope over despair.

Put another way, “…a good news day is a day when the gospel shapes my beliefs, my hopes, my plans, my actions, my interactions, and how I deal with sins and failures” (both my own sins and those of others that impact me.”

What does it mean for our school to have a “good news day?” I would suggest that it means that our problems and challenges do not define us, God’s love does. It means that we live out the gospel of good news each day, not leaving room for doubt that God is, and will be, faithful.

Have a “good news” week!

SJ

Worms and Puddles and All Things New

There they were. Two lone students staring intently at a puddle having an animated discussion this morning before school. The subject of their attention? Some squirming worms at the edge of the receding “lake” we’ve been contending with for the last week. As I walked past them I overheard them discussing if all the worms of the world were destroyed in the flood. I love it that our students have such questions on their minds as they connect God’s story they hear daily in class with the world they, quite literally, play in.

While spring in an elementary school pushes the family washing machines into overtime, I’m inclined to believe we should try to look past that. After winter, the sound of chirping birds stood out to me this morning as something to notice. The grass, greening up from a week of rain, and the daffodils showing themselves are also proof that God is awakening life from the slumber of many winter months.

I was challenged several years ago by a speaker at a teacher’s conference to view every aspect of creation as responding to God in praise. Choosing to notice that truth helps us, he proposed, to realize our call to respond in the same way. Trees that blossom, birds that sing, grass that grows (even in the sidewalk cracks he reminded us), worms that squirm, and fish that jump - all do so in response to their creator. We can and should be part of that chorus of response.

Against the backdrop of Passion Week that we marked this morning in chapel, what a rich blessing for our students to start this spring day praising the Lord of life at LCES!  May your week be filled with praise-filled moments of recognizing God’s creation and treasuring the gift of new life – in our world and in our hearts.

SJ

Bus Stops and Waiting: Lenten Expectation at a Christian School

About two months ago I waited with a group of students for a city bus to whisk us away to an off-site learning opportunity.  The moments ticking by after the scheduled time of arrival started to confirm the realization that was becoming clear: we were at the wrong bus stop. It is hard to have your needs met when you are in the wrong line, no matter how long you wait.

So where do we wait? During this season of Lent we find ourselves waiting in a time of sober reflection as we anticipate the joy of the resurrection of Easter Sunday. We know it’s coming, and yet we believe the waiting has value. Waiting forces us to watch, listen, and meditate on God’s Word. It challenges us to look forward and backward in our lives to see patterns of disobedience or faithfulness.

What does it mean to “wait expectantly“ in an organizational setting like LCES? Spring in a Christian school setting is, after all, a busy time of planning, budgeting, and preparing. It seems to call for action more than waiting. Perhaps expectant waiting is the type of waiting infused with hope; we know that the desired end result will come, that it will be of God’s choosing, and is for our good.  Waiting with hope allows us to lift our heads and work in the assurance that everything is in His hands. God’s provision for us will be a reflection of his original plan for us as he “makes all things new”. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

SJ