Singing, Skating, and Giving at our Christian School

A unique weeks starts this morning as we return for the final days of 2017 at LCES. Here are some highlights:

Wednesday “Worship Christ, the Newborn King.” All students from JK-8 will lead us in word and song to celebrate Jesus’s birth. Join us at Royalview and bring a friend, neighbor, or potential future family.

Friday “Christmas Carol Chapel” True North Records artist and LCES parent, Jeremy Zeyl, will start the day leading us in a joyous morning of words and song. You won’t want to miss this unique morning of a community singing together and hearing the Christmas story.

Friday afternoon Skating – To end the week and year on a community note, we will continue the tradition of skating at Argyle arena just around the corner from the school. Grades 4-8 will start skating at 1:30pm and JK-3 will begin at 1:50pm. Students to and from by bus.

A note regarding Wednesday evening:

At the LCES Board table this fall we have seen tremendous evidence that the Lord has richly provided for our school. It has come in the form of answers to difficult situations, people with passion and care for the mission of our school, and financial resources to keep our organization viable. God is very good! The gap of last year’s projected shortfall was answered by measures that had us end on the level. We have continued to joyful receive Bright Future’s gifts this fall and watch our debt shrink, our bursary capacity grow, and are excited about investing in our facility and learning tools. These are all gift from above for which we gave all praise and thanks to God.

At the Board table we have prayed for the Christian school our children are supporting with their student service project, a place I have written about twice this fall. LaGosette Christian School has nearly twice as many students as our school but operates with an annual budget that is around 10% of ours. Wonderful things are happening there as the school aims to be a faithful presence to children and families eager for hope and love. As chance to be a blessing as we have been richly blessed, there will be an opportunity for us as a community to join alongside our students to support LaGosette Christian School. At the Christmas concert there will be a free will offering received at the door on your way out. If you would like a tax receipt, you can give directly to the school through their website.

May the hope of Advent, the joy of Christ, and the promise of God’s love be with you and yours as you travel, worship, and celebrate during the break.

SJ

Practiced Peace and our Christian School

The exciting news of “peace on earth” heralded by the angels often feels like it didn’t take. Internationally, domestically, provincially, and even on the school playground, one doesn’t have to look for very long to find evidence that we don’t live in perfect peace.

Harmony and friction. We certainly experience both of them in the pulse of daily life here at our school, although  we are very grateful that moments of harmony, joy, and contentment far outnumber times of conflict. Conflict does not bring us joy, yet our Christian school knows that some of the most formative and direction-setting moments can often come from handling conflict well and the manner in which we work through conflict speaks much about  what matters most to those who participate in our school.

On a giant billboard I once read “Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”

So what characterizes conflict managed well, by peaceful means? Here are some ideas:

1.  There is always a best and worst time to deal with conflict. Generally, a period of pause and reflection before  sweating out the resolution of conflict together is best.
2.  Avoiding conflict comes at its own cost.
3.  The ultimate goal of conflict resolution is unity, not victory.
4.  The pathway towards resolution usually begins with small groups, not big ones.
5.  Resolving conflict may require vulnerability and humility, but should not require embarrassment or eroding the value of another person.
6.  True conflict resolution ends not with tolerance, but forgiveness.
7.  While God delights in unity which brings Him glory, his opponent delights in anything that can frustrate and hinder the process.

May God bless our efforts to respond to conflict with wisdom and faithfulness.

SJ

Advent At Our Christian School & Students As “Brokers of Hope”

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

The church sanctuary was deliberately darkened. Two nervous 12 year old children strained to reach the microphone and read the words of Isaiah and remind the congregation of what is coming. Light and hope to chase away darkness, or so said the prepared script on cardboard cutouts in sweaty palms. One of them struck a match against a box and attempted to light the stubborn candle, seemingly determined not to start. The nearly full matchbox was held too long too close to the match trying to light the candle. Suddenly a flame burst forth with a white flash as the entire box of matches started on fire, finally lighting the candle of hope. Everyone’s heart skipped a beat, and all gasped. I think I will always connect this story with the start of advent.

Christ’s birth was at time of intense darkness, and God’s seemingly silent treatment of the world and people he had made. His arrival, in a way, is properly represented by the flash of light in the above story. It got the full attention of people as it pierced the darkness, and then settled to a lone candle with its warm, hopeful glow. I can recall silence after things settled as the congregation all watched the single flame. Perhaps they were all too stunned to know what to do next!

The advent wreath of Christmas Day, with its five candles brilliantly glowing on a triumphant morning, begins with a single candle piercing the darkness. Students, teachers, and parents all crave hope. We cling to the notion that our heart’s desires will be realized. We console ourselves with the hope that some situations will not last forever. We cope with some situations simply because others have given us hope even though we don’t see or feel hope yet ourselves. These are the kind of people we wish our students to be as they go forth into their God-given place in this world desperate for hope. “Brokers of Hope” is how I’ve heard Christian Education condensed to a phrase.

We frame our understanding of the world and our place in it with the hope that comes from a long- expected Jesus. What a joy it is to know our students are being led in such deliberate, hope-filled paths on the road of faith. Praise the Lord for Christian education!

SJ

Learning as Serving: The Love of God School Part II

“École L’Amour de Dieu” – or the Love of God School is our student service project this year. This morning we were blessed to have Bernice Huinink-Buiter from that school community come and be a part of our chapel. She brought greetings from the staff and students and shared details about a day in the life of the school of more than 300 students.

Here are some of the things we learned this week:

• There are eight teachers and one principal at the school supporting all of these students. (One of our students raised a hand and offered the advice – “You need to hire more help!”)
• Parents send their children to this school hoping to create the best possible future for them.
• Students stand in the courtyard every day for 25 minutes of morning devotions.
• There is running water at the school, but electricity only in the principal’s office.
• Students must bring their own bowl with them for a daily hot lunch and many of the students take part of that meal home to share with others.
• The bathrooms they have are not really well matched to the number of people there every day.
• Classrooms have very simple furniture and no walls. Our students were rather surprised to find that there were no bulletin boards or student art work up anywhere.
• Haitians love to sing, and as result singing is big part of their community life.
• There are no art, music, French, or PE classes, and no school busses or class trips.
• Their largest class has 55 students in a room.
•  It is a Pre-K to grade six school currently. There are passionate dreamers and planners who strongly desire to expand to grade nine and beyond, and build a new facility that serves them well.
• One of the goals of the school is to be a blessing to the local community and economy. Many in the area are getting closer to or already earning a living wage as result.
• All LCES students had an opportunity to create a Christmas card for a student at this school in Haiti, which will eventually be paired with a “Blessing Bag” full of life essentials and a few treats that will be purchased in the local economy.

Video shown in chapel linked here

We do a service project every year so students are reminded not everyone in the world lives as they do.
It is our wish to train their hearts and minds to be quick to love and especially serve others.

SJ

Taking stock: Report Cards at Our Christian School

“Wouldn’t be easier if the leaves just stayed on all year?” Students ask the most interesting questions of us while they learn. The genuine  interest and deep curiosity that awakens in them often makes me smile.

Seven large containers of leaves at the curb in front of my house reminded me this morning as I left that fall has nearly come and gone. Things have changed since the first day of school back in September. This is true for the trees around London, but this is also true for the students at our school. Most of them have been in school for more than 45 days. It’s soon time to take stock of what has been happening in the academic, social, physical, and spiritual lives of our students!

It’s true! Teachers are working through drafts of the first set of report cards that will go home at the end of this week. While your children were home last Friday, staff were tabulating results and crafting words to celebrate areas of growth and achievement as well as outline areas for focus and attention in the next term. Please join me in praying for our teachers to be able to accurately and productively acknowledge the learning journey of our students. Looking at a term as whole, it is exciting for us to marvel at their growth as they become more aware of themselves as learners and continue to gain knowledge and wisdom in the study of God’s world. (Including why leaves have to fall each year).

These sessions are invaluable for parents and teachers as they connect and strengthen the partnership
between home and school and ensure that both are well informed. I continue to see evidence in my
professional reading that confirms parent involvement in education and effective communication
between home and school are strong factors linked to student success.

I can hardly wait for these great community events that these two days represent: parents choosing quality, Christian education for their children and delighting in the goodness of a community that shares in that commitment.

SJ

Lesson From A Student "Ear Insides" Diagram

“I had no idea ear insides were that complicated!”

Students choosing to involve me in their learning is one of my most favorite parts of the job. Early this morning a student shared with me what she had been learning about the human ear in her class. She drew a diagram to represent the outside and inside of the human ear which enables us to hear the sounds of God’s world. Surprising to her was the fact that all of these parts first of all are “in there”, and “when they are all put together, it actually works.”

Her observation made me smile. Having worked on vehicles, home renovations, and computer
systems in my life, I can appreciate her surprise that something of this complexity works, and continue s to work for years on end. Her comment fits well with what we are doing daily in our Christian school. I think of several reasons why:

• We want our students to know and act on the truth that they themselves are fearfully and wonderfully made as a special part of God’s creation, each a masterpiece in their own uniquely created way.

• When our students study any part of God’s creation, including their body, that they encounter moments of awe-struck wonder and joy in deep appreciation of God’s creativity and power. This shapes a worldview that is quick to see God at work in their world, and we hope leads them to help others to see things for what they really are.

• As our school theme “We Belong” highlights, just as human body is made of many complex parts dependent on each other, we want our students to understand that amazing things can happen when they choose to see themselves as part of a community -- of believers and learners -- able and ready to serve and to be served.

We pray that God delights in the exploration of his amazing creation each day here at LCES.

SJ

Innocence and Remembrance: Valuing peace and sacrifice in our Christian school

Sometimes an unexpected moment gives you a visual that will last you a lifetime.

More than ten years ago while leading a grade eight class through the Ottawa area, a scene captured my full attention. In his youthful exuberance and innocent lack of awareness of its significance, a kindergarten aged child was taking great delight in jumping and climbing all over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in its prominent spot near parliament hill. My first response was one of shock at the seemingly brazen disrespect of the sanctity of the place. But how could he possibly understand where he was and what as beneath him? I could not see a parent in sight as I watched this young child trace the edges of the bronze helmet and sword atop the thick slab of cold granite. His eyes wandered up to the group of war-weary soldiers watching from high above on the monument. His boisterous activity immediately stopped as he stared intently at the figures. It was plainly clear that he was trying to figure out what this was all about.

The act of remembrance, deliberately choosing to tell the stories of sacrifice and the often hard won gift of peace, is so very important. We do so to recognize, honour, and thank those who have given of themselves in the past. We do so in order to remind ourselves of what we personally don’t experience daily. We do so because the next generation, like the young boy at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, won’t “just know” on their own what this is all about and why it matters.  

With help from their teachers, our students will be offered the chance this week to step out of regular routines and the familiarity of their predictable, safe lives. When we pause during Remembrance Day for a moment of silence we meet the devastating extent of sin, the world’s need of a Saviour, and the hope of renewed creation where all wars will cease. I’m thankful our students were given this opportunity to say “I choose to remember.”

SJ

From Noticed to Known: Telling Our School's Story

I picked up a take-out pizza once while wearing my jacket with the LCES name and logo on prominent display. A disappointed and hungry customer in front of me heard that his pizza would be four more minutes, after which he immediately swung his attention to me and said “I have four minutes, tell me about that school” One never knows when these opportunities will be presented.

I attended a workshop last week that was entitled “Moving From Noticed To Known.” The presenter shared a journey of growing and maintaining a public presence in one’s internal and external communities – those who know some of your story, and those who are brand new to it.

We have an exciting story to tell here at LCES, one with deep roots and strong convictions, but also with new evidence of God’s continued blessing and provision. We hope you enjoy hearing the good things happening here every day in the stories, pictures, and postings that we share by various methods. I encourage you to share them often - in print, electronically, or better yet through conversations. 

I encourage you to reflect on LCES and consider how you might partner with us to spread the news about our school. Parents who share their thoughts joyfully about what they have experienced at our school are a huge asset to our future. A great resource to use to prepare you for conversations with potential families is our school’s website and facebook page. Another source to guide consideration of Christian education can be found at www.whychristianschools.ca.  It’s a tool not connected to one specific school, but rather frames the blessing and investment that Christian schooling entails.

I also invite you to pray for the Lord’s leading as we look to represent ourselves faithfully. Consider what your part might be in passing the message along. What’s the story you can share?

SJ

From Three to One: Advancing Christian Education in Ontario

I travelled home from an out of town event yesterday evening and reflected on the good things that happen when you leave your familiar surroundings. It’s both good to break out of routine, and then eventually return back to it refreshed with perspective and renewed clarity. This is about to happen for most of the LCES staff who will switch roles and become students themselves this Thursday and Friday as they attend a convention.

“A Life of Grace & Adventure” is the theme for this event which will have 800+ educators descend on Redeemer University College’s campus for the annual fall educator convention. Edifide, whose tag line is “for those with faith in education” organizes this event. Bookended by keynote speakers, those who attend self-select options for five workshop sessions on topics, resources, and opportunities related to JK-12 education. Plenty of relationship building and reacquainting goes on in between sessions as teachers look to reaffirm the “what,” “why,” and “how” of what is their vocational calling; to faithfully guide and instruct our students.

Provincially, we live in changing times. This will be the last convention organized in this fashion. Three organizations that presently serve Christian education in Ontario as unique and distinct organizations are poised to become one new organization by summer 2018. The interests of teachers (Edifide), administrators (OCSAA), and schools (OACS) will all be united under a new name and vision. Our staff and board are actively praying for God’s guidance in this important step believing it is bold step in to the future.  

Please pray for the teachers, presenters, and organizers at the convention this week. We trust that by God’s grace the experiences they take in will bless their daily work of teaching and guiding God’s children here at LCES.

SJ

Counting the Moments and Numbering the Days In a Christian School

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

At several part-time jobs in my high school and college years I worked at tasks that seemed to make the clock stand still, or on the worst of days - seem to go backwards. “Has it really only been 20 minutes I’ve been doing this? It feels like hours!”

Believe it or not, tomorrow morning marks six weeks since the start of our school year. Twenty-eight
days of instruction have taken place at LCES since the bell first rang to commence the 57 th year of
Christian education at LCES. I can assure you that time does not stand still here at school.
Students have started to learn how to read, tried out new sports, met new friends, practiced new art
techniques, and have dug deeper into a well-known Bible stories for meaning. Some math concepts
have been reviewed, others have been taught for the first time. New English and French vocabulary and language constructions have been practiced. People and lands far away and close by have been studied. Local government structures have been examined and fish fossils from long ago have been admired. New songs have been sung, and instrument skills practiced. Challenging cross country races and high-paced soccer games have taken place. Students have made chili and apple crisp, taught younger students how to use Chromebooks, sang songs of praise in chapels. With their teachers as their guide, students have celebrated success and walked the challenging road of reconciliation and renewal when things went wrong.

What does this all add up to? Is there something more to all this than just being busy?

By their nature, elementary schools are busy communities. There is a momentum to the collective
efforts of students and teachers and being around it is exciting and infectious. All of that energy and
“busyness” however, is not only to keep us occupied and look impressive. The sum total of all we do
here is to aim for wisdom, the kind that comes from the fear of the Lord.

Lord, help us to number our days and use them well for your kingdom.

SJ

How do we measure up? Comparing choices in education.

My father used to work for a company that manufactured RV’s. Gleaming new units were sent off the factory floor on their way to a lifetime of use with customers all over North America. During his time there he watched with interest as the company refined their product by reviewing how decades later customers found the vehicle to be everthing from exceptional to disappointing in the areas of design, function, reliability, cost efficiency, and drivability. Year after year, things were affirmed as good choices or rejected as bad design.

There is a parallel for us in education. Part of my Thanksgiving break had me digging a little deeper into the results of the 2016 Cardus Education Survey data. (See their good work at https://www.cardus.ca/research/education)This initiative is the second (first in 2012) aimed to use credible public-sector research methods to compare how coast-to-coast graduates of independent religious schools differ from their peers when they reach the ages of 24-39. It’s a very lengthy document (here if interested); here are some highlights for you:

Graduates of Evangelical Protestant Education:

·         …show no difference with public school graduates in being fully employed, but a greater likelihood of being in managerial or professional roles. Educational attainment after high school indistinct from public school.

·         …are more likely to be married, but just as likely to be divorced or cohabitate; increased likelihood of eating, praying, and reading the Bible together as a family; less interested in creativity for their work; just as inclined to look for work that fulfils a religious calling as public school graduates; social ties just as diverse as those of public school graduates.

·         …are as trusting and confident in society and its institutions as public school graduates; they trust religion to a significantly greater degree yet are no less likely to see society as hostile to their values.

·         …are part of a school sector significantly more likely to form graduates who attend church, observe religious disciplines, and strengthen their relationship with God than public school graduates.

·         …are much more likely than public school graduates to donate money and to go on relief and mission trips.

·         ….are equally engaged in public life as their public school peers; more likely to volunteer in non-congregational organizations.

·         …have more exposure to STEM courses than public school graduates; less likely to believe technology and science will produce opportunities in the future.

·         ...have a significantly more positive view of their secondary education than public school graduates; believe that they were prepared for life after high school to a greater degree than the public school graduates.

This is an enormous study and isn’t specifically measuring LCES. It is, however, food for thought as we do the important work of nurturing God’s children every day. SJ

Teachers as Students: Measuring Learning

“I thought they already knew everything!”

This was the response last week when I wished a student well on Thursday at the start of a long weekend. He was a little confused and disappointed that we were not having school on Friday, because he wanted to continue on with some of the activities his class had underway. I explained to him that the teachers were going to switch and become students for the day, learning how to do something they hadn’t done before. Obviously it was a surprise to him that teachers too have to continue to learn.

Last Friday all of our teachers were at school for the first PD day of the year. That day was invaluable as we move forward with the next step of a new venture at LCES. A long-standing pattern for decades has been that every other year students in grades three through eight at our school participated in the Canadian Test of Basic Skills in the areas of Math, Science, Language Arts, and Information management students. Some may recall this test by association with the white and green pages and filled in dots on an answer page that are sent away to be processed by a computer.

We are replacing that aging test with something we believe offers significant advantages to our school as a whole, as well as each teacher as they work with individual students. We are quite excited about beginning MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) and are preparing to administer this test twice this school year, once in January, and then again in May. Expect to receive more specific details early in January about how this will work with students in grades one through eight and how we see it shaping future instruction and learning at LCES. It is valuable to us to have an outside organization verify the good things that happen in our classrooms each day.

I can recall once having to pass an orientation test proving I could navigate successfully with a compass and find my way to a particular goal. Our new MAP testing tool will be very much like that compass; a valuable tool (one of many) that helps to guide our progress towards quality, Christian education at our school.

SJ

Who Do We Teach?: Patterning For Peace

“Blessed are the peacemakers… for they will be called children of God.”  Matthew 5:9

Two easy answers to that question might be “students” or “children.” An answer that speaks to our greater purpose at LCES is “Kingdom builders.” Last week I observed a few moments of a classroom meeting where a guided classroom discussion was taking place in a circle format. Disagreements and tensions around how a recess game was being played were being taken on with a strong direction toward establishing a peaceful, communal, and joyful way to interact. It struck me in the moment that while the intricate details of the particular problem will long be forgotten in the future, the process they were going through was transformational in learning how to walk the hard road of not avoiding conflict. Patterns were being intentionally former here.

A former parent shared with me that his now adult child had attended our school decades ago, and was quick to share how influential the school’s program was in shaping his child’s further education and vocational decisions. That child is now working overseas to actively pursue peace through reconciliation in cultural settings where deep-rooted tensions cause conflicts to repeatedly simmer to the surface. Specifically, he attributed the Peacemaker program (still running here at LCES) with cultivating a significant awareness of the reality of a conflict and strategies to resolve conflict.

When peace and reconciliation overcome conflict, the Kingdom is built.

When grief and sadness are chased away by faith-nourished hope, the Kingdom is built.

When loneliness and desperation are washed away by communal joy, the Kingdom is built.

When apathy and disillusionment are replaced with passionate purpose, the Kingdom is built.

How do you build God’s Kingdom? One class, one child, one moment, one lesson, one conflict at a time.

SJ

Learning as Serving: The Love of God School

What’s behind that name?

“École L’Amour de Dieu” – or the Love of God School. What a beautiful expression of purpose!

This week in chapel Ms.Wassink shared details of a visit she made to Children of the Promise and Lagossette Christian School that has this expression as part of their name. (See childrenofthepromise.org).  This organization works to be a faithful, life-sustaining presence in the country of Haiti as it works with very sick or orphaned children. In a context where the average Haitian receives less than five years of school, the youth literacy rate is 38%, and undernourishment of the very young is a very real challenge, we are excited to partner with this organization as all LCES students and staff collectively build God’s kingdom in a tangible way. 

What does a student service project look like at LCES?

Each LCES classroom selects an activity, event, or means whereby they give of their time and effort to raise funds that are passed over to an organization at the close of that school year. In classrooms and chapels, our students learn about this part of the world and the organization we are partnering with.  Examples of these efforts include a fun fair organized entirely by students, running a a Poinsettia

sale, or selling refreshments at a school play or smoothies in the hot days of late May.

Why do we do this?

There are two main reasons that we take on a whole-school service project each year:

• To challenge our students to carefully and continually consider that not everyone in the world lives an experience identical to their own here in the London, ON area. God’s very big world includes a diversity of culture, language, and expression of faith, and the distribution of resources, wealth and opportunity is often very different than what our children know here.
• In a frequently “me-first” centered culture, we want to pattern our children’s hands and hearts to be quick to serve others and see themselves as being a blessing as they are blessed.

SJ

On Mixing Colours and Making Sense

I observed a student in one of our classrooms this week so wrapped up in a task that they didn’t seem to notice anything else going on. There is such a joy watching a child deeply connected and focused on what their curiosity has led them to. A few pots of paint were at hand and globs of unusual colours were on various parts of large piece of paper. When I asked for help to understand what she was was doing, the response was priceless:

“There’s no green paint. I’m trying to figure out how you make green! I’ve heard you can make it, but I don’t know how to yet.”

What a wonderful answer! There are several things in it that reveal to me the beauty of a classroom committed to exploring God’s world.

Learning is making sense of an amazing creation. Exploration and inquiry are such a vital part of enabling our children to not simply passively observe, but also actively play, create, and do things with the “stuff” God has made.  Excellent learning has a component of facilitated discovery – encouraging a healthy desire to know how and why things work, and marvelling at the creator who put it all in place.   

Learning is often about process, not necessarily the final product. While the finished product of the page of this young painter may not have looked like much was accomplished, an understanding of how colours work together has grown significantly. Excellent learning builds on previous learning, always moving from where you are to where you can go. 

Learning takes time, and commitment to see it through. I loved the last word in the reply – “yet.” Countering an age of instant gratification, we do well to encourage students to see past the first failure and instead look forward to what next step they can take even if they were not first successful.

LCES is a place with learning opportunities around every corner!

SJ

Stories of New Things

What a joy to hear of all sorts of new things at the start of this week! One student shared with me that they had a new tooth. Another talked excitedly about meeting a new teacher this year. Another was bursting with descriptions of a new cousin. Throughout the day I was told about a new pool enjoyed over the summer summer, shown new lunchboxes, and asked to join in on delight of a fresh, brand new set of pencil crayons or markers. The school felt like the first few pages of an intriguing story all week long. 

We all love to tell stories. In the last weekend of the summer my family went camping and, no surprise, stories around the crackling campfire were unpacked again like treasured collectibles even though we’ve all heard them before. Perhaps we like stories so much because they remind us that present problems will eventually be resolved and even the most incidental of things can find meaning when we are able to look over our shoulder and place them in a broader context. Lots of things make much more sense years after they happen.

These stories include hardship and challenge, but even more so tales of provision beyond what seemed possible, unexpected joy, and prayers that the made the seemingly impossible a reality. Well-told stories about the past often affirm for us what is most important, most trustworthy, most valuable. What are the stories we will tell about this year?

As we move in to this new year, we know that more stories will be created. We also boldly proclaim that God’s faithfulness will be known in them as another generation learns to walk faithfully before the Lord. The same faithful God who went with us before is still with us, indeed He “hems us in, behind and before.” (Ps. 139).  May we be open to the new things the Lord will do this year and be encouraged by the overwhelming stories of his grace and care in the past. 

SJ

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

Investing In Our Children:

I’ve noticed tuition packages starting to make their way in from our families asking them to financially commit to our next school year. The investment that paperwork represents is significant. Perhaps you, like myself, have been asked why do we do this?

It is not because our academic program is superior to all others. We work hard to ensure we provide students with a diverse and robust student program to teach skills and share content. Our learning program is delivered by qualified staff who use the best techniques and resources of our age, but we are aware that other schools also are capable of this.

It is not because we have sin parked out front, unable to enter in. Although we do enjoy an above average degree of harmony and unanimity here at LCES, we do face problems, conflict, and the results of poor choices. We frame our response to them around the idea of forgiveness, restoration, and growth.

It is not because it is easy. The long road of the oldest child starting JK or SK through to the youngest completing grade eight or beyond is full of challenges for families. It includes risks and leaps of all kinds – fiscal, social, relational, faith and more. And yet, in the words of a grandparent who shared their take with me, “there is no money I have spent in my lifetime with greater joy and satisfaction – both then as we participated and now as we watch it bearing fruit in the lives of children and grandchildren.”

It is because it is a package deal. Life at LCES is joy-filled flurry of living and learning by God’s grace. Having students at LCES makes them aware of the reality of a world affected by sin, but redeemed by the incredible love of God. It is the intertwining of faith and fact, wisdom and learning, knowing and doing. It is the daily presence of a teaching staff entirely committed and vocationally called to the craft of Christian teaching. They love each child and see them as God created them – talents, weaknesses, abilities, passions and vulnerabilities - all included. It’s a vibrant community of believers, committed to a common goal and to each other. It’s a daily pattern of faithfulness that has implications into eternity. 

May you be blessed by your commitment to “impress upon their hearts” the things of God. (Deut 6:6&7)

SJ

Everyday Courage: Doing the Impossible

“I wish every Friday could be field day.” Now that is a positive review!

These were the words of one of younger students participating in Field Day last Friday. The Lord blessed us with a perfect day in terms of weather, a positive community atmosphere, and a safe stu
dent experience as our students used their athletic gifts and talents in a competitive scene. Parents, grandparents, and other friends and family turned out in large numbers to cheer on LCES students. What fun!

A parent shared with me the joy of seeing their child be a part of an experience where students were being encouraged for their efforts by their teachers and classmates for giving their best, regardless of the outcome. “There aren’t enough places where that happens in life” said the parent. “It shapes a person. Encouragement brings life to your soul and makes you do things you didn’t know you could.”

Profound thoughts as we cleaned up the school and grounds at the close of a day. I’ll admit that I wasn’t considering such things at the moment, but it did leave me thinking: How can you describe the
value of encouragement?

In my long-distance travels I recall seeing an enormous billboard near an interstate attempting to challenge the hurried travellers with the following: “Encouragement is to raise confidence to the point where one dares to do what is difficult.” Life’s journey can become very hard. Indeed, “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).

Please join me in praying that our staff and students will be encouraged in their need to do what is sometimes difficult – living as faith-filled people in a world that sometimes snuffs out hope. And remember “…there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ our Lord.”(Romans 8:39)

SJ

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

Whales and Stars:A Singing Creation

Late March and early April in Ontario can be kind of drab. Cooler, damp days are common. However, spring is eventually an amazing time of growth and renewal as creation wakens from a winter slumber.

Chapel on Monday morning challenged our students to see the beautiful natural world around us as more than just pretty pictures that are pleasing to the eye. Creation is much more than screensaver material after all. Every mountain stream, every sunset, the wind in the pine trees, the sea otter swimming in the outer banks, every creature, plant, bush, and tree – all of it sings out in praise to the God who made it. Even the whales and stars.

That’s right. We listened to whales and stars singing in chapel. Pretty amazing stuff, these sounds happening everyday just outside of our ability to hear. But God hears and delights in his singing creation. Here is the video we watched the concluding minutes of.

“All creation is an outstretched finger pointing toward God.”

What a thought to consider! It challenges everything around us and asks us to spend time appreciating creation’s intricacy, beauty, and size. When we do so we quickly realize how small we are and how great our God is. We serve God who make galaxies measured in light years, yet knows us and loves us individually.

Our students repeatedly encounter God’s grand creation on display in their studies throughout all their years at LCES. I’m thankful for Christian education that reminds our students to consider such things, even on a wet March morning.

SJ

The Gift of Hospitality

I wish you could have heard the conversation! A recent guest at our school unfamiliar with our community, our building, and the opportunity of Christian education, asked if they could speak to me for a moment.  I agreed, unsure where this conversation might lead.

 “I want you to know this” was how the ensuing conversation began.  This person told the story of how they had been welcomed by parents and students, of how a staff member had dropped everything to help them,  how great the school looked, and how amazing the people were in this school. “And they didn’t even know who I was” closed out the summary of the observations.

I’m pleased to tell you that I am blessed to hear remarks like these fairly frequently. They testify to the blessings of belonging to a community whose strength is the “the joy of the Lord” (Nehemiah 8:10), a community that enjoys agreement of purpose and daily practice of faith.  We exist so that God may be praised as young children are taught the things of God in an educational setting. There is immense joy for us in hearing that recognized by people in the community. 

What’s your part in continuing that glowing impression of our school? I’m convinced that first impressions and opening conversations are essential to people learning about who and what we are in ways that leave room for us to enfold them in our midst. There is enormous cost for our school when that does not remain a guiding principle and a priority.

Pray for the leadership of our school who are busy looking for ways to guide our community of purpose into an upcoming school year.  Welcome the well known and brand new faces we find among us! 

 SJ