Wednesday 31 January 2018

Servant Working

 Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

This month, our throughline focus is servant working.
Our Grade 1 students have been working all year on completing jobs to raise money to buy nails for Habitat for Humanity. 
They shared their update in chapel:


We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

We then welcomed Pastor Michael Meinema from Southridge Community Church. 


He reminded us of the story of the good Samaritan and what Jesus wanted to teach us with that story. 
The pharisees were always trying to trick Jesus into saying the wrong thing or to break one of their 613 laws (603 that they had added over time to the original 10 commandments)
but Jesus wanted us to remember two important laws:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. The second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. (from Mark 12:30-31)

Keeping that verse in mind, our students thought of what kindness and servant working looks like in our day to day interactions. They made lists in their classrooms last week. Then, all last week, when they saw evidence of servant working kindness, they jotted what they saw on sticky notes and added them to the charts. 







I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you;
Speak the peace you long to hear.


Each day is a new opportunity to serve those in our families, our classrooms and school community but also in our larger community. When we follow Jesus' example, we will want to serve others first.

 I will weep when you are weeping.
When you laugh, I'll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we've seen this journey through.

And finally, some of our Grade 5 students shared a reader's theatre about servant working
(and putting some superheros out of work!)


 Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.


Wednesday 10 January 2018

Epiphany

Today in chapel we welcomed our new students. 
We have 11 new students and their families joining our Beacon family this week!

We then focused on Epiphany. 
What is epiphany? Epiphany is celebrated on the day after the 12th night of Christmas. That was 4 days ago (January 6). Epiphany is associated with the wise men. After Jesus was born, the shepherds came to worship him. However, the wise men came to visit Jesus years later, not days as we sometimes believe. 

Epiphany means that something finally makes sense!
The wise men helped the rest of the world see that God had shown Himself to human beings after all those years of waiting. This video helped us understand epiphany a little better:


Our grade 5 students shared a readers' theatre about epiphany. 







Arise, shine, for your light has come 
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
Isaiah 60:1