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.

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

Diabetes Awareness Day

This month is Diabetes Awareness Month and today 

we wore blue to show our support for diabetes awareness. 

Our students brought in a small donation to dress out of uniform and  

together we raised over $360!

A portion of this will be given to the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation and the other portion will be given to the Lion's Foundation of Canada Guide Dogs. The foundation provides guide dogs to people with many kinds disabilities free of charge.

Today, our guest, Hannah Reid, shared her story with us. After being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as an adult, she struggled to manage her health as she was not aware of her highs and lows. This put her in critical danger often. 

A little while ago, Hannah was given a guide dog named Bradley. Bradley is able to alert her when she needs to check her sugars. 

Bradley can also fetch her testing kit, get her juice and go fetch help. 

It was so interesting to hear about all the things that Bradley can do!

Learning about diabetes is important to us as we care for and support

 all of our friends in our learning community. 

Peace

This month we are focusing on the fruit of the spirit PEACE

Some of our students read what God tells us in His word about peace. 

Then our Grade 5 class led us in worship with their recorders:

We were then challenged to think about what peace really means and 

what does it look like in our lives. 

We got in our GIFT groups (Growing In Faith Together) and thought of two ideas that show we are living with the fruit of the spirit peace in our lives. 

The students then made a visual representation of that idea on their posters. 

We are thankful for God's gift of peace!

Joy

This month, we are focusing on JOY.

1 Peter 1:8-9 says that " You love him even though you have never seen him.

Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with

a glorious, inexpressible joy.

The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls"

What is JOY?

Today we heard that we sometimes confuse happiness with joy. But joy is living each day knowing that we have been given a precious gift by a God who loves and cares for us.

According to Rick Warren, "Joy is knowing that God is in control
of all the details of my life, the confidence that ultimately everything is
going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation."

Grade 2 orffestra

Give Thanks

This week we are spending some time to pause and be thankful. 

While we strive to always remember to give thanks and be grateful, this week our country
sets apart a day to spend reflecting and giving thanks. 

In our chapel this week, we also set apart time to reflect. 

Our grade 1 students led us in Praise and Thanksgiving

The Grade 6 students recited Psalm 100 - A Psalm of Thanksgiving:

Our Grade 2 students wrote some ideas of what they were thankful for and shared them in the form of an acrostic poem that spelled Praise & Thanksgiving.

We pray that you will have a blessed Thanksgiving as you reflect on God's good and perfect gifts.

Love Your Neighbour

Today our chapel focused on the fruit of the spirit that is LOVE.

 We welcomed Pastor Kevin, who re-told Robert Munsch's story Love You Forever. 

LOVE lasts forever and Jesus asks us to share our love with everyone!

Pastor Kevin helped us think of all the people we should love, 

not just our families or best friends. 

Our Grade 7 students shared a skit with us that helped us see that 

we are better when we are a part of a community. 

And we love to sing during chapel! We are still learning our Fruits of the Spirit song

but also love to sing some of our favourites. Cornerstone is one of those favourites!