It is good when we can care for others in community.
God's goodness was seen when our Grade 2 class raised over $5000 for
Out of the Cold with their dessert auction.
We shared God's goodness whenour Grades 1-8 students raised $5686.00 to care for people with Multiple Sclerosis when they read and collected pledges during the MS Read-a-thon.
Grade 5 shared God's goodness when they hosted a free spaghetti supper last Friday for the neighbours that live around Beacon, in an effort to build community.
God's goodness was shared with the residents of Tabor Manor when our JK and Grade 7 students went to visit with them last week.
Beacon felt God's goodness after a wonderful gala where generous donations were given.
When we are filled with God's goodness, it will spill out into the world around us.
We were reminded us that we can only be filled with goodness when we have Jesus inside of us. When Ms. F. tried to clean the outside of her dirty vase, it didn't work, because it needed to be clean from the inside. Just like the vase couldn't be cleaned from the outside, we can't be cleaned from the outside with things like prayer, reading the Bible, attending church or a Christian school. We first need Jesus to cleanse us from the inside. Then we can be filled with his goodness. And when we are filled with His goodness, others will see it!
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.
Today we continued thinking about goodness.
Sometimes things look good on the outside (like a jelly bean)
But if you pick the wrong bean in Beanboozled,
it isn't guaranteed to be so good on the inside! Yuck!
Catherine, one of the youth pastors at Central Community Church, shared a wonderful message with us today about God's goodness working in us.
Just like a sponge, we want to soak up God's goodness inside us. When we are filled with His goodness, people will see that His goodness shining through us!
Our SK pm class is learning a new song Light of the World by Lauren Daigle. They shared what they've learned of the song so that we can also learn with them.
This week, we are saying good-bye to our Korean friends.
It was wonderful to get to know them and we hope they have been blessed by their time
at Beacon. We have been blessed by them.
This month, we are looking at the fruit of the spirit goodness.
It was very kind of the SK teacher to share her cookies with the grade 4 teacher!
They looked soooo good with the pretty icing and decorations!
But Mr. B found that the cookie he had tasted terrible!
The beautiful cookie was actually full of way too much salt!
Does the outside always match the inside?
The Kindergarten students helped us look further into this question
The JK students have been talking about chefs and bakers this week.
They used the idea of following recipes and
thought about what would be a good recipe for goodness..
A recipe for goodness begins having God in our hearts as that's where all goodness comes from.
That's like the mixing bowl where everything belongs.
Next, you need a good recipe. God has given us the Bible with all the instructions for goodness.
Like ingredients in the recipe, there are ingredients for goodness:
But, besides good ingredients, there are things that don't belong in a recipe
(like Borax in a cookie recipe... that's in the recipe for Slime!)
In the recipe for goodness, there are things that you don't want in your life.
They belong in the garbage:
God has to be the main ingredient or else our lives will be like that salty cookie. They might look good on the outside, but they won't be good on the inside. After we have God in our heart, then the other good ingredients can be added. A heart that loves God and puts Him first will not only have goodness, but the other fruits of the spirit, too. When we have God in our hearts, we will want to be close to him through prayer, reading the Bible, going to church and worshiping Him.
This recipe for goodness will enable us to shine the light of Jesus to others.
Thank you, Kindergarten, for teaching us about goodness this week!
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
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.
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
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.
