What will they say about you at grad?

On the first day of school for the Classes of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, students at Smithville Christian High School were asked to think about their legacy.

Principal Ted Harris said he has been recently pondering his own legacy, prompted partly by the death last week of school supporter and family patriarch Richard Hoekstra of Dunnville. Hoekstra’s funeral program included pages and pages of testimonies to his loving Christian character, posted by his grandchildren on Facebook. Many of those grandchildren are graduates of Smithville Christian High School.

Harris said June’s graduation ceremony of the Class of 2015 was similarly a chance to reflect on the characters of the students. As the graduates received their diplomas, the commentary which described them included words such as “called by God,” “love for the Lord,” or “spiritual leadership that enabled others to thrive.”

Thinking about what one’s legacy will be is part of what it means to live for Christ, Harris said, “thinking about what our impact will be.”

Quoting Psalm 78:4 Harris said our lives lived well can “tell the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,” and the way we do our schoolwork, or use our gifts or interact with others becomes part of our legacy.

“You need to understand that every single one of you can be a blessing to others here,” he told students. He urged Grade 12s to use their personalities and gifts to shape the culture of our school, the Grade 11s to dig in to their studies and their gifts during this year of academic rigour, and the Grade 10s to be as welcoming and hospitable as they can to the Grade 9s.

To the Grade 9s Harris said they are in a powerful position.

“Today you start forming your learning community, which becomes your legacy,” he said. “Form a strong bond. Be inclusive.”

The opening chapel also included prayers of thanks and blessing from representatives of the various people who make up the community of Smithville Christian High School. Spiritual life director Gord Park prayed for teachers, student council member Brandon Masselink prayed for students, teacher and parent Robert Gerryts prayed for parents and board member and parent Lorraine Vermeer prayed for the board and community of support that surrounds the school.

We also introduced new students and welcomed the new art teacher, Amanda LeBlanc.

Students were also invited to get involved in things like homework club, computer gaming and robotics, yearbook, praise team, boys volleyball, girls basketball, athletics council, cross country, yoga or art club.

Student Tamara Ng'ambi thanked students for praying for her as she obtained her visa to travel from Zambia last year and for making her feel so welcome.

Student Harrison Exelby thanked students for praying for him last year as he battled cancer. Harrison and his family showed their gratitude for the way the school was part of the praying community that supported them by sharing donuts with everyone after chapel.

We were also pleased to welcome so many parents to the opening chapel. Everyone is always welcome at chapel, held Wednesday mornings at 9.

We’re off to a great start!

Smashed beyond repair

No matter what happens or how bad things get, you are always a beloved child of God and you always have potential, said spiritual life director Gord Park at this week's chapel.

Park told the students about his father-in-law's habit of picking up old junk and bringing it home.

He'll be walking along or driving along and he'll see something that's been discarded and he'll say "How can people throw this away?" Park said. "Often he brings it to my house — because his house is full. It drives us crazy, but we love him."

One day his father-in-law found a busted-up guitar, smashed to bits. It was so damaged it was almost unrecognizable as a guitar, Park said.  Sure enough, he showed up on the Park's doorstep with the mangled instrument.

"I saw this in the garbage," his father-in-law said. "I know you're in a band and I know you teach drama, maybe you can use it for a prop. What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Park confided to the students. "I am thinking I am going to throw it away, but I am going to wait the obligatory four or five months until he stops asking about it."

But that's not what happened.

Instead, Park took the banged-up instrument to a buddy in his band, who has a friend who fixes guitars. When that friend saw the guitar and saw how damaged it was, he asked: "What is this? A test?"

Yet, only two weeks later the buddy opened his trunk and pulled out a guitar, beautifully refurbished and restrung.

"It looked like this," Park said, holding up the very guitar he had used that morning to lead the students in worship.

Park said the journey taken by the guitar -- from garbage heap to leading worship -- via a father, a son, and a devoted craftsperson, is a journey that people sometimes take too.

"The guitar looked like a piece of junk, lying on the side of the road," Park said, "but what the father sees is not a piece of junk, he sees what it was meant to be."

An instrument that appeared to have been smashed in anger and which looked like it could never again do what it was created to do, is handed from a father to a son because the father thinks it's important to him.

"The son takes a-hold of it and puts it in the hands of a master craftsman," Park said, "and it ends up leading some awesome kids in worship."

There are times when things happen that can make us think we are too broken to be fixed, Park said, or that make us believe we have caused too much damage for things ever to be restored.

"But there is a father who loves you, a son who sees you as special and a spirit who comes and heals," he said.

"You are never too broken to be fixed. You are never beyond hope, you can never go beyond a place where you cannot be made whole, where you cannot be what you were created to be."

No matter what happens, no matter what you do and no matter what goes wrong "God will always love you, God will always reclaim you, God will always be with you," he said.

Neale Robb then read a passage from John 21, where Jesus gives his disciple, Peter, an opportunity to restore the relationship he damaged through betrayal.

"Peter thought he had blown it for good, but Jesus had a job for him to do," Robb said.

He then prayed that God would "help us to recognize today how much you love us. Help us allow you to work in our lives and to fashion us more and more into the image of Christ," he prayed. "Use us to be a blessing to those around us."

Songs this morning included Our God, 10,000 Reasons and You Are My King. Chapel was on Tuesday this week because the Grade 12 students are leaving for a three-day retreat first thing Wednesday morning, Join us next Wednesday at 9 a.m. All are welcome!

Travel Days: Canada to South Africa

After we said our goodbyes to our families on Wednesday, we left Grimsby for the Toronto airport. Our flight to Paris was smooth and we landed in Paris at about 8 AM Paris time (2 AM Canada time).

Once we grabbed our metro passes, we were well on our way into the city of Paris.

We went to the Louvre, toured around and saw the Mona Lisa. After this we walked to the famous "lock bridge" where millions of couples in love have locked up their love and tossed the keys into the Seine River.

We made our way to the Eiffel Tower and on our way, we walked through a market where we ate lunch. We could not have asked for better weather to be walking through the beautiful city of Paris: some of us even got burnt! Then we arrived at the Eiffel and worked up a sweat making our way up to the second platform of the tower. It was a beautiful view and pictures are to follow shortly.

Our last stop was the L'arc de Triomphe. We made our way back to the airport and freshened up before our long flight to Africa.

For most of the team, this flight was the first time we got to sleep in about 36 hours, and we were very grateful to safely land in Africa and to have real food rather than the food offered on the plane! All of us were relieved to have our luggage arrive and then we packed the vans up and were off for another long, 5-hour drive to the cottages.

The drive was beautiful and warm. We were amazed at the beautiful landscape of Africa. We made one stop for food and continued to the cottages. Being cramped up in the hot vans offered a perfect team bonding time; we are all getting pretty close with each other!

We finally got to the cottages and were relieved to have an abundance of delicious food and a warm welcome from our very friendly host, Thea. While some of us relaxed by the pool, others relaxed with games of poker or chatting with the team. We were able to settle into our cottages and for the first time we were all very happy to shower after about about 72 hours of long hot travelling.

This morning we were all able to sleep well into the morning and while waiting for our "brunch" we decided to update the families at home! We are all really looking forward to the week to come and are anticipating a great time here.

Pictures are to follow this blog as soon as we can and our next update should come throughout the middle of the week!

 - From the Africa Team 2014!

Saying farewell at school.

Saying good-bye in Grimsby.

The Bible is like vegetables

Reading the Bible is like eating vegetables, Smithville Christian High School students were told during the Monday chapel of this year's spiritual emphasis week. "It's totally necessary for you,"  said Pastor Wes Collins. "There are passages in God's word that are hard to chew. There are names you can't pronounce, places you've never been and customs that seem outdated," Collins said. But the Bible is a gift to you, he said, and should be read — daily.

Yet there are Christians who don't read the Bible and that's a problem, Collins said.

Just like we'd rather eat bacon than beets or Gob-stoppers rather than cauliflower, we may prefer watching a movie, playing a video game or hanging out with friends than reading the Bible, he said.

"But don't be deceived, you need God's word to live," Collins said. Just as we need food to have energy,  "we need to spend time in God's word to have spiritual energy."

"This whole book is relevant to your life," Collins said, "every word of every verse is relevant. It doesn't mean we always understand  it, and it may mean we have to do some chewing, but every word is food."

Collins said in his work as a pastor he has the privilege of studying the word and he is often challenged by what he reads. But he is always amazed by how relevant it is.

"My goal this week is to get you hooked on the idea that you need the Bible and you need to read it every day," he said.

He said this year's spiritual emphasis week is a BYOB event: "Bring Your Own Bible."
Students will memorize a passage of scripture every day this week. Monday's passage was Deut. 8:3: "People do not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

A student praise team led in worship with three songs:  Cornerstone, Holding Nothing Back and Build Your Kingdom Here.

Spiritual emphasis week continues with chapel at 9 a.m. every day. Everyone is welcome to attend.



Here's a video from chapel: