How Do We Love Our Neighbor

October 4 and 5, the students had a couple of extra day to enjoy the wonderful weather we have been having. I know some families were able to take a bit of a holiday—camping, travelling, or just taking a day trip. The staff at ACS, meanwhile, joined with over 1000 other educators from BC and Washington for the annual CTABC convention, held in Lynden, Washington. A few of us also took advantage of the beautiful weather and cycled to Lynden. What a glorious way to start the day!

The theme for this year’s conference was “How Do We Love Our Neighbor”, based in part on Isaiah 61. Certainly the practical workshops at the convention are of great value for staff as we seek to provide quality Christian education. However, we were also challenged with the implications of this theme.

The highlight for most of us, I believe, was the two keynote addresses by Tony Campolo. He made the issue of social justice and loving our neighbor come alive with many insights and anecdotes; such as the time he threw a birthday party for a prostitute in a greasy spoon at 3:00 am. Dr. Campolo told us that to understand Isaiah 61, you need to go back to Leviticus and God’s command to hold a year of Jubilee. He called us to be a Jubilee people.

One of my favorite Campolo quotes is that we are not Christians unless our hearts are broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus. In our affluent, sanitized lifestyles I am not sure we are often confronted with the things that break the heart of Jesus, or we choose not to look.

But sometimes we do look, and then we need to act. Anything less is disobedience. The question for us at ACES is what does that look like for 3 to 11 year olds. What are the social justice issues that our children can learn to care about and do something about?

I believe one social justice issue that 3 to 11 year olds can care about, and have proven that they can act on, is providing clean drinking water for families in Ethiopia so that girls can go to school rather than walking many hours a day to collect water. The success of our Run for Water participation is surely one of which it can be said, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, to proclaim good news to the poor.” God be praised!

Let's Explore

Exploring with a Purpose. That is the logo at ACS. Sometimes logos such as this can become so familiar that we lose our appreciation for them, but for someone coming in from the outside it is fresh and new – and exciting. That is exactly what happened at the elementary school. While I don’t think this logo has become stale for most of us at ACS, someone new to our staff last year spoke about how much she appreciated what this logo means and the possibilities it has for a school theme. She convinced us and we will be using this as a guide for the learning that happens at ACES this year.

So what does that look like? Well, first of all, this theme is based in Psalm 24:1 –The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. At ACS, we believe that everything we learn about reveals something about who God is. He is revealed to us in creation, and that is so much more than the majestic mountains, awesome sunsets and trickling brooks. It is our bodies, the gift of language, technology, structures, how numbers work and, well, everything… The really exciting part, I think, is that we don’t know exactly what it looks like. Each exploration by different individuals or groups reveals new insights, new discoveries and new opportunities for praise.

A twist on a familiar plot line

A Story

   “An Arab sheik was getting along in his years and he felt that it was time to name one of his sons as his successor.  Now he had three sons who were triplets.  He loved them all equally and did not know which one of them to choose as a successor.  So he sent them off to a distant land and promised them that the one who came back with the most useful learning would get the birthright.

   The three went off to distant lands; they attended universities and visited exotic places.  The first brother invented magic glasses with which he could see any place he wished to see.  The second son perfected a flying carpet on which he could travel to any part of the earth in five minutes.  The third son discovered a medicine that could cure any sickness.

   After some years the three brothers came together and shared what they had done and found.

   The first son looked through his magic glasses and saw his father dying.  The second son invited his brothers to hop on his flying carpet and within five minutes they were at their father’s bedside.  As soon as they were there the third son took out his medicine and cured their father at once.

   Now the Sheik was more confused than ever, since it took the work of all three of them to save his life …” (author unknown).

   The truth of the importance of working together contained in this story is something we strive for at ACS in a variety of ways:  grade level teams, educational assistants and teachers, collaborative groupings of students, to name a few.  Perhaps the most important is working together with the parents. We are grateful for that privilege.