February 9 Home Communicator –One Body in Him
“For just as each of us has one body with many members,
And these members do not all have the same function,
So in Christ, we thought many, for one body,
And each member belongs to all the others.”
Romans 12:4-5 NIV
We are into the month of February and the second semester. Things keep moving and changing and for many of us, the busyness of daily life causes our focus to shift to so many things. Because of this, it feels like an opportune time to draw our focus back to our school theme of One Body.
What a tremendous gift and challenge this theme is for us this school year. Finding unity is not an easy thing to do. However, as Christians, we can do this no matter the circumstances and events since unity is founded in Christ and in the Truths in His Word.
There are a multitude of examples of how students, staff, and the HCS community has and continues to be unified in one body to be His disciples and to be the hands and feet of Christ. In December, all our grade levels choose a project or an agency to support as a giving project; the range of projects was wide. They were all very worthy causes and every grade did a wonderful job blessing many. I hesitate to highlight an example because I don’t want to imply that one project was more important than the others. However, last week, this thank-you video from 20 Liters was shared with me. After viewing it, I felt it is a wonderful example of how open and excited our students are to God’s nudging to be unified in His work.
In early December, our middle school students had a chapel about the work of 20 Liters, an organization that helps to provide clean water to the people of Rwanda. The sixth and eighth graders decided to raise money for the organization for their Christmas giving project. They were drawn to the very tangible number that for $100 a water filtering system and training would be provided for one family to have clean water for 10 years.
Students were challenged to provide this money by giving themselves and not doing the easy thing and asking parents for money. The students took this challenge and ran with it. One student talked about the importance of tithing and gave $100; seeing her example, her father matched that $100. Another student had a dad tell him that he would double whatever his son gave. As we collected the money for each filter, pictures were added to the wall to represent how many filters we had purchased. By the end of the project, the students truly saw the joy of giving.
What a wonderful way to make a difference! A total of $5,000.00 was raised between the two classes. When asked to reflect on this experience, they shared this – “It feels good to know that we have helped people in getting clean, fresh water. This will make a big difference to the people in Rwanda, especially kids who can go to school more because they won’t be sick. Working together we can do anything we put our minds to with God’s help.”
“Working together we can do anything we put our minds to with God’s help.” Parents, thank you for raising your children in His word and joining us in the mission of challenging minds and lives for Christ. Let’s continue to be the example of living into our school theme and how although we are many, we can form one body, and each of us belongs to each other to do His Kingdom work not only here but throughout the world. My prayer for all of us comes from Romans 15 – ”May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In Him,
Mary Broene, Interim Superintendent
