Dear Village Family,
We hope your Thanksgiving was filled with God’s great gifts of gratitude. Today, as we start Advent, we invite God's peace into our community as we enter the Christ-born season together.
The PYP transdisciplinary theme, How We Express Ourselves, provides a beautiful vignette for our students, allowing them to inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs, and values, in essence, how we form celebrations.
Over Thanksgiving Break, Nalani and I began reading The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World by Christine Rosen. The book is a reflective, original invitation to recover and cultivate the human experiences that have atrophied in our virtual world. As we read, we were reminded of the words of Christ; the place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be." Matthew 6:19-21
So, this year, we are investing in experiencing the fullness of the season through the pureness of relationships. Moving our attention away from what rusts to what lasts eternal, relationships built in the favor of God's love. Investing our time in creating experiences of social support for our family and friends.
According to research, having someone in your life who really cares for you, feels close to you, loves you or wants to help you, can significantly lower your risk of disease. Epidemiologist Jeff Levin, puts it this way, “…experts have singled out love as foremost among the human emotions capable of promoting and maintaining health and achieving healing.”
As Paul says in Galatians, serve one another in love, for everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. For our school, Service as action is a foundational element of our Middle Years Programme (MYP).
Throughout this school year, our service partner is Embrace of Celebration, a non-profit working to impact the families in transition on 192. On November 23rd, our students participated in their benefit concert, and together, our school raised close to $3,000 to support Embrace. Thank you! Throughout the year, we have raised over $14,000 to support families in transition and provide safe places where they can experience relationships.
On December 20th, as part of our School Chapel, we are hosting a service project for our students. They will pack essentials, write cards, and prepare packages for Embrace's Christmas community support. Read our post to learn about items to donate and how you can become involved and help us serve God's children throughout our community.
Together, let’s expand our experiences and multiply our joy through this season by giving our time, talent, and treasure to those in our community who need it the most. Thank you for walking alongside us as together we find God’s joy in serving others.
