It stirs my soul to peek in and watch children participating in the ritual of advent in their classrooms with you. We do the same with our children at home. I'd like to share an excerpt from a devotional for Christmas Eve.
"On this Christmas Eve, the day that marks the end of the Advent season, we light the Christ candle, the candle that all the other Advent candles have foreshadowed and pointed toward. The Christ candle signifies that the fullness of God's light has come into our world. It reminds us that God has not forgotten his promises to us. Even though we wait in the "darkness," even though the darkness may feel overwhelming at time, God's light shines in the darkness. "The darkness has not overcome it". The darkness will not overcome God's light. The Christ candle offers a reminder of this hope. We light the Christ candle on Christmas Eve when the amount of daylight we receive is at its lowest point in the year. In the midst of darkness that almost seems to overwhelm, God's light still shines.
As you extinguish the Christ candle and go to bed (please extinguish all candles before going to bed), take time to remember that just as your house will suddenly be at its darkest, God's light will continue to shine. Thank God that you will wake to house full of light in the morning. Thank God that even when the world seemed to be at its darkest, when Jesus' life was extinguished, there was still hope. God's light would shine once again in Jesus' resurrection, and God's light will shine again when Jesus returns. Even if the world feels at its darkest for you right now, God's light will shine. You can rest in God just as you rest in your bed at night. You can do so with the assurance that Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Sarah Essenburg
Our ESS assistant will be starting full time on Monday, January 3. I will meet with her in the afternoon to begin her onboarding process. As you know, this is a new position for us so we'll grow slowly into this support for our children in the Forest. I'm THRILLED she will be joining us. We'll keep her caseload of students limited to those who have gone through an 'in take' process. Right now she has three students in second grade and one for consultation in first grade. Lynae Stielstra and Christy Haig will also help her with training and support strategies. I'm eager for each of you to meet her and work with her!
Collaboration Days
We had some staffing movement in our kindergarten programming. Due to this, we're proposing that we try moving chapel to Wednesday afternoons from 2:30-3:00. This is a very different time for us to gather. Given that we will be meeting at the END of the day, we might decide to change the format (less 'church' feel perhaps and more 'walk and talk' potentially). Thank you for your flexibility as we try this change and see how it works. Because we are making this change, we can keep our kindergartners growing and advancing academically with support. Thank you!
Here are our dates:
1/12 - Mrs. Hicks
1/26 - Miss Spoelman
2/9 - Third Grade
2/23 - Mr. Scott
3/9 - Kindergarten (Wierenga)
3/23 - Mr. Russ
4/13 - 2nd Grade
4/27 - 1st Grade
5/11 - Kindergarten (Harig)
5/25 - Convocation
6/1 - All School Chapel
Mary Terpstra
God created our Mary to flourish in creation. Her life's passion has been to bring children into God's outdoors and find his beauty. She has a WEALTH of knowledge and creative ideas to engage children in creation. She was thrilled to join our Forest team this year as a part-time teaching assistant with Emily. We were thrilled to have her join in our work "officially". And then one injury after another has happened. Emily and I received her regretful resignation this week. I hurt for her. She LOVES this program and wants to support your work in bringing children into nature and flourish is God's care. Please keep Mary in your prayers and, if you have time, drop her a line of encouragement. Feel free to bounce ideas off her! She LOVES to help and has SO many ideas for our learning experiences. You can connect with Mary at
No comments:
Post a Comment