I was recently listening to a new song that tells the story of the impact of faithful prayer on one family. It is called Talking to Jesus, by Elevation Worship and Maverick City.
In one of the verses, the father retells the moment his son walks into his room while he is praying, and they pray together. Consequently, the father says:
And now He's talking to Jesus
Thank God He's talking to Jesus
I hope He's talking to Jesus
For the rest of his life…
The song reminds me of why I got into teaching and Christian education. I always wanted to play a pivotal role in influencing young people to grow up well, to live well and not make the mistakes I made ( a story for another time). I wanted to, God willing, help to shape their life in a positive way and I believe being involved in the education of young people is a significant way to do this.
In Proverbs, Solomon writes that if you train a child in the way he should go then when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). Good education, be it at home or at school, is the building block for a successful future.
The proverb though provokes many questions. In what ways are we training our children? Are we leading them into life? Perhaps, is the way we are training them a deliberate action or an accidental product of business? Whether we like the answers to these questions or not, the truth remains, the way we are trained when we are young is critical to who we become.
A foundational purpose of Christian education at RCC is to raise responsive disciples of Jesus who are able to positively impact the world around them. For those students who do not choose Christianity, the passion is the same; we desire that all our students be raised, trained, and educated in such a way that they develop foundations that lead to a life whereby they can influence the world for good. We intentionally plan, teach, relate in community, and create extracurricular opportunities that will provide occasions for our students and their families to deliberately build foundations that lead to flourishing. Just have a look at this week!
To connect with our community, it was a pleasure to recommence Relate@RCC in our new garden! It was wonderful to share a coffee and baked treat with our parents and relate once again. We will be doing this fortnightly so stay tuned to Facebook and emails for updates and please come along and join us.
In the high school, to facilitate a stress-free, joyful transition to high school, we held the second of three Experience Days where students spend a day in the high school experiencing some of what it has to offer. It is great to see students get excited about a more mature approach to learning!
The primary students didn’t miss out either. They connected with the rest of Australia by engaging in the National Storytime initiative. They were read Give me some Space! by an astronaut (well they looked like one at least) and then launched rockets in celebration! It was very cool.
Finally, many of our students competed in the Christian Schools Soccer Gala Day. It was a great day to connect with and compete against other students across our region. Congratulations to the students for their exceptional efforts.
It is a privilege to offer such a great variety of opportunities to our students, enabling them to trial and refine what they are learning in a variety of settings. In doing so, we are able to teach our students that it is not all about the end game, or the final result; while these are important, they are not the ultimate goal. The purpose of RCC education resides in how well our staff know our students and the subsequent opportunities each student has to take the small steps that assist them in achieving the next step in becoming who God has created them to be.
After winning the Margaret River WSL surf event, Tatjana Weston-Webb was given a chance to say something to her fans. She chose to remind them God loves them, and He has a plan for their life. At RCC we want to do the same. We want to take every moment we get to remind our students of the simple truths. They have been given an identity, purpose and hope and we are privileged to journey with them throughout their education to help them begin to comprehend and fulfil this.
What an honour it is to be involved in your student’s lives; to set them on a path that leads to life and life abundant!
Good tidings!
Jonno
