Belonging

This year our theme is “Let Your Light Shine.” At our first Friday afternoon closing and prayer, I challenged the students to on the lookout for others who are letting their lights shine and be prepared to share those stories. The sharing of stories is a powerful teaching tool. Jesus often used story to tell His gospel message of what it means to live in the kingdom of God. It is a practical way to spread the example of living in the kingdom.

Since I told the students to be prepared to tell stories, I thought that this week I would share a story of a group of students “Letting their lights shine.” Yesterday, during the lunch recess, a large group of Grade 7 and 8s began to play soccer with a group of younger students. The younger students were a mix of students from Grade 1 to 4. The moment that these older student began to play with the younger students a wonderful things began to happen. The excitement on the playground increased several fold. I heard one young boy exclaim with a mix of surprise and excitement, “I cannot believe that we are doing this!” As the excitement rose and others began to notice what was occurring, others began to join the game. Many of these others were students who sometimes have difficulty interacting with peers. All of a sudden, some who never play soccer were playing soccer.

This was a beautiful moment. The Grade 7 and 8s stepped into a leadership role where they were examples of shining lights. Because they took that step, I saw a different community begin to develop. Certain obstacles to joining or building community were removed. Age, ability, social skills disappeared and what became important was that you were part of this game, this community. Everyone had the opportunity to belong.

Praise the Lord for the act of faithful living that our Grade 7 and 8 students demonstrated and please pray that we will see and hear of many more examples of faithful, light shining, living.