Spreading the Joy, Sharing the Brokenness March 4th, 2013

Today, March 4th 2013, we had a group of missionaries come and speak to the children this morning.  This group, Youth With A Mission (YWAM), is an organization we are linked to through former graduate Brittany Vos who organized the “Sponsor a Stuffie” program at the school in late December.  Brittany Vos travelled to Uganda to show the love of Christ to the orphans there. Some of our students, teachers and parents partnered with her to help bless the children in that part of the world.

This morning the YWAM Madison team shared the video of the children receiving the gifts and the joy it brought to the children.  They also shared with the students their passion to do something special for the children they come in contact with.  Through these special interactions they hope to share the Good News, the Gospel story. 

They did this through sharing stories of their experiences.  These experiences included: songs, food they have eaten, items made in the area, the sanitation hurdles, the languages they learned, the sadness they encountered, scripture passages, as well as how they were able to share the Good News.  They pointed out the brokenness in these situations and how God was using them to spread joy. 

At the end of the assembly the team asked for the younger ones to be dismissed and shared with the older students, the students in grade seven and eight, about the brokenness that exists in Human Trafficking.  This was a heavy message for the students but it was also coupled with how they try to bring hope and spread joy in those situations as well. 

 The heart breaking stories of brokenness in our world did impact our students.   They were encouraged to pray for these situations and the work of missionaries throughout the world.  It fits in so well to the Bible curriculum where we learn the story of God, His people, and redemption through Christ Jesus.  We hope to prepare our students for lives of Christian service and we were reminded of God’s call on our lives to reflect His light into all the dark corners of this world.  As the students develop their gifts in response to what God has done in their lives, they are called not only to know and grow in that love but to share that love with others.