Got Faith?

Happy New Year from Emmanuel Day School! This past January 3rd EDS turned 2 years old! What a fantastic and faith-filled day it was to wake up to! EDS rounds year 2 and now begins its' 3rd season. The school in this short period of time as experienced success in every way! We have quadrupled our student population in 6 months of opening. We have experienced profit that has helped Emmanuel Church balance some of its' shortfalls, but most importantly it has created a new ministry here at the church that operates in our church-home each and every day. My hope is that we have created a legacy that will sustain itself to the next generation, (and those to come). I could not feel more proud and blessed. I am sure that the people of Emmanuel are equally as grateful and realize what a rich and vibrant learning environment that has been created here.

This month I decided to create a new topic for our EDS pre-k curriculum..."Got Faith?" The title is actually borrowed from the famous "Got Milk?" ads from years past...I used it in a photo series that Terri Traeger Photography and myself did here at Emmanuel with Greg and the Sunday School kids about 3years ago. I thought it appropriate enough to use again as my own personal faith through EDS and the Chapel program on Sunday has been strengthened and brought to new levels of believing. In our new series I am teaching each day in Social Studies some of the religions of the world. It has been so rewarding and exciting each day as teaching anything about God and God's creation is one of my all-time favorite things to do! (actually a friend talked me into this topic for January as a way to boost my winter blahs after the Christmas season that I love so much). I am so glad I did!
Well, I am here to report that after week one, (Judeo-Christian week), I Got Faith! (excuse my grammar). I "Got Faith" in the knowledge this week that are young people really and truly listen to God's word. They astounded me with their questions, but mostly, answers about who this Jesus is!. They have floored me with yesterdays discussion/lecture on Heaven. (A topic I was willing to go there on as many children freeze up when speaking about the hereafter). I addressed their fears not with talk of dying... but with living! The soul is what lives forever, not these soon to be broken-down bodies that are finite. We spoke of light and love. We let our imaginations spin with what Heaven could look like...(The Doctor's waiting room was my personal favorite!) We spoke of seeing people we love and miss there... and of course, our pets! Today we visited God's House. (church proper). We spoke of words such as Service, Mass, Worship. We looked at the Altar, (I always refer to as God's Dining Room Table). The "art" found in churches and temples. We spoke of our favorite parts of church... "praying, the organ, singing, Communion, and the "FUN" one Emmanulite mentioned! (yeah!) We spoke of our local "worship-heroes"... Fr. Greg, Fr. Jack, Pastor Bill, Father McCarthy, and Fr. Anthony! The kids love these hand-chosen representatives from God. One child states, "God can't be here with us, so, He picks special people to take His place!" Who couldn't love that comment?
("My job is great," I thought.)

It made me know that kids "Got Faith"! They want to come here, or their own place of worship and know that God loves them! They know that we all are here to care for their spiritual well-being...and guess what?....They want to learn about it!
I cannot wait to teach in the weeks to come about Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. My hope is that at Emmanuel we can promote diversity and a greater understanding about the world. We have become a global church at Emmanuel , and I am proud to say that,
"I Got Faith!"(explanation point), in all we do here!
Miss Dawn