Dear Bethany families,
I hope that you all had a fun, restful and rejuvenating
summer filled with lots of precious memories with your families. Our theme for
the 2015-16 school year will be “Reflecting Christ,” and our selected Bible verse
for the year comes from 1 John 4:19: “We
love, because He first loved us.” Not only is this an easy verse to
memorize, but it is an empowering verse for all of life.
Before we launch into this year, I wanted to share some
thoughts for why we chose this theme, as well as a sampling of some of the exciting
ministry opportunities that Bethany is launching this year.
“We Love, Because He First Loved Us”
Though God’s love can be defined in a variety of ways, there
are two particular aspects of His love that are extremely comforting to me. First, God’s love is infinite. In mathematics,
we know that when infinity is divided by any other number (no matter how
large), it still remains infinity. Therefore, if God’s love is infinite, this
means that God loves each of you and your children, infinitely. There is no limit to His love!
Second, God’s love
for his children is unconditional. This means that neither you nor your
children can ever stumble too many times or fall so far that our Savior is no
longer there to catch you.
So if we truly believe that God loves us with THAT sort
of love, how should it impact our lives?
Finding Freedom
& Value in Christ’s Love
When we realize that we are secure in Christ’s love
despite our faults, we are freed from the temptation to find our value and identity
based solely upon our performance. We don’t need to look for validation in the
opinions of others. Our God, who is perfectly wise, has already set a price tag
on our lives, and He did so on the Cross! And if God loves us that much, the flawed
opinions of others lose their power over us.
In Christ, we can pursue excellence in all things out of
a sense of gratitude for His love, rather than mere obligation to His laws. There
is a huge difference. A person who seeks to gain God’s favor through unfailing
effort and obedience will eventually find religion to be slavery, because we
can never measure up to God’s perfect standards. But a person who experiences
the love of God in the midst of struggles and failures (and we all have them!) will actually want to please God out of an abundance of gratitude.
I wholeheartedly believe that this brand of Christ-centered
love makes Bethany special and unique as a school. We seek to love others out
of the overflowing abundance of God’s love for us. We strive to ensure that each
and every child is loved — not based on performance — but upon the model of
Christ’s infinite and unconditional love expressed toward us, even in the midst
of our own flaws and failures. When we reflect Christ’s love toward others, we
discover the key to authentic joy in the Christian life. We find joy in loving
the lowly and the broken, because Christ loved us when we were lowly and
broken. At Bethany, we want our students to experience the joys of this brand
of selfless compassion and charity.
Bethany’s Partnership
with Mission of Hope
Out of this desire, I am excited to announce that Bethany
is launching a partnership with Mission of Hope — a Christian ministry located
in Haiti. Specifically, we will be sponsoring the Village of Hope Orphanage,
which currently houses 62 kids. Each class will be building relationships with a
few of these precious orphans. Our classes will receive a full personal profile
on each kid; we will develop pen-pal relationships with them; and we will seek
to ensure that these orphans are equipped with all the back-to-school supplies necessary
for success. In addition, instead of hosting our annual Boosterthon fall
fundraiser, we will be hosting a “Feed the Need” campaign drive, in which
Bethany’s students will be packing more than 10,000 meals to feed malnourished
children. Half of these meals will go to the students who are located on
Mission of Hope’s campuses. Last year, several of Bethany’s teachers, parents,
and students visited the main campus, and they were greatly impacted by this
ministry. This upcoming fall and spring, several others are planning to go on mission
trips to their main campus. During these trips, our students will meet their
pen-pals and see how their generosity has helped to enrich the lives of these
children.
If you would like to learn more about Mission of Hope and
its impact upon the lives of Haitian children, please watch the following
videos. They are truly inspiring!
The Story of Mission of Hope & Village of Hope
The Personal Story of Jean Marc (a rescued orphan)
If you would like to get involved in the “Feed the Need”
campaign drive, please contact Marne MacPhee at mmacphee@bcsftl.org. If you are
interested in participating in future mission trips to the Mission of Hope
campus, please contact Amanda Mason at amanda@riovistachurch.com. In
either case, this is an extraordinary opportunity to help shepherd your child’s
heart in “reflecting Christ” to a hurting world.
It is my sincere prayer that this year’s ministry and
service projects will have a profound impact upon the hearts and minds of each
and every child who calls Bethany home.
“We love, because
He first loved us!”
See you soon!
Sam Kastensmidt
Headmaster
Bethany Christian School
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