Back to School

The start of school brings back memories of a new box of crayons, cool pencil erasers, new notebooks, and new school clothes.  As I grew older the excitement came not from those things, but instead from the understanding I was one year closer to graduation.  Now as I have the privilege to teach my children, I LOVE going to the teacher store in preparation for the new school year!  Brad is very thankful I’ve not found one of those here….yet!   


Ahh....how I miss The Teacher's Aid Store!  You can't just get ONE item!

I hope your back to school experiences were terrific!  I saw lots of smiling and excited faces on Facebook!  August 5 we began our new school year with a sophomore, 7^th grader, 2^nd grader, and one in Pre-K!  I am ashamed to say not one “First Day of School” picture was taken.  We just started.  One of the benefits of moving is reorganizing things.  I did find a box full of school supplies purchased who knows when but was not with the other school items.  Yeah for me!  Another wonderful surprise was no one needed any new clothes.  Purchasing school materials was also pleasant.  Maddie is using texts Neil once used so only workbooks needed purchased.  Sarah is using materials Maddie once used so again, only a few workbooks.  I had lots of PreK stuff from when I was a preschool teacher so Sam was pretty set as well.  We were also blessed with a treasure of books, an incredible microscope, and other lab materials from a local family no longer home schooling as their children are graduated! 

Anymore it seems the back to school hoopla starts before the 4th of July!  I mean, school hasn't been out THAT long! No one wants to think about going back then because it’s summer break for goodness sake!  Yet there it is all over the place.  The shelves in Wal-Mart start becoming stocked with supplies, ads in the paper full of clothing sales, colorful backpacks and lunch boxes of all shapes and sizes are strategically placed in our paths.  It just irritates me.  However, there are some awesome back to school events that take place over the summer that absolutely inspire me.  Events where people come together for a common purpose and make a difference in the lives of others.

Back in Newburgh, Indiana First Christian hosted their second annual Threads and Treads for the community a few weeks before school began in Warrick County.  Families were invited to come to FCCN from 10 – 2 and  were able to “shop” for gently used clothing – no limit on how many items they could take, get a haircut, pick up a new Bible, pick up a bag of school supplies, and have some lunch if they so desired.  I loved seeing the updates on Facebook about the collection of donations, the set up, and the pictures taken from that day.

Donations being sorted.

Getting set up for Threads and Treads event.

I’m always amazed at what we as a body of believers can do when we choose to love and use our gifts and talents to serve others.  In June, a team of people began to ask for clothes donations from church members.  Each week those items were sorted through by a group of volunteers.  Bags are handed out with school supply lists inside at the beginning of July as well.  This year there were 300 bags, 50 bags per grades K-5, handed out, and of those 300 bags, 270 were filled and returned in their “Pack the Bus” event.  Some people chose to make a monetary donation towards Threads and Treads.  New socks and underwear were purchased with that money and distributed that day as well.  Over 120 Bibles were taken home this year!  Volunteers prepared hot dogs, chips, cookies, and lemonade for lunches.  This year one of the church members who is a hairdresser even provided free haircuts for 28 students.  LOVE IT!

The Big Day!

Back in Springfield July 27 – August 3, hundreds of people were able to participate in an extreme school makeover with West Side Christian Church as a part of Springfield Sharefest.   Back in 2011 1500+ volunteers and over 100 local organizations teamed up with West Side and the local school district to renovate one of the local schools.  After the makeover, volunteers provided a reading mentor program.  Lives were changed.  This year they decided it was time to do another renovation of another school along with providing some health, safety and enhancement projects at a second school.  It was an amazing project to be a part of.  RCC now has an opportunity to provide the volunteers for the reading mentor program.  So many people from all over the city and beyond working together to bring help and hope to a community is an amazing thing!  Lives are being changed, and I’m not just talking about the students, teachers, parents, or administrators.  I’m talking about everyone involved. 

 

A local PBS station did a piece on Springfield Sharefest this year on their Illinois Stories program.  I leave you with a link to it from You Tube.  It's about 25 minutes.  It’s an inspiring story of how we as believers can come together to make a difference in the lives of others.  It's worth your time to see how we can bless others because of how we’ve been blessed by Christ.  While God can use us as individuals, I think it is extremely exciting to see how He can use us when we come together and are unified!

Link to Illinois Stories piece about Springfield Sharefest