The Impact of our Words
Monday, January 15, 2018
The impact of our words…
It is recruitment time at Woodstock Christian School! This is a time in our year where we seek to draw in new families for next year, whether with children starting Kindergarten or seeking alternative solutions to their current school situation. So how do we get our name and message out into our community? Well there are your typical marketing strategies such as newspaper ads, Facebook posts, billboards, pamphlets, bulletin announcement and such. But, did you know that a great deal of research finds that word of mouth is more effective than other types of marketing. Compared to traditional advertising, media options, or promotional events, word of mouth is more useful in creating new recruitment.
So how can you use your words to impact Woodstock Christian School? Share your stories with others. Tell your friends, neighbours, coworkers or families in your church. Invite others to come and take the tour. Invite a family to our Kindergarten Information Evening on Feb 1. Sharing your stories and love for the school is the best (and most cost effective!) way of advertising our school. To take it one step further; what about offering to join them as they tour or attend the information evening? Sometimes having the comfort of one familiar face can make all the difference.
So let’s get talking and sharing our love for WCS! Let’s also pray for potential new families and that God would fill our classrooms and hallways!
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FOG DAY
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
FOG DAY Due to fog & black ice, morning buses will not run. School is open. Please bring children to school when it is safe. PM bus will run. Wednesday January 10.
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Wednesday, January 10, 2018
FOG DAY Due to fog & black ice, morning buses will not run. School is open. Please bring children to school when it is safe. PM buses will run as usual.
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It's A New Year
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
It's A New Year
It's a brand new year! Wishing you God's blessings, strength and grace as you journey through this year. Whether you are about to walk through the greatest year of your life, or the most challenging, God's word and promises hold true. Read these words from Romans 12 from 'the Message'. This is what Faith in Action looks like:
Take your everyday, ordinary life your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you….Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him…. keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; … Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply.
Faith in Action: Be a hero for God this year.
C. Verbeek
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SNOW DAY
Monday, January 08, 2018
SNOW DAY. BUSES CANCELLED JAN 8. Due to road conditions & forecast for more snow, buses are cancelled for today. WCS is closed.
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Joy
Monday, December 18, 2017
JOY
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."
During the Christmas season one of our favourite songs to sing in SK is "Joy to the World". We all know the words well, "Joy to the World the Lord has come…" But what exactly is the joy of Christmas all about? Many people confuse joy and happiness. Happiness is based on your circumstances, but joy is a deeper emotion that lasts through good and bad times.
Sometimes joy can feel like an explosion of hope and excitement and at other times it is a strong sense of peace and a feeling that all is as it should be. During advent, we remember with joy the gift of Jesus, we enjoy His blessings now and we delight in the promise of His coming again.
Galatians 5:22-25 tells us that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This means that God is the source of joy, but the Holy Spirit helps us to see it, practice it and give it away. The Spirit draws our attention to beautiful things and helps us remember God's faithfulness in the stories of the Bible and in our lives.
In our Social Justice Leadership Team, we have had discussions on how we as Christians at WCS can promote joy and peace. We decided that we must always be praying for opportunities to "have our eyes opened" to those in need in our families, school, greater community and beyond.
The Spirit also helps us see people who are in need of God's joy, so that we can share it with them. When we are filled with joy, we know how to give it away. Christmas is a perfect time to remind others of good times and stories of God's faithfulness. We can show them examples of God's goodness and beauty all around us. We can share God's promises from the Bible and we can also bring joy to others doing simple acts of kindness and service. What a JOY to share God's good gifts! We pray that all of the WCS community will experience this joy this Christmas and into 2018!
(pieces taken from http://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/media/pdf/KC-Advent-Calendar-2017-1_%284%29.pdf)
Linda Westerveld and Jesse Duizer ( Social Justice LT)
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Joy
Monday, December 18, 2017
JOY
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."
During the Christmas season one of our favourite songs to sing in SK is "Joy to the World". We all know the words well, "Joy to the World the Lord has come…" But what exactly is the joy of Christmas all about? Many people confuse joy and happiness. Happiness is based on your circumstances, but joy is a deeper emotion that lasts through good and bad times.
Sometimes joy can feel like an explosion of hope and excitement and at other times it is a strong sense of peace and a feeling that all is as it should be. During advent, we remember with joy the gift of Jesus, we enjoy His blessings now and we delight in the promise of His coming again.
Galatians 5:22-25 tells us that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This means that God is the source of joy, but the Holy Spirit helps us to see it, practice it and give it away. The Spirit draws our attention to beautiful things and helps us remember God's faithfulness in the stories of the Bible and in our lives.
In our Social Justice Leadership Team, we have had discussions on how we as Christians at WCS can promote joy and peace. We decided that we must always be praying for opportunities to "have our eyes opened" to those in need in our families, school, greater community and beyond.
The Spirit also helps us see people who are in need of God's joy, so that we can share it with them. When we are filled with joy, we know how to give it away. Christmas is a perfect time to remind others of good times and stories of God's faithfulness. We can show them examples of God's goodness and beauty all around us. We can share God's promises from the Bible and we can also bring joy to others doing simple acts of kindness and service. What a JOY to share God's good gifts! We pray that all of the WCS community will experience this joy this Christmas and into 2018!
(pieces taken from http://kidscorner.reframemedia.com/media/pdf/KC-Advent-Calendar-2017-1_%284%29.pdf)
Linda Westerveld and Jesse Duizer ( Social Justice LT)
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SNOW DAY
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
SNOW DAY FOR WOODSTOCK CHRISTIAN SCHOOL. Due to the forecast for snow squalls and high winds today, buses are cancelled for the day and the school is closed.
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Waiting in Joyful Hope
Monday, December 11, 2017
Waiting in Joyful Hope
How good are you at waiting? Waiting at traffic lights? In lines at the grocery store, ATMs or Service Ontario? There are amazing statistics about how much of our lives we spend waiting. Inevitably, we all need to wait.
Is waiting an empty waste of time? If we believe it is, how can we reframe it to think otherwise? Each of us has experienced times we wait in dread and fear. Sometimes we wait in boredom. And there are times when we wait with excitement and joy.
Advent is a time of waiting - a time between the 'now' and the 'not yet'. We will soon celebrate Christmas and the knowledge that Jesus has come as Emmanuel - God with us - as promised.
As Christ followers, we wait during Advent and look forward to celebrating the fact that God loves us so much that he sent his Son into the world to save us. This waiting is far from empty; rather, it is full of the hope that God promises us as we prepare for Christ.
While we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus that has occurred, we also use the season of Advent to anticipate Christ's second coming. When Jesus comes again, the Kingdom of God will appear in its fullness. The just will reign with Christ forever and the earth will be transformed. During Advent, we wait in joy, in hope, and in anticipation for the wonderful event we are about to experience-the coming of Christ into our lives in new ways, the return of Christ in glory at the end of time.
Consider using an Advent Calendar to help your family wait in joyful hope. Here is a link to 'not your usual Advent calendar' but one which challenges families to extend Gifts of Kindness.
Sources: www.loyolapress.com and kidscorner.reframemedia.com/media/pdf/KC-Advent-Calendar
Photo: tilecross.org.uk/wpimages/wp6c092427_05_06.jpg
C. Verbeek
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With-ness
Monday, December 04, 2017
Emmanuel, God with us. As we begin this Advent season, this time of waiting, "with-ness" has been on my mind. With-ness: God with us. What does this mean to you? What does it mean to you to know that God has dwelt among us. He's moved in. I love the way The Message translation portrays John 1:14. It says, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son. Generous inside and out, true from start to finish." During advent, we anticipate the coming of Jesus, the Light of the World. Slowing down to recognize just what this means is something that I will be working on during this season. Spending time in prayer, silence and rest to reflect on all that God has already done this school year and standing in awe with what He will continue to do. With Parent-Teacher interviews fresh in our minds, we can celebrate the learning and growth that has taken place this year! And anticipate further growth throughout the rest of the school year. Confession time: Praying for God's will to be done in all areas of my life has always been a challenge for me. I like knowing, planning, organizing - and controlling. But, relinquishing this control into the hands of my Creator is my aim this Advent season. Would you join me in slowing down? How can we show the world that we have been with Jesus?
K. VanderPloeg
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Creation Calls
Monday, November 27, 2017
Creation Calls
The song, Creation Calls, by Brian Doerksen, is a good song for the month of November. This month between seasons, when fall has expired and it's not yet winter, is an opportune time to listen to the created world and know that God continues to speak through his handiwork. Visually, November is unremarkable. The leaves have fallen and blown into corners, gardens are stripped of foliage, grey and browns are predominant. Many November days are grey and daylight is in short supply. Creation has been stripped down to the bare essentials as we head into the harshness of winter. Thank God that we are able to experience creation through more than just the visual sense. Doerksen's song brings us to the words in Job 37 (and following) when God speaks to Job out of the storm, or to Psalm 104, one of the creation poems/songs of praise written by David. The song and words are about knowing creation and the Creator using all of our senses - we feel the wind, the tremble as thundering breakers roar, we hear the sounds of geese in flight, the wind through trees. All of these - the written word and the created world, the capacity that we have to experience, and yes, to enjoy these November days - speak to the glory and majesty of God. Take a look. Have a listen. Creation reveals God. Creation calls. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwGvfdtI2c0)
C. Verbeek
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