The purpose of John Calvin School is to assist and support parents in the education of their covenant children to the glory of God. In accomplishing this mission, the vision of John Calvin School is to provide excellent Christ-centered education in service to God and our neighbour.
Greetings everyone as we bring the first and, hopefully, the only week of at-home learning to a close. Thank you again parents for all your work during this brief period of at-home learning. It was much appreciated. Once again, it was good that we could provide in-school instruction for those students in the Learning Resource and Special Needs programs. We thank God for once again providing for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the staff, students and parents during this time. We thank the school board for all its support as well. It was great to hear, at the beginning of the week this time, that we will be back in school again on Monday of next week.
Thanks to all the parents and grandparents who helped out this past week with the “one anothering” initiative. It is great that during these times we can be of support to and for one another. Speaking of one another, one of our pastors at Cornerstone Canadian Reformed Church, Rev. Darren Feenstra, shared this article written by another pastor in last week’s church bulletin. The beautiful ‘one another’ commands of the New Testament are well-known. But it is also striking to notice the ‘one anothers’ that do not appear there. For example, sanctify one another, humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, sacrifice one another, shame one another, marginalize one another, exclude one another, judge one another, run one another’s lives, and confess one another’s sins.
The kind of God we really believe in is revealed in how we treat one another. The beautiful gospel of Jesus positions us to treat one another like royalty, and every non-gospel positions us to treat one another like dirt. But we will follow through horizontally on whatever we really believe vertically. Our relationships with one another reveal to us what we really believe as opposed to what we think we believe, our convictions as opposed to our opinions. It is possible for the gospel to remain at the shallow level of opinion, even sincere opinion, without penetrating to the deeper level of conviction. But when the gospel grips us down in our convictions, we embrace its implications wholeheartedly. Therefore, when we mistreat one another, our problem is not a lack of surface niceness but a lack of gospel depth. What we need is not only better manners but, far more, true faith. Then the watching world might start feeling that Jesus himself has come to town: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
May the Lord continue to provide for those in our community who need Him in a special way; be it those who are sick, who are impacted by the virus (in one way or another), who are dealing with difficult family situations, or those who are grieving the death of a loved one. In this regard, we think of the Schulenberg and Jonker families. Earlier this week, their husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Ernie, passed away. He was the father of Mrs. Corinne Jonker (one of our EAs), the grandfather to Torey Jonker, Nate Schulenberg, Audrey Schulenberg, Leena Schulenberg, Nadia Schulenberg, and Adele Schulenberg and the great-grandfather to Aiden Schulenberg. May our good and gracious God continue to surround the family with his comfort and care during this time.
A few matters for your attention:
*Just a reminder to please keep your child(ren) home if they are sick. Here is the link for the most recent online screening tool- https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/
*A number of parents have inquired about the availability of rapid tests. We have been working on getting rapid tests for the school but so far have been unable to procure any. In his announcement on Wednesday, Mr. Lecce was very deliberate in saying that they were for publicly funded schools. We have contacted the PSIE (private and independent schools) branch of the Ministry of Education and our local MPP to find out how and where we can access them.
*Reminder: Please return the borrowed Chrome books on Monday. They can be placed on the tables that have been set up on the stage in the gym. You do not need to sign anything when they are returned since waivers were completed last week.
*Mrs. Tesfaye and Mrs. VanAmerongen have put together a virtual New Year assembly to be viewed by the staff and students on Monday morning.
*Bullying Awareness: In our broken and sinful world, bullying continues. That’s why it is good to be reminded from time to time about how we are to treat one another as Christian brothers and sisters, whether it’s on social media (i.e. cyberbullying, a lot of time is currently being spent on Chromebooks, tablets, and other devices), on the bus, on the playground, in the school, or at home. All of us are created in God’s image and we need to remember that when we interact with our neighbour, i.e. our classmates, our schoolmates, our family members, our church family.
*As mentioned previously, three PD Days have been cancelled but we are planning to retain the January 31 PD Day, which is a report card writing day for the staff. Term 1 report cards will be going home on February 4, D.V.. We are still planning for Parent-Teacher conferences which are scheduled for Tuesday, February 8 and Thursday, February 10.
*For the grade eight students, we hope to learn more about the plans for Mr. R. VanAndel’s presentation, Grade 9 registration, and Grade 8 Day at Guido sometime next week.
Enjoy your weekend everyone and God bless. We’ll communicate again via the Chronicle (including more Classroom News) in a week’s time, D.V.
G. Hofsink
