"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."
Matthew 20:28
What a fantastic week of fun and memorable moments God gave us as we celebrated National Lutheran Schools Week!
As we have been celebrating the gift of our Christian school, I was reminded of a story shared by one of our alumni as she participated in her high school AP English class years after graduating from St. Matthew. This story is one example of many reasons that support your decision of "Why would you send your child to a Christian school?"
After reading a short story, the teacher was emphasizing the point that our selfish human nature tends to guide us to make decisions/suggestions/plans that tend to benefit ourselves personally in some fashion. To accentuate her point, she had the class participate in an exercise where she presented them with a scenario of a life raft with 20 seats for their class size of 21 students and teacher. Each student had to present a proposal for determining who should be the one not to receive a seat in the life raft, and orally present their rationale to the class.
Much to the teacher's dismay, numerous students suggested that the oldest member should not receive a seat. Others suggested those in the poorest health should not receive the seat. However, when it came time for our former alumni, she threw the group a curveball by suggesting, "I think the person least afraid to die should not get the seat."
The teacher immediately followed up with the question, "Are you afraid to die?" to which the student instantly replied, "No I am not." The class gasped, and the teacher asked her to please unpack this statement further. The student boldly professed to the class, "It's not like I want to die, but I have my faith and I have my beliefs. I know that I am going to Heaven, so no, I am not afraid to die." And as her former principal, I just beamed as she told me this story!
This is a perfect example of "What are the benefits of attending a Christian school?" Every day, we are given awesome opportunities to partner with you and the Holy Spirit to cultivate and nurture your child's seeds of faith, so that they will have all the necessary tools to boldly profess and live their faith.
As we conclude this week of celebrating National Lutheran Schools Week, we honor God for our school, and we thank you for entrusting your children into our care. We are humbled to be given the opportunity to collaborate with you, as we equip and encourage your child to live a life long journey of discipleship and servanthood.
Thank you for your love, encouragement, and support! We praise God that He brought your family to St. Matthew, and we look forward to many wonderful future memories!
In His Love,
Mrs. Palka