PACIFIC CHRISTIAN SCHOOL CHRIST-LIKE LIVING, CRITICAL THINKING, AND JOYFUL SERVICE
June 2014
PACIFIC CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
EDUCATING FOR JOYFUL SERVICE THROUGH ACTS OF KINDNESS
W
hat a privilege it is for me to work in a place where students are given opportunities to step out of the classroom and into the community to serve others, and what a joy it is for me to see this undertaken by students with genuine enthusiasm and caring hearts. The phrase in our mission statement of “nurturing students in joyful service” has been lived out in a variety of ways this past year and I want to highlight just a few of the ways that students have been active both inside and outside the walls of our school. Back in the fall, our Grade 7 Service Club visited the Saanich Community Food Bank Garden where students picked the final crop of summer beans, planted fall garlic, and weeded the planting beds to prepare them for winter. This same group of students also visited the Compassionate Resource Warehouse where they helped gather and sort items that were put into a container of disaster relief supplies. These supplies were sent directly to the Philippines after their devastating typhoon late last year. A second container of supplies was loaded up to go to a children’s hospital hospice in Rwanda where sick children basically go to die. Our students were able to write notes, posters, and colourful cards to brighten the walls of this bleak and dismal place. Isn’t it wonderful that our students’ actions here in Victoria are w having an impact around the world? Not only did our h students prepare supplies for shipment overseas, they s were also able to interact with and enjoy the company w of o the senior volunteers working at the warehouse. The positive interactions between these seniors and our PCS p students as they worked side by side spoke loudly to me s about the importance of relationship building across the a generation gap. g At A Christmas time, our middle school students went to the t Lodge at Broadmead and spent some time with the residents there. A great time was had singing Christmas r songs, dancing, and just visiting with the residents who s appeared to really enjoy the conversation and singing a time with the students. t continued over...
Pacific Christian School www.pacificchristian.ca
“...nurturing students in Christ-like living, critical thinking, and joyful service to become faithful citizens in God’s world.”
ELEMENTARY CAMPUS 671 Agnes St. Victoria, BC V8Z 2E7 elementary@pacificchristian.ca SECONDARY CAMPUS 654 Agnes St. Victoria, BC V8Z 2E6 secondary@pacificchristian.ca Phone 250-479-4532
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From the high school side, joyful service was very evident with the two Missions Mexico trips that went down to Vicente Guerrero, Mexico, where students worked to build four houses for needy families. This normally annual event became bi-annual this year because so many students wanted to experience this mission’s trip. This incredible experience helps open the eyes of our students to the poor and needy and the issues of poverty outside the borders of our afuent culture and country. Back in Victoria, within the walls of our school, we planned a K-12 school-wide theme called Acts of Kindness Week where we focused on sharing acts of kindness with one another. Remember those pink shirts? Class discussions, lessons, and chapel talks revolved around ways that we could encourage one another with different acts of kindness. Students were encouraged to take these acts of kindness outside of our school community. Kindness really can change everything! Will Wild, Assistant Principal
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MENTAL HEALTH PRESENTATION Having personal experience with mental health has moved me to want to share my story with others. Kindness Week, in February, was the perfect time to do that! I had the opportunity to speak to and share my story with the grade six and seven students. I encouraged the students to open up and talk about mental health and wellness and to see that asking for help is okay. I also wanted them to know that healing and thriving is possible! It was a great experience and I look forward to inspiring others with my story! Sarah Balderson, Grade 9
SPECIAL EDUCATION ROOM 218 - KINDNESS So many people help to make our program a success. Handing out treat and notes lets people know Room 218 notices.
PCS HOMESTAY EXPERIENCE “This was the first year my husband and I signed up for the homestay experience. I can honestly say that it has been a privilege to have Ivy in our home. We’ve learned about Chinese culture, cuisine and customs while also getting to know a unique individual.” - Lyn Suderman
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GARDEN UPDATE Biology 11 students worked in the rain and mud to plant apple and pear trees, and their hard work is now bearing fruit. The new PCS Food Garden is still taking shape but early successes include potatoes, broad beans, herbs & rhubarb.
SPELLING BEE Things were really buzzing at PCS on Thursday Feb. 27 for the school spelling bee finals. Twelve nervous finalists accurately spelled word after word, demonstrating accuracy that took 34 rounds to crown a winner. The Grade 4 – 7 audience was impressed with the level of competence and held their collective breath with every letter. After a close battle we finally had our winners. In 3rd place from Grade 7 – Lucy Auchinachie, in 2nd place from Grade 6 – Ella Lane-Sangha and the PCS 2014 Spelling Champion from Grade 5 is Cheyenne Haliday. Congratulations to everyone on your hard work and success. Spell on!
V VANCOUVER ISLAND REGIONAL SCIENCE FAIR - OUR GRADE 5 PARTICIPANTS F O Once again, the winners from our PCS Science Fair distinguished tthemselves at the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair, held at the University of Victoria, April 13 and 14. They spent two days presenting U ttheir projects to several judges and participating in an Open House for sschools and the public. On Monday they were treated to an exciting ‘‘Chemistry Show,’ with lots of w cchemical reactions, and eexplosions, ssmoke! We are vvery proud of the eeffort all of our 8 participants put p iinto their projects aand presentations.
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GRANDPARENTS’ AND GRANDFRIENDS’ DAY Our 17th annual Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day on Friday, April 25 was definitely one of our highlights of the school year! For this now “world-renowned event”, we again welcomed hundreds of grandparents and substitute special friends for a full morning of visiting the elementary school. Festivities began with a couple of hours to visit the children in their classrooms, plus time to enjoy refreshments and fellowship in our gym, and concluded with a special program in the chapel, featuring students from all grades K-7. Big, bright smiles on faces are all the evidence we need that there is always a huge buzz of excitement and enthusiasm for this annual event that celebrates Christian education across the generations.
PASTORS’ DAY Pastors’ Day is another very exciting day in the life of Pacific Christian School! All elementary school students wrote personal letters of invitation to their own pastor, youth pastor or Sunday school teacher and eagerly waited for them to come to visit them. As we entered the doors of the church to go to chapel on Friday, November 15, we were joined by 80-90 pastors and other church staff, completely filling the church to capacity, and adding a whole new dimension to our singing that morning as we were led by the high school worship team! Students were thrilled to see their own pastors at chapel, and everyone raised their hands in blessing our pastors as we prayed for them, something they normally do publicly for others in their churches. Afterwards, the pastors invaded the classrooms, finding the students from their church, and thus celebrating the partnership PCS has with more than 90 churches across greater Victoria.
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PACER ATHLETICS The snapshot of Pacer Athletics for 2014: Grade 8 boys finished 2nd at both the volleyball and basketball Christian Schools tournaments; Jr. Girls volleyball 3rd on the Lower Island; Jr. Boys volleyball Lower Island Champions and 2nd @ Islands; Sr. Girls volleyball 1st @ the Gulf Island tournament and 4th @ Islands; Sr. Boys volleyball 3rd @ Islands; Jr. Girls Basketball undefeated in league play, 1st @ Lower Islands, 1st @ the Dover Bay tournament; Jr. Boys Basketball successful season with many close games in a tough league; Sr. Girls Basketball 1st @ Christian Schools (first time in school history), 1st @ Lower Islands (hosted too), 4th @ Islands; Sr. Boys Basketball 3rd @ Lower Islands (AAA); Track and Field 1st @ Islands – Sr. Girls shot put (Amy Willie) and Badminton Gr. 10 Boys and Girls – 1st @ Lower Islands!!! Congratulations to all student athletes for accomplishing so much this year! Thank you to all of the coaches who gave of their time to mentor and speak into the lives of our athletes! John Stewart, PCS Secondary Athletic Director
PCS Pacers Athletic department vision statement: As a family, we challenge ourselves to be passionate, accountable, committed, excellent, respectful and successful as we learn about life through sport!. sport!
Pacer Press With Track and Field winding down, PCS can chalk up another successful year of Middle School Athletics. Over the last nine months there have been many encouraging stories to come out of grade 6 & 7 athletics: the grade 7 girls finishing 1st in the city for volleyball and 2nd in basketball, the grade 7 boys volleyball team coming in 2nd, both boys and girls badminton teams winning their respective city championships, qualifying over 120 student athletes for the VISAA Track and Field Meet. Really, the successes on the court, track, or field are simply a reflection of the community and fellowship that occurred in and around a Christ-centered athletics program. So to all of the staff, parents, and students, who put in the countless hours to make this year a memorable one: thank you! Blessings, Adam Price, PCS Middle School Athletics
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PCS STUDENTS ATTEND SHAWNIGAN LAKE MODEL UN Three PCS students took home top honours this past weekend at the Shawnigan Lake Model United Nations. Congratulations to Rachel S. for Best Position Paper, Dale M. for Outstanding Delegate, and Jadyn L. for Honorable Mention Top Delegate. Also, a special mention for Jacob F. who was director of the UN Press Corps; he capably led a team of journalists covering the events in the various committees throughout the weekend, amassing 27 news articles. Well done to ALL PCSers at the Model UN. Everyone participated well and represented our school capably. Bravo, everyone.
THE PRO-LIFE CLUB OF PCS The Pro-life club of PCS hosted the Second Annual Community Baby Shower in an expanded format this year, collecting donations both at the school during advent, and outside the Langford Wal-Mart one long wintery (-17) Saturday. Thank you to Wal-Mart for their generous cooperation with this effort to support the work of Victoria Pregnancy Centre, which looks after needy mums and their young families. We were able to drop off a van full of everything from baby and maternity clothes to a couple of great rocking chairs! Thank you to everyone for your contributions and thank you to the students who worked tirelessly on this effort.
JUMP ROPE FOR HEART Thank you so much to all of the Grade 4’s and 5’s who raised almost $9000.00 for Jump Rope for Heart. These boys and girls did a wonderful job of raising this incredible amount of money for a great cause, and then spending an afternoon doing different jump rope activities for a whole afternoon in the high school gym. Thanks, too, to all of the parents who helped their kids raise money, as well as the moms who came out to help with refreshments on our Jump Rope Day. Well done, Grade 4’s and 5’s. We’re so proud of you all! Total Raised: $8, 947. 84
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STUDENT PROFILE:
A NEW WORLD
“If you could tell me anything about bringing a child into a new “world” what would it be?” This was the question I was asked by a husband and wife adopting a little boy and girl from Village Espoir (Hope Village). I responded, “Raise them in a way to make you proud but makes their birth parents even more proud!” Sitting on the Village steps, I watched the new parents step out of their car. So many emotions were clearly written on their faces, fear and love the most evident. There is a fear of taking the children away from the life they know and bringing them into their world. What will their new children think of them. LOVE: love at first sight. The moment the kids saw their new parents, they knew that was their Mama and Papa. Love overcame fear as the kids tightly embraced their Mama and Papa and never let go. A family of two became a family of four, as if that was all they had ever known. I could only be happy for this new family, as I knew God put those two kids with their new Mama and Papa for a reason. Watching the beginning of a new life for the children and the new Papa and Mama also brought me so many emotions. Joy. Hope. Sadness. Joy: seeing how quickly the two kids knew that this man and woman were their Mama and Papa who will protect them, and, from this moment, never leave their side. Hope: knowing that these kids will have a future of endless opportunities to achieve their dreams and to have great role models to look up to. Sadness: this was an emotion I struggled with. Throughout all the joy, a house mama has now lost two of her children. She has raised these kids for the past four years and now she has to say goodbye. She put on a strong face for the new Mama and Papa, but as I walked past her she broke down in tears. I gave her a hug and held her tight. I told her, “Look at where I am right now, back in the orphanage I was adopted from. It is going to be okay!” I felt so honoured to be at the orphanage for the first adoption from Village Espoir since the earthquake in 2010. Experiencing the new Mama and Papa picking up their children for the first time was so special to me. It helped me realize how strong and inspirational my Mama and Papa are to me. I now know exactly what it must have been like for them to see me for the first time. I am so proud to have been adopted by the great parents I have. “Raise them in a way to make you proud but makes their birth parents even more proud!” That is the way I have been raised. Visiting with my birth mom, Rose, over the past month, I can truly say that she is more than proud of who I have become. Her visits, her beaming smile toward me, her caressing of my arm, her daily phone calls to me are evidence of her unending love and pride. My Papa and Mama could not have done a better job to make me who I am. So I thank them for that and for giving me opportunities to have experiences like this one. Kathleen A Hoogendoorn Port-au-Prince, Haiti
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NEIL MOSSIE
Pacer Press I started teaching at Pacific Christian School in 2004. I teach junior math, science and outdoor education. I have also taught Forestry 11, Biology 11 and Sustainable Resources 11. As part of the Outdoor Education Program that I co-teach with Ms. McKerracher, I also coordinate the sailing team and have the pleasure of being one of the leaders on the West Coast Trail hike. I have always enjoyed spending time outdoors. I joined a scout troop with my brother when I was young, and discovered that I really like to be outside engaged in outdoor recreation. We hiked the West Coast Trail together with the scouts and I have wanted to have more adventures like that one ever since. I became particularly interested in Biology in high school and earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies from UVic in 1991. While studying there, I worked as a research assistant in the Biology and Microbiology Departments. I started working in the forest industry after that and had the opportunity to work in both harvesting and silviculture operations. Those jobs led me to work in BC Parks, and I operated a small company that employed youth for small projects including trail building and infrastructure construction.
I met many people during those years who had a positive influence in my life. Many taught me new skills and gave me new knowledge. One became a mentor and helped me to gain the confidence to start my own business. Another reintroduced me to The Lord. I am so grateful for those people and for the people whom I have met since I started my journey here at PCS. While my path to teaching and to PCS has not been the shortest or most direct, I believe that God used those people and those experiences to equip me to work here. I have had the pleasure to stay involved in Science and Math, while also pursuing outdoor recreation and sharing this passion with others. I am so excited to be able to share my love for the outdoors and for all of God’s created world with the students here. I am blessed by both the people I teach and the people I work with.
JOANNE ALLERS
MEET THE TEACHERS
Hello! During the last twenty odd years students have known me as Mrs. A, Miss Joanne, and H Mrs. Allers. Teaching preschoolers, elementary, middle school and high school students, and M ssome college credit trumpet instruction has kept my ‘career’ diverse and interesting. Currently, I teach Band to PCS students in grades 6-9. My position is fantastic because I get to take groups of approximately 25 students from a place of knowing absolutely nothing about their various o band instruments to being capable and proud of reading and applying the language of music to b ttheir new instrument! Hearing and watching skills develop over time is dynamic and exciting. When I am not teaching Band at PCS or teaching at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, I am W usually functioning as a taxi driver, a fast food chef, and as a laundry service provider to my u tthree high school sons! My most dear role of all is as wife to my husband and soul-mate, Tim, ffor over 20 years.
An idea that took root this year for me is the role of God’s Word in my life. Having been A tto Bible School when my husband was finishing a theology degree, I completed classes that sstimulated my desire for knowledge and truth. Those classes brought vibrancy to what had rule to be obeyed, reading God’s word daily. previously felt like a duty or rul Now, years later, after attending church all my life, I find myself praying for the Bible to be fresh, and to hear something ‘new’ from it. Recently I heard someone say that when we read God’s word, it forms us. The idea that God’s word is a tool by which the God who crafted the universe can alter, form, and transform me into a more ‘ideal version of myself’ is an inspiring and calming idea to wake up to each day! Guidance, inspiration, strength, and even companionship from scripture is what God is telling me to seek. I’m thankful for friends near and far, as well as colleagues at PCS who have helped nurture God’s truth in my life this year! If God’s word, used regularly in my life, were to become something I am someday remembered for, that would be a fine legacy.
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ALUMNI PROFILE:
ALICE POWELL - HELPING CHANGE LIVES ONBOARD MERCY SHIPS PRESS RELEASE - January 13th, 2014 – 28-year-old Alice Powell will say goodbye to Vancouver Island on January 25th as she has signed up to volunteer for about two years onboard the world’s largest charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy. Powell will be working as a dental hygienist in several different countries, starting in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo. The Africa Mercy belongs to international charity Mercy Ships which uses hospital ships to deliver free medical care and capacity building to the world’s underserved. Powell grew up in Victoria, B.C. and attended Camosun College’s Certified Dental Assistant program in 2007/2008. After graduation, Powell went on to work for the Sydney Harbour Dental Center. “As a young teen, I read a magazine article about two girls who lived with their parents onboard a Mercy Ship. While their parents worked in the ship hospital, the girls attended school on the boat. This ship life sparked my interest and throughout my schooling it was my dream to someday work with the Mercy Ships dental team in Africa,” says Powell. Powell’s dream became very real as this will be her second stint volunteering with Mercy Ships: in 2012, Powell spent 7 months working in Guinea. “I found my work with Mercy Ships to be so rewarding and eye-opening. My experience has led me to commit a tto a two year service with the dental team, where I will be able to help impact even more lives,” Powell says. b Powell will be living onboard a vessel that is essentially P a small town. The ship boasts five operating rooms, 82 patient beds, full laboratory services, living quarters, p cafeterias, a small shop and even a donated Starbucks c café. c Powell will be part of the Mercy Ships quest to relieve P the t physical suffering and to restore the dignity of some of the most impoverished people on earth, s ones whose ailments could be easily averted in North o America but in Africa mean social ostracism or death. A Massive goiters, cleft lips and palates, cataracts, bowed M legs and fistulas are some of the common issues seen l by b Africa Mercy medical staff as they move from port to t port in West Africa about every 10 months. “The smile really is a universal language. Countless times, “ a patient would come to the dental chair, frightened by b this medical environment and all of these strangers. Although I could not speak their languages, I could offer A a warm smile and a comforting pat on the shoulder,” says Powell. P “Because I am a return volunteer, I know what I am getting into. I have no fears about my trip – only g excitement to be back at my second home!” e
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HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!! DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUR WEBSITE, PACIFICCHRISTIAN.CA FOR THE 2014-15 CALENDAR!