"Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving your God. " Rick Warren
A pithy quote to begin my writing on how we work here at Bios towards training our students to be faithful servants of God.
To begin with, service to our Lord encompasses a very, very large, almost an infinite amount of activities. At Bios we want to develop opportunities of habit in service. These opportunities come in many forms.
The high school Mission Club sponsored by Mrs. Greene, plans and executes two to three school wide activities each year to provide for those in need in our area. These activities work towards involving the whole Bios community in working towards a common goal. The first of which began on Tuesday, September 6. Sunshine Acres, an orphanage in Mesa, is in need of liquid hand soap because of state regulations not allowing bar soap in their institution anymore. Look for more information in the Update and through posters on the wall.
Our seniors travel a mile down the road once a month to Sunrise Senior Living to spend time with the adults who live with Alzheimer’s. While there they play songs on the guitar, sing songs, and provide short theater. They will meet with this same group of adults up to eight times over the coming year.
On September 16 and 17, a group of fifteen high school students will be heading to Globe, Arizona to support Arizona Reservation Missions and their work on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. This initial trip will be spent on construction projects they have. A second trip in the fall will also include working with children from the reservation.
The Orange 08 Club was created as an invitation only club for high school students to have a guided or tutorial experience in developing projects which serve their church or community. Students must present their project with parental approval to me. If approved, each student meets with me weekly to discuss goals accomplished and new goals to attain. the projects this semester include helping those who suffered through Hurricane Irene, developing and starting a club for " Geeks " to share common interest, and the writing of a book on nutritional eating to be donated to the school as a reference.
Still in development is the creation of opportunities of service for our primary and elementary students that also allows for parents to participate. Finding practical yet safe ways to serve has been a challenge so far.
I have noticed when I am out at our own church or visiting other places of worship, kids seem to look more for what they are going to get from their Christian experience instead of what opportunities they had to serve. At Bios, developing habits of work and service is an important component of our learning community.
