7th Grade Weekly Update

Christ Our Foundation 

Updates

Through our devotions last week, passages led us predominantly to two questions.    The first came from Exodus 3, when God tells Moses, “14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”  Here was our question:  “When God identifies himself as I AM, what all does that mean?”  They responded with words like these:  love, all-powerful, everything, omniscient, trustworthy, loving, creator, compassionate, and forgiveness -- the noun.   Another devotion focused on the question, “When God looks at us, what does he see?”  We talked about all the characteristics of our I AM God and how those qualities must shape our answers.  Again, they responded with words like these:  loved, accepted, perfect, forgiven, cherished, understood.  

As parents and as their teacher, how I wish they could always keep both in mind in this way:  because of who God is, see themselves the way he does.  If you’ve talked with your kids about the way I teach literature and writing -- and even grammar and vocabulary, I am passionate about them.  I hope what they learn here will give them the skills for the next steps -- and the confidence to use them.  Even more, I long for them -- and all of us -- to allow those devotion moments to guide their lives, to every day understand more deeply who the I AM is, and that because of who he is, to every day know who they are in him. So many voices -- temptations, feelings of inadequacy, regrets, fears of the unknown, wanting to grow up too quickly, trying so hard to be independent -- are vying for their attention, but as one said today, when we walk by faith and not by sight, our way is clear.

I’m sharing our devotion song with you today, one that I had heard for the first time as Mrs. Werner shared it with our Sharing Challenge Bible study group:  “New Name Written Down in Glory”   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwjHLKCiaZM Please listen to it, know who the Author of your story is, and hear Jesus saying to each of us:  I am who I am because the I AM tells me who I am.

Quick reminders:  

• Service Hours are due May 1st
• The Washington D.C. informational and graduation planning meeting is May 8th
• Calendar Fundraiser for our new reading curriculum comes to a close soon!

Shower Your Support For Our New Reading Curriculum!  Have you been able to fill your April Reading Curriculum Calendar with donors?  100% of all funds raised will go toward the new curriculum that will be introduced next school year.  Our first initial quote came in at $110,000.  Please find sponsors that will help us reach a goal of raising enough to cover at least 50% of our new curriculum.  Calendars were shared in the 2nd trimester report card packets.

Circle May 8th on your calendars:  DC & Planning Meeting!  

As the 8th grade is getting ready for their Washington D.C. trip, know this will be you next year!! 🙂  Mrs. Schumann gives you a lot of information -- purpose, stops, cost, and fundraising opportunities.  

Although May 31st is weeks away, that last day of school -- and our 8th grade graduation -- will be here quickly.  Traditionally, hosting the reception and creating the parting gifts has been the 7th grade class gift to the graduating 8th graders.  For the past number of years, the reception and the gifts the class provided were truly appreciated by the graduates and their families, and I know that we also will want to make graduation as special as we can for this year's class.   

Please be looking for information about the many ways we all can help the families of graduates celebrate.  We will need volunteers to help with any number of the following:  providing food, creating a memory page, ordering and assembling a gift, decorating the FLC, volunteering to help with the service and with serving at the reception, and even help with clean-up.  Panther Parents has a budget for this event, and if we all work together, we can organize and be a part of a truly memorable evening for this year’s graduates and their families.  Amazingly, next year, our kids and we families will be on the receiving end. 

Calendar

April

• 30 Calendar Fundraiser Concludes

May

• 8 graduation reception planning and DC trip informational meeting
• 13 - 20  MAP testing
• 24  Half Day -- 11:40 dismissal
• 27 No school in honor of Memorial Day
• 31  Closing service
• 31  7th grade families host the graduation reception for the outgoing 8th graders and their families

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.  We can find a time to meet.  Blessings on your week!

Mrs. Yurk

Christ Our Foundation:  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.  Ephesians 2:19-20

Community Service Hours Form