God-Given Gifts

Today, as a school we enjoyed our first whole school event for the year, our whole school Athletics Carnival. 2022 has continued to provide us with plenty of curve balls and challenges.

It is, however, pleasing to see the resilience and perseverance that has been shown by our staff and students in these testing times. Today was a great opportunity to celebrate just being together.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. — James 1:17

Whilst we are all created in the one image, we are not all the same. We all have different talents and God-given gifts, but they are all important and can be used for God’s kingdom.

I would like you to take a short minute and reflect upon something that you are good at. I wonder if you have a passion for cooking, or dancing, or are you a gifted public speaker? Do you enjoy riding motor bikes or constructing things? All of us have a talent or God-given gift that we are skilled in. Some people are excellent at sports, like football and basketball. For a small few, these God-given gifts can become more than just a hobby and eventuate into a career. These gifts can be used for the glory of God. Using your gifts for God can enable you to be part of the kingdom of God, helping others and ultimately advancing the world around you.

As your children get home today, I don’t think that the most important question for you to ask them is, “did you win?” I think the most important questions that we can be asking them are, “did you have a go and did you do your best?”. Not every child is going to have a gifting on the athletics field or on the running track and that is ok.

Something we encourage at Emmanuel is having a Growth Mindset, that is, believing that our most basic abilities can be improved through hard work and dedication. I am reminded of an occasion a few year ago, when I was teaching Physical Education myself. As a class, we were practising for the cross country. I had challenged the students that each week we would record their times with the idea that each week we would try and improve on our last week’s time. In the first run, a particular student completed the course in 38 minutes. In comparison, another student completed the course in 13 minutes. What I found interesting was the follow up conversations I was able to have with these two students. For the student with the longer time, their challenge was to cut a minute or so off the following week, the other student, the conversation with them was about whether or not they could maintain such a good time?

Fast forward four weeks. The student who was the faster runner, managed to maintain time solid times and almost cracked 12 minutes in the final run. However, what was also pleasing was that in their final run, the other student who had started off with a time of 38 minutes had broken 30 minutes in their final attempt! They were so happy, still a long way back from the student who finished in under 13 minutes, but it was fantastic to see that they had set a goal and with the mindset of them being able to improve, they did.

Each day we need to look for opportunities to serve God by using the gifts we have been given. Sometimes we may not even see how our talents are making a difference. It is important to allow yourself to be used by God because you just don’t know how you affect others.

Drew Roberts — Acting Principal

Floods and Perspective

I recently took a weeks long-service leave and flew up to sunny Byron Bay to celebrate a dear friends’ 50th birthday.

I arrived and went and lay myself down next to the adults only pool of the five-star resort in a sun striped little ‘cabana’ with a towel, my bathers and a book. The sun hit my skin and I sighed a little sigh only Tasmanian’s understand and imagined my relaxing, warm, slow, spoilt week ahead.

Then the rain started.

I have never been through a flood before. It rained on and off for every one of my five days there. The first three days were the worst. Tuesday night was a night of torrential rain, thunder and lightning with very little sleep to be had. We were all asked to stay in our villas the next morning as we awoke to knee deep flooding. The roads in and out of Byron Bay were closed, as were the highways. Byron experienced its worst flooding in years with roads covered, shops inundated and restaurants closed. The staff at the resort were unable to get home, new staff unable to arrive. The pools were closed due to the floodwaters contaminating them. The ‘stream’ on the beach that could ‘easily’ be crossed to walk to Byron became a raging, dangerous torrent.

I can easily look at this holiday from two opposing, but still totally true, perspectives.

Perspective 1: My holiday was spoilt! I couldn’t even swim. I was land-locked. It wasn’t fair. What a waste of hard-earned long-service leave and money. I went through a natural disaster when I was supposed to be relaxing and holidaying. How could God allow this to happen?

Perspective 2: My holiday was totally different to what I expected! I will never forget it. I got to go through it with a wonderful group of friends. We’ll be talking and laughing about it for years! The staff were magnificent considering what they were living through, a natural disaster in their own backyard. I was safe and well-fed and there were free movies and an excellent library. Once the waters retreated, I got to go on a walk to the Lighthouse and had a delicious lunch on the beach. How blessed am I to have a God who takes care of me in every situation.

I am choosing perspective 2. Would I have still liked sunshine and relaxing days? Definitely. But in this life, we don’t always get what we expect. The ‘trick’ I believe is to challenge our small perspective, pull back before we react too strongly and look at the bigger picture.

Our lives are full of situations, decisions, and life events that we don’t expect. They can come in our family life, school changes, children’s behaviours and numerous other difficulties we encounter. Can I encourage us all, myself included, to take a breath or two and explore a different perspective. Can I also challenge us all to trust in a God who is there in the storm, gently encouraging us to lean back into his trust-worthy arms.

Annie Joy — Acting Deputy Principal

Taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture

How often do we find ourselves becoming wrapped up in the miniscule happenings of the days and weeks? The tiny things that often become mountainous, which, in the bigger picture, are not that huge.

There is a story about the blind men and the elephant, which describes how the men, who had never come across an elephant before, experienced the elephant through touching a different part of it and then telling the others what it was. Each of the men were only able to describe one small part, meaning that they were not able to experience or describe the whole elephant.

This story is a great illustration of where we often miss taking that step back and seeing the bigger picture. Personally, I need to always remind myself to step back and look at the bigger picture. People become so focussed on the general day-to-day things and these can become overwhelming for a number of reasons, which could include lack of sleep, a busy family schedule, work responsibilities, the curve-balls that are thrown in with a pandemic and the repercussions that this has. As adults we find this time quite challenging, wearing on our patience and stressful for ourselves. We often focus on the here and now and the smaller issue at hand, rather than the part this issue plays in the whole picture.

We often find ourselves fretting about the little things. But take heart, God has said in Matthew 11

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

We need refocus and remember to step back and look at the bigger picture. Thinking about how wearing we have found the last couple of years with all the changes, we need to remember how these have impacted our children who are not yet able to rationalise all the new requirements and directions that seem to change so frequently. I know that I battle to keep up sometimes. We need to show our children how to step back and see that bigger picture because focusing on the small can sometimes make you miss the bigger blessing that God has for you.

Janice Pieterse — Secondary Teacher

Change in Challenging Times

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. — ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:7-8

A definition of 'change' is 'make (someone or something) different; alter or modify.' Change is seldom something we like or look forward to. As I see it, in a time of change, the fear of future unknowns and missing what we had before the change can cause us to experience stress and anxiety.

Emmanuel Christian School - our student, staff and parents community - has excelled with change around COVID-19. When this virus started to impact us in 2020, we rallied to help our students through a tough time. The distance learning period and the blended learning on either side of it pushed everyone to their limits, but we got through it together and with God's blessing.

There was apprehension about coming back to school this year after two months with the borders open. Again, we have made the start of 2022 work well. We are seeing COVID-19 positive cases and quite a few close contacts. The support for the school by families has been great. Students are supported as best as possible at home.

Emmanuel and Christian Schools Tasmania leadership has spent a lot of time working together to ensure school life can continue as smoothly as possible.

The same care and attention will be given to the change of Principal. I have been blessed to be Principal since May 2014. Our CEO, Mr Gillman, has been working with Mr Roberts and I on a plan to ensure continuity of care in the school's running once I finish. More details will come out shortly.

Needless to say, once the interim school leadership structure has been announced, any concerns of change will be further positively supported and mitigated.

Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying, 'The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.' The Emmanuel community can be credited with high collective intelligence and adaptability. The question is never about if there is going to be change. The real questions are: 'When will the next change be required of us?" and 'How we will work together to deal with it?'

Our Lord Jesus, as we are told in Hebrews 13:8, is the same yesterday and today and forever. In the midst of change, we have the security of an unchanging saviour who watches over us all the time.

Scott Winkler — Principal

Change and Boats

I have a problem with boats. They create an unsettled reaction within me, especially in big swell.

I look at the history of my life to understand my reaction. When I was 8 years old my family left England, on a large boat, the ‘Achille Lauro,’ bound for Australia. This was a huge change in my life. I remember ports we stopped at, flying fish on the prow, Italian staff serving dinner, crossing the equator on a sunny day, seeing nothing in any direction but water and lots of revolting, pink sea sickness medicine. The change to my life, leaving a large extended family, was the greatest pain. One I can still feel today. Disconnection with known and understood support and love.

My father was in love with the sea. He loved sailing and on arrival in Hobart eagerly bought a 30 foot sailing boat, ‘Tula.’ I have a lot of childhood memories of sailing. I used to get frightened when the boat keeled over. My Dad thought this was quite hilarious and would make the boat lean even further to prove to me that the boat wouldn’t sink and I wouldn’t drown. It had the opposite effect and I learnt a deep-seated fear of boats.

When I was in my 30’s, my former husband bought a boat and talked me into taking up sailing. That was around the same time that a new ferry got caught on Black Jack Rocks just near Wedge Beach. I was fine when we left Cremorne, but once we got into the swell my tummy started rolling. It was suggested that I take the tiller and keep my eyes on the horizon, but sadly, I was already too far gone and I fed the fish my lunch.

I have choices in my life around boats. I can choose to never go on boats again. I can fly over water, or swim, I’m actually not a bad swimmer. But, the harder choice is to look at my past and see the triggers that have caused my reactions and maybe look at creating new positive memories around boats. This is what I’ve been attempting to do.

Two years ago, I was invited to go on a large motor boat for the Australia Day long weekend. I was nervous. I slept on the boat successfully for two nights. I shared with a friend that I was fearful when we headed offshore and even had a little cry on her shoulder before we went. A trouble shared is always helpful. It was a little rough and my tummy gurgled, but over all I had a wonderful weekend with friends. Over the summer, I went to Maria Island on the ferry. I was, without doubt, nervous. I told my friend I was and then was filled with amazement at the beauty of the sun on the water, 3 dolphins who made the journey alongside and, when we arrived, the beauty of Maria itself. I will never be a completely comfortable sailor, but I’m working on it and rewiring my brain.

These last few weeks at school have felt like an uncomfortable sea journey. The waves are big, I can feel all at sea and my past history of change can cause me to want to not embark on the future. What can I do? Recognise that my immediate reaction may be one of fear and doubt. I can look at history and see that God has this school in His hands and He has plans for its future, bigger than mine or anyone else’s. I am totally allowed to grieve and cry on shoulders if I need to. I need to recognise that there are many passengers on this ship with me and we can all help each other with the next stage of our journey. I will endeavour to keep learning and challenging my brain as I learn new and better ways to teach and lead.

I would like to leave you with a story wiser than anything I can write from Mark 4.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Annie Joy - Primary Co-ordinator