Re-Mission

The SpaceX-NASA launch last week got me a little excited. I imagined being there in Mission Control, seeing all the preparation culminate in that one moment, and feeling the excitement of the crew as they launched.

‘Mission’ and ‘Control’ – these are two words that have very different applications when we consider the various mission trips that BHCS has had to postpone due to COVID19; something beyond our control.

As most of our school community would know, I have spent a good deal of time and energy in organising a Year 9/10 trip to NASA that was scheduled for December this year – possibly the most amazing STEM trip I’ve seen. Our annual Gravit8 mission trip to Fiji is another corona-casualty. New Caledonia, our regular partnership with Hope Village School in Indonesia, a student-lead initiative for robotics in Hope International School Cambodia, involvement with Hohidiai… all of these amazing ‘missional’ trips have been…

·      RE-evaluated and REthought

·      REscheduled, REorganised and REbooked

·      REmunerated (where needed) and even REimagined (where necessary)

Our NASA trip is REscheduled to December next year. Fiji will have a planned REpeat visit of BHCS students in 2021. We REmain playing our part with our sister schools in Cambodia and Indonesia (even though apart)… How blessed are we that all of the parties involved see the word ‘cancelled’ as a last REsort?

Through all these re-evaluations, the greatest reaffirmation that I have had is centred around another ‘RE’ word: the reason why we do these trips.

The trip is not the reason.

The excitement is not the reason.

Even the experience itself is not the reason why we provide these opportunities for our students and staff.

The reason is that we are all connected to something greater – something that gives meaning, purpose and mission to all we do.