Principal's Message
Dear Friends,
Greetings to you all!
Currently we have three types of schooling happening: face-to-face learning in classrooms; remote learning from home; on-line learning being supervised at school (children of essential workers who can’t supervise at home). Again, I want to thank all our community for working together in this difficult time.
It will be so wonderful to get back together next week, with face-to-face learning from Prep to Year 12. It will be so exciting to be together again!
It is interesting observing how people react, how their personality and characteristics have been amplified during the ‘lockdown’ period. Those who are generous, being extra generous; those who are impatient, being more impatient; those who care for others, going out of their way to care for those they don’t even know.
It’s also been a time that has highlighted what is really important in life.
Our theme for 2020, TREASURE THAT LASTS is especially pertinent to us all in this COVID-19 period of time.
What is important to you? What is your purpose in life?
Graham Kendrick a Christian songwriter, composed a song in 1993 called Knowing You. It captures how we spend our time building our lives and careers, trying to fulfil our hopes, dreams and desires. It begins:
[Verse 1]
All I once held dear, built my life upon
All this world reveres and wants to own
All I once thought gain, I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now, compared to this
[Chorus 1]
Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, You're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love You, Lord
The priceless value of knowing Christ is what is important in life and we want all our students to embrace all that Christ has for each of us.
Craig Hughes is the husband of Yvonne Hughes and father to Emilie and Evan in Senior School. Craig has been stood down in his job as a Qantas pilot, yet it is so encouraging to hear his testimony of how he has become more dependent on God; God’s faithfulness to him and his family during this time.
Craig states that this time of COVID-19 has helped him ‘reset’ and refocus on what is important from an eternal perspective. “You can get caught up so easily looking at day-to-day stuff and things that, while they are important to a certain degree, they don’t have any eternal value or are life changing. What actually is important and firstly for me is my relationship with the Lord.”
Craig could have wasted his time in this lockdown period with no paid work. Instead, he has chosen to look for the positives in this season: to spend more time with God and in His Word; be there for his family, to help them and support them in a deeper way and volunteer at a food distribution centre for people in need. Even though he loves his job as a pilot and his career has been important, it has been a time to focus on what is most important, his relationships with his family and with God.
Craig mentioned that as he has developed in his relationship with God he has started to see things more from God’s perspective and how that changes your outlook in life. “The more I understand that God’s ordering my every step, then the less worried about the situation and circumstances I’ve become. So having that perspective from Him and a better relationship with Him has certainly helped in this season.”
“Our kids see how we react, our walk in this season in how we trust God and how we respond in difficult times.” Craig continued to share, “Sowing into family reaps eternal rewards as the kids see how we walk through this season and hopefully it has strengthened their faith as well, which in the long run is great for their eternity as well. They see that God is faithful; that we are trusting Him and watching Him provide for us in this situation we thought would never happen.”
May we all yearn to know the priceless value of knowing Christ –
the TREASURE THAT LASTS!
From one of our students:
My treasure is my relationship with God. He guides me, He comforts me, He loves me, He blesses me, He forgives me. He trusts me and most of all He died for me. I don’t think I have a friend that would die for me. That is why my relationship with God is my treasure!
Gabriel Armanyous 6N
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
- Philippians 3:7-11 (NLT)
Every blessing,
Catriona Wansbrough