Friday Focus

Every student, parent, and supporter that participates in the Walk-a-thon will receive a promotional T-shirt for his or her participation.

13th Annual Walk-a-thon

Our 13th annual Walk-a-thon will take place at Lake Merced on Sunday, October 16, 2005. Students, staff, and friends in the community will be joining us that morning to help raise funds for our school.

There will be lots of food and lots of fun as we work together to make a difference in the lives of the kids at our school.

Previous Walk-a-thons have helped to fund a computer lab, provided hands-on materials for art and science, and helped with the construction of our playground.

Two projects will benefit from this year's Walk-a-thon:

• Multipurpose Room--We are transitioning our worship center into a multipurpose room. A portion of the funds raised will be used to replace the wooden pews with stacking, soft-cushioned chairs that will be much more comfortable to sit on! In addition, this will allow us to reconfigure the room for many different uses--chapels and assemblies; PE on rainy days; small groups; room for kids to work on cooperative projects; and lots more.
• Enhance Integration of Technology--A portion of the funds received will be used to upgrade computers in our lab and help acquire a digital video camera and video projector to enhance integration of technology.

A strong support of our Walk-a-thon is essential for maintaining San Francisco Adventist School's tradition of excellence. Our goal this year is $10,000.

I'm confident that as we all work together we can reach our goal and continue to make our school a great place for kids to grow.

Last year's Walk-a-thon...

60-Day Challenge

On Monday, October 3, all students at school will be challenged to commit time every day reading their Bible and journaling every day for the next 60 days.

Every child will be provided a journal, and a new Bible will be given to all new students. Kids will be encouraged to have a daily "Hang Time with God."

Please keep all of our kids in your prayers as they develop the habit of a daily quiet time with God.

Families and friends are welcome to join us in this 60-Day Challenge!

Last year's 60-day Challenge...

Games, Activities Motivate Children to Care for Others

Children are naturally self-centered. It's as if mirrors surround them. They can only see and think of themselves.

To become caring, sensitive people, they must learn to see and think of others' feelings and needs. Help kids see and think of the needs and feeling of others.

To help your child become more aware of things outside himself:

• Play "The Noticing Game." Do this when you're traveling or at an unfamiliar place. Without a warning, ask your child to close and cover his eyes. See how well he can describe the scene. Let him initiate the game with you another time.
• Put yourself in pictures. Find pictures in magazines of diverse situations. Take turns looking at a picture and describing how that person might feel. Start at the physical level. Imagine what people in the picture see and hear. Are they cold or warm? Then imagine how they feel emotionally.
• Look and listen for needs. Have family members notice the people in need they see throughout the day. Talk about how you can help.

If your child sees a friend who is discouraged, he could offer support. If he has a classmate who is insecure, he could give a compliment. If he sees a child who seems lonely, he could take time to talk. He could include that child in activities.

Praise your child for making an effort to help those in need.

Small Groups Begin at SFAS

Next Wednesday, October 5, our junior high students will begin presenting a skit for our weekly chapel and leading small groups on campus following our morning chapel.

Take Two Tablets...and Call Moses! Covers everything kids need to know about Moses. Kids will learn how God took care of Moses as well as his encounter with a burning bush, the plagues of Egypt, the Exodus--and much, much more!

On Wednesday the jr. high team will present "Everybody Loves Moses." Together in small groups we'll learn that we can trust God to take care of us.

Join us Wednesday morning at 8:15 a.m. for a great time of worship!

All Space is "Sacred Space"

For centuries we have lived with the idea that life is divided into spheres of sacred and secular, religious and worldly, holy and profane.

Partitioning things that way in our heads has led to ideas like "my personal spiritual life" and "my public business life." Thus we have debated whether politicians or athletes should ever have their fitness measured by some moral shortcoming or terrible relationship failure in their "private" lives. The consensus seems to be that there is no necessary connection between the two.

We talk about the "sacred space" we experience in a cathedral or church sanctuary, at a retreat center or particularly breathtaking spot in nature. The store or office or den is, one must presume, "secular space" for us.

So we have created a religious environment in much of Christiandom that allows people to participate in church as pious, reverent members on the weekend– while being racist, lecherous, greedy, and materialistic the other six and a half days of the week! Church is sacred. The other settings are secular. Where did we get such absurd notions of the nature of reality?

Life is continuous from church pew to classroom to golf course. There is a single narrative from Bible class to workplace to football stadium. Each of us is weaving a holistic tapestry with innermost thought to words from the tongue to behavior in unguarded moments. How naive to argue otherwise.

The late Abraham Heschel used to raise this question: Is it an artist's inner vision or her grappling with stone that creates a brilliant piece of sculpture? The point of his question was to say that upright living is like a work of art. It is the outcome of both an inner vision and a struggle with very concrete situations.

"No religious act is properly fulfilled unless it is done with a willing heart and a craving soul," Heschel said. "You cannot worship God with your body if you do not know how to worship him with your soul." And vice versa, one might add.

A spiritual exercise such as prayer or Bible reading or fasting is not meant to be seen as an end in itself. We obey God not for the sake of achieving or earning but to keep our hearts open to him and responsive to his voice.

All space--cathedral, sickroom, factory, mountain lake, office cubicle, car, sidewalk, jail cell--is sacred to God. Meant to be a place from which he may be sought and found. Dedicated to his glory by the use we make of it.

If God is with us and in us, how could any space be other than sacred?

--Rubel Shelly