Friday Focus

This month our school is taking part in Operation Christmas Child.

Operation Christmas Child Begins

Last year over 5 million hurting children experienced the joy of Christmas as gift-filled shoe boxes were distributed in 94 countries affected by war, poverty, disease, and disaster. This was made possible by thousands of individuals, churches, and groups that prepared, collected, and processed shoe boxes.

This year our school will once again be a part of this worldwide project. Our community will collect over 200 shoe boxes.

This is how you can help:

First, pray. Pray for our children and their families as they work together to fill shoe boxes. Also pray for the children who will receive these shoe boxes. Prayer is the most valuable support you can give.

Second, we need your participation. By filling a shoe box with small gifts for delivery overseas, you will be making a difference in the life of a hurting child. Getting your church, business, or group involved is a great way to share god’s love with even more children.

I appreciate your partnership and look forward to working with you this year to share the true message of Christmas with children around the world. The shoe boxes need to be returned to school by Friday, November 17, 2006. We will take them to a nearby collection center.

These boxes will reach children and families around the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Countless lives will be changed as a result of our generosity.

May God bless you!

More About Operation Christmas Child...

50's Day

Tuesday we'll have a school-wide celebration for the 50th day of school.

Break out your poodle skirts, bobby socks, chiffon scarves, roll up your blue jeans, and slick back your hair or tease it up!

During P.E. we'll play with hula hoops, frisbees, and play hopscotch. We'll even have quite a few surprises that day!

At the end of the day, the kids will also get to listen to some great 50's tunes.

Come and join us!

Music from the 50's...

Crying Can Be a Way of Relieving Stress

Parents often see crying as a behavioral “problem”—like biting and hitting. But child development experts suggest otherwise.

Children often cry to relieve stress. Their tears help them heal their personal frustrations, discomfort, emotional hurts, and disappointments. Although crying doesn’t make a frustrating situation go away or remove the hurt from an unpleasant experience, it does help make children feel better.

When your child cries:

• Don’t say, “Don’t cry.” Remember, crying is a natural, acceptable, and healthy way to express feelings.
• Don’t threaten or punish. “If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about!”
• Don’t bribe. “Stop crying and I’ll give you a cookie.”
• Don’t tease. “You’re being a sissy.”

Instead, you should:

• Acknowledge your child’s feelings. “You’re feeling angry right now, aren’t you?”
• Use nonverbal expression to let your child know he’s loved and accepted. Look. Listen. Smile kindly.
• Get closer, but not if this makes your child repress his crying.
• Hold your child. Let him hang on and sob.

Sometimes a child’s only way to communicate how he feels is nonverbally.

Trunk 'n' Treat

On Tuesday evening, October 31, families are invited to Trunk N Treat.

This is a safe alternative event for kids and adults alike.

We'll have face painting, pumpkin carving, games, lots of food, and sweets, of course.

At the end of the evening kids will go from trunk to treat of everyone's car to get "goodies."

Join the fun by decorating your trunk, stock up on some "goodies" to give away and join us from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the rear parking lot of 363 El Camino Real, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

Straight Lines with Crooked Sticks

There is a medieval saying you may have heard: “God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.”

Have you noticed how candid the Bible is about its heroes? It doesn’t whitewash the flaws and foibles of its characters. Abraham is not only the Father of All Who Believe but the scared rabbit who puts his wife in jeopardy to save his neck. King David is not only the Man After God’s Heart but the adulterer who lies and kills a man to try to keep the affair from being exposed. Peter is not only First Among Equals in the band of apostles but the frightened fisherman who denies knowing Jesus of Nazareth in his hour of need – not once, but three times.

So how can these people be “saints” and “examples” to the rest of us? How are we supposed to find hope and encouragement from reading their stories? That question isn’t too hard to answer.

For one thing, those stories in the Bible are about real people. And real people have weaknesses as well as strengths, bad days as well as good ones. For another, God knows everything and lies about nothing. So the Bible doesn’t tell half-truths or gloss over human frailty. Finally, the full story gets told so you and I will understand that God is willing and eager to accept and include us too.

The purposes of God in this world are seen through by people who have clay in their feet. Always have been. Always will be.

But I have met so many people who are under the impression they are hopeless or “too far gone.” One woman told me there was no place in God’s heart for somebody who had made as big a mess of her life as she had. A man just out of jail said he could never feel comfortable among “decent folk.” What?

Joseph had a prison record. Sarah laughed at God’s promises. Jacob hurt his family by playing favorites with his kids. Naomi and Ruth were widows. Job lost everything he had ever worked for. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Rahab had been a prostitute. Noah got drunk. Moses stuttered.

Are you getting the picture now? Is it dawning on you that God doesn’t have to recruit perfect people (there aren’t any!) and will use just about anybody who is willing to trust him? That means he can use you. You. And you. Even me.

God does some of his best work through the most unlikely people. He draws some beautifully straight lines with some of the most crooked of sticks.

--Rubel Shelly