Our latest blog comes from one of our Ignite Partners, Carrie Warner, of Alliance Christian School District — Berks Christian School/West-Mont Christian Academy in Pennsylvania. This is the first in a series of guest authors we’ll be featuring in our blog.

Have you ever thought about how much of life is like gardening? I would venture to say you can take just about any principle from gardening and learn something about life from it. The great thing is you don’t have to be an expert gardener to make these connections. Often it’s just a matter of observing and being willing to learn.

Take the concept of “winterizing,” for example. Depending on where you are in the world, you may or may not have any experience either seeing or doing this task. But where I live, as autumn creeps toward winter, there comes a time when yards and gardens benefit from being “winterized.”

Someone can correct me if I’m misinformed, but from what I can tell winterizing mostly involves clearing out the dead stuff. It’s not exactly like pruning. Pruning is when you cut something back that is fully alive (but maybe overgrown) to foster new growth, and you often expect to see the new growth starting fairly soon. With winterizing, it’s more like you pull out or tear down whatever remaining dead pieces of plants are sticking out, so that an area is stripped down to almost nothing, only for it to lay in a seemingly dormant state for the next several months.

Above: Carrie’s front porch, from the fall foliage version to the winterized version.

Honestly, it can feel a little depressing.

That is, it would be totally depressing if winterizing was the end. Except that it’s not. All of us who have lived through or know about seasons at all know that winter doesn’t last forever. Yes, winter can feel long. And hard. And barren. It can feel empty and cold. It can leave us wondering why so much had to be stripped away.

Whether we see it in the dead tree branches or the empty gardens, or we feel it in our home that feels too quiet now that a child has moved out or a loved one has gone, winterizing can feel hard. Sometimes winterizing is something we do, other times maybe it feels like we are the ones who are being winterized.

In these seasons, doesn’t our human nature want to get to spring as quickly as possible? We feel like we would do just about anything to skip past winterizing and see something (anything!) that would bring us evidence of new life.

But what if there is something to be learned from this act of winterizing? What if it’s something we can’t learn apart from being in the middle of it? What if it’s making space for incredibly beautiful things to be cultivated and eventually, slowly, after winter finally ends, peek through the dirt and bloom?

Teaching students can be a bumpy process. It doesn’t always feel like spring, and sometimes we wonder if maybe we’re stuck in an eternal winter, not unlike Narnia under the reign of the White Witch. Why can’t I connect with this student? What is it going to take for those students to wake up to their potential? How long must I keep trying to teach this same concept to that student?

 Sometimes the temptation is to try to force spring to come more quickly. In our weariness, we look for an escapefrom winter. We resist the cold feeling that comes when we realize winter is around the corner. But maybe there is more going on than we realize. Maybe the gardener hasn’t actually abandoned us, he just wants to help usnavigate the season we’re in. He wants us to winterize, or maybe he wants to winterize us.

In a mysterious way, it seems that as teachers we are a mix of gardens and gardeners. Ultimately God Himself is the great Gardener, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Yet He invites us to work with Him, to be a part of this gardening process alongside Him.

Paul describes one way this concept can play out when he says:

“My work was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos’ work was to water it, but it was God, not we, who made the garden grow in your hearts. The person who does the planting or watering isn’t very important, but God is important because he is the one who makes things grow. Apollos and I are working as a team, with the same aim, though each of us will be rewarded for his own hard work. We are only God’s coworkers. You are God’s garden, not ours; you are God’s building, not ours.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-8)

Did you catch that? That part where it says, “We are God’s coworkers”? What a beautiful, hope-filled way oflooking at our work as teachers! It’s like we are working in this garden of our students’ lives, with the assurance that it all belongs to Him and He is the most amazing gardener we could ever imagine. But He invites us to garden with him.

The tricky thing is, not all of us are in the same season at the same time. One teacher or classroom might be experiencing the peak of springtime, while another is facing the difficult process of winterizing. But no matter what season you find yourself in, don’t give up. Keep gardening, whether thatmeans planting or watering or winterizing or whatever else God might have for you to do. Look to Him in prayer. And don’t forget to observe and be ready to learn.

Pray with me…

(an excerpt of “A Liturgy for Gardening”, from “Every Moment Holy” by Douglas McKelvey)

O Creator who calls forth life,
May this ground, and our labors
here invested, yield good provision for
the nourishing of both body and soul.

Lord, let our labors in this garden be fruitful.
Lord, let our labors inthis garden be blessed.

As we cultivate gentle order,
Training,
Pruning,
Weeding,
and protecting,
so cultivate and train our wayward hearts,
O Lord, that rooted in You the forms of
our lives might spread in winsome witness,
maturing to bear the goodfruit of grace, expressed
in acts of compassionate love.

Walk with us now, O Lord,
in the stillness of this tilled and quiet space,
that when we venture again into the still
greater garden of Your world, we might be
prepared by the long practice of Your presence,
to offer our lives as a true and nourishing
provision to all who hunger for
Mercy
and hope
and meaning,
a true and nourishing provision to all who hunger for You.

Lord, let our labors in this garden be fruitful.
Lord, let our labors inthis garden be blessed.

You can find more of Carrie’s writing on her blog, Prayer Matters, at https://www.alliancechristian.org/blog

One lesson I never anticipated receiving was delivered by a teenage girl at a school in rural Zambia. I had just arrived in Mbeza, Zambia along with a group of other visitors from the U.S. The teenage girl’s name was Pamela, and her lesson came in the form of a speech. The 14-year-old addressed us with the cadence and expert precision of a skilled political leader, along with the passion of a pastor preaching about salvation.  

“As Young Journalists, we are becoming a voice to the voiceless,” Pamela stated confidently.  She was describing how she and other classmates at her school in Mbeza were advocating for their rights and the rights of other young people.  

At stake for Pamela and other young girls in her community, where most live below the national poverty line: the risk of early marriage. Many parents view marrying their daughter off to an older man as a viable way to temporarily ease a financial burden through the dowry they’ll receive. Yet sadly, early marriage almost always marks the end of a girl’s chance to receive an education and the end of her freedom to dream. Many children also face other types of abuse, Pamela added, as many children suffer through beatings and other harmful cultural norms.  

With the help of World Vision advocacy trainings, Pamela has taken these obstacles and confronted them head-on. She learned about her rights and how to advocate for herself and others to school officials, political leaders, and the police, raising awareness of issues that young people face. At the same time, Pamela’s school also benefited from educational resources, clean water systems, the addition of bathrooms, and other hygiene improvements, also from World Vision.  

This particular trip to Zambia was a World Vision Ignite Vision Trip. My friend and co-worker Andre and I were there to host a visit with leaders from a partner school North Tampa Christian Academy in Florida.  

On trips like this, most U.S. visitors can go into the experience thinking they will be the ones imparting encouragement and wisdom to the people they meet. But Pamela and other young speakers from her community surprised both World Vision staff and visitors from North Tampa by enlightening us instead.  

As North Tampa Head of School Stephen Herr listened to Pamela and her friends give their presentation, he was impressed by their confidence and knowledge. The experience inspired and motivated him to begin teaching advocacy to students at his own school.  

“We have a need for a group just like this on our campus,” Herr shared with the group. “I believe we have kids who would do it. It would be a great experience for them, and it would create real change.” 

After Pamela and her classmates spoke, they asked Herr for feedback on how to improve their presentation. Herr responded with encouragement, telling them to keep up their efforts and continue what they are doing. 

“I hope and pray that we have students like that everywhere and in every school, fighting for the needs of those around them, because I think they are going to make a big difference. They are going to be world changers,” he said; “very impressive.” 

Not only does Pamela advocate, but she also holds politicians accountable for the promises they make. To her, advocacy has become a way of life. The passionate teenager plans to continue advocating as a student. She also holds big dreams for the future: someday she hopes to become the first female president of Zambia.  

“Just imagine, only men as president!” Pamela said with a smile. “So I myself have made a decision about how to campaign.”

– Derek Sciba, World Vision Ignite 

Meaningful educational experiences matter

Students today crave purpose. With the freedom, time, and support they need to pour their hearts and minds into a project that matters, it’s amazing what can transpire. Through service-learning, we enable students to put their faith in action to create positive, lasting change. But with so many responsibilities pulling Christian educators in different directions, how do we provide these opportunities? How do we incorporate more meaningful educational experiences to help shape the character of our students? The Ignite Challenge can help.

A partnership like no other

The Ignite Challenge engages students in researching — and solving — an issue of poverty or injustice in their own community. This experience is just one component of World Vision Ignite, a partnership created for schools that helps shape students into global leaders with a biblical worldview through cross-cultural relationships, challenging academics, and meaningful experiences.  Benefiting from World Vision’s 71 years of experience, Ignite partners with schools around the U.S. to empower young people to create lasting change, wherever they are.

“Feed my sheep”

We all know that God calls his followers to love one another in big ways, and to help those in need. In the Gospels, we see time and again the way Jesus cared for people that had been ignored or blatantly cast out. He saw the unseen. He valued the forgotten. And he gave love to the unloved, from the sick woman who touched Jesus’ garment, to the paralyzed man at the pool. He commanded his followers to do likewise, saying “Feed my sheep” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 25 tells us that anytime we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, visit the sick or imprisoned, we’re doing these things for Jesus.

As Christians, we gain a sense of connectedness by serving as the hands and feet of Jesus. We feel a fulfilling of our purpose. This is true of all of us, no matter what age we are. As mentors and leaders in Christian education, we help young people come to understand the Bible. But we also need to give them opportunities to follow Jesus’ example and his commands, right where they are.

Empowering the next generation to serve — here and now

World Vision Ignite comes alongside schools to help them transform students’ hearts and shape their spiritual character for life. Research has shown that this next generation has the desire to serve and the potential to make a lasting impact in the world. We need to provide them with service-learning opportunities that enable them to put their faith in action. They have fresh perspectives, creativity, and an eagerness we can sometimes lose as we get older. They shouldn’t have to wait to use them. Young Christians deserve the chance to live out God’s calling in their own communities. We need to provide them with service-learning experiences that help them use their gifts to create solutions. If we don’t, we miss out on what they can bring to the table. And we miss out on the opportunity to help them see God at work, through them, and the incredible effect this can have on their lifelong faith.

That’s what the World Vision Ignite Challenge is all about. It empowers students to put their faith into action as they discover an underlying cause behind a real-world problem — and it enables them to tackle it by putting their proposed solutions into action, here and now.

The Ignite Challenge helps schools implement meaningful service-learning

Led by students and facilitated by teachers, the Ignite Challenge asks students to take a deep dive into a subject related to poverty or injustice in their own community. Throughout the process, the Ignite partnership team provides ample support and resources. Along with conducting research, students learn from subject experts and engage with people who are affected personally by the issue. In doing so, they begin to see the poor and vulnerable the way Jesus sees them. As they collaborate, students get to apply their own perspective, creativity, and insight. Together they address deep questions and explore different pathways for solving problems. Most importantly, they learn what it means to “love their neighbors,” as they find ways to help meet long-term needs.

Meaningful educational experiences like the Ignite Challenge can be transformative. By participating, students gain create real relational connections with people they might not know otherwise. They grow to be curious, empathetic partners in solving issues of injustice and poverty in the future. And they experience the blessing of putting their faith into action by following Jesus’ call.

Bring Ignite to your school and see what transpires

Watch what unfolds when you challenge students to explore their potential and live out their purpose intentionally. With the Ignite Challenge, your students will put their faith in action as they seek God’s direction to set and achieve big goals — engaging in service-learning and creating the kind of lasting change that’s only possible with God.

“It was life-changing.” In the weeks after students return from a mission trip, how often do you hear that phrase?

Their response usually comes from a good place. After returning from a powerful experience in the developing world, it can feel like your life has changed. You’ve experienced God. You’ve seen poverty in a new way: one that breaks your heart and lights a fire in you to do something.

Mission trips are incredibly popular. They create lifelong memories. But at the end of the day, are short-term mission trips really the best way to convict, disciple, and create lasting change in our students?

Unfortunately, … no. In fact, if we’re not careful, mission trips can actually do a lot more harm than good. As World Vision Ignite’s white paper on Christian missions explores, no matter how positive our intentions might be, good intentions alone are not enough. We must invest in comprehensive training, deep cultural understanding, and embrace a constant posture of humility and teachability.

Key questions to consider include:

• Are we making a temporary fix or addressing the root cause of poverty?
• Can the local community be empowered to do this work themselves?
• Will our solutions still be helpful in a few years, or will the cost and logistics of maintenance be unsustainable?

Cory Trenda, author of After the Trip: Unpacking Your Crosscultural Experience and World Vision senior philanthropy director, writes, “In recent years there has been much consternation among mission and educational leaders concerning the actual value of mission and volunteer trips. You may be surprised—and disturbed—to learn that studies have almost universally found no measurable long-term effect of these encounters on the lives of trip participants!”

On top of this, mission trips aren’t accessible to many students, including those with disabilities or families who don’t have the ability to fund a costly international trip. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the challenges of global travel into an even sharper focus.

We need to rethink our approach to global engagement. While students may be inspired by single missions experiences, they will have deeper and lasting change in their lives when they enter a new way of living and learning long-term.

World Vision Ignite’s partnership with Christian schools gives every student in your school the opportunity to be “on mission” as they gain powerful cross-cultural understanding right here at home. Ignite’s focus is on developing real relationships, one on one, with children around the world. This way, poverty isn’t just an issue for us to solve, but a reality affecting friends they care about. It’s a challenge we’ll work to solve together, utilizing each of our unique social locations, strengths, and insights.

In MindShift: Catalyzing Change in Christian Education, Dr. Michael Chen, Jenny Brady, and Joel Gaines explain some of the underlying issues with many mission trips in their chapter “From White to Mosaic.” In a world full of the complexities of brokenness—political, racial, economic, and more—we are often quick to offer help even when we may not understand.

The authors write, “We must provide opportunities for our students to learn from those who are different from them and learn with those who are different from them. We must communicate that bridging the divide between people for the love of knowing is fundamental to our faith journey. Our students will lose out on this important dimension of their discipleship life if they don’t engage thoughtfully, intentionally, and redemptively with other students of different racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.”

Ignite’s K-12 curriculum, real-world experiences, and cross-cultural relationships provide a way for schools to do just that. It helps students develop knowledge, empathy, and friendship with kids a world away and value engagement with others in their local community.

World Vision Ignite National Director MaryAnn Osborn says,” It’s important for students to understand how they were created in God’s image, and how their brother or sister in a country thousands of miles away was created in God’s image. and to learn from each other, to perhaps have some of their perceptions challenged … We are called into every area of our world to live out our faith as Christians.”

Download Ignite’s new white paper on Christian mission to discover how World Vision’s unique K-12 Christian curriculum, combined with experiences and relationships, can ignite the hearts and minds of your students. https://www.worldvision.org/MissionsWP

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