Dear Concordia Family,
This school year at CLHS has been impacted by our growth in enrollment, and Service Day is no exception. Concordia’s annual Service Day took place on Friday, September 27, and over 650 students - or at least 50 more students than last year - went out into the community to help in a variety of ways: painting, window washing, child care, planting mums, leading preschoolers, cleaning, folding clothes, moving firewood, walking dogs, making blankets, pulling weeds, assisting with inventory, packaging food, landscaping, bow making, filing paperwork, repairing technology, picking up trash, assembling boxes, playground beautification, and a total yard makeover, among other things.
Our students meet weekly in Koinonia* groups. Each of these 52 groups consists of approximately three to four students from each grade level (13-14 on average), along with an adult mentor. Throughout the First Quarter of the school year every group plans the details of their own group’s Service Day experience: choosing where they work, what they do for lunch, and how they spend the remaining time to grow closer together. Our goals for this service learning experience are to 1) serve others in love, 2) deepen relationships with each member of the group, and 3) be ready to share the faith.
*Koinonia, the Greek word for fellowship, is our school’s student-led small group ministry.
Being flexible comes with the territory of service learning. Some groups that were planning for outside work experienced a last-minute change in schedule this year due to the threat of early rain. How did they respond? Morning work and afternoon team-building were swapped in hopes of a dry afternoon. (It never rained until that evening :)
As the coordinator for Service Day, I am proud of all our groups for being flexible with whatever challenges they face. Student reflections indicate that much was learned through whatever adversity was faced, and more intentional planning for next year’s Service Day was repeatedly mentioned by a number of students.
It is difficult to share in a few words what was experienced by all our students, let alone each Koinonia group. However, the words of one work site coordinator sum it up best: “[It turned out to be a] beautiful day. I love working with the students from Concordia. They are always respectful, interested in the task at hand, and hard working. Thank you for keeping this Service Day a day to look forward to”.
Great job, Cadets! You shared Jesus in your actions and it showed! Praise God for working through Concordia Lutheran High School for His glory!
In His service,
Mark Dolde
Koinonia Coordinator