the very best way

This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. (John 15:13 MSG)

At Journey Academy, we are committed to learning more about the very best way to love.  In this first week and a half, our first step of learning has been our tribe-building quest in the Early Learning Studio as well as the Elementary Studio.  During this quest, we call on our heroes to develop their 21st Century skills of creativity, communication, critical thinking and curiosity as they respond to challenges set by their guides.  

Alongside this tribe-building, we are linking our efforts with spiritual formation.  We believe that each hero is on a spiritual journey as well.  And we are looking to guide alongside as well as offer models of spiritual practices employed by heroes of the faith, as well as our ultimate hero Jesus who rescues us all.  We like John Mark Comer’s term for this, “Practicing the Way of Jesus.”  On Mondays, we meditate on Scripture connected to the quest (see John 15:13 above) and we journal in our hero’s notebooks, responding in pictures and in words. On Tuesdays, we share from our hero’s notebooks and we pray for each other.  On Wednesdays, we practice silence and solitude, using breath prayers and ending with worship.  On Thursdays, we worship, then prayer walk in our back field.  And on Fridays we practice honoring others with our words in the honor circle.  Calling this start to the day, Kingdom Time, we look to equip heroes for their journeys.

Another exciting development this year is our Maker Play in the space out back.   With our attempt to “think outside” coined by our Houston colleagues in the Acton Network, we are providing heroes with lots of opportunities to create, collaborate, communicate and problem solve outside.  Inspired by the Chinese educational approach “Anji Play”, Maker Play invites heroes to plan, to implement and to reflect on using materials in the Maker Play space.  Lola, pictured above, is persevering in the midst of a stiff northwest wind as she figures out how to execute her plan for building.  In the spirit of true innovation, we have asked the heroes to help us shape and improve the space.  Carter from the Early Learning Studio and Ms. Sarah, our ELS lead guide, will be helping to streamline the organizational layout for the space.  We have also shared a request for proposals concerning the space, offering a fifty dollar grant in response to proposals made.  The Elementary Studio has already identified a need and composed their one page proposal.  We’ll see what the review committee says about their proposal.  

In short, It is so good to be back. I look forward to testifying much more about what God is doing at Journey Academy.  

//Dr. T//