healed
By His wounds, we are healed. (Isaiah 53) // Live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)
This current moment is asking a lot of each of us. And it has been crucial to remember the Scripture above that we wrote about in our heroes’ notebooks the past two weeks at Journey Academy. We have been holding on to the assurance of Christ’s forgiveness as well as the exhortation to live at peace with everyone. And I am so grateful for the chance to walk through this moment with the heroes, guides and parents of Journey Academy.
As timing would have it, we are in the final week of a Quest focusing on racial reconciliation. For our exhibition on Thursday, heroes are creating quilt squares representing some of the lessons they’ve learned from heroes like parent Christi Gilbert (pictured above) who is working to make things right in the education of over 13,000 students who are coming from non-English speaking families. The heroes’ quilt squares will also represent lessons learned from the many biographies of the Civil Rights Movement as well as our other hero talks with Mr. Nate on empathy and Mr. George (pictured below). They will be sharing their lessons in written and spoken form as well as their visual analysis of illustrations in books that they have read.
I conducted an interview with Mr. George on Zoom where he told his story of growing up on a farm in Mississippi with many challenges; as well as his transition to Memphis where he faced obstacles as a city worker; to his time with Dr. King coming alongside the city workers to work toward making things right in Memphis; to finally hearing Dr. King’s final speech of his life “I Have Been To The Mountaintop.” His closing exhortation to the heroes was to work towards reconciliation with kindness and prayer. (Click on Mr. George link above to hear the full interview with him, it is a treat.)
In response, Miss Cheryl and the ES heroes collaboratively composed this thank you note.
Dear Mr. George,
Thank you so much for talking with Dr. T about your experiences growing up on a cotton and corn farm, moving to Memphis, hearing Dr. King give his last speech, and what life has been like for you since those times. We are thankful that you are part of the solution of reconciliation and empathy that our world needs. We are inspired by your story. You inspire us to stand up for what is right and to show empathy to others. Thank you for giving us an example of what reconciliation looks like. Christ is our ultimate example of reconciliation and empathy, and we see God’s fingerprints in your story and the choices you make that you told us about.
With deepest respect,
The Heroes of ES and Miss Cheryl
More and more, we are noticing God’s fingerprints all around us. During Kingdom Time, we often practice worship on our circle of stumps. We try to keep it simple so everyone can pick up the songs. Here’s a playlist of our current worship songs. You might even sing along with your hero at home or ask them to teach you the songs. Notice that we’ve also tried to work in some classic spirituals that were significant fuel for the Civil Rights Movement. The point each time is that we go back to the Source for the grace and strength to become reconcilers in our family, in our school, in our city and in our nations.
May we all remember that through His sacrifice we have been healed and He is making us whole, reconciled and right.
// Dr. T //