God’s work in his time

When I saw the topic of education and ministry drop into my inbox in February, I thought—Piece of cake. I’ll write a bit about Yokohama Christian School’s place in the broader context of Yokohama City as a small school making a difference in the lives of our students and families. Done and dusted. However, the current global pandemic and ensuing crisis has caused me to rethink what I would like to write. Instead of a general introduction to Yokohama Christian School, I will share positive, real-life stories of our small school in this difficult time when it is sometimes harder to see God’s plan in action.

Education is such a core experience for many of us. As children, we spend hours learning the basic concepts of mathematics, reading, and writing. As Christians, education also means training in God’s ways: often through Sunday School, youth group, and Bible studies. Even if your job title is not teacher, many of us are educators in some form. What type of schooling experience do you get when you blend the academic and the spiritual in a school setting? What if the school is, at its foundation, God’s school?

At Yokohama Christian School (YCS), we take our job as an outreach school seriously. While one of our goals is to teach and train the minds and hearts of children from Christian homes, another goal is to reach out to families interested in a solid, English-based education program. The fact that our program is both high quality and affordable allows a greater number of families to come through our doors.

In times of growth or uncertainty and upheaval, it is important for staff, teachers, and administrators to remember that YCS is God’s school. We start each day in prayer for the school, students, and families. It is sometimes hard to remember, but God brings students for a time and then sends them on their way. Day by day, as teachers, we minister to and teach each student in our care. We nurture them, problem-solve for them, and see them on their way when it is time.

For such a time as this

Over the last few years YCS has begun the process that leads to accreditation. This is a process that requires in-depth discussions on everything from food allergies to fire drills, tardy policies to grade promotion. Not only do policies need to be in place, but those policies must be reviewed and discussed to remain current. In short, accreditation is a grueling process. Initially at YCS, reviewing documents and piecing together all the paperwork to be a “school” seemed too much, too daunting. Yet, just as God brings the students, he brings the right teachers as well.

When it was time to sit down and develop our curriculum guide, as a staff we did our best and were hopeful it was enough. However, God had a better plan. He brought a young, energetic navy wife and music teacher to YCS. Beyond her wonderful teaching ability she happened to have a master’s degree in curriculum development and design. We presented her with what we had been working on and began to realize that what we had created wasn’t quite right. However, with her patience and expertise, we started again. We began writing grade-level goals, objectives, and having really good discussions about what needed to happen at each grade level to prepare students to move to the next grade.

Looking back, I am in awe that God brought the right person to lead us through writing our first full curriculum guide at YCS. Every three years, as a staff, we will need to review and make improvements on that initial document, but the review process would not have been possible without that initial steady, guiding hand.

Seeds and sprouts

Our preschool classes at Yokohama Christian School are called Seeds (two-year-olds) and Sprouts (three- and four-year-olds). As a school we are fortunate to have the opportunity to plant seeds in each student’s heart and mind. The idea of seeds, roots, and growth in a Christian school comes directly from the Bible—from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the parables of Jesus to the epistles. The guiding and founding verse chosen at the inception of Yokohama Christian School comes from the third chapter of Ephesians:

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. (v. 16-19 NRSV)

These verses root everything we do at Yokohama Christian School in a biblical foundation that we hope has a lasting impact on our students and families. International schools are often not the end of a students’ education, but just one of many places that they learn academically. YCS staff and teachers hope that the additional seeds of spiritual guidance and growth sown at our school will reach far past the time that each student spends within our walls.

Lasting impact

While sometimes it is hard when students and families move on from the school, it is important to remember that our impact may be felt more deeply than we imagine, even when a child is enrolled for only a short time. One mother told me that she and her husband had made the difficult decision to change the educational trajectory of their son and he would be leaving the school (an older sister would remain). After their children started at YCS, the family had returned to church and were happily settled in their life in Yokohama. The mother said that no matter how long her other child remained at YCS she was grateful that the family had moved to Yokohama. The Christian community and fellowship that came with that relocation was something that she acknowledged and was grateful for. Though this family no longer has any children at our school, YCS has made an educational and personal difference in their lives.

In March this year, after the school had closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak, YCS held a small send-off ceremony for students leaving from April for other educational endeavors. Three of the students had been at the school since age two. Each child came from a different background: one is bicultural, one is from an expat family, and one is Japanese. We have watched these three children grow from shy two-year-olds to self-assured six-year-olds. Children are often only able to stay a year or two at our school before they move again, so the longer stay of these three children has impacted us as a staff as much as we have impacted them—maybe more. We have seen them develop spiritually as well as academically. At the beginning of their time, they struggled with basic praise songs, could not focus on a Bible story, and did not understand who they were praying to. As they have grown, they not only remember Bible stories and songs, but they understand prayer as communicating with God, who cares about them and wants a relationship with them.

This lasting impact on families and students is what Yokohama Christian School is all about. Nurturing the whole development of each child—intellectually, socially, and spiritually—is an honor. The seeds planted and the sprouting branches that we are able to observe and nourish in our students is a blessing that encourages us to continue. As we move forward, we strive to always remember that seeds will bring forth good in the wider world as each student walks the path that God has planned for them. In this time of deep uncertainty and upheaval, God has been faithful—as he always has been to the school over the years—and we can have faith that he is indeed in control. I pray that YCS will continue to stand firm in its mission of outreach and of educating the young people of Yokohama while doing God’s work moving forward.