Central Valley Christian’s 2nd grade teacher Teri Girard has taught the post-WWII story Boxes for Katje for many years, but last year when one of her students asked, “Isn’t there a war going on right now?” Teri rethought her unit. What unfolded was the unexpected opportunity to connect her Deep Hope (that her students realize how much God loves them and that they can reflect His love to the world) with a family in Ukraine. Living into their Storyline (How Can We Reflect God’s Love?), Teri invited her students to be creative Servant-Workers and Community Builders. This story involves real work, real needs, and real people.

After that simple student question, God started opening doors. Teri learned that a cousin of a fellow colleague was serving at church in Ukraine, and that led to getting connected to a Ukrainian family very much in need of the love of Christ. Teri challenged her kids to be creative Servant-workers and Community-builders. The kids responded with lemonade stands and car washes and even a class-wide bake sale, all resulting in more than $2200 being raised to help this family.  

Teri’s students learned the value of helping others and a lot about how random people can be incredibly generous. She didn’t plan this to be a FLEx, but simply, God revealed the Real Needs of a Real-World family, and Teri’s students simply did the Real Work.

Below are a series of photos living into community building and servant working ways of being as they came together to raise support. In addition, you will find the reflections of the students as they make connections between their work and the Deep Hope of the class.