Six-year-olds Can Change the World

I teach first grade at a public school on the west side of Madison. A few weeks ago, we were having a discussion about how we all are alike and different. One of my little cherubs raised her hand and said very proudly, “We are all alike because we all agree that God created the heavens and the earth”.

I smiled, told the child that though I believed that and she believed that, that everyone may not be familiar with what the Bible teaches. I silently thought about how great it was that this little girl knew this truth and wondered if perhaps she went to church. The following day I wrote this writing prompt on the board: One way I can help make the world a better place is …

Without missing a beat, this same child quickly raised her hand. She said she was ALREADY making the world better. When I asked for her example, she said that she was giving up a Christmas present and the money that she would have spent on the present was going to help poor kids in Peru have clean water to drink!

Again I thought, wow. This is just awesome. This child truly has a compassionate heart. And only 6 years old!

Sunday moring as I worshipped at the 9:00 service, I suddenly put it all together – there sat the child’s parents right in front of me. I had no idea the family attended Blackhawk! I wrote a note to my student to tell her that I go to her church and had sat next to her mom and dad. I asked mom to deliver the note. I wish you could have seen her smile this morning as she came in the classroom and gave me a huge hug. I am not sure if she was more proud of the fact that she and her teacher had this special secret, or that she has learned to read so well that she could read my note all by herself. Nevertheless, she was one proud little girl.

This is just one more example of how Blackhawk is changing lives. The Bible teaches that a “little child shall lead them.” This young one is a shining light to her first grade classmates becuase she is hearing truth and even at her young age is thinking about how she can make a positive difference in the world. Thanks for your part in making Blackhawk a place where even the six year olds are on a journey toward God!

Written by Cindy Desjardins

Burgers at the Beltline (and Other Christmas Traditions)

Every one of our family’s holiday traditions has one thing in common – namely, that there was a Christmas BEFORE that tradition began at which time we were content and happy about those traditions we already had. Every tradition has a beginning, and many times that new tradition replaces a more established one that we would have really preferred not to have given up.

Established traditions are embraced. New events and activities that surround the holidays are never seen as traditions the very first time they’re done, but many of these “first time” holiday activities become the traditions that we celebrate and embrace five, ten and twenty years down the road.

One of our family’s traditions – begun in the year 2000 – involves having all five of us attend the 4:30 Christmas Eve service together at Blackhawk and then stopping for a quick sandwich before driving to my folks’ house in Milwaukee. For each of the past eight years we’ve grabbed that sandwich at the Burger King on Park Street right off the Beltline.

Whether traveling from our home in LaCrosse, then Rhinelander, then DeKalb, Illinois, we always found our way to Madison on our way to Milwaukee. Amazingly, the stop at Burger King became one of the most endearing part of our Christmas Eve tradition. I imagine it was because the five of us were eating a meal together rather than because of the quality of the food (although it ain’t bad!). We took a few minutes to be together, joke around, and watch frenetic employees and customers desperately trying to get somewhere else.

That tradition – of attending the service at Blackhawk and stopping at Burger King – is over. Our son who moved to Madison in 2000 is now working outside of Washington D.C. and he’ll be flying in to O’Hare Wednesday afternoon. His younger brother is studying in Plymouth, UK this year and won’t be coming home at all over the holidays. Mt wife and I are preparing to move to Twin Falls, Idaho. And my father, who celebrated 88 Christmases and presided over our family gatherings for most of them, will not be with us. He passed away the day before Thanksgiving.

And yet, Christmas will come. The central event of celebrating the birth of Jesus transcends the traditions we’ve built around it, and we will – if we take the time to do it – be humbled and grateful for God’s incredible plan that placed a human baby in our midst who was also God – and who would grow up and be our Savior.

Although I’m not quite certain what we’ll do this week, I imagine that at least one of these things will become part of a new holiday tradition. I don’t know which one – that’s the way things are with traditions – I likely won’t know for years.

I’m thankful for the traditions our family has had and the ones yet to be discovered, but even more thankful for Jesus Christ, and plan to celebrate accordingly this Christmas Season.

 Written by John Pfeifer