Nunawading Christian College Newsletter, March 18 2020

At 11am today, throughout our Secondary classrooms, students and teachers took the opportunity to pause and reflect on the below poem and passage. They then listened to The Last Post.

This was a time to reflect on the sacrifices that past generations made for the freedoms we enjoy today. It was an opportunity to show respect for our fallen soldiers, acknowledging their resilience, the responsibility for our country that they took on and the integrity that they demonstrated.

We invite you and your families to also reflect on the below passages.

-Ms Meggan James, Nunawading Christian College Principal

In Flanders fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

On 11 November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after four years of continuous warfare. With their armies retreating and close to collapse, German leaders signed an Armistice, bringing to an end the First World War. From the summer of 1918, the five divisions of the Australian Corps had been at the forefront of the allied advance to victory. Beginning with their stunning success at the battle of Hamel in July, they helped to turn the tide of the war at Amiens in August, followed by the capture of Mont St Quentin and Pèronne, and the breaching of German defences at the Hindenburg Line in September. By early October the exhausted Australians were withdrawn from battle. They had achieved a fighting reputation out of proportion to their numbers, but victory had come at a heavy cost. They suffered almost 48,000 casualties during 1918, including more than 12,000 dead.

In the four years of the war more than 330,000 Australians had served overseas, and more than 60,000 of them had died. The social effects of these losses cast a long shadow over the postwar decades.

We will remember…

The families who sacrificed, the lives lost, the friendships forged, the stories – the beautiful, the ugly and the mundane.

Those that have served, those that do serve and those who will serve our country.

My American friends are starting to talk about Thanksgiving. In this crazy year what have we got to be thankful for? Well, I have not come to talk to you about mere thankfulness. Instead, I want to rotate giving thanks 180 degrees and look at it from another angle. If Thanksgiving were a superhero, complaining would be its nemesis, am I right?

When we were younger what were some things that we complained about?

Now that we are older what are some things that we complain about?

Complaining seizes our joy. We need to shake off this shadow that has become our most devoted follower. We need to live every day like it’s Thanksgiving. The Bible has a lot to teach us about this subject. In fact, the Israelites, or the Jews, were God’s chosen people and were HUGE complainers. When you read the Old Testament and see the things they said and did, you will realise that they were so annoying! These people were God’s favourites. This was the lineage that would lead to Jesus. And yet, over and over again we see that they were grumblers.

When Moses and the Israelites got to freedom, the complaining went to a whole other level!

Exodus 15:22 The taste of the water bothered them.

Exodus 16:1-4 They didn’t like the bread Moses gave them in the desert.

Exodus 17:1-4 They were thirsty.

Exodus 32:28 They got impatient waiting for the 10 Commandments, complained, and built a golden calf idol to worship.

Numbers 11:33 They complained about the food again.

Numbers 12:1-12 Miriam and Aaron complained about Moses’ leadership.

Numbers 14:1-10 They didn’t want to enter the Promised Land that God wanted to give them because they were afraid. So they complained.

Numbers 14:10 Again, the Israelites didn’t like Moses and wanted to kill him.

Numbers 16, Numbers 16:41 They were still rebelling against Moses (who God appointed to lead them—and remember—SAVED THEM FROM SLAVERY!)

Numbers 20:1-5 They complained about the water again.

Here is what we need to realise today from the Israelites’ example.

Complaining is a drain.

Did you know there is psychological research that suggests that making a habit of complaining can actually “rewire” your brain so that this type of thinking becomes ingrained? This means your brain becomes accustomed to complaining, so you do it more and more and more and more.

In one series of studies, researchers tracked people’s moods before and after hearing a complaint. As predicted, listening to others complaining made people feel worse. And the complainer also felt worse! Isn’t it so draining?

Complaining is all around us. But not complaining is refreshing and makes you stand out, because it’s countercultural.

Philippians 4:14-16 (NLT) “Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticise you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.”

Complaining doesn’t fix your situation or make it better, it makes it worse. Let’s stop the drain game and choose to turn our emotions into prayers or solutions to the problems we face.

We need to live with an attitude of gratitude. We need to see life as a gift.

Romans 5:2-5 (NLT)

“Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.”

I’ve started doing this in my own life, “counting my blessings,” or naming all the little gifts and it truly has lifted my mood and checked me when I’m about to complain. We have so much to be thankful for. No matter what happens to us in this life, we are saved from death because of what Jesus has done for us.

Philippians 4:4-7 (NLT)

“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Thanksgiving has been a wake-up call for me this year, to live every day like it’s Thanksgiving, so that I see my life as a gift. I want to retrain my brain to not complain and to get out of my self-focused bubble and think of others. I want to fix my eyes on Jesus.

Let’s move forward in this together.

World Teacher’s Day was an opportunity to thank and celebrate our educators here at NCC.

Our Home and School Committee presented all of our staff members with delicious cupcakes and encouraging notes.

In the lead up to World Teacher’s Day, we asked our students to nominate teachers for some various award categories. You can see some of the recipients of these awards in the below gallery, and others can be seen on our Instagram World Teacher’s Day story highlights.

We asked our students to write an encouraging sentence to someone who supported them through remote learning. We were overwhelmed by the responses we received.

Here are some of the messages from our Primary students –

Thank you Mum for always supporting me and cooking great food for me.

Thank you for giving me so much work, I really appreciate it (and the help). Try not to get corona, we really need you around.

My Mum has helped me a lot and made me laugh and find really fun board games to play and made quarantine better.

Thanks Mum and Dad for helping me out! I love you!

Here are some of the messages from our Secondary students –

Online school was pretty hard but my friends really helped me go through it. To all my friends, thank you so much, you mean so much.

Thanks to all the teachers for putting in the effort to make classes interesting even online, I appreciate the encouragement

Mum. I hope you won’t stop giving. You have helped me so much. Thanks for being there. XOXO

Ms Godfrey has really supported us through remote learning. She regularly checked up on us, moderated class work depending on how we were feeling, and was always available if we needed help. She tried to minimise out of class work as much as possible, which we all really appreciated.

Thank you so much to my beautiful family who have supported me consistently throughout all of lockdown and to all of my friends and chaplains and counsellors who have helped me to recover from my anxiety and remain steadfast in my faith with Christ.

When the first lockdown was announced, I found myself wondering how students could possibly express the full extent of their creativity without access to most of the fantastic resources that our art room contains.

Some trial and error, as well as the clarity of hindsight have taught me that there was nothing to worry about. This is because of a truth that is central to the art making process, which is limitations breed creativity. That is, when we are constrained to operate under limited circumstances or with limited materials, we are pushed to explore the full potential of the resources we do have.

Artist Phil Hansen explores this idea in his book Tattoo a Banana: and Other Ways to Turn Anything and Everything into Art. Early in his career, nerve damage from long and strenuous hours spent creating very precise pointillism paintings left him with a tremor in his hand and an inability to make art the way he envisioned. Although this was initially a devastating blow, Hansen ultimately learned to embrace his limitations and work within them, to pursue radical innovation in his practice. He has gone on to create incredible art using unconventional materials (such as dandelion puffs) and canvasses (such as a stack of Starbucks cups), that he never would have considered if the constraints of his injury hadn’t been placed upon him.

The philosophy of deliberately pursuing limitations to spark creativity is potentially explained by a psychological phenomenon coined as overchoice, which states that having access to too many options has actually had a negative effect on the ability of individuals to create. A plethora of options has been observed to increase feelings of pressure and confusion, leading to a state of overwhelm which ultimately compromises the ability of individuals to take action on a goal.

With this in mind, my best advice for everyone looking to create something new is to actually ‘think inside the box!’ Whether your goal is to create a piece of art, writing or even recipe – consider any limitations a catalyst rather than a hindrance to creativity and enjoy the experience that unfolds.

Above artwork by Shadai, Year 9