Hello everyone,

Today is the last day of school for term 1. What a crazy term it has been! I am thankful that we could finish it all together in our classrooms, rather than doing it at home via video. Although it is a short vacation, I hope you can relax and refresh next week.

This term we listened to various teachers talk about the bible. My favorite was Mr. Yamauchi’s talk from the book of Matthew, chapter 10. It talked about greetings and giving the “blessing of peace” to people you meet. It reminded me of when I was a boy in Canada going to church on Sundays. At the end of the church service, we turned to the people close to us and said “May the peace of the lord be with you”, and that person replied “And also with you.” In this way, the greeting made the community stronger.

So, I told my class that at the end of the day we would pass the peace. They have been doing that for the past month before saying goodbye. Recently when I was talking to my grandmother in Vancouver, I mentioned our new way of finishing the day. She was happy to hear it, and wrote down the story to share at her church discussion group. They meet outside after church on Sundays to talk about their lives and their faith. Last week she shared the story of my class “passing the peace”. Another woman in the group really liked the story, and she told it to another church group, this time a Catholic church in Nanaimo.

So just like how we pass the peace to each other, the story of M2C has itself been passed half-way around the world. Who knows, maybe it will keep going! Until next time, have a good summer, and “May the peace of the lord be with you.”