Dear friends of CCE,
Finally, our school is back in session. Because of the pandemic, life is less predictable now and even common events like the opening of a school year is an uncommon good news. With restrictions in place, the opening worship service could be held only for one class of first graders with their parents. For the rest of the students and teachers, the worship service was streamed to their classrooms. Masks are a challenge especially for teachers but they overcome it with humor. We are blessed to have 726 students this school year and 107 teachers and other employees. Again, every chair is taken and there is a waiting list for every grade. Praise God!
This COVID-19 season brought mostly negative realities to our lives. However, this month with the school in session, we witnessed one very positive fact. Being homebound since March, our students’ face-to-face interaction was reduced to minimum. They are now enjoying a real social life with their peers, classmates, and teachers, loving it and looking forward to attending school every day. This confirms and endorses the importance of healthy Christian community experience – one of our school’s three pillars. Even teenagers so dependent on virtual communication and social media desperately seek real human relationship. We are glad to provide them a meaningful and stimulating Christian environment.
In the August 2020 Newsletter we informed you about our social project helping a marginalized Roma community in eastern Slovakia. Now we are planning to move further east to Ukraine to help children in this struggling country. Since 2005, CCE together with Martin Lutheran Congregation has been providing VBS every summer for about 80 children near Odessa. The mission was terminated in 2013 because of the war at the eastern border and an internal conflict in the leadership of the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Ukraine. But now the newly-elected bishop expressed willingness to revive this mission, so we are back! As you, our mission partners know very well, a meaningful experience of helping those in need can positively transform not them but also us. More details will be provided soon and we would appreciate including this project into your prayers.
Regarding of finances and building projects, we are happy to announce that the Visual Art Studio is fully covered ($42,600) and is the process of finishing. Thank you very much for your generosity! For the Music Studio, we still need to fundraise $23,100 out of the $75,200 total. The Indoor Gym remains our biggest challenge. The budget is $240,500. We ask you to prayerfully consider donating to this purpose. It will noticeably improve our service to our children and enhance our mission.
Dear friends, our school is back in business. May God look upon all us in favor and grant us peace that passes all human understanding.
Yours,
Adrian Kacian, Director of Development Bohdan Hroboň, president of CCE
