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Note from Alicia Jordan
At GCA, one of our desired student outcomes is for our students to have hearts that are mission and service-oriented. Here are some specific goals we have listed for our students at GCA in regard to service and missions.
1. Articulate and practice the biblical mandate for service and missions.
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2. Act as the hands and feet of Jesus through local and international missions.
3. Relate to people with empathy and understand the worth of all human beings because they are created in the image of God.
As we reflect on this last semester at GCA, our Elementary students learned about various cultures and raised funds to support ministries all around the world. Our 5th-12th grade students participated in a daily chapel for World Impact Week and learned from people who are making an impact both here, locally, and internationally. Our 7th and 8th grade students participated in a Serve Day where they visited various organizations in middle Tennessee and met some practical needs by serving for the day. Our High School students raised funds for Operation Christmas Child, and our seniors shopped and packed the OCC shoeboxes. The High School student body traveled to Atlanta and inspected shoeboxes, boxed them up, and prayed over the boxes before they were sent to Africa.
Our High School students served for a week in March (MissionX) locally, in several states in our nation, and also in The Bahamas, Ecuador, Belize, Dominican Republic, and Mexico. These are great opportunities for our students to act as the hands and feet of Jesus, and learn about other cultures and communities through a week of service.
Mark Woodard, a GCA parent and missionary in Papua New Guinea, shared in High School chapel that there are three types of people in God's kingdom: “goers, senders, and disobeyers.” Our goal as students graduate GCA is that they will remember to be goers (those going on short-term or long-term missions) and/or senders (those who are generous and help others go and help fund organizations that are sharing the Gospel around the world).
Our theme verse from last school year still resonates in our hearts today, “that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.”
