Once\nin a while, my students get it. I had a moment of joy when my 9th grade Bible\nclass made a justice connection between two events–it’s part of what keeps me\nteaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a Friday afternoon (October 25, 2019), I took my 14-year-old students downtown Harrisonburg to visit a newly established coffee shop, which is raising money to help people reenter society successfully after being released from prison. The pastors in charge of the coffee shop stood on the sidewalk, with the Court House and jail visible, and explained their vision of restorative justice. They were raising money to help people who come out of incarceration to get a second chance, to help them more successfully integrate back into society. It was one of those moments that made all the logistics work of setting up a field trip worth the time and effort. My students learned about restorative justice on the street, with United Methodist pastors putting shoe leather to their theological beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe very next class period, on Monday, Caleb Schrock-Hurst, twenty-three, and\nrecently returned from MCC service in Vietnam, challenged my students to\nconsider serving others. Caleb came onto our campus for two days, under a\nlecture series we have at the school. He returns to serve with MCC in Vietnam\nin early November. Caleb is doing academic editing work in Hanoi, helping MCC\nrecognize 65 years of working in the Southeast Asian country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One\nbright ninth-grade student asked Caleb if he had heard the voice of God,\ndirecting him to serve in Vietnam. No, Caleb replied, he had received counsel\nto sign up with MCC, he had grown up serving with his family in a Philippines\nMCC assignment, and his sister and her family served the poor in Indonesia. For\nCaleb, he explained, service was a way of life. There had been no audible voice\nof God that he heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At\nour school, we have a culture of restorative justice. It’s woven into the\neducational methods of how we work with students on both the micro and macro\nlevels. Last year, I helped with a large circle process to work through\ndifficulties in one of the classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So\nat the end of the class period, after Caleb answered a host of questions about\nVietnam, I showed the class a photo of us standing on the street corner the\nprevious Friday, talking about restorative justice. “What’s the\nconnection,” I asked, “between selling coffee and tea to help folks\ngetting out of jail, and what Caleb is doing in Vietnam?” Immediately they\npiped up and made the analysis. “Caleb is working at restorative justice\nissues in Vietnam, like the pastors in Harrisonburg are with their coffee\nshop,” one student articulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s\nthose moments that make all the prep work, all the planning, all the everyday\nwork of teaching worth it. My students made the connection between a justice\nministry in Harrisonburg to Hanoi, Vietnam, where an MCCer is going for another\nyear of service. I hope my students never forget this lesson, and I pray that\none or more of those students will one day join MCC and serve in an\ninternational setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once in a while, my students get it. I had a moment of joy when my 9th grade Bible class made a justice connection between two events–it’s part of what keeps me teaching. On a Friday afternoon (October 25, 2019), I took my 14-year-old students downtown Harrisonburg to visit a newly established coffee shop, which … Continue reading My students got the lesson in restorative justice<\/span> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/15i.48b.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bible-9-Field-Trip-HB-October-25-2019-edited.jpg\")