Students started the school year learning about their identity in Christ and exploring who God has created them to be.
Our first thematic unit in Middle School at Nanaimo Christian School this year was on the concept of identity, weaving together personal reflection, song lyrics, short stories, and the novel Wonder. Some of our deep hopes for this unit were that students understand who God has created them to be and how they belong within a community. We read a number of verses together about our identity in Christ and and knowing who we are, then students get to choose some verses that they have identified with.
We want students to know that they are created with a purpose and a calling and are uniquely gifted by God to be more than just their hobbies, looks, or mistakes. They are part of something bigger than themselves and can shape the groups that they are a part of through their own words and actions. We hope that students will be able to take these lessons and apply them to their own lives as they mature and develop through adolescence.
Each of the images pictured above represents a student's final identity project and expresses unique aspects of identity in a tangible way. Students were challenged to be creative in the production of the assignment, allowing their identity to be reflected in the medium they chose: an essay, a slideshow, a video, a poster, designing custom shoes, handcrafted pieces of art, or writing about themselves as a character in their own short story or play.
What a celebration of God as our Creator and the wonderfully unique way He has gifted each and every one of us!
"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be."
-- Psalm 139:13-16