Dear Concordia Family,
A year ago, I shared how the school year at CLHS had been impacted by our growth in enrollment and its ripple effect on Service Day. This year’s enrollment brought an even bigger increase, with about 60 more students participating than last year—and over 100 more than in 2023. Here are some additional details:
Concordia’s annual Service Day took place on Friday, September 19. About 710 students went out into the community to help in a variety of ways: painting, washing windows, interacting with preschoolers, sorting clothes, walking dogs, socializing with cats, making blankets, pulling weeds, stamping and folding mail, cleaning pews, setting up tents, running carnival games, counting uniforms, packaging diapers, landscaping, picking up trash, assembling Christmas Child boxes, beautifying playgrounds—and at least 20 groups did some form of cleaning.
At Camp Lutherhaven, four groups (over 50 students) “pulled a cauldron out of the ground, painted a kitchen and bedroom, sanded a porch, cleaned up firepits, filled potholes, weed-whacked, washed windows and cars, washed oil tanks, fixed swings, moved gravel, cleaned cabins,” and—of course—moved firewood.
Our students meet weekly in Koinonia groups. Each of these 52 groups consists of approximately three to four students from each grade level (about 14 on average), along with an adult mentor. Throughout the first quarter of the school year, every group plans the details of its own Service Day experience—choosing where they will serve, what they will do for lunch, and how they will spend the remaining time together to grow closer as a group.
Our goals for this service-learning experience are to:
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Serve others in love.
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Deepen relationships within each group.
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Be ready to share the faith.
(Koinonia, the Greek word for fellowship, is our school’s student-led small group ministry.)
Flexibility comes with the territory of service learning. This year’s challenge was preparing for our earliest-ever Service Day, which took place a full week earlier than last year’s date.
As the coordinator for Service Day, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the work sites came together, even with one less week to prepare. Group reflections indicate that goal #2 (above) was one of the greatest benefits of this year’s experience—a wonderful outcome considering we now have more students in each group.
It’s difficult to capture in a few words what our students experienced, let alone what each Koinonia group encountered. However, the words of one work-site coordinator sum it up best:
“We all had many scenarios where we were able to share why we were there and what brought us to serve and help them out. We got the opportunity to explain what we were doing through Concordia and Koinonia and be a light to shine to others.”
Great job, Cadets! You shared Jesus through your actions—and it showed! Praise God for working through Concordia Lutheran High School for His glory!
In His service,
Mark Dolde
Koinonia Coordinator