Our Lord Jesus promised: "You did not choose me, but I chose you... to bear fruit, fruit that will last." (John 15:16)

When God makes us His own people, He prepares and empowers us to bear fruit -- lasting fruit!

What does that "fruit" look like? Here are some examples I have witnessed in the last two months at Great Commission Christian School:

• A seventh grader gathers other students from our school -- and some from other schools -- for a Tuesday afternoon Zoom Bible study on topics that are important to their age group. A group of five to ten young people studies God's Word, completely student-led! That's fruit that will last in the lives of these young people.

• A teacher organizes weekly student dramas, some of which are posted on YouTube. These dramas either share or adapt Bible accounts, with the children expressing the meaning through clay figures, graphic art, or costumed dramas. This is the good fruit of people getting to internalize, through art, the stories of the faith.

• Each week I hear singing -- students and teachers singing during our Zoom classes and chapel times. They are singing the songs of our faith, the praises of God. Singing -- even though we are not physically together, and even though it's definitely not easy to sing together on Zoom! Singing. Bright voices singing hope in the darkness. This is good fruit -- fruit that will last.

• And, the younger sibling of one of our students -- a little girl who is just about two years old -- has begun to join us on Zoom each morning, for attendance, the national anthem, and our morning songs of praise. Nothing we planned -- but God is working in a young heart, and through a young voice.

This is the kind of fruit Jesus creates though His followers. Praise God for what He is doing among us. Praise God for choosing us, and making us fruitful. Praise God for wherever He does this in our city and in our nation, in these crazy and challenging times.

So many people these days would have us spend our time cursing the darkness...

That's not what God calls us to do! Rather than curse the darkness, God allows us to shine the Light of Christ, and to bear good and lasting fruit. How gracious is our God! May you and your house rest in Him today, and always.

Pastor Christoph Schulze,

Headmaster