Hour of Power

On Thursday evening, February 11th, Osceola County Christian Educators held the first Hour of Power at Cornerstone Church. This special praise and worship concert for the public schools was a partnership between the Praise Team and Tech Teams of Cornerstone Family Church in St. Cloud, FL and the Osceola County Christian Educators to bless the public schools and to announce Osceola County's first Honor the Grads program on May 9th.

Our MC, Eddie Cortes, facilitated a Kahoot interactive online game as a "pre-test" to see the background knowledge of the participants about religious liberties. Seven questions were posed that represent the seven guidelines of the US Department of Education.

https://www.gtbe.org/store/index.php/sku/14.html

The Seven Freedoms Are: 
1. Students can pray, read their Bibles or other religious material, and talk about their faith at school. 
2. Students can organize prayer groups and religious clubs, and announce their meetings like any other club. 
3. Students can express their faith in their class work and homework. 
4. Teachers can organize prayer groups with other teachers. 
5. Students may be able to go off campus to have religious studies during school hours. 
6. Students can express their faith at a school event. 

7. Students can express their faith at a graduation ceremony. 

Cornerstone's Praise Team kicked in with two songs and then Pastor Carlos Duran opened the concert up with encouragement for the public schools, scripture and prayer.  

Eddie introduced Liz Salvato and Mignon Austin, educators from Osceola County, who discussed the first two guidelines of FREE to Speak and prayed for our superintendents, school board, principals and assistant principals.


Cornerstone's Praise Team did two more awesome songs and then Eddie introduced Karen Seddon who prayed an ABC prayer of adoration, introduced the purpose of the concert, explained the 1:16PM prayer movement, Around the Word in 180 Days and introduced the first Honor the Grads program for Osceola County. Our St. Johns Christian Educators group has been honoring their grads for the past 15 years. This amazing program has been a source of encouragement and testimonies that can melt any heart. To find out more, read about last year's Honor the Grads.


Eddie introduced Patrick Blake who reviewed FREE to Speak's 3rd and 4th guidelines, read scripture and prayed for our teachers and paraprofessionals. Cornerstone's Praise Team did two more songs and then Eddie invited Gracia Miller, Nan Parker, retired educators from Seminole County and Lorri Pate, teacher at Harmony High School. Lorri introduced FREE to Speak 5th guideline which explains the Released Time Education program, probably the most little known and underutilized tool for Biblical and devotional education available to public schools. For more information, visit the Released Time Education website.

Finally, Marshall Mabry, worship leader for Cornerstone, played the God's Not Dead 2 trailer and the Praise Team closed with "God's Not Dead, He's Surely Alive!" Eddie introduced Pastor Danny Rivera, former school resource officer for Osceola County for a powerful closing prayer.

This beautiful event blessed the Osceola County schools and can be easily replicated any where with a partner between Christian Educators and a local church. For assistance, ideas and support, do not hesitate to contact Karen C. Seddon.

Prayerfully yours,

K

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry by clicking here.

http://www.one16pray.com

www.aw180days.com

Download the CEAI app

PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement and Around the Word in 180 Days:

•      Go to www.one16pray.com  and www.aw180days.com for more information.

•      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page and the Around the World in 180 days Facebook page.

•      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 

May God bless you with success His way this 2015-2016 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry by clicking here.

Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools.  CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school. 

What is kindness in the classroom?

Kindness is the 5th part of the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Before I write anything, I always ask the Lord to help me and I love how He inspires. I learned an old Anglican prayer from Dr. Barry Black and Alistair Begg that reads, “I want to think myself empty, I want to write myself clear and I want to pray myself hot,” while asking the Lord for His guidance. As soon as I was done praying, the Pay it Forward concept came to me.  He is good! I can’t think of any other topic that portrays kindness in the classroom better. In today's world of technology and gadgets, we need human kindness. The concept of Pay It Forward (as developed in Catherine Hyde’s novel) is simple.  It begins with doing an act of kindness for someone without any expectation of being paid back.  Instead, the recipient of the kindness is encouraged to “Pay It Forward” to three others with the same expectation that the unconditional kindness will be paid forward.  The unconditional kindness can be large or small, depending on the interest and age level of the giver. Catherine Ryan Hyde, in her novel “Pay It Forward” about a 12 year-old boy who accepts the challenge of his teacher to change the world, is the springboard from which the Pay It Forward Movement began.  Trevor’s idea was to choose three people for whom he will do a favor or act of kindness.  When the people thank him and ask to pay him back, he tells them that they are to “pay it forward” instead to three more people. It’s nothing less than a human chain of kindness and good will.

Catherine Ryan Hyde established The Pay It Forward Foundation in September 2000 to educate and inspire students to realize they can change the world and provide them with opportunities to do so. The Pay It Forward Foundation is a small, mostly volunteer organization with a powerful heart and gift to educators.  They provide Pay It Forward grants, ideas to share and an excellent website with success stories. The Pay It Forward Foundation has trademark rights to the term, “Pay It Forward Foundation.”  The idea of “pay it forward,” however, is in the public domain and the foundation encourages all who want to promote the concept of paying it forward to do so.  The Pay It Forward movie and website are property of Warner Brothers and the novel, “Pay It Forward”, is copyright property of Catherine Ryan Hyde. She has now given the reigns over to a young man named Charley Johnson. He developed the Pay It Forward bracelets and has distributed hundreds of thousands throughout the world. He's spoken at TED twice and is about to do his third. Here are three samples: the story behind Pay It Forward bracelet, Global Reading Flash Mob of Pay It Forward, Charley Johnson on TEDxBountiful.

In April 2005, I developed a “Pay It Forward” presentation for students of all ages which encourages students to create their own movement with their families. I have presented the lessons for hundreds of children from kindergarten to college and in very large group settings and even churches.  I have an annual date with one of my daughters who is a teacher on the Friday before Thanksgiving to present the concept to their families around the Thanksgiving table. If you are interested in a presentation for your classroom, just contact me. There’s no charge for a Pay It Forward lesson, you only need to agree to pass it on! 

Pay It Forward Day is April 30th each year.  An Australian group is hoping this will become a worldwide event.  Check their website at www.payitforwardday.com for more details and ideas on how to Pay It Forward!

Let’s face it, our classrooms can use a whole lot of kindness. Why not make a commitment to raise the kindness level in your classroom this year and teach your students not random acts of kindness, but purposeful and targeted ways to be kind to others? Order the Pay It Forward bracelets for your students and as they do an act of kindness, they hand to bracelet to the person and encourage them to pass it on.  Simply beautiful!

Prayerfully yours,

K

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry by clicking here.

http://www.one16pray.com

www.aw180days.com

Download the CEAI app

PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement and Around the Word in 180 Days:

•      Go to www.one16pray.com  and www.aw180days.com for more information.

•      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page and the Around the World in 180 days Facebook page.

•      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 

May God bless you with success His way this 2015-2016 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry by clicking here.

Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools.  CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school.