It’s been exciting to see many of our high school students engaging in math competitions, coding competitions, business competitions, hackathons, and other science or math based endeavours. Hats off to them!
For many of us who are not so agile at math, math can still be very real and compelling. We learn math to understand the world around us. Currently our world is emphatically COVID-orientated. The math broadcasted daily on the news is math we can measure: the number of new cases, the number of deaths, the number of days we have endured, the number of days yet to follow restrictions, the number of unemployed, the number of long term care facilities affected, the number of people now needing the Food Bank, one in three people in a Food Bank line-up is a child, and… well, the numbers and statistics continue to be heart-wrenching and mind- boggling.
As praying Christians desiring to be shining lights in our communities, the COVID math should indeed spur us on to serve in the name of Jesus. By serving we take the bite off the challenges that many are facing; by serving we take the bite off our own situations; by serving in Jesus’ name, we are helping to bring the numbers down. We’re not just bending the curve; we are redrawing the curve. That’s math worth manipulating!
Here at John Knox, we are doing real math to redraw the curve through creative, COVID- safe means. Our Grade 8 and 12 students artfully illustrated 100 Christmas cards to attach to the 100 Christmas gift bags that the Grade 12 students assembled for refugee families who will spend their first ever Christmas in Canada. Our Grade 12 students have been volunteering at a local food bank, preparing the groceries for the 65 families that line up each week. In a couple of weeks, they will also prepare the Christmas meal for 250 people who will have their Christmas meal out in the cold.
So whatever way you learn math, through competitions and challenges or through compassion and consolation, let’s joyfully and eagerly take our math to the next level because in “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord,…” Col 3:23
Jeyne Lund, Missions and Outreach Coordinator