'Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.' - 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
Dear whānau,
Our Monday Prayers this week were presented by Mrs Butterfield and Room Kea, and what a great job they did! You'll see in the photos below the wonderful writing and art work they created to go with their prayers about God's creation and what they are grateful for - hammerhead sharks, water, forests, mountains, and cockabillies to name just a few ... I did notice however that none of them were grateful for wasps.
Speaking of wasps, a huge thank you to Tracey and the team at Gore Mitre 10 for coming to the rescue and kindly donating some wasp traps - hopefully the kids will now be able to eat their lunch in peace.
While I'm very thankful for 99.99% of God's creation (particularly Labradoodles) and am quite often left in awe of it, I'm not overly impressed with Cyclone Gabrielle (and I think our friends in the North Island likely feel the same) or the earthquake that's left many people homeless or losing loved ones in Turkey - let's keep them in our prayers.
Sometimes it's hard to know how to help people in these awful situtations. At St Mary's we are lucky to have a strong connection with Caritas - The Catholic Agency for Justice, Peace and Development, they do lots of the thinking for us and ensure that the people who are most in need get the money or resources they need to rebuild what they have lost or even just to stay afloat. The Caritas team are also calling into school to work with staff and student leaders over the next couple of weeks, more info to come.
This term we have 2 opportunities to donate to Caritas (who will donate to the North Island and Turkey on our behalf), the first is at our beginning of the year Sunday whole school Mass on the 5th of March where you can donate a coin or a can. A few weeks later we will celebrate St Patrick's Day (the feast day of St Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland) by wearing green, sharing in a Liturgy, playing some fun games and donating a gold coin.
We look forward to seeing you at our whole school Athletics Day on Tuesday 21st February - hopefully a notice arrived home. I've added some information further down and I'll also put it on Facebook as well.
If you've got something exciting to share, feel free to email me a photo(s) and a short blurb by Thursday 9am each week and I'll pop in the newsletter for us all to celebrate together - mallory.hood@stmarys.school.nz
God bless.
Cheers,
Mallory
Acting Principal
