The Opportunity for Zomething Beautiful
By Brandyn Surratt
We are leading in the wilderness. The truth is that as today’s educators we don’t know the outcome of how the pandemic will affect the lives of our students. How will all of this really affect the future? How do we lead our students in this unprecedented time? We cannot call on our elder educators and ask these questions, but we can partner with each other and our community to work together to do what we know how to do: painting our students’ future canvas with the art of choice and taking this time of crisis as an opportunity to build a more beautiful tomorrow.
When the doors opened this fall at Zion Christian Academy, that is exactly what we did, we chose not to just educate children, but to cease this moment in time for our students to rise up. During football season, two of our home football games were dedicated to generosity and honor. The students wore camo and honored armed forces and front-line workers. They also organized a “Neon Night” and focused on being a light in Maury County. The students accepted donations to park cars and planned a halftime praise and worship concert with Maury Hills Church. Over $5,000 was raised for Maury County United Ministries (MUMS) that evening. At Homecoming, the student body collected over 3,500 cans for local food banks. In November, the students curated 1000 “Thanks-Living” food boxes for The Family Center of Columbia. In December, Junior student, Seth King rallied the ZCA community together for a coat/blanket drive that warmed the hearts of his fellow Eagles and over 600 Maury Country families. Two hundred children were blessed with a beautiful Christmas morning from the ZCA Angel Tree donations. By being courageous, bold, and choosing to respond to crisis during the pandemic, our students learned that small efforts make a big impact!
Even as the heat of the pandemic begins to cool off, Zion Christian Academy’s missional heart continues to beat strong. Our students have learned that we are all faced with limitations in life, but we have a choice: are we going to be limited, or limitless? As educators it is our duty to lead by example and facilitate our student’s energy to… be the change. At the end of the day, each of our students are looking to us to see how we respond during uncertainty and at ZCA we understand our responsibility. We are the paintbrushes of today helping paint the youth’s canvases of tomorrow. With each stroke we are molding our students to be the hands, feet, and the next extraordinary generation equipping them to love deeper, give more, and serve their community and others in ways like never before.