You Matter: We'll Work Hard For You
In light of the senseless killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, we have all found ourselves in recent weeks reflecting on the systems and consequences of inequality. We are all processing through the complex and powerful emotions that are tied to such injustices. DtA staff and faculty are all grieving and processing with you. Such processing is hard, painful, and exhausting work. And it is work.
At Downtown Academy we are committed to working hard for your babies. We are committed to working hard to prepare them to be the great men and women the Lord has created them to be. We are also and firstly committed to working hard to prepare our hearts and minds to do the work of preparing them. It is soulful work for which we must lean wholeheartedly upon the Lord. We are committed to growing in Christ to become more like Him. As Paul, became all things to all people (1 Corinthians 9:19-23), so we too must do the hard work of forgetting ourselves to see through the eyes of our neighbors for the purpose of loving each other well. This hard work is the work of the Spirit in and through us. Therefore it must begin in prayer.
Last week many of the DtA faculty and staff gathered at the intersection of Broad and College in prayerful protest of the gross injustice and petition for God to work mightily. We are prayerfully preparing for your children to return to school (more info to come soon about when and how) and to be reminded that regardless of, and no matter what the world, their neighbor, the “officials” and leaders say about them, they are children of the Most High. And in that glory and title, they can move mountains.
As a staff and faculty here at Downtown Academy, we seek to love your children well through excellent instruction and a rigorous curriculum. More importantly, we want to love your children well through the light of Christ seeing them as He has made them to be seen. We want to love your children well so they are seen, so their voices are heard, so their names are known, so they can breathe deeply.
For us to do this well, we need YOU.
Next Tuesday, we would like to host a prayer and petition forum for Downtown Academy Parents to voice your concerns and desires for how we approach talking and teaching about injustice and inequality at Downtown Academy.
Tuesday evening from 5:00 to 6:00 we’ll hold an online Parent Advisory Board meeting (all DtA parents are welcome to attend and participate in Parent Advisory Board meetings) through Google Meets. You will all get an invitation with login information by Friday of this week.
Please make your voice heard as we, together, work to serve and love through education, the future men and future women the Lord has brought to DtA.