PROJECT CANAAN Dr. Ed Spurka OUR TRIP TO PROJECT CANAAN WAS TRULY EPIC!

In December of 2021, I was appointed as the new Head of School at King’s Ridge Christian School in Alpharetta, GA. I had supported the previous Head of School for the past two years with the student leadership program he established in 2018, called The Prefects. The Prefects are members of the senior class and are instrumental in setting our positive school culture and ensuring we are fulfilling our school’s passion for bringing every student into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. At KRCS, we are so blessed, and I was looking for an opportunity to expand our students’ leadership, love, and kindness outside the walls of our school.

Our trip to Eswatini provided the perfect opportunity for our students to share “Epic Love” with our new friends at Project Canaan, and what we got out of the trip was way more than I could have ever imagined. We dreamed of helping with their camp, and when we arrived, we immediately felt welcomed into a community over 8,000 miles away and into a much different culture. T-shirts, posters, and Bible studies all conveyed “EPIC LOVE.” God’s love for us is so big; it’s bigger than anything we can create. This camp we flew 15 hours to volunteer for was much more than a children’s day camp. It was a life-transforming opportunity where we saw, with our own eyes, how God’s love for us can transcend to others.

After spending a week in Eswatini, it was time to drive back to the Johannesburg airport and head home. Our conversations with our Prefects on the five-hour ride and the 15-hour flight were magical! While we thought our trip to Africa would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for leadership development, we had no idea how emotionally difficult it would be to say goodbye to our new friends in Eswatini. We didn’t simply miss Project Canaan; we missed the children and staff! We shared story after story, and our stories had names and faces. We began discussing the next steps to support them and Project Canaan and how we could build upon our formed friendships.

I want to thank our friends at Project Canaan and Heart for Africa for their vision and commitment to the children of Eswatini. You are doing God’s work, and know that your family loves you at King’s Ridge Christian School. Thank you for making me a better leader and our students better disciples of Christ.