7 minute read
What if you do not have to work alone?
Have Courage
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Courage, according to Mark Twain, is resistance to fear and mastery of fear, not the absence of fear. When we say we are a counter-cultural school, it’s because we embrace this definition of courage, especially when it comes to promoting a partnership among the three main institutions in a child’s life—the Family, the School, and the Church. Rooted in trust, this partnership defines our mission and characterizes our ethos. Our courageous reliance on an ever-present God reassures us that we are never truly alone in the world. With that reassurance, no one works alone at PS, as the community focus of the School is reflected in classrooms, on playing fields, through performances, and in service. Students, faculty, and parents work, play, laugh, cry, mourn, celebrate, and pray …together and with courage. As the Scriptures tell us: “Two are better than one because they have a better return on their work.”
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, help poured forth from the Presbyterian School community and beyond. Hurricane Harvey took Houston by surprise. However, the response to help was immediate, and Presbyterian School families came together to rally around those in need. Whether it was collecting supplies, clearing homes, demolitioning walls, finding storage units, making meals, or cleaning flooded dishes and loads of laundry, the School tackled many obstacles together to help families take steps forward in the long road to recovery.
meet the Norvells
PS has been a home for our kids since our oldest son Benjamin started Beta in 2007. We are also members of First Presbyterian Church, so we’re regularly on campus six days a week—our home away from home! What drew us to the School originally is what has kept us here: a small, tightknit community of like-minded parents; warm, caring teachers and administrators invested in our kids; and an educational environment that addresses the whole child, including the development of a Christ-like servant attitude through the School’s core values. The alignment of these ideals contributes to a “sticky environment” that continually draws our family closer to the School and makes us feel at home.
To be honest, we’re not sure our kids would be at Presbyterian School today without the focus of tying family, school, and church together. The School’s mission is a differentiator in today’s world. Many schools give lip service to teaching spiritual leadership, but PS lives it out and isn’t shy about stating that the School’s mission is also Christ’s mission and one that looks to engage the family, school, and church in serving.
We live in Braes Heights, one block from Brays Bayou. Hurricane Harvey hit our area hard. While we were fortunate to avoid flooding in our home, many in a three to four block radius of us flooded with several feet of water. On the first day after the waters receded, we saw one neighbor hauling flooded furniture to the curb, and we knew how we could help.
In May 2015, we had been through a flood event when our second home and vacation rental business on the Blanco River in Wimberley was literally washed away in the Memorial Day weekend flood. The outpouring of support from individuals, churches, and other organizations in the aftermath of the flood was so heartwarming and comforting at a time when we were completely overwhelmed with what to do in the clean-up efforts. Day after day scores of volunteers showed up to help us with the debris and fallen tree cleanup efforts, and we are eternally grateful for all that they did. After Harvey, we knew what needed to be done and felt we were in our neighborhood for a reason.
Those most impacted by Harvey’s devastation would be in shock and could use a tremendous amount of physical and emotional support in dealing with the most immediate aftermath, such as clearing out furniture, keepsakes, sheetrock, etc. We sent emails and text messages to parents in our grade levels and to church members, and the response was amazing. We set up a makeshift “command center” in front of our home with all the basic ingredients needed to support recovery efforts: a white board with addresses of homes in need and what was needed at each; ice chests of drinks; tables of food; and all the basic work supplies you could think of—hammers, crowbars, gloves, trash bags, bleach, etc.
Before long, people began to come to us to ask for supplies, food, or help at their respective homes. Younger kids played at our house while parents and siblings worked in the immediate area. Dolleys and wheelbarrows and work gloves came and went, and came and went again. Neighbors stopped by for drinks or a quick chat. Cellphones buzzed with messages from church and school friends wanting to help. Pleas came in from other neighbors who saw the efforts and asked for a team to come to their house. We ended up working for eight days with teams of volunteers helping at 40 homes, although we lost count at some point. There were so many adults and kids from the School and church community working for hours day after day to help those in need in our neighborhood. This community effort truly reflected the generosity and servant attitude of so many in the PS community.
While Harvey and its aftermath have been, and continue to be, trying, there was a silver lining in all the generosity that sprang up from this event. We can never fully understand God’s plans, but we believe that this could certainly have been a wakeup call from Him to get out and serve others.
Ben • ja • min
/ˈbɛn dʒə mən/ noun: Class of 2018 Panther Lifer
Benjamin loves the competition of playing a sport each season and has enjoyed the great role models of his coaches and spending time with his friends. His favorite memory at Presbyterian School is the fall 2017 undefeated football season in eighth grade that culminated in a conference championship. Ben shared, “It was great because I’m normally not on good teams, and I played a key role in the success.”
This year Benjamin has really thrived in his academics as he has matured. He now wants to be more challenged to learn and grow and be prepared for high school and beyond. He enjoys all his classes, with history and politics being a particular passion. His eighth grade RIDEE project topic analyzed the effects of U.S. intervention in the Middle East.
Le • vi
/ˈli vaɪ/ noun: Class of 2020 Panther
Levi loves the social aspect of all of his friends at school and on the sports fields. He easily makes friends and is always more than willing to help a friend or just engage in conversation with friends, which his teachers and coaches surely know. Levi has always been an avid reader, and his favorite subjects are English and history.
For the past few summers, Levi has taken part in a father-son mission trip with First Presbyterian Church. Levi and his dad travel to work with the Micah Project, a nonprofit organization in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that supports three group homes for young men and boys who have spent their childhood on the streets or in impoverished homes.
El • len
/ˈɛl ən/ noun: Class of 2022 Panther
The annual grade-level exhibitions/projects and related parades for the rest of the School are some of the Norvells’ favorite activities each year, as the various grades bind together and celebrate their accomplishments with one another. Ellen is passionate about excelling in all of the various projects that are assigned to her.
This year in fourth grade, she became engaged in her Texas history project about Sam Houston. Last year she enjoyed being Florence Nightingale as part of the Great Moments in History, and the year before that, she studied bananas as part of the Back Forty Museum research project. She loves to map out and execute her plan to complete the projects as soon as possible. The School’s kindergartenfourth grade buddy program is one of her favorite parts of PS. She still hugs her now eighth grade buddy when they meet, as well as her current kindergarten buddy.
