Learning and developing are lifelong endeavours.

At the heart of Creation Theology are the themes of human value, the value of life and trust/connection to God.

Without God we would be nothing, without Grace we would not have the ability to continue to grow. Without growth we can not give to another, nor another give to us.

We seek to educate younger generations to raise a generation better, wiser and hopefully kinder than our own.

I see creation stories both in the Bible and in lots of other cultures as a yearning to reach towards God.

Every new day gives us a new opportunity to try to live a life that is Christlike. Similarly, we are met with forgiveness despite our penchant for sin or gracelessness.

Trust. I trust that what I am doing is impacting my students in a way that allows them to grow, but also manages to respect them as the individuals that they are.

I also do not see myself as an expert or master over all, rather I am in the same learning journey as my students, colleagues and parents. I hope that my contribution allows students to look at God's creation in awe and wonder.

In my 13 years of teaching inclusive education has been couched in language of necessity, the impression being either schools do not wish to be sued for discrimination or that the incidence of disabilities is on the rise.

I feel that it is neither of these things- rather that creating systems for inclusion is the right thing to do as it is part of God's plan/that this is our mission as Christians.

I didn't realise how much I valued this teaching/belief/practice until I came into contact with/worked for a particular community that has so radically turned away from this concept.

I understand and can empathise that on some level we turn away from things we do not recognise due to a multitude of reasons - whether it is fear or control or some other experience that has developed over time.

For me the concept of Creation - being created by a God or force outside of what we can percieve and understand is in part easy. I can see that there are many stories about how and why the universe was created, not just in the Christian tradition but in other religions and cultures.

My big question, particularly when I am faced with a challenge, is why? Why create us? Why create me?

I explore my questions by coming back to the main tenets Grace interestingly enough- if we live by and with Grace we eventually can see we all exist for a reason. Our humanness is largely why we can't see that reason right away or until divine timing allows us to.

Connect

I was familiar with the teaching of how the earth was created, the significance of the seven day week, the garden and the fall. This was part of my upbringing

On a personal level, I have always approached my role as a teacher that put each students' humanness at the centre. It was my way to reassure myself after a tough day with students - that students are all unique individuals that they were able to be good as well as pains in the buttocks.

Extend

In the video the ancient practice of exposure was discussed. We (our group) discussed and viewed this video through the lens of 'not all lives (specifically babies) are valued.' The group discussion then turned to similar practices in South Africa or China it is not uncommon to see babies abandoned. I felt like we viewed it as individuals not valuing their children. However, I had the thought/question pop up - what if it is more than that. What if this practice is more because Society did not value the individual parent- creating systems that still ignore their inherent value.

Challenges

A challenge for me is understanding how society/culture has found ways to disconnect the teachings from Creation theology and being human. Both as a teacher and in the past as an advocate it is a difficult concept for me to understand when people are able to exclude others or cast judgements based on race and creed. I appreciate that viewing someone else's life can be puzzling, however I strongly feel if we trust in God's word that we are all made in his image, that we will appreciate their humanity.

"A joy shared is doubled, a sorrow shared is halved."

Communities are a shared experience, it is through communities that we can experience learning, love and importantly hope. To me this is not something exclusively Lutheran but putting community at the forefront is an active choice.

I have a natural stubborn, independent streak born of culture and trauma. At times I overlook/ignore/refuse to rely on others. I would rather that people rely on me, my role, my expertise than to be passive. It puts a huge strain on me at times and makes me frustrated as I don't feel like I can put effort into things that are my passion.

I understand that my role and contribution is more than simply the tangible parts of my existence.

I feel somewhat unsure of what my vocation is. Finding your vocation is not simply looking inside yourself- it is constrained by givens outside of our control.

2.Why might it matter to people around me?

My vocation is the means by which I serve the world and my community. Communities rely on the diversity of gifts and talents as no single person can bring them all.

3.Why might it matter to the world?

Everything is connected.

My questions:

1. What is my vocation? I feel like I have more doubts about my vocation....or unable to express what my vocation is.

2. Does vocation change over time?

3. Is what I am doing enough for the Community?

4. How do I allow myself to feel more connected to my communities?

In Nadia Bolz-Weber's video she discusses that we are drawn to the jagged and imperfect edges of others. We discussed the relief we felt as teachers when we are struggling with students, topics or other issues and it is an experience that is shared. For me as a teacher there is no more acute lonliness as when you find yourself struggling alone with an issue - anger, frustration or disappointment.

We are a community of human beings, our life here on earth is not perfect.

Concept of narrative and truth- in teaching/modern language I associate narrative as a fictional story that does not necessarily correlate with truth. This was a particular struggle as I also carry in the back of my head "No text is neutral" there are messages woven through from the writer's perspective and intention but also ultimately messages for the reader to interpret.

Sidebar: Something I found interesting and underlined my thinking was the way the central character in the Bible project video was portrayed with different artistic styles as she travelled through the Bible's books.

My greatest takeaways:

1. It is a book of hope

2. God speaks to us in the language we understand. Language here does not necessarily mean English etc, but I think is more comparable to our 'love languages'. I see this evidenced through not only the differing books of the Bible but the mere existence of different religious texts. How can we know God in the exact same way if we are all made in His image but so differently?

In terms of my role as an educator it frames our community routines and practices which filters down into my classroom dynamics. Our week is bookended by a weekly assembly that opens with our reading for the week and prayer and our week ends with a weekly chapel service. The weekly chapel service is designed to allow time to focus in on scripture but it is also a vehicle for acts of service- each chapel is hosted by a different primary and secondary class. Which in my experience here and in other communities is an important opportunity to give students- allowing them to not only understand that they are part of a community but to build and maintain that community.

Similarly in my classroom when I am teaching curriculum I have found that building routines, focusing on my inclusive practices that weave RLCB's values, wellbeing practices has been an enrichment rather than a burden.

A question I keep coming back to is "Why....". Like a two year old I tend to be fascinated by the Why- why did religion develop as it has? Why are some people blessed and some are given substantial trials or obstacles?

I also often ask myself - how can I teach these core business concepts or humanities concepts

My understanding alone is not going to be enough to answer or explore my questions - If I was to explain it like I would in a History lesson - the Bible is the primary source but to develop further understanding and connections we must also look at secondary sources and tertiary sources. I often ask our local Pastor for his take on certain concepts, I also like to see out the help of

To me grace is a combination of aspects:

-Love

-Acceptance

-Compassion

-Forgiveness.

Grace in Lutheran Education is something quite visible, to me at least, through its inclusive nature, the willingness of its central driving documents to grown and develop over time. A great example - is the Core Values: Elaborations documents.

Firstly, I recognise now moments that I have been living with and without Grace in my own personal life. When I set my intentions and created my vision board for 2025 the word I chose for myself was not Grace but 'glimmer' to set the intention to be watchful for moments of joy, hope and especially Grace. I can see where my own understanding of Grace has matured, my recognition of it in everyday life has deepened and it has brought me hope as I see the depth of this in my community here at Redeemer.

Secondly, have started to be concious of how my interactions with my students and colleagues can incorporate Grace. For example, I know that we can have high expectations and still give Grace to students who are on their own learning journey. I can see where old responses and frustrations that I internally hold may frame how I view a student's behaviours, which means that I am not looking at that student purely as themselves or with full compassion. I have begun to verbalise more my perspective for these students, trying to balance Grace and compassion with high expectations. I feel like I am on the path with this as I have had a student directly express this to me, how they noticed that I could be kind but still push them to do their best. Which for me is a glimmer - a positive moment.

How has this new or deepened your understanding of this concept?

I have always struggled to understand people when they say the phrase "God told me...." "God gave me a word...." as a part of me percieved this as a voice in their head which was their connection straight to God. For this reason I have felt very alone/disconnected. Again reading the Bible prior to the Connect sessions also always felt disconnected- I could not feel or understand the feelings that others had from reading passages in the Bible. I realise after Connect the variety of biases and expectations that I was bringing to the Bible itself that were a road block.

Scripture interprets Scripture.

I always felt frustrated and a little intimdated by stories from the Old Testement and its incongruence with the New Testement. I understand now why I struggled to connect with these stories as I had been seeking to understand them in isolation. Just as I would not seek to understand my students from a single interaction, I should focus on reading the scriptures in light of central messages and themes.

1. Dedicating time to understand the key practices of Lutheran services- I aligned myself with a colleague who is a practicing Lutheran and asked her to share her understanding of her faith and practices.

2. Study "bites" - I kept a copy of A God who speaks and Acts as well taking some time to revisit videos from "Have a little Faith". My intention is to understand others perspectives and try to expose myself to a variety of people and their own walks with faith.

3. Participating in staff spiritual enrichment during Wednesday prestart meetings. This was a practice that Redeemer Lutheran college started in 2025, this helped me as it provided a dedicated time in a packed week/month/life to focus on incremental learning and reflection.

I like to think I am a learning sponge and that learning from others has been the most enriching part following on from the Connect sessions. I intend to continue this in 2026.

Teaching at Redeemer had a few major draw cards for me. Firstly, being family. My father came to Biloela 6 years ago for work and has been here ever since. Teaching in China at the height of the pandemic was a sharp prompt to reflect on whether I was balancing the things that I value and my work.

I remember feeling a sense of warmth and relief during my interview- which I took to be a good sign to come to this particular school.

What is important to you?

Being multi-passionate this is as concise a list as I can get.

• Learning - I read widely and love to try out all sorts of subjects.

• Creativity- having the chance for both self-expression or problem solving

• Time with family - as I mentioned earlier I took this job in order to be able to spend more time with my Dad.

• Exploring new places, things and thoughts.

What experience/expectations do you have about working in a Lutheran school?

I have had zero experience working with/limited knowledge of Lutheran beliefs. I do expect to some extent that teaching will not be constrained to allow students to develop and think - after a previous experience teaching in an ultra conservative school and in Communist China I feel that there is a need to teach in a way that strongly encourages tolerance and respect.

I hope that there is balance in the needs and wants of the school and that there is some space to nurture professional development.

We discussed the reasons why there was a decline in attendance. Some of the reasons included:

-lifestyle: the perception that religiousness interfered with lifestyle.

-secularisation was linked to lifestyle

- perception of certain religions and their values/impact on the lives of individuals

-religious trauma: how the actions and judgement of participants can have a negative impact on others and ultimately can 'put off' people from attending.

This poses the challenge for Christian schools - where enrollments may not suffer however the community is coming from vastly different belief systems. I remember in my last year of high school being curious when so many of my classmates proclaimed themselves as aetheist yet were at a Christian high school. To me this makes me think we need to be as focused as possible on the concept of grace and Christlikeness.