Canterbury Christian School Service Trip

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Laney Westcott:

Today on our last service day we started with our last service from the principal, where he talked about what it meant for Jesus to die on the cross. We then touched up some older projects we started earlier in the week, such as fixing up the library, cleaning out the gutters, and staining a bench. After struggling with trying to saw down some stumps of wood, professionals got brought in to take the wood away for good. We ended with everyone in the library organizing and stacking books. This week was a great learning opportunity for many of us and we had a lot of fun while doing it! 

Alex Beheshti:

Today, my day started off with a chapel. Father Macias was the speaker and he had a great message. After the service, we ate some snacks before going to do our work. Afterward, we all split up so that we could all work on different tasks. I was assigned to work in the library. We had many books that were not labeled so we started to find them, labeling them with barcodes as we went. After we had labeled all of the books with barcodes, we started to put spine labels on the books so that they could be identified in the library system. We mostly finished putting spine labels on the non-fiction books. We then headed off to lunch, where Canterbury provided us lunch from Pizza My Heart. After lunch, most of us were tired and ready to leave, but we all went into the library to help organize as that was pretty much the only task left. We finished the spine labels on all of the non-fiction books and started on the easy reader books. We got through a large amount of the easy reader books, but soon enough, it was time for us to leave and we didn't finish all of them. I had a great day overall and a great service trip and I hope that we made a great impact on Canterbury Christian School. I hope that they can once again use their library.

Ms. Su:

We had a wonderful four days at Canterbury School this week. Father Macias and the other staff at Canterbury made us feel so welcome and appreciated as we did our best to serve them in little ways. They blessed us with a pizza feast for lunch today, and these adorable Book of Common Prayer erasers that are for "undoing that which we ought not to have done" (i.e. erase mistakes :P)--Thank you!

Our TKA students had great attitudes as they willingly picked up all the tasks they were given, whether big or small. They pushed through the challenges of continuing to do certain tasks even after they became less novel, like weeding, cleaning gutters, and sorting books. They became experts at alphabetization, a skill that will serve them well in their academic citation for years to come! And they served as excellent role models for the Canterbury kids as older students who were willing to open themselves up to new experiences such as the daily formal Anglican chapel service, (legally) pulling out poppy plants, and using the Dewey Decimal System for organizing non-fiction library books. We also had a lot of fun just getting to know each other, reminiscing on our childhood days, and eating snacks. :)

Shoutout to Alex Beheshti and Emma Ma for being our official photographers this week! Thank you to Mr. Kevin Johnson who led our group with creativity and patience and kept us happily running throughout the week on bagels, goldfish, and fruit snacks! And thank you to all the families who kept us in prayer and dropped off and picked up your students on time every day. We already can't wait for next year's service trips.

Happy Easter and enjoy your Spring Break!

Kenneth Chan:

Today we started our service trip with another wonderful chapel at around 8:30 in the morning. The children sang songs and recited many prayers for the Lord. There was also a short sermon at the end. After the chapel, I finished painting the bench with lacquer to keep it in its prime condition. It took all morning to finish painting the bench. After, we started to weed even more until it was time for break.

After the break, I started to work on the school's library, cutting labels for the books. There were stacks of books everywhere. We looked through every one of the books in order to create a barcode to scan them easily. Afterwards, we printed the barcodes and taped them to the back of the book. Now, all we have left to do is to create the spine label for the books, in order to put them on the shelf. 

Tyler Chin:

Today was a very productive day at Canterbury Christian school. When we arrived at the school, we were seated in their beautiful chapel and listened to a sermon by one of the priests. After the sermon, we split up to do multiple tasks such as staining a bench, cleaning folding tables, library catalog and weeding. I was assigned to cleaning the folding tables with a hose and magic eraser. After a short break, we went to the lunch area to transfer wood to the parking area in order to cut it tomorrow without disturbing any of the students. The wood was very heavy, but with the power of friendship and teamwork, we were able to move most of the wood. We then were sent to lunch where we were met by the neighbor's cat named Willy. Willy was very gentle and let us pet him. After an exciting lunch, we moved the rest of the wood and split up again to do sweeping and library catalog. Overall, today’s service at Canterbury was very fulfilling and I am very excited to see what we will do tomorrow.

Christina Kilgore:

Our morning started with the daily church ceremony led by one of the Fathers. After this, we started our morning tasks: staining the bench & organizing the library. Once our tasks were completed, we did some more weeding. We decided to take a break & snacked on some bagels & goldfish. Then, it was time to start working again. Half of us went to continue working in the library, while the other half took on the daunting task of moving logs. The log group had some successes & some failures. Fortunately, no logs were dropped on anyone. After some hard work, we ate lunch together as a group & chatted about school, college, food, and many other topics. As we were eating, we met a furry friend—Willy. Willy is a cute neighborhood cat. He showed us around the church & tried to eat our leftover food. Getting to meet & play with Willy was one of the highlights of our day. We then had to say goodbye to our beloved furry friend and returned to moving logs and organizing the library. Overall, the day went well, and our hard work was rewarded through Willy’s company. 

Grace Wong:

Today, we started off the day at chapel again. After that, we split into groups to help organize the library, refinish a bench, clean the gutters, and help out with other odd jobs around the school.

Our group went to help with the library, spending the whole morning organizing piles of donated books, unused desks, and other miscellaneous items. It was fun but very time-consuming to sort through the hundreds of books, and even more time-consuming and complicated to figure out the digital library system and set up the program to create barcodes for unlabeled books.

After lunch, which was filled with meaningful conversations and good food, our group went back to cataloging books. We spent quite a while trying to figure out how to print labels, but ultimately learned a lot about how much work goes into running a library. It was a satisfying day, and I’m sure tomorrow will bring new challenges but also new experiences!

Aleksander Mazin:

It was our second day serving at Canterbury Elementary School. Father Matias opened with a song which taught kids how to set dinnerware, and preached about how Jesus and a Costco receipt checker were related. After, we started to clean out the library, separating the books into different piles, including educational books, fictional stories, and much more. After we finished, we each split into groups. 

Our group was tasked with sanding a bench and pouring primer onto it after we had finished. We had to sand it quite well, so it took around 2 or 3 hours! Once we had finished sanding, we poured a bit of the primer onto the smooth surface, and decided to do the rest the next day. Then, we were tasked with replacing 2 of the clocks found on the campus. Finally, we played a game where we would describe the day in two words, and closed in prayer.

Reid Black:

Today our main projects were pulling weeds, laying down new mulch, and overall improvement of the campus. We started our day with the students in the chapel, where we attended a small service. The service was very interesting and the speaker had some great points that we kept with us throughout the day. It was interesting to see the students' daily routine and the way they approached a school day. 

The work was very beneficial to me personally, and most of the other students. It provided time to talk and hang out with each other, while doing the work we were trying to accomplish. We were very efficient in our tasks, and even finished before the day was over. We all learned a lot about the act and gift of serving, and lots of us seemed to have a great time with each other. 

Grant Du:

As we walk into Canterbury, Father Macias delivered a beautiful service to the students and us as spectators. Clearly, they focused much on education in Christ and other important subjects. Oftentimes, I could feel the presence of God throughout. We listened attentively as the children recited many times parts of the Bible and other holy texts.

As for our service, we started with morning stretches led by Ms. Su. We pulled weeds from the front of the school and removed the invasive pests from the growing plants. Later we added rubber mulch to the existing play structure, which would certainly help the kids have a more enjoyable time, lest any unfortunate fall or other accident. After a lunch spent talking with Christina and KJ about traveling, we continued weeding, this time in the back of the school. We ended with a stretch and played our version of “Rose, Bud, Thorn.” It was a good day.

We are so excited that we get to partner with Canterbury Christian School for this year's local community service trips! Our team of 10 TKA students and 2 staff will be helping with campus improvement and beautification projects from Monday, April 11 to Thursday, April 14. What a wonderful opportunity for students to learn and experience firsthand how meaningful service can be done just around the corner from where we live.