Highlights for August 2016

Current news and prayer requests for ACSI Europe

Student Leadership Conference - Asia After 17 years of impacting students through our SLC in Europe, this event has now been introduced in Asia for the blessing of Christian schools primarily in Taiwan and the surrounding countries. Paul Madsen has been collaborating over the past several months with a new SLC team at Morrison Academy to host the event - called C3 - for 70 students and chaperones from August 1-5, 2016. This event challenges students from Christian schools specifically in their concept and application of Biblical leadership and service. Paul had a beautiful time there working with the team, sharing with students and leading teacher workshops. We are so grateful for the opportunities God gives to bless students in a different cultural setting and challenge them to Christ-centered leadership and service in their schools and communities. Please pray with us for the continued impact of this event in their lives and in future years by God's grace.

The conference included 52 students from 4 different schools.	Each student participated in the sessions and activities designed to help them think about Leadership in terms of Commission, Compassion and Calling.

Ben Yap, director of ACSI Australia, led the main sessions and challenged students to answer God's call to lead and serve. The sessions included practical lessons on Commission, Compassion, Calling and Prayer.	One day was spent in ministry to elderly and disabled Taiwanese people through a local hospital. This reinforced the concept of compassion as each student interacted with these new friends in games, music and conversation.

Now, please pray for our 18th annual Student Leadership Conference in Hungary from September 28 - October 1, which will include over 350 participants from 40 Christian schools and 18 countries. Bill Stevens will be speaking on the theme "Picking up the Towel of Leadership". We want to see God move in each of their lives and call them to serve and lead for Him in their communities. You can learn more about SLC Europe 2016 at acsieurope.org/home/SLC-2016/16/258/en/

ACSI Europe taught two summer institutes this month.
The first one was on "21st Century Learning in the Christian School". This course was the first time we offered our training in a blended format. Besides the in-class sessions, course participants also used our Moodle Online Learning Management System.
Topics included: Why is 21st Century Learning Critical for the Christian School? Comparing/Contrasting 20th and 21st Century Education Paradigms. What Teaching Methods did Jesus Use? Framework for 21st Century Learning. Developing Learning and Innovation Skills (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity). Enhancing Your 21st Century Classroom Practices (Blended Learning, Digital Classroom, Debate, Cooperative Learning, Formative Assessment, Bloom's Mastery Learning and Taxonomy, Daggett's Application Model, Project Based Learning.

The second institute offered training on "Teaching with a Mentor's Heart".This course was designed to equip Christian teachers for successful ministry and service among their students looking for mentoring opportunities, helping those struggling with their learning or with spiritual issues. We used two books as the text for this training: Mentoring Millennials by Dr. Daniel Egeler, and Totally Positive Teaching by Joseph Ciaccio.
One teacher shared at the end of this training that she was seriously thinking about quitting teaching. However, this training helped her see that the "twinkling eyes of her students are more meaningful to her than anything else".
We praise God for allowing us to see the fruits of our efforts from time to time.