The winter winds have really blown in these first few weeks of January. We’ve all had to quickly transition from a surprisingly mild early winter to snow and ice covering our front lawns and temperatures dipping well below the freezing mark. This winter weather and more COVID outbreaks caused schools to close and some families to find themselves back in quarantine conditions.

Andrew Chapel Preschool was affected by these closures and then some. High winds and cold temperatures during our recent winter storm blew out a part of the heating system which needed repair. This resulted in a couple of extra days at home with little ones for our preschool parents, just before already scheduled days off coinciding with the public-school calendar.

Even adults these days feel the weight of being stuck at home, and Andrew Chapel Preschool’s teachers and staff knew that parents with small children would be feeling that stress even more. Ever insightful, this amazing team of teachers noticed the stress parents were feeling and saw an opportunity to give back. So, in the spirit of caring for the well-being of the whole family, they volunteered to staff classrooms on their days off to help give parents a break.

Extending support and concern to anyone affected by the challenges of this season is just another example of Being the Church. We all have the capacity to demonstrate love to our neighbors like the example of our preschool staff—we all can Be the Church by noticing someone suffering, in ways big and small, and thinking creatively about little steps we can take collectively to help alleviate it.