Students at Portland Christian take at least one Bible class each year. This year’s high school students can choose from Introduction to the Bible, Foundations, Jesus’ Life, Church and Doctrine, Apologetics, and Servant Leadership.

In Servant Leadership, students have several opportunities to put their faith into action by leading through service thus making a difference in their communities. Students use various tools to explore their gifts, personalities and passions. With teacher Rachel Humphrey, they study interpersonal skills, discipleship, spiritual growth, leadership, and other key life skills. The goal is for each student to grow in their knowledge of, and love for God, and to develop a sense of how God is calling them to serve in the future.  Guest speakers share their personal experience of what it looks like to follow Jesus in their careers. Finally, as the cornerstone of the class, students develop, design, and implement individual, and group service projects.

This semester’s students came up with two group projects to choose from, one of which is collecting clothes for Project Lemonade.

Project Lemonade is a Portland, Oregon non-profit 501(c)3 with a mission to inspire self-esteem in foster youth. The organization serves 2,000 foster youth annually with a free clothes shopping experience at Lloyd Center mall. Each foster youth chooses his or her own new or nearly new outfits, accessories, and shoes.

Genesis Berlin, a 12th grader, explains why this clothing drive is important. “Some of my friends have been adopted and I know how hard it is in the foster system, and this is a way that the kids know someone cares for them.” She is the point person between the students in this project and Project Lemonade.  Each of the students, in addition to Berlin, have a role to play in this clothing drive.  Seniors Blake Bieker, Seon Choi, Vy Nguyen and 10th grader Jason Kim have made posters, written announcements to share with their fellow students, and sent out emails to school families.  They also created a box to collect the clothing and placed it in the high school main lobby.  As the box fills up, they are storing the clothes in a secure location until the end of February.  Then Berlin, Bieker, Choi, Kim and Nguyen will sort, organize and deliver the clothes to Project Lemonade, ready to be used by local children in foster care in the new school year.

“Bible class” may be more than you expect!  Project Lemonade is just one example of how the Bible is all about living “real life.”