Neely McLoed grew up attending Connection Pointe, and was a passionate member of The Net as a young adult.

After serving on six travel teams through high school and college, God led her to a full-time position working alongside of VisionTrust Guatemala in 2019.

Neely is about to complete her first year in Los Verdes, during which she taught English, led worship, and hosted travel teams.  She is excited to return for the 2020 school year.

Along with Country Director, Rut Chamale, Director of Education, Mariela de Lara, and VisionTrust Partner Liason, Ashley Hentrich, Neely will visit Brownsburg and Connection Pointe November 8-10, 2019.

We look forward to hosting our Guatemala team at CP on November 9 at 6:30 pm. in Room 202 (dinner included). Please RSVP HERE to let us know you will be there!

EDUCATION … Do we “Get It”?

One day in English class, as the 8th grade students were working through some assigned material in their workbooks, I noticed one student struggling to complete his work. I walked over and asked if he had a question about something. He replied with, “Everything. I don’t get it”.

I sat with him and explained again how to conjugate the verb, order the sentence and had him try a few on his own. He completed one, looked up at me and said, “it’s wrong, isn’t it?”. I looked over his work and told him, “Nope! You’ve got it. That’s right. Keep going!” He did the next few and called me over to check his work. After I affirmed that he had completed the sentences correctly, he looked up and exclaimed to the class in genuine excitement, “GUYS! I LEARNED! Look! I learned!”. I wish I could’ve audio-recorded his voice, because his tone carried so much more than mere happiness about getting his sentence right; he was proud of himself, and had discovered a new-found confidence (even if for a moment).

Education empowers. I’ve seen it first hand – in the way understanding a new concept can transform a student’s countenance from desperation to joy, their pride and contentment when they’ve studied hard for a test and they find out they’ve scored well, the responsibility, compassion and patience students express when they take the time to explain a concept to a classmate who hasn’t mastered it yet.

And yet, it’s not about the achievements of education in and of themselves. It’s not just the grade point average or diploma or the tangible accomplishments that empower. Education isn’t solely about opening doors of opportunity for the future, but rather, it enables our students – and all of us who continue to take the posture of “learners”- to become more fully who we were made to be.

The process of learning keeps us humble, reminding us that we don’t know everything – it gives us the opportunity to own our mistakes or hide them, to develop grace and understanding with ourselves and our peers, to fail and succeed and decide where we will root our identities and what will we let define us – the things we achieve or who we belong to?

Education isn’t merely the imparting of knowledge, but rather, it’s an embodiment of the Gospel. To educate is to affirm that we are all image-bearers, worthy of the opportunity to fail, grow, and deepen our understanding of our World, of the Word, and of the One who made us.

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