Christian school honors veterans at ‘Salute to Service’
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WINTERSVILLE -- Students at Jefferson County Christian School spent this Veterans Day week learning about service from the people who lived it.
As part of the school’s annual Salute to Service, Pastor Thomas Williams spoke to students about his journey of recovery after being shot in the face during the Vietnam War. Williams, author of the book “Shot in the Mouth and Still Preaching,” told students how he survived a wound which could have taken his life and his voice, and how God carried him through recovery and into a lifetime of ministry.
For students who know the Vietnam War mainly as a chapter in a history book, the visit offered a different kind of lesson, one with a face, a voice and a testimony. Williams’ story connected the sacrifice of military service with the perseverance of faith, and showed students that a life can be marked by a terrible wound without being defined by it.
JCCS high school students also celebrated the birthday of the United States Marine Corps this week. The corps was founded on Nov. 10, 1775, and Marines, including those on active duty, joined students to mark its 251st year.
“What better way to reinforce to students the idea of service,” said Donavon Martin, the school’s American history and Bible teacher said. “The Lord calls us to deny self and become selfless. By placing the success of the mission and protection of their fellow warriors ahead of self, our members of the military, past and present, provide the students an outstanding example of the virtue of selflessness. It is humbling and an honor to be tasked with highlighting their stories to the next generation.”
Events like the Salute to Service carry special weight because the opportunity to hear these stories firsthand will not last forever, school officials said. The generation that served in Vietnam is growing older, and every year fewer veterans of that era are able to stand in front of a classroom and tell young people what they saw, what they lost, and what carried them through.
When students hear those accounts in person, history becomes personal. Freedom stops being an abstract idea and becomes something real people paid for. Words like duty, courage, and sacrifice take on meaning when the person saying them has lived them.
Scripture gives the same charge. Psalm 78 calls God’s people to tell “the generation to come” of his strength and his wonderful works, so that children yet unborn might learn and set their hope in him. Teaching students to honor those who served is part of that same calling: passing down not only facts and dates, but the character and faith that make a life of service possible.
That aim sits at the center of the school’s mission: to provide an education that pursues academic excellence while nurturing students’ Christian character and pointing them toward their Kingdom purpose. By bringing veterans and active-duty service members into the building, JCCS gives students examples of selflessness to follow long after they leave the classroom, school officials explained.