Bemidji’s Kingdom Builders Christian School Lights Christmas Garlands For Downtown

25 students from the Kingdom Builders Christian School in Bemidji gathered to help out the First City of Lights Foundation prepare for lighting up Bemidji for Christmastime…but to the school, there was deeper meaning for the project that included taking initiative and teamwork.

“Kind of the vision of the whole school is to be the hands and feet of Christ and for us to go out and give God the glory for what we’re doing.” said Kingdom Builders Christian School Founder and Principal Jon Ness, “So when we’re doing this, it’s not so much that we’re doing a project as we’re just helping out our community, but we have all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade. They all work together. And it’s kind of funny because the little ones end up running the show and the older ones just kind of help out and take care of them, you know?”

In total, the students will be taking off the old lights and putting on new lights for 100 pieces of garland, which will be put up on the lampposts in downtown.

“Kids are really excited about it and they walk around, they say, ‘Oh, we did that and we did that.'” said Ness, “And, you know, we always keep bringing it back to, you know, this is just what God wants us to do. He wants us to help each other out and wants us to be there for each other.”

Last year the Kingdom Builders Christian students also volunteered to help the Night We Light by building their gift box display. But by teaching the kids how to take initiative within these projects, the school believes that they are working on much more than just putting together Christmas lights.

“A lot of different schooling styles get a bad rap for trying to keep their kids safe from society. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to prepare our kids to be in society. We want them to be successful. We want people to look to them for leadership. We want these kids just to be able to be ready to go out and and serve when they graduate from here.”

This year’s “Night We Light” Celebration will take place in Bemidji on November 28th.