Our chapel leaders opened this morning’s service with the singing of O Canada and the Land Acknowledgement. This was followed with the singing of “Forever” by Chris Tomlin.
We were blessed to have Chloe Oliva (WCA Class of 2017) join us to share about her faith journey and her ministry with Ambassadors for Christ (AFC). She shared how her seeds of faith were planted at Wesley. At the time, she did not fully understand the Bible lessons and all that she had been taught through memory verses and chapel messages. She even confessed that there were times in her life when she wandered, just like the Prodigal Son, but God never let go of her. It was a “full circle moment” for her to be back at Wesley. She also shared that she would be working for AFC, in particular, reaching out to high school and university students to help them with their faith journey. Our Care & Share event on Monday, June 16th, will be to support Chloe and her work through AFC.
Our theme this week is about integrity. A group of Grade 8 students shared an object lesson using an egg and a rock to talk about integrity as seen through the story of Daniel. Through the use of a document camera, the students were able to see the Grade 8’s smash an egg with a hammer and the resilience of a rock when they hit it three times with the same hammer. The Grade 8’s encouraged the students to have rock hard faith like Daniel so that they would not crack like an egg under pressure. This can be done by trusting in God under all circumstances and doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.
After singing a fun version of “Give Me Oil in My Lamp”, Ms. Tam was called up to share the results of the WCA Reading Contest called “I Read so I Sea”. Overall, the elementary students read 4185 books! The three classes that read the most books were 4A, 2B and 7A. When averaged by the number of students per grade, the winning class was Grade 2B!
Our guest speaker this morning was Pastor Ian. He used a variety of his favourite hats to convey a simple but important message about integrity. He started with some “fun” hats like one full of different patches as well as a modern version of a “rice planter” hat. Next, he put on two different ball caps – one with “Higher Living” and the other with “Do Good” embroidered on the face. He shared that those statements are reminders about how a follower of Christ should live. We need to model our lives to a higher standard, God’s, which means a life of integrity. We also need to do good – to live out Jesus’s command to love others. Pastor Ian also put on a hat from his former Youth Fellowship Group – Junction – where faith and life intersect. That term reminds us of our relationship with God and to live out our faith – to practice what we preach. Pastor Ian then emphasized a very important point. He recognized that despite our best efforts, we will fall short. None of us are perfect. That’s when we can go to Christ for forgiveness. As Pastor Ian put on his last hat, which was a cap with an Addidas looking logo that actually said “Addicted to Christ”, he emphasized three points. In order to live a life of integrity and grow in our relationship with God, we need to:
- Learn from Jesus’s example
- Ask for forgiveness right away when we fall short. When we do that, we will experience His grace and mercy.
- Hold each other accountable and encourage each other in our walk with Christ.
Pastor Ian closed in prayer, asking for God’s guidance to help all of us be CRISP leaders.
The chapel leaders then concluded the service with the reading of our aspirational passage.
