Our chapel teachers led this morning’s service in the gym. After singing O Canada, reciting the Lord’s Prayer and listening to the Land Acknowledgement, Mrs. Saballa and Ms. Wong led the singing of “Not be Shaken”. They also led the reading of Ephesians 6:10-18, which is the extended passage that supports our theme this year – “Quest for the King’s Armour”.
Next, representatives from our two Grade 4 classes announced this month’s Care and Share event for the food bank at the 105 Gibson Centre. Students can bring in non-perishable food, hygiene and baby products from September 22-24th. Those who contribute can wear casual clothes on Wednesday, September 24th. Each of our classes, from Toddler to Grade 8, are being challenged to bring at least 105 items as part of this initiative.
Our second worship song was “This I Believe (The Creed)”. While everyone was singing, Mrs. V quietly moved from her position playing bass guitar and into her “Sir Learns-a-lot” attire. As the sound of royal trumpets blasted, Mrs. V reprised her role to remind the students of the theme for this year, the theme verse and the various components of God’s armour. This was a great segue to a video about how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three characters from the Book of Daniel, armoured up with truth. To the delight of the audience, the video was created by and starred Wesley teachers! With great humour and fun, the teachers retold the story of how these three young Jewish men chose to remain faithful to God by refusing to bow down to worship the King’s statue. Because of their defiance, they were thrown into a fiery furnace, where they were joined by a heavenly fourth figure. The men remained unscathed by the heat. Seeing the power of the God of the three men, King Nebuchadnezzar decreed that everyone should honour the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
After the video, Sir Learns-a-lot and the other teachers led the singing of a song called “Burning Up, It’s Burning Up”. Even though it was new to everyone, the teachers and students could be seen dancing and echoing the lyrics.
Then, Sir Learns-a-lot spent the remaining time sharing how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose to wear the Armour of God. Several Grade 8 students also read from Daniel 1 to provide context for how these young men had already established a life of faith and integrity (by refusing to eat the king’s food) in an earlier part of their lives.
To conclude, Sir Learns-a-lot focused on some questions that helped the students think about how they can apply all of this to their own lives. Chapel service then ended with the reading of the benediction together.