Our Student Worship Team led this morning’s elementary chapel service. After singing O Canada, reciting the Lord’s Prayer and listening to the Land Acknowledgement, the Worship Team led the singing of “Praise” by Elevation Worship. It is a favourite amongst our students and the gym filled with raised arms, jumping students and smiles.
Next, our two senior classes performed their memory verse presentations. Grade 8A opened up with a student playing the theme from “Chariots of Fire”. A few of the students, dressed in Wesley Wildfire jerseys, acted as a relay team and passed to torch to each other as the rest of the class recited parts of Hebrews 12:1-3, emphasizing that we are not alone and need to support each other in our race for God. The Grade 8B class performed Psalm 139:13-16 in segments, finishing each with a tableau to reflect the part that they had just recited. To conclude, the entire class recited the whole passage together.
After the presentations, the Worship Team led the singing of “Living Hope” by Phil Wickham. This is also another familiar and favourite song. The gym filled with praise, especially during the chorus.
This was followed by a “National Truth and Reconciliation Day at WCA” slide show. Each class completed a special activity to deepen their understanding about what happened in the past to many of our indigenous people and how we can change how we move forward. Activities ranged from designing orange shirts to writing haiku poetry based on articles from the UN Charter – Rights of a Child.
Representatives from the Grade 4 classes then gave an update on the September Care and Share event for the food bank at the 105 Gibson Centre. Together, we collected 3,196 items! What a wonderful way to start the school year!
The students then rose to their feet to sing, clap and dance to “Be strong in the Lord”.
Our last part of the service today was an interview with Mr. Au, our Phys. Ed teacher. To continue our theme of “Armour Up with Truth”, he recounted a story in which he was tempted to lie about something but chose to tell the truth, despite pressure to do the opposite. Mr. Au shared that he runs a small informal volleyball league. The organization is so small that they do not hire refs, rather they call the plays themselves. During a playoff match, a ball landed on the line. Most of the players on his team called it out, mainly to give themselves the advantage and the extra point. However, Mr. Au clearly saw the ball land on the line. He told the truth and it cost his team. However, Mr. Au emphasized that every action matters. Each action can result in the formation of a habit. If we start lying once, we can easily form a habit of lying. When asked how he wears the “belt of truth” in his daily life, he shared that telling the truth is a responsibility. As a Christian, we are doubly accountable. We are accountable to the people around us but more importantly, to God. He also knows he is a role model not only to the students at Wesley but to other who may not know Christ. Living a life of truth and integrity is very important to him and what Jesus calls us to do.
Before the service ended, a video to promote the Walk-a-thon, produced by several Grade 8 students, was shown. There are two more weeks in our fundraising period!
To conclude, the Worship Team led the recitation of the benediction and the theme verse.