WCGS Chapels Extend Into Family Dinners

From the Brust Family: In our family, we have one student in the 3-5 grade chapel and two in the K-2. I enjoy taking my littlest children to the worship part of the K-2 chapel, but we never get to stay in for the speaker since their bodies are too young to stay still for very long! Over dinner on chapel days, I look forward to asking my kindergarten and second grader about the speaker since I always enjoy hearing the introduction but never get to stay for the message! Usually, their first memories of the morning are the “props” the speakers use (literal or figurative) to get the students thinking. Yesterday’s chapel “prop” was the story Mrs. Clousing shared about the girl who had to walk really, really far to find a Bible! That made a huge impact on my two children since, as they discovered after some searching, we have it least a dozen Bibles at our house! 

Our review of the “little kid” chapel always prompts my fourth grader to launch into a detailed recount of the “big kid” 3-5 grade chapel. We enjoy hearing about the songs they sang and then pulling out the questions from Mr. Burgess’ email to highlight some of the speaker’s main points and fill in the cracks where her memory fails her! Chapel days are always the highlight of my kids’ weeks but it really becomes a highlight of mine too. My husband and I appreciate the opportunity to turn our dinnertime into a spontaneous “family devotion time” on chapel days!

Read the Chapel recap from our October chapels: 

K-2 Chapel

Mrs. Cindy Clousing

The students were welcomed to chapel by Mrs. Mitchell. Chloe Aneed (2P) then opened in prayer.  Mrs. Smith led all the boys and girls in singing praises to God as she accompanied on her guitar.  She was joined today by our second grade Praise Team, made up of students from both classes. Kelsey Brust (2M) then introduced our special speaker, Mrs. Cindy Clousing, whose 3 children all graduated from WCGS.

Mrs. Clousing began by telling us that she LOVES books and that her favorite room in all of WCGS is the library. Her favorite book is the Bible.  She counted the Bibles in her home and found that she has twenty different Bibles!  Mrs. Clousing challenged the students to go home and count the Bibles in their own houses.

We saw a short video clip about a girl named Mary Jones who lived more than 200 years ago in Wales. Mary wanted a Bible of her very own more than anything else. After she learned to read at the age of ten and after saving her money for almost six years, she found that a pastor who lived 25 miles from her home had Bibles in her Welsh language for sale. She walked those 25 miles (at the age of fifteen) to buy a Bible for herself. When she arrived, he told her that no Bible was available for her. In his compassion for her, he gave her a Bible that was meant for someone else. The pastor then decided to print Bibles in other languages so they would be available to many others. Because of Mary’s bravery, we now have over thirty Bible societies printing Bibles in many languages.

Mrs. Clousing closed by challenging the students that perhaps there is someone they know who does not have a Bible. When we give someone God’s Word, it becomes a treasure to him/her. We need to be grateful for all our Bibles. “Lord, help us to read Your Word, love it, and treasure it!”  We closed our chapel this morning by singing, “The B-I-B-L-E.”  At the end, all the children called out, “Let’s share it!”

3-5 Chapel

Pastor Eric Stone

We enjoyed a beautiful time of worship together led by the Jr. High Praise Team.  What a privilege to praise God together through music!  4B and 4L used Scripture and examples from their own lives to give us a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness and that we can have confidence in God.

Our speaker, school parent Eric Stone, began with a story about a 100-mile bike race that he participated in this summer.  A confusing 12-page packet of directions caused many riders to be lost, wander side streets, and be side-tracked trying to figure out the course.  However, eventually he was able to join up with a racer who had the race maps in his GPS.  This is a picture of life.  Until you figure out who it is that you are going to follow, your life will be full of chaos.  Life is full of distractions.

Mr. Stone used student volunteers to help demonstrate the story of Peter walking on water to Jesus (Matthew 14).  Complete with oars, sunglasses, a leaf blower, and more, it was a powerful visual of this important story.  Peter did a great thing in following Jesus out onto the water, but then he got distracted.  Relationships, academic success, popularity, athletic ability, looks, possessions, etc., are good things that can become distractions that cause us to lose sight of Jesus.  God often allows storms to come along to help turn our eyes back on Him.  Bad things like failure or anger can also be distractions.  Whether the distraction is a “good” thing or a “bad” thing, the answer is the same: keep your eyes on Jesus!

The students were challenged to remember 4 actions to avoid distractions (when you get that sinking feeling).  These were based off Matthew 6:9-13, the Lord’s Prayer.  Ask your child to share the motions that go with these important truths.

1. Remind me—God is our Heavenly Father whether things are going “good or bad.”  Remind me every day how good you are, God.
2. Hear me—I can take anything to God.  He hears me.
3. Search me—Don’t just believe, follow.  Is there anything in my life that I need to identify as wrong?  Grow me.  Search my heart.
4. Lead me

6-8 Chapel

Today, our Jr. High chapel focused on the second part of our year verse, “Serve Him faithfully with all your heart.”  To start chapel, Mr. Cherry distributed chocolate to the students in each grade who had answered the question, “Who are little known people in the Bible who served God faithfully?” correctly in Bible class.

Then Israel Stone (8K) shared about his trip to Houston to help those who had been affected by Hurricane Harvey.  He challenged the students to respond to trials by praying, seeking ways to support, and, if possible, to go and help.  “When we serve Him faithfully, God takes the few loaves and fishes we have and multiplies them.”  Our student worship team then led the Jr. High in songs of worship to God.

Mr. Burgess continued the theme of faithfulness in serving with a WCGS history slideshow, telling the students about all the people who have faithfully served God at WCGS to help make it what it is today.  The students enjoyed seeing old pictures of Mr. Burgess and Mr. Clum!

To conclude today’s chapel, a video was shown telling the story of Nani, a girl in the Dominican Republic.  Kids Alive was faithful in teaching her about Jesus, and now she works in the school she attended to help others know about Him.  After the video, Mrs. Zarn shared that Nani had visited WCGS a few years ago and reminded students that God uses faithful people—not perfect people—to serve Him.  (We have 8 current faculty/staff who attended WCGS and have returned to serve Him here!)

“But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.” (1 Samuel 12:24)