Operation Christmas Child Visits Evangel
Operation Christmas Child, a ministry under Samaritan’s Purse, asks people to fill shoe boxes with items and love yearly, to distribute to children in need around the world. From basic essentials like toothbrushes and bars of soap to fun activities like crayons and flash cards, people around the world give a little bit of hope to children who may not otherwise have any.
Evangel Christian School continued our tradition of packing shoe boxes. On Friday, November 13th we dedicated these shoe boxes to the Lord at our chapel services. Students shared testimonies about what packing a shoebox meant to them. We prayed that these shoe boxes would reach their destinations and that the child whose hand a shoebox landed in would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
We then received the honor of having a film crew from Operation Christmas Child come to Evangel on Tuesday, November 17th to film our students praying over their shoe boxes. Selected students also went up to our roof to shoot various plugs for OCC! This footage will be used in future Operation Christmas Child promotional videos. How exciting! The OCC film crew and staff were impressed with our children’s enthusiasm and the abundance of shoe boxes collected. Colorful posters and even some students wearing self-made t-shirts graced the sanctuary for all to know that Evangel loves Operation Christmas Child!
In total, 211 shoeboxes were packed and more than $800 (that could be visibly seen in a shoebox) in donations were collected. These donations cover the shipping costs for each of the shoe boxes.
More than 69 million children world-wide have been impacted by Operation Christmas Child and Evangel is so proud to be a part of this. Check out pictures from our chapel and the film crew coming to visit in the Galleries section of our website!
We pray that many children will be blessed this Christmas season! Thanks to everyone who helped to make this event a success!
Beyond the Calling
Beyond the Calling, a hip-hop group that was actually formed at Evangel Christian School over two years ago, ministered at our High School Chapel. Melanie Chong and Luis Alers are alumni and Joaquin Pardo and Ryan Diaz are in 12th grade at ECS. This group has written several songs such as, “Ain’t Ashamed,” “Ain’t My Home,” “Spiritual Love” and “Slave to Righteousness”.
Beyond the Calling’s purpose and mission is to get the Message out to all – through the Word and Music. They feel that there are two callings. The one that God has for His children as well as the calling the World offers. They feel they need to live beyond the calling of the world, hence the name of their group and the focus of their ministry.
God really used this group to minister to our students and to challenge them to live above the world.
Beyond The Calling is scheduled to release their debut album Spring 2010.
Cowboys and Indians
We had an interesting review in Social Studies this week. We were cowboys and Indians for the Harvest festival. It was the Cowboys against the Indians and it tied right in to our previous lesson about how the Indians were changed by the settlers leading us into the very first Thanksgiving. After our game of Jeopardy the Indians won taking a lead of 13-10. However all the children felt as if they won because all of them reviewed the lesson.
Mrs. Emestica
Healthy Eating
Here we are at it again with the Healthy eating challenge. This time the fifth grade presented a Healthy Eating Fair to the whole school. Middle school, High School and staff members were all invited to take a taste test and vote. We wanted to find out two things. What was the winning recipe and how many students would be willing to taste fruits and vegetables if presented in a different way. Our winning recipe was from Zephaniah Vaughn who brought in a vegetable platter of raw vegetables with vegetable dip. Another piece of information we found out was that there were over 350 tastes taken with the majority by High School students.
Mrs. Emestica
Harvest Fun Fair
This year’s Elementary School’s Harvest Fun Fair was a blast! Students dressed up as Pilgrims, Indians, and Turkeys – talk about cute!!!!!!!! The children also had an opportunity to play several games, such as Tic Tac Toe Ring Toss, Turkey in the Straw and Roll The Gourd. Our Elementary School students were able to work on Pilgrim and Indian crafts, as well as getting their face painted by our talented National Honor Society students. The day ended with each student receiving a bag full of candy. A perfect ending to a perfect day!
Please check out “Galleries” for some cute pictures!
World Hunger
5E cares about world hunger. The students were presented with a challenge to think of a solution to end world hunger. There were many ideas like raising money through bake sales to creating organizations that help raise money to by food. One student wrote about the need to consume less food and not throw anything away, another student said that they would build a garden that could continually give food out to the people in need. This encouraged the children to not waist food at home and also encouraged them to think about others that are less fortunate then they are.
Mrs. Emestica
POETRY JAM
This year’s annual Poety Jam was exactly what it sounds like – a “Jam!”. This entire event was planned and set up by a committee of students who worked hard to put it together according to the guidelines given to them. The Poetry Jam was an opportunity given to the students to open up about certain topics. Some wrote about who their heroes are, gave us short photo memories of their life in the form of haikus, and some expressed their true feelings about sensitive topics. About 3 students also decided to share their individual talents in the form of music. While some presentations were comical and put smiles on our faces, others were heart-felt and brought tears to our eyes. We had a great time of eating catered food and goodies, to God moving miraculously among us. I can honestly say that it was a blessing for me and the students as well. I saw the love of God shining from the students’ faces as they shared favorite memories with friends and told us of how Evangel has been a great influence in their lives by showing them who God was and the love that He has for every individual student and staff member in Evangel. We had two special guests who spoke to the students about how God wants to work in their lives and the plans that He has in store for them, and the students really opened up to receive the message. This event was truly beautiful in every way, from the Jazz theme decorations, to the outfits that the sudents wore, all the way to how God is working in each and every life. I would like to thank the senior class of 2010 for being so cooperative and for helping out in everyway they did. I feel that this event has sewn the lives of these students closely and into a family that shares the love of Christ.