Our Worship Team led this morning’s chapel service. After the pledges, the Lord’s Prayer, O Canada and The Land Acknowledgement, the Worship Leaders opened the service with “Jesus You’re My Superhero”.
The leaders then read Isaiah 9:6 which announced the coming of the Saviour who would be known as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This introduced the next song, “You are Holy (Prince of Peace)”, which was sung with a separate boys’ and girls’ part. Today, the boys made a conscious effort to sing as boldly as the girls!
Next, the audience read the passage from Luke 2:13-14 together. It was about the host of angels that praised God as Jesus’s birth was being shared with the shepherds.
This was followed by December’s Care and Share announcement shared by representatives from the Grade 8 class. On December 16th, the Grade 8A class will be going to the Salvation Army’s Markham location to help sort toys for Toy Mountain. The Grade 8B class will have the same opportunity on December 18th. The students shared that they would like to purchase gift cards for teens in need who may not get an age appropriate gift this Christmas. With the money collected on Care & Share Day on Monday, December 16th, the Grade 8 class will go out to buy gift cards to donate to Toy Mountain.
After the announcement, the Worship Leaders launched into an upbeat song called “Praise” (Elevation Music and Brandon Lake). Even though it was a song that was new to Wesley, the students responded with enthusiasm.
Our guest speaker this morning was Pastor Ian from Christ Emmanuel Community Church. His message was about Advent. He began by showing pictures of different types of Advent calendars – Lego, Avengers, Lindt Chocolate, etc. Next he clarified what Advent is really about – the first season of the Christian calendar and the anticipation and celebration of the birth of the Messiah. He explained that between the writing of the last book of the Old Testament and the start of the New Testament, there were 400 years of silence. It did not mean that God was not present or did not do any miracles, only that they were not recorded. During that time, there were lots of questions asked and lots of wondering – will God rescue his people, will God ever speak again, will love come down? Advent is about pausing, pondering and waiting. It is about re-centering and re-focusing on Jesus’s arrival. Pastor Ian, in his Super Practical Application Time challenged the students to STOP one activity so that they can be more Jesus focused and also to START one activity to be more Jesus focused during this time leading up to Christmas. He concluded in prayer, apologizing to God on behalf of himself and everyone in the room for being selfish and focused on other things and asking Him for help to prepare our hearts now for the celebration of Jesus’s birth (and not just on the 24th of December) by helping us STOP a distraction as well as START an activity to allow us to focus more on Christ.
To wrap up today’s chapel service, the Worship Leaders led the audience in reciting an aspiration passage to know the love of God and reflect Him in our words, actions and deeds to others around us.
