Hillcrest starts the year off with a variety of chapels

Elizabeth Slater enjoys the outdoor hymn sing during chapel

During these two weeks in Hillcrest Academy chapels, we did a variety of things. For part of the time, our guiding scripture was Mark 1:9-13 when Jesus was baptized and then was tempted in the wilderness.

On Tuesday, September 8, we met in our small groups for chapel. This was only the second time we met, so we continued to develop our ways of working together as a group.

Wednesday, September 9 featured Jacob Kirkwood from Faith Baptist Bible College. Jacob shared with us about allowing the difficult times to be ways that God uses us for God’s purposes.

On Thursday, we spent some time with the Mark 1:9-13 passage. After some time of reflecting on it in homeroom groups, Lee Ebersole shared a few thoughts on the message of love that came through as God broke through the clouds. That message of love and acceptance is ours today.

One of the things that we often do early in the year is to get to know our new faculty and staff. On Friday, we heard from Laurie Bender and Wendy Paiva about their faith and how they came to work at Hillcrest. We also heard from Anita Beachy who was subbing for Sierra Cheney since the start of school since Sierra was on maternity leave. This was Anita’s last day.

Then on Monday the 14th, Chris Nachtigall shared his story of his faith development and what influenced him in his relationship with God.

Tuesday was a late start, so we did not have chapel that day. On Wednesday the 16th, we heard baptism stories from 3 students and 1 faculty member. They spoke of what influenced them and what it meant to be baptized.

On Thursday, we were blessed with a skit of the Mark 1:9-13 passage. After viewing the skit, we had some followup discussion questions that we responded to in our small groups.

We wrapped up our week with an outdoor hymn sing led by Mike Wagner and Lee Ebersole.