Fall Week of Prayer

There are so many reasons why I love working at the Saipan SDA Elementary. One of them is that although I spend a lot of time working on fundraisers and other exciting stuff in the office, I also get the chance to break away from all my exciting chaos and spend Friday chapel time in the mornings with the kids. During our Fall Week of Prayer, every day was like Friday. Every morning we gathered in our snug chapel area to sing songs and listen to a short worship thought. Our theme was “God’s Promises.”

At Mt. Ellis Academy, Week of Prayer was a big deal. We always had a group of students lead out in songs, there was some kind of decoration put up and lots of effort went in to creating an atmosphere of worship and reverence. I wanted to help create that for the school here. Our Principal Mr. Berglund is quite genius at encouraging so many elementary age kids to participate in the reverent atmosphere of chapel time. Still, I wanted the week to stand out, so the art teacher Becky Bailey and I created a large banner with our theme to put on the wall up front. Kuya Joe, our schools maintenance man and carpenter extraordinar, built us a wooden cross that could stand on the chapel stage.

That last bit of preparation was in planning the music. I had never led out in singing up front before, and I had also never played my mandolin in public before. The two made for quite an exciting time for me. Like my speech teacher always said, “fake it till you make it.” However, if one is learning to play an instrument or lead out in song service, (or both in my case), an audience of elementary students is the best place start. They don’t judge you for messing up. In fact, they were so enamored with my mandolin that they didn’t really seem to care that our theme song “Shout to the Lord” was both off tempo AND off key. Sorry Dad, I don’t think I inherited your musical ability.  

One of the mornings I also was the worship speaker. My topic was on listening for Gods voice. I told the kids a short story about a farmer and a lawyer who went walking in busy downtown Manhattan…..

Right in the center of Manhattan, the farmer seized his friend’s arm and whispered, “Wait. I hear a cricket.” His friend remarked, “A Cricket? This is downtown New York, you can't possibly hear a cricket.” The farmer persisted, “No, I really do.” “It’s impossible!” was the response. “You can’t hear a cricket! Taxis are going by. Horns are honking. People are screaming at each other. Brakes are screeching. Both sides of the street are filled with people. Cash registers are clanging away. Subways are roaring beneath us. You can’t possibly hear a cricket.” The farmer then declared “wait a minute!” He led his friend along, slowly. They stopped, and the farmer walked down to the end of the block, went across the street, looked around, cocked his head to one side, but couldn't find it. He went across another street, and there in a large cement planter where a tree was growing, he dug into the mulch and found the cricket. “See!” he yelled, as he held the insect high above his head. His friend walked across the street, marveling, “How in the world could it be that you heard a cricket in the middle of downtown, busy Manhattan?” The farmer replied, “well, my ears are different from yours. It simply depends on what you’re listening for. Here let me show you.” And he reached in his pocket and pulled out a handful of change--a couple of quarters, three or four nickels, and some dimes and pennies. Then he said, “now watch.” He held the coins waist high and dropped them to the sidewalk. Every head within a block turned around and looked in the direction of the farmer.

I love sharing that story because so many lessons can be taken from just a simple story about listening. When I wasn’t playing music or setting up projectors I was taking pictures for the yearbook. Lots of fun moments to capture. Here are some snapshots from the week: