Don’t follow the crowd, follow Christ — that was the key message shared with our middle school students at their day-long Spiritual Emphasis Retreat on Thursday, October 10 at America’s Keswick.
Michael Melody, husband of ACS middle school science teacher Celine Melody, was the keynote speaker during chapel services at the retreat. He taught from Romans 12:1-2, this year’s Spiritual Emphasis Theme Verse, which was also highlighted on retreat class T-shirts that each student received.
Melody encouraged the some seventy 6th-8th grade students not to conform to the world, but instead to choose to follow Christ and His Word, which has the power to transform lives. He illustrated his points on conformity by showing videos from “Brain Games” of people following the crowd. He also compared following the crowd to placing a domesticated dog in with a pack of wolves. Would the dog become like the wolves or will the wolves become tame like a dog?Â
ACS faculty members Hayley Price and Jaron Beadle led the students in praise and worship during the three chapel services. Following two of the services, teachers led students in small group discussions.
In addition to chapel and worship time, the students enjoyed a variety of activities, including swimming, a nature walk, volleyball, basketball, nerf archery tag, racquetball, and tennis. The students had a lot of fun competing in a large group game in teams with their homerooms, with the 8th graders taking first place.
CLICK HERE to view of gallery of photos taken at the retreat.
