Spiritual Emphasis Day 2013

The Thursday before Spring Break was an exciting day for the high school students at Calvary Christian Schools, as this was Spiritual

Life Emphasis Day! Spiritual Life Emphasis Day is special because it’s not just a day off from regular class schedules, but a day taken to reflect on our beliefs. The fact that it was on our last day of school before “Easter Break” made our reflections seem more important than ever.

After a fun bus ride to the Reformed Campgrounds, South of Grand Haven, we arrived at the camp which is located in the woods along beautiful Lake Michigan. It’s the perfect place for this kind of activity.

This year the high school learned about persecuted Christians in other countries. Mr. Collins spoke for the first half. Living in America with all of the freedoms that we have, we do not realize all of the freedoms that are taken away from people in other countries. Some people can not even go to church without the fear of being killed. In America we can go to church freely with no fear.

We had the music pastor from Harvest Bible Chapel to lead us in worship. Some of the songs that we sang were: One Thing Remains, Blessed Be Your Name, and The Revelation Song.

We then were introduced to our main speaker who represented the “Open Doors USA” organization. She spoke about the persecuted Christians that are found all over the world today! It is hard to believe that in these modern times there are still places where people don’t have the freedom of religion. Some of the worst places for the persecutions of Christians are countries like North Korea, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia. She then showed us a short video before we broke for lunch. After a tasty pizza, veggie and brownie lunch, we then had a free hour to explore the campground or just hangout.

When we got back together after lunch we saw another video. This one was about a terrorist from Indonesia who eventually changed his ways and became a Christian.

We then broke up into small groups to study about countries where persecution still exists and then we prayed for all those who are still persecuted today. We got a sheet of paper that had a country on it and it had a story about a person being persecuted in that country. At the end we all got bracelets that looked like barbed wire to remind us to pray for the persecuted Christians around the world. For me being able to go to my own church without fear is amazing. It makes me think that so many people can not even go to their own church without fear of being persecuted.

- Cory Greeno and Samantha Nesbitt