Students Experience 'Ruin to Redemption'

Story by Ashley Boggess

“I’ve been redeemed/by the blood of the Lamb/I’ve been redeemed/by the blood of the Lamb/I’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb/Filled with the Holy Ghost I am/All my sins are washed away/I’ve been redeemed.”

Students voices echoed the theme song during the fall Week of Prayer. Themed “From Ruin to Redemption,” the week followed the story of Ruth and Naomi. This story began amid ruin: Naomi and her family fled Israel in the middle of a famine. The senior class depicted the struggles that Naomi, Ruth and their family experienced. First a famine, then death, then age. Naomi finally decided to return home, and Ruth accompanied her.

The senior class acted out a skit each morning, followed by Webster Sterling’s devotional that focused on the redemptive power of faith in God. Sterling, the school chaplain, led the students on a journey of revival. He emphasized the fact that when we listen to God and follow His plan, we find peace and provision. Just like Ruth and Naomi, who needed to put their faith in God and His leading, so do we. Ruth and Naomi needed a Redeemer. Their earthly redeemer came in the form of Boaz, but our Redeemer is Jesus Christ.

“I really like that the skit helped me to be able to see the story and understand it deeper,” says third-grader Schneider Boamah.

At the conclusion of Week of Prayer, the students and faculty met in the parking lot. The praise team led the school family in worship songs. Through the singing and praying, participants who had previously written down prayer requests, burned their sheets of paper in a prayer box. This annual tradition helps students visualize their prayers returning to God and to know that He hears their requests, say staff.

The Sabbath service was a high day for the school. Not only was it the final sermon of the week but firstgrader Lionel Ramos got baptized. School leaders share that it is always a blessing when students hear the call of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts and commit their lives to Jesus. They praise God for His many blessings and the ways in which they saw His guiding hand through the Week of Prayer.