Keeping “Christ” in Christmas at WCA
For many, the Christmas season is such a busy time and it can be easy to forget the real reason for the season. Wake Christian Academy strives to keep “Christ” in Christmas, by giving to others and focusing on Jesus’ gift of salvation in Chapel services.
One large example of Wake Christian’s concentration on giving is in the middle and high schools. Each middle school and high school homeroom’s contribution of at least two gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child are taken to underprivileged children around the world. Math teacher Wanda Lucas, who is one of the Student Council sponsors that organizes the school’s cooperation with Operation Christmas Child, remarked that Wake Christian’s participation in the program “gets each individual homeroom together working on a mission project. When people serve together, it brings [them] closer.”
She continued that it “helps to focus on someone else’s needs. These children have nothing and this is an opportunity for us to bring a little joy into the lives of very needy children.”
Since Samaritan’s Purse, the organization that runs Operation Christmas Child, also delivers the gospel to every child who receives a box, Lucas also added, “How awesome it will be to be in Heaven and meet the children who received our shoeboxes!”
202 children will be given gift boxes packed by Wake Christian students this year. The homerooms donated a record amount and the High School Student Council even held a competition to reward the homeroom with the most boxes contributed. Two homerooms, Mrs. Massengill’s and Mrs. Cox’s, tied for the most at eighteen boxes each!
Additionally, every December, High School Student Council serves Operation Christmas Child in a different way than donating boxes. Student Council sponsor and English teacher Mary Ann Martin explained that at the Operation Christmas Child gift box processing center in Boone, the Student Council members “work a five hour shift, no supper, on our feet the entire time. The work is tiring but very rewarding.”
Overall, the teachers who spend many hours making sure Operation Christmas Child is a success at Wake Christian find it well worth it, because as Martin concluded, “Operation Christmas Child gives our students a chance to show the love of Christ to others around the world.”
The musically gifted students of Wake Christian also use their talents to spread Christ’s love during the holiday season. For example, in Chapel services and concerts around Christmastime, Chorale, Chorus, and Handbells perform music selected to emphasize “the true meaning of the season,” as Fine Arts teacher and Handbells director Vicki Scott put it.
Scott explained that she chooses “pieces that have the familiar ‘sounds of Christmas’” that also “evoke feelings and emotions that will draw our audience closer to the Savior and the meaning of His birth.”
Fine Arts Director Susan Burke, who leads Chorus and Chorale, shared, “The high school concert ends with a performance of Handel’s ‘The Hallelujah Chorus’ accompanied by our high school string orchestra. What a great way to honor our Savior’s birth and to remind us all that one day He will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords forever and ever!”
The Fine Arts Department does not confine their God-glorifying music to the halls of Wake Christian but also branches out into the community. Scott stated that, in addition to the typical concerts and chapel performances, “We scheduled a Christmas concert to minister to a local senior adult center,” and Burke said that the high school Chorale will perform “at local area churches and is planning an evening of caroling around the area.”
Whether it’s through sending a gift box to a child around the world or singing to those who may not know the good new of Jesus’ birth, Wake Christian is determined to accentuate the “Christ” in Christmas to its students and beyond.
Tenth grader and Handbell ringer Mary Moody reflected the school’s attitude when she said “At our school, Christmas is a time of thankfulness and togetherness. It brings us closer together as a school family as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Of course we love the big tree at the front office and all of the pretty decorations, but we always keep the focus of Jesus being the reason for the season!”