What's Up at St. Mark's?

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:5

Tuesday, May 25, was the final school day of the 2009-2010 school year. Pastor Janneke led the last chapel and reminded us of how God has kept His promises to us. We ended the service by singing "Pass It On" to keep in mind how important it is for us to pass that message about our mighty God on to everyone around us.

After chapel the classes spent a little time in their classrooms, then met in the parking lot and posed for a picture in the shape of a cross while wearing their field day colors. "Have fun" was the basic direction that was given regarding the field day activities.

Eighteen stations were set up around the school grounds and in the 1st floor classrooms and hallway. (Keep in mind that everything had to be able to be converted to an indoor activity in case of rain and you'll understand how complicated the planning was!) Parent and youth group volunteers manned each station, explaining the activity and putting stickers for each completed activity on cards the students wore. Students were allowed to go to activities and lunch in any order, but were encouraged to work together with students from other grades to accomplish each task.

Included in the events were such traditional activities as tug of war, soccer, beach ball volleyball, musical chairs, and a human wheelbarrow course. More unusual activities were bodyominoes which required students to lie on the floor being the "dominoes", and the hula hoop pass where teams of at least six had to hold hands and pass ten hula hoops over their bodies and from one end of the line to the other. Hoop shoot sounds normal, but partners had to shoot the ball by holding ends of a towel with the ball in it. Battleship was played by sitting on 4-wheeled scooters and throwing sponge balls at each other. The bucket toss involved one partner tossing a ball while the other ran with a bucket trying to catch it. There was also a back-to-back course where partners had to run (or walk!) back-to-back with linked arms through the course.

The day ended in the cafeteria with the students singing "Go Ye Into the World" together before they went to their classrooms, received their report cards and left just as it began to rain! Everyone was very happy that the rain held off that long.

The eighth grade, who is in Washington, D.C. on their class trip, spent Monday afternoon walking around and viewing the many historical monuments, ate at the Old Post Office, and then settled into their hotel rooms to get some rest since they had been up since about 2:30 a.m.! Tuesday one of the places they visited was the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Since the weather was clear, they walked around after dark and saw the White House and some of the monuments lit up at night.

Keep watching for a shorter version of "What's Up at St. Mark's" throughout the summer.