Living to please God

Student leaders from schools in St. George’s were invited to be a part of this training session in preparation for the new academic year. There were 11 students and 1 sponsor from 3 different schools – Boca Secondary, Beacon High School and Happy Hill Secondary. 

Getting to know you

After some Getting to Know you activities, the students were led in a devotional which focused on living their entire lives for Christ. Students were challenged not to separate their spiritual life from their every day living, but to allow the decisions that they make on a daily basis to reflect biblical principles. The scripture focus was Daniel 1, and we examined how the Hebrew boys refused to compromise their faith by eating the king’s food. Students were encouraged to make a stand for Christ, even when others around were doing wrong things.

Searching the scripture

The next session was led by Arlene and focused about how we could live to please God. Following a brief presentation which introduced the points of living according to the Word, practicing obedience, being holy and living righteously, the students were put into groups where they were able to discuss practically what this would look like in their lives. It was very enlightening to see what the examples that the students came up with in terms of what living to please God looks like.

What does it mean to be holy?

Students planning their presentations

After the lunch break, Cheryl shared on the value of Scripture Engagement, using material obtained at World Assembly. The students were asked basic questions about the bible – who was the author, number of books, longest book in the Bible – and hardly anyone knew the answers.  Cheryl sought to encourage students to develop a love for the Bible, and to recognise the importance of engaging with it on a regular basis. She took them through an exercise where they had to pull out commands found in Colossians 3, and the students were very eager to share what they found.

Importance of scripture engagement

Finally, the students spent some time brainstorming ideas for topics for the upcoming term, and planned out two of the topics in detail. We spent time praying for the students throughout the session, and are trusting that they would implement all that they have learnt.

Guiding students' planning

Here are some of the things that impacted them at the end of the session:

• ·         I learnt the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness
• ·         I also learnt that the longest verse in the Bible comes from Esther and 40 men wrote the book in the Bible
• ·         Two things that made an impact on my life today are teamwork and being open minded
• ·         I learnt that being holy and being obedient are things God wants us to do
• ·         I learnt to obey the elders in my community and that we must forgive people
• ·         Two things that I learnt today are that I need to be different from the non Christians and that I need to forgive more
• ·         I learnt that you must obey your mother and father, and when someone does you something, you should forgive them.
• ·         I learnt that being holy means to be separated and consecrated unto God, and that even though it’s not easy to forgive people, still forgive them because it’s for your own good.