FIVE GRADUATE IN CEREMONY HELD IN CLS GYM

We are so proud of our five Crest Lane 8th-Grade graduates:  Zachary Barbour, Braeden Enrique, Hannah McGuire, Robert McNeave, and Hakeem Wilson.  On Thursday, May 28, at 7:00 pm, parents, family, and friends celebrated the accomplishments at their graduation.  Hakeem and Zack both received scholarships from HVA for their high marks.

The students all did a fine job addressing the audience with tributes to their parents and reflections on their CLS experience.  All of them agreed that the class trip to New York City was the highlight of the year.  Mrs. Smuda was amazed that the carefully crafted speeches expanded in performance.  The graduates were in no hurry to give up the limelight.  The keynote speaker was Jonatan Tejel.  He based his talk on a text in Amos about a plumb line, using a real plumb line as an object lesson.  Jonatan invited the graduates to help him illustrate his point.  It was more difficult to push Braeden off balance when the other four graduates were supporting his back.  They were encouraged to stand together and support each other as they approach their high school experience.  

This was also an opportunity for students to share what they have been learning in Mrs. Wall's music class this year.  Grades 1-4 students sang The Tree Song, complete with tree costumes and hand motions.  The new Westminster Church Choir had their début in collaboration with the lower grades in singing, We Believe In God.  Though the entire 5-8 class studied a recorder unit this year,   Hakeem, Kayaya, and Garrett were chosen to play, When the Saints Go Marching In, for the program.  The grand finale was a dowel rod drama using a recording of David Phelps singing, The End of the Beginning.  The baptismal tank was covered and used as a stage representing the inside of an airplane.  Hakeem played the part of an atheist and Robbie was a Christian traveling with his Bible in hand.  As the ballad was sung, the other upper graders, on the lower stage, used the dowel rods to portray the life of Christ as the Christian was reading it to the Atheist.  In the end, when he reached the part about the resurrection, Hakeem fell to his knees in submission as Robbie knelt beside him, leading him to Christ.  This was the end of the beginning for him.  It was a moving rendition and the students took it very seriously.

We need to keep the graduates in prayer as they go to home school, public school and Carroll Christian School.  They will be missed at Crest Lane.