Face to Face Ministries

In our parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we have a group of members who believe in bringing to our school faith community, rich spiritual experiences and today we had another such experience.  The R.E.A.L. Foundation (who have a great golf tournament to fundraise to support these opportunities...can you help??)  completely sponsored the Face to Face Ministries from Saskatoon.

These two young men laid their faith out for us all to see.  They made believing in God, prayer, praise and worship cool.  They showed our children that God is with us always.

They worked with the whole school, then worked with students by grade level, teaching them about the Saints, what our purpose in life is (Know God, love God, serve God and get into Heaven), the power of prayer, and the meaning of love.  They never preached, but they certainly did minister!

In a friendly sing along competition, the girls sang "He's the best....."

and the boys added "J-E-S-U-S!"

No one was afraid to shout their love for God!  It was very inspiring!

Next Tuesday is the Grade 3 PAT Part A:Writing

I had a question from a parent about preparing their child for this test.

Here's what I believe...

Your child knows what is expected of him or her. 

They have been working on writing with detail and interesting vocabulary since September.

They can tell you all the rules of punctuation, and find errors and fix them in others' work (though no always their own).

They have written using picture prompts and they have written under the pressure of time constraints.

They are already prepared for this exam because they have done the work expected of them as a student in Grade Three.

Will they do fine? 

They will do their best if they have a great night's sleep (actually asleep by 8:00 without the light keeping them up or little sister turning on lights) and a protein rich breakfast in the morning.

The test has certain rules related to it so they need to be at school on time.  They have to believe in themselves and hear that the ones that love them, believe in them too.  They have to put their best effort forward and we have to make sure that we keep this one little writing assignment in perspective.  They will all go onto Grade 4 and have wonderful lives even if this one writing sample is not their absolute best work.  It may assist them, when they get the results in Nov. 2013 (yes that long after) to learn that there are areas that they need to improve in. (But honestly, I already know which areas they could do better in, as individuals....I don't mark these tests, strangers do.)

If you want to have them plan out a story or write a story for you, that's a bonus, but I won't require it.  I know my little dears, and they are ready.  It's really up to them now to show us that they are willing to do their best.  I have no doubt that they will!