Giving It All To God

This year, Spiritual Impact Week fell on Holy Week. To close out the season of Lent and prepare our hearts for Easter, ICSB's chaplain team took us through the theme of "Giving It All to God," through engaging joint chapel services and practical workshops. 

The theme was drawn from Jesus’ experience in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46), emphasizing Jesus' surrender to God's will. 

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.' [...] Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, 'My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.'

Matthew 26:39,42

 

Chapels were held on Monday instead of Wednesday that week, consisting of two joint chapels. All the Early Grades assembled for one chapel, and the Middle Grades and Upper School worshipped together. Middle Grades worship leaders, Westin E., Mary L., Anna C., and their team led worship for Early Grades. One of our Upper School worship teams, led by Joe D., led worship for the Middle Grades and Upper School joint chapel. 

 

 

After the music, Mr. Beni Kiss's parents, Mr. János and Ildikó Kiss, led Early Grades students through a series of fun interactive games that tied in with the message, with the help of a friendly bird puppet. They read through Matthew 26 as student volunteers enthusiastically acted out the scene. It was a fun and impactful chapel for students and staff alike. Later that day, Mr. Dani Barbarics, a returning guest speaker who is the Youth Pastor at a local church, spoke to Middle Grades and Upper School. He shared about his heritage, coming from a long line of pastors, and some of the decisions his Grandparents had to make to follow God. He then shared part of his own story. 

 

 

Throughout the rest of the week, students and staff participated in interactive workshops focused on what it looks like to give our whole selves to God in specific areas of life. These topics included Relationships, Sports, Music, Friendships, Family, Studies, Work, and Fun. 

Our speakers from various cultural backgrounds and a wide range of life experiences led us in discovering how we can hand over all of these various areas of life to God. It was fascinating to hear from our workshop leaders how they have tried to hand over to God everything from marathon-running to company-running and students were able to choose which workshops they most wanted to attend.

Dan Culbertson, Head of the Chapel Team

 

 

Mr. Jeffrey Jones, Mr. and Ms David, and Hannah Steele led the family workshops. The Steeles spoke on Forgiveness and following Christ. Ildiko Tabajdi shared how her faith led her to a career change in her seminar on giving our work to God. She advised her audience on what to do when asked to compromise in the workplace. She shared how that had happened to her in previous workplaces, and when it did, she would ask her employer to consider what it is they're requesting, facing them with the reality that they were asking her to break the law.

 

Ms. Olivia Baker and Mr. Paul Reed talked about giving our music to God, whether it's what we're listening to, the music we're making (singing, playing, songwriting), or music careers. Mr. Reed shared his testimony on a season when he realized the music he listened to was not helping his relationship with God. Ms. Olivia Baker shared her testimony of trusting her music career in the hands of God. Students and staff wrote songs, including a beautiful song about roots by Ms. Heather Endicott, a song using popcorn metaphors to talk about God by Ms. Anna Long and Ms. Bonny Theasen, Middle Grades boys writing about MineCraft to the tune of a popular worship song, and more.  

 

 

Mr. and Ms. Vancho and Edyta Arsov spoke on friendship and romantic relationships, Mr. Attila Szögedi spoke about giving our study to God, and Mr. Sam Lloyd spoke about sports. Paul and Joan Brower lead an Early Grades workshop on Fun. Staff also had the opportunity to worship God together before school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings in a devotional and worship time led by Chaplains Mr. Dan Culbertson and Mr. Paul Reed.

 

 

It was a fun, full week of exploring how to give every area of our lives to God. As chaplain, Mr. Paul Reed put it,

Spiritual impact week this year was such an amazing opportunity for our school community to focus our head, heart, and hands on how we can give everything to God. It is exciting to see how we are growing closer to God and each other as a community! As chaplains, we feel blessed to be part of what God is doing in our school. This year is not yet over, there are some great chapels still to come, but we are already looking forward to our future chapel series and spiritual impact week next year!