B.V.I. Monday, September 28 – Educators, parents, guardians, students, officials and religious leaders filled the New Life Baptist Church yesterday and with songs of praises they officially blessed the opening of the 2009/2010 school year at the third annual Back to School Church Service.
Minister for Education and Culture Honourable Andrew Fahie expressed his gratitude to the hundreds of people who attended the church service. The minister told the Department of Information and Public Relations the church service has become a permanent feature at the commencement of the school year and a powerful blessing for everyone.
Honourable Fahie took the opportunity to thank all of the persons who participated in the service. “I can say without a shadow of doubt that everyone who attended or listened via radio to the service was indeed blessed with the explosion of talent that was displayed by our youth,” he said.
“We must continue to lift our education system, our country and our youth up in prayers. Our youth need constant prayers and guidance from the entire community, but especially from us as parents,” Minister Fahie said.
The guest speaker, Mr. Dalan Vanterpool delivered a message entitled “Knowing and Becoming” In which he explained that while ‘knowing’ is both “necessary and useful,” becoming is “powerful”.
Mr. Vanterpool told the gathering that for ‘knowing’ to take place “studying must come first and perhaps never leave.”
“The problem is that for too long we have segregated the roles of teachers, parents and students as exclusive but if you want to embrace the concept of knowing and moreover, making the transition of actually ‘becoming’ then we have to re-organise and recognise that we are called to be all three (roles) at one point or another,” he said.
He urged the parents to play an active role in teaching and reinforcing the positive things that students are taught in school because it is not just the teachers’ responsibility. Mr. Vanterpool also told the teachers to do more than just “provide information about subjects.”
The proceedings were led by Mr. Nehassie Chalwell. The gathering was blessed as they listened to the words of encouragement from the many pastors who were present at the ceremony from a cross-section of denominations.
The New Life Baptist Church opened the service with praise and worship. Additionally, there were selections by the Public Schools’ Mass Choir; Elmore Stoutt Steel Band; Genesis; Men of Standard; Enis Adams Primary School; Zion Hill Methodist Church Youth Group; Carrot Bay Seventh Day Adventist Church Group; KSK and Miss Michelle Parsons. The scripture reading was read by Miss BVI 2009 Miss Josefina Nunez.
There was also a prayer of consecration led by Bishop John I. Cline of the New Life Baptist Church. The service ended with a pledge read by the congregation. The Back to School Church Service is an annual event, the main focus of which is to bless the Territory’s youth and the education system. This year’s service was observed under the theme “Uplifting God’s Property”.
British Virgin Islands News