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Eight Students Baptized at School's Week of Prayer
Eight students took their stand for Jesus in baptism at the close of the St. Ann’s Bay High and Preparatory School annual Week of Prayer on Friday, March 6, 2009.
Despite the chilly weather condition, Renae Taylor, Richie-Ann Tucker, Abbigail Denton, Vaswani Russell, Adrian Reid, Justine Wilson, Shaniekia Mowatt and Keelah Hamil accepted the Advent message and demonstrated their love for Jesus by being baptized.
“I feel great!” said a happy Abbigail. “I realize that it is time for a change and I hope to become a positive role model and encourage my peers to follow the Lord all the way.”
Based on the history of the Adventist Education, “The Adventist interests in propagating education was founded upon the philosophy that students at all levels of schooling possess individuality and should be educated to use their God-given capacities to become individuals of principle,
qualified for any position of life. Education was to begin in the home where the basic values of redemptive discipline and mental and physical health were to be balanced with the importance of work.” Quote from the General Conference Department of Education website.
“Since these early days,” the quote continues, “Adventists have embraced the philosophy that education should be redemptive in nature, for the purpose of restoring human beings to the image of God, our Creator. Mental, physical, social, and spiritual health, intellectual growth, and service to humanity form a core of values that are essential aspects of the Adventist education philosophy”.
In support of this, Mrs. Paulette Ambursley, Principal for the school reiterated, “The Adventist Education system is built on the integration of faith and learning. We believe that we are not only preparing ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls to take their rightful place in society, but also for the Kingdom, and this gives me great satisfaction.”
Pastor Smallwood, Week of Prayer speaker, congratulated the parents who came in support of their child’s baptism and was even more pleased in seeing the fathers who turned out for this event. “Some parents are actually saying that their twelve to eighteen year olds are too young and do not understand what they are getting into. Hence, they are not yet ready for baptism."
"However”, continued the Pastor, “This age group is the most impressionable and we will continue to work and pray with them and their parents, because giving your heart totally to Jesus is the best decision any person can make and the best gift a parent can give to their child.”
Adrian Reid with a joyful countenance expressed a new sense of belonging and hope, “I am seeing things in a different light, because I now have hope, hope of eternal life and one day I will see Jesus.”
The St. Ann’s Bay High School Week of Prayer was conducted by Czedale Smallwood, pastor of the Bamboo District of Churches, while the Preparatory School Week of Prayer was ably done by Elder Keith Miller, a Religion Major graduate from Northern Caribbean University.
Story by Dyhann Buddoo-Fletcher
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