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The Divine Obsession – WOSE 2016
The 2016 Week of Spiritual Emphasis focused on the theme of “The Divine Obsession”.
While the program of targeted worship, performances and reflections is held within this one week, the themes of the WOSE are carried throughout Senior School for the remainder of the year. Many students were challenged in their thinking about God, and what it meant for Him to be ‘obsessed’ with us.
Please enjoy the following summary of the WOSE 2016.
Monday : Today’s Chapel program kicked off with an original monologue performed by Riley Walpole about a young girl’s struggle with an obsession about what others think of her. The year elven chapel band led us in worship before our speaker Alex Green shared about Gods Obsession with us, by focusing on John 3:16 and invited everyone to come on a journey as we learn about what that looks like this week. We finished chapel with an item from the Senior Vocal Ensemble.
WOSE to me is about building a tighter community and creating a place where students can forge an authentic relationship with Jesus – whether that be to question him, challenge preconceived ideas or to grow closer to Him. Looking forward to the rest of the week. – Shell-sea (Year 12C)
Wednesday : Brodie Smith started our program with a brilliant spoken word poem and both of our couch hosts shared many of the instagram posts about Gods obsession with us. A special thanks to our Choir who performed “You’re the Voice.” Mr Brown who was the field reporter for the week interviewed students about what Divine meant and we watched some of there responses before Alex spoke about how God is obsessed with us despite what others think of him and of us.
I found Wednesday to be a positive experience as it helped me to form a new perspective on God and the people in my life – Cooper (Year 10V)
Thursday : Mr Goss shared about the pain and suffering some of us were feeling for the week as some of our students had lost a close friend the week before. Today was the funeral and he wanted to acknowledge that and we opened chapel with a prayer for the family and the people hurting. The junior vocal ensemble performed “Amazing Grace” and the couch interviewed Shell-Sea Ellem who shared about STORMCO and invited us to come along and serve a community in the holidays. The year 11 chapel band led us in worship and did a great job. Alex shared that God is obsessed with you despite your past and invited students to respond to the messages they had heard through the week. Jake Whittikar the Wallsend Youth group leader performed an item with our school captain Olivia Payne called “Come as you are” Alex then invited students that for the first time were deciding that they wanted to start following Jesus and live a different kind of life. A number of students responded.
WOSE was an awesome experience reminding me about God’s divine obsession for us. – Emily (Year 10C)
Friday : Roje Ndayambaje a former student performed an original spoken word about the cross and the resurrection. We finished our competitions for the week and were able to watch back in a recap video the Monday to Thursday of our week. We had a band made up of all year levels for the Friday and they led us in worship before Alex shared a message about God’s obsession with you despite your future.
The Speaker challenged what I thought it meant to be a Christian. I’ve learnt so far that my relationship with god, is just like other relationships I have, because like all – it’s a two way street. Yet the amazing thing is that even if I’m not good friend or lover or person, He still conveys an insatiable, uncontainable love for us, no matter how much rejection or disobedience we display. Arizona (Year 9R)
Saturday : Wallsend Youth hosted a pancake breakfast and made all visitors feel welcome they also invited people to join in there worship program. After a short break we started the church program with the same spoken word by Roje Ndayambaje and we had students that attend Wallsend youth and Macquarie College lead the church in worship music for the sabbath program. Nick and Mr Goss hosted and shared with the church about our week and some of our students inspired instagram posts. The program included video’s that showed the week and some of the student responses in a testimony video. Alex spoke about Jonah and how God is obsessed with people, regardless of if they are bad or good. Regardless of how they’ve been labelled and regardless of what they deserve.