Where Is Your Identity?

Kimberly Hills

After what seemed like two million emails back and forth, the plans for Tuesday’s opening session were set. The Leadership Development class, with the guidance of Mr. McClary, Mr. Ronzheimer, and Mrs. Allen, worked hard for the past week, organizing Dalat’s annual Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW).

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, SEW began with a 2-hour worship night in Dalat’s brand-new Harbor Hall. During SEW, classes are cut short during the school day, allowing for guest speakers to share testimonies, teach from the Bible, and pray for students and their faith. In addition to the daily chapel sessions, the Harbor Hall also hosted evening sessions, where parents, staff, and secondary students could join to receive more biblical teaching.

This year’s SEW was special because students were very heavily involved in planning and organizing all the logistics. This year, Dalat offers a new class called Leadership Development, which is only open for seniors who have a passion for flaming Dalat’s spiritual fire. The leadership team felt led to have a “bonus” evening session on Friday.

This evening session was entirely student led: only students led worship, only students decided on which stations to have, and only students shared testimonies. No staff! We had a drawing and journaling station, where people cold come and draw a picture of something God had given them or to write a letter to God; a cross station where people could kneel at the cross and confess their sins; a communion station that reminded people that Jesus died just for them, and a “real talk” station where students could confess a burden or secret to a friend.

While the stations ran their course, live worship continued in the background. Different students led worship, singing both silver and gold songs. Bethany Davis (12) led a song during set one, and after exclaimed, “It was an amazing time for me to step into a leadership role and lead people to God!”

Since all of the seniors have such busy and conflicting schedules, we weren’t able to practice the music as much as we wanted to. This led to a few mistakes during the key changes and timing changes during the evening. At first, we were embarrassed because we really wanted the night to go smoothly and for the worship to be a flawless sacrifice for the Lord. But, as the night went on, we openly laughed – with the congregation – about our mistakes and shared that our identity isn’t in how professional the music is. What matters is how genuine we are. Coach Frohlich approached us at the end of the night remarking, “Sure, the overall package wasn’t, you know… polished, but your authenticity outperformed the mistakes.”

The session was organized to end at 9 P.M., but people lingered to pray with friends and teachers, receive blessing, and enjoy true fellowship with other believers. It was the perfect way to end an unforgettable Spiritual Emphasis Week.