A kindergarten teacher is such a unique person, who has a character unlike many others. Teaching and mentoring such a young age takes “a love for children and a passion for helping to mold them into the godly men and women He created them to be,” says Mrs. Kaye Taylor, kindergarten teacher. This specific teacher was so significant to me, and the fact that she is still here today, having such an impact on young children’s lives, is incredible.

Mrs. Taylor has been a teacher for a total of 22 years, 12 years prior to CCA in public school, and 10 years here at Calvary. Although she has taught kindergarten since opening day, she taught various grades in public school. “I actually thought I would probably teach second or third grade,” began Mrs. Taylor, “but Pastor Mark asked me to teach kindergarten. I prayed that God would prepare my heart for kindergarten, and within days, all I could think about was how exciting it would be to teach the little ones about Jesus and help them learn to love school as they embarked on their formal education.”

Mrs. Taylor continues to be a significant aspect to a young child’s experience of school. She taught me to love school, and to this day, I cherish each day I learn new information at CCA. She proceeds to teach and mentor kindergarteners to love school, and most importantly, love the One who created them.

But, what’s in the number? Curious minds wanted to know. “The purpose of the 100th day of school is to take time out to thank the Lord for His goodness to CCA for the past 100 days, to encourage the students to press through the third quarter, and to encourage our community to keep morale high by offering a day to express school spirit,” said Susan Alexander, elementary principal.

Just as a snippet of the excitement of the 100th day of school, here’s how some classes participated… Kindergarten put 100 random, wacky items on a t-shirt; second grade teachers dressed up like they were 100 years old, while some of their students dressed up like people who lived 100 years ago. Third grade wrote 100 prayers, created and decorated posters and T-shirts with 100 objects, as well as created a number 100 with the school desks. Fourth grade wrote “100 reasons why we love CCA” and “100 things to be thankful for.”

“I love CCA because I love God and I want to get closer to Him,” wrote a fourth grade student, displaying his “100 reasons why we love CCA” on a poster, as encouragement for all.  “I can’t believe we have completed 100 days of school,” said Third Grade Teacher, Dawn Vitulli. “It was great to see all the school spirit throughout the halls of CCA.” Overall, this event was enjoyed by all of elementary and was a nice escapade from the normal schedule.

Each student was given a dollar in lieu of a Christmas present directly after Thanksgiving through a project called, “Seed Project for the Kingdom.” With the goal of donating to Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelical foundation that provides essential physical, as well as spiritual needs for those who are suffering, students began to work for their earnings.

The students used various methods such as washing cars, babysitting, reselling candy, and getting pledges of participating in physical endurance activities in order to add to their simple dollar. When the final count came in four weeks later, teachers, parents, and administrators at CCA were astonished at the students’ perseverance and assiduousness; the fourth grade students raised a whopping $2,859.62.

“It was evident that God’s hand was upon this project,” comments Pamela Zlachos, a fourth grade teacher at CCA. Representing each class as the top earners were Kelly Doyle, Brenden Morris, Savana Pettit, Carson Walcott, and Tiras Shashaty. “I didn’t know how much money we could raise by doing a little work,” comments Grant Walker, a fourth grader surprised at the outcome of the Seed Project.

In Acts 20:35, Jesus teaches that it is better to give than to receive. These fourth grade students truly learned to comprehend the Scriptures through this simple project with such a noteworthy outcome. “Because God has blessed us so much, it’s our turn to bless others,” comments another fourth grader, Nadia Laurovic, recognizing the significance of the Word.

This project started with young children who had the hearts to serve, one dollar, and diligence, now, it’s helping to change lives. Which just goes to show—you’re never too young to set a good example and do God’s work.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” ~1 Timothy 4:12

 As Ingram spoke to the millions of overjoyed viewers, he mentioned many people contributing to his life; however the story grows greater when Ingram emphasized his praise for all of his teachers. Now, it just so happens that one of CCA’s Elementary Drama Teachers, Mrs. Elizabeth Contini, in fact was Ingram’s kindergarten teacher.

 Mrs. Contini taught the future running sensation when he was only four years old, at the Master’s Academy in Weston, Florida. She says she remembers Mark to always stand out with his friends. She saw him as respectful, caring, and one who loves God. These characteristics have stayed with him today as he exhibits these strengths in all he does.

An upbringing of a child is always a factor, which influences their maturity. Obviously, Mark turned out to be a phenomenal success, and he gave the credit to the people who helped him along the way. Mrs. Contini loves the fact that she was involved and is appreciated by the Heisman winner. Out of all her experiences teaching Mark, she also remembers his close ties with his family. “His family was very close, and his parents and grandparents attended all his school events,” she said.

Mrs. Contini cherishes Ingram’s success and she has saved many newspaper clippings and photos of his up rise. The most amazing detail for her would be that she actually had an impact on his life. The fact that he mentioned his teachers, and she was a part of that serves as a monumental experience for her. To this day, she is a friend with Ingram’s mom on Facebook, and she along of many others in the nation were cheering for Mark as he received his award.

On December 16, Sharon Whitley’s third-grade class traveled to the “4Kids Foster House,” where they performed a production of the Christmas story. Spreading the love of Christ with their new friends, they presented the kids with a “Happy Birthday Jesus” goody bag that emphasized the true reason for the season. Cindy Holden’s fourth-grade class is also participating in an outreach called “Seed Money for the Kingdom.” Each student receives a dollar to buy cookie ingredients, card-making supplies, and cleaning items and then uses the money raised from their goods and services to support the “Samaritans Purse Foundation.”

Just three days before that, on Sunday, December 13, Kathy Agarth’s third-grade class volunteered at “The Refuge,” where they shared the Good News and love of Christ with the homeless. Meanwhile, Linda Berardo’s first-grade class proved that no one is too young to reach out to the community and reflect God’s love. Today, they assisted “Kids in Distress,” a program that finds homes for children in foster care, and performed a special Christmas presentation for them.

This Christmas, CCA elementary students are courageously putting Christ’s commission of “making disciples” into practice. No matter what your age or what you like to do, there are several opportunities to get involved with outreaches all year long. Based on the examples of these students, CCA truly is making disciples of Jesus Christ that are surrendered and open to wherever God leads them.

The CCA Safety Patrol team has devoted their time to making sure their fellow students are safe and sound. The Safety Patrols are made up of twenty to twenty-five students depending on how many participate each quarter.  In order to be given this position of prestige, students must be 5th graders and write a special essay in which they explain their heart behind being a patrol.  Once that is done, the final decisions are made by the 5^th grade teachers.

To be chosen as a safety patrol, a student should demonstrate specific traits and characteristics that distinguish them from the rest of their class. Some of these traits include Christian character, a servant’s heart, maturity, good grades, punctuality, wisdom, and sound judgment to perform the duties.

The Safety Patrol team reports to their base at 7:30am when they open car doors for students, patrol the kids on the playground, and walk them to the playground before 7:50am.

The afternoon team begins their shift at 2:10pm and finishes at 3:20pm. During this time, they bring small children from the sibling room and take them to their spots so they can be picked up by their parents. They also help the kids by opening up the car doors for them and helping them into the cars.

These shining Safety Patrol stars truly have a heart to serve the Lord and to protect His children. Thanks to these chosen few, CCA students are not only carefully protected, but also guided by the godly leadership which each safety patrol clearly demonstrates.

But is it just a CCA tradition? Is it just another day to play dress-up?  “Our CCA elementary students are truly preparing their hearts to ‘GO’ and make disciples!” explains Assistant Elementary Principal, Jan Lashbrook.  So, you see, behind all the fun and colorful costumes, we find that there’s a mission…a command; the one Jesus gave each and every one of us almost three thousand years ago.  There’s also a cause—to lift up in prayer our missionaries who travel to minister to the people around the world.

Kicking off the exciting morning at the Calvary Chapel Theatre, was CCA’s Elementary Principal, Susan Alexander, who addressed the crowd by saying, “As you all sit here in your outfits, I want you to think about what you’re wearing, about all the girls and boys that don’t know Jesus Christ yet as their Savior, and be in prayer for them.” 

The kindergarteners were the first to file to go on stage to sing a song that represented their country of choice. After them came the first graders, singing “Love the Lord your God,” with three of the children reciting a Bible verse in English and another language. That act was followed by the second graders, who recited Matthew 28: 19-20, CCA’s missions statement at CCA, and concluded by singing “Go, Go, Go, Into All the World.” The VE class then recited the pledge to the American Flag, followed by other students in grades third through fifth, who recited a variety of Bible verses, songs, biographies, and excerpts from stories.

Yes, International Day was a great success and students and teachers had a lot of fun. After the day was done, we looked back and realized that it is a fine CCA tradition. This day teaches our students, even the littlest of them, what it takes to be a missionary, and how to make a difference wherever they go. But this day is just a sample…an illustration, if you will, of the various places and people God loves.

Where’s your mission field? Students were encouraged to find out. Here’s a helpful hint: if you are a soccer player, well, the west field might just be your mission field. If you are a dancer, the stage might just be the platform God uses to shine your light to the world. For the academic whiz, you know the kid who is just brilliant at math, science, and all those subjects teachers love to teach…well, it might just be the Spelling Bee that places you outside of the CCA walls and onto a stage where you can witness to others kids at another school. 

If International Day taught the students anything it was that they should not wait for next year’s celebration to show their missionary spirit. Do something today! Tell the world who Jesus is by showing His love in action. Try it in your classrooms, at home, in your neighborhood, in the playground ground… just go and do something! Make a difference in the world.

And that’s what International Day at CCA is all about. A good tradition, wouldn’t you say?

“Over the summer, Pastor Jorge and his wife took a team of twelve CCA high school students to El Salvador for eight days to minister to the poor and orphans in La Libertad.  The students bought food from the local market to give out to needy families, brought shoes and toys from the USA to distribute at a local orphanage, and visited every day to play with the children and help the orphanage staff with cleaning the property.”  The CCA students shared in chapel that they came back with a realization that God could use them to reach someone with His love.  They gained a new sense of compassion for the lost and needy of that country and have a desire to go again to continue the work of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Later on in the month, Pastor Reuben Ramsaran visited the elementary chapel,  after his trip to India.  In spite of suffering from jet lag, he challenged and inspired elementary students with the plight of the Dalits, a poor and outcast people group of India. The Dalit families live in areas called “pipe villages,” because they actually live in sewer pipes. 

Pastor Reuben shared that while CCA students throw away large portions of their lunches in the cafeteria, the children in the town he visited daily scavenge through the garbage heaps on the outskirts of town to find food to eat or toys to play with.  The students were challenged to: Make sacrifices instead of wasting their food, resources, and lives on things that don’t reap an eternal reward; pray for the missionaries in India, as their lives are often in danger; and to go on a missions trip as soon as they were able, to be willing to be used by God to be a blessing in someone else’s life.

This Friday, International Day will conclude missions month, as it does every year.  Elementary students will be dressed in different customes, each representing God’s love for every nation in the world. Skylar, a 3rd grader at CCA comments, “Missions Month is important to CCA students because some people in different countries don’t know about God and don’t have enough food to eat or clothes to wear, and we learn about how we can go and share our food and clothes with them and tell them about God.”

Even kindergarten students are taught how to pray and learn more information about the missionary the class ‘adopts;’ in some cases providing support for the missionary. Jillian Campbell, a 6 year old kindergartener at CCA comments, “I want to tell people that if they did something bad, they can be forgiven and they can worship God.”

Imagine sitting with your friends around a campfire looking up at all the stars that you don’t see in the city. Picture being surrounded by beautiful oak trees and two spring-fed lakes and listening to the quietness around you and the soft echoes of nature—calling you to hear closely the noises of the night…

Three weeks ago, 90 CCA elementary students, accompanied by a group of teachers, administrators and parents got to experience just that. The anticipation grew as the CCA crew boarded their buses. The students could not envision how much fun awaited them at Lake Swan Camp, where they were to camp overnight on 69 acres in Melrose, a town just west of Gainesville, Florida.

Lake Swan Camp is not your ordinary student camp. Founded in 1927 by Dr. John Minder and acquired by the Christian and Missionary Alliance in 1966, it is a Christ-centered educational camp that teaches students, young and old, some interesting things about the wonders of God’s creation. While a professor at Florida Bible Institute, Dr. Minder mentored a young man named Billy Graham, who attended Lake Swan as a college student and experienced one of his early preaching opportunities at the camp.

Today, the camp continues to provide students an opportunity to see creation at its best, and our own CCA 5^th graders got a taste of it during their annual class trip early this month. Over two days, the students participated in various activities and events that helped them grow closer to God and to one another.

Upon arrival, students were broken up into five teams. Each got a chance to explore the lakes, learning the skills and safety of canoeing in the process. They walked through the swampy areas, where both students and adults were led into the wetland thriving with plant and aquatic specimens, and exotic birds, critters, and funny looking creatures best found in those areas.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was the Challenge Course: a series of obstacle courses designed to teach students lessons in trust, communication, leadership, teamwork, fellowship, and problem solving. “Students were challenged to be leaders and to trust one another as they balanced their weights on a large wooded draft, floating above the water,” explained Elementary Principal, Susan Alexander. “After much rocking back and forth, they learned that if they were all going to succeed staying afloat, they had to join forces. They not only had to communicate well, but also move together in such a fashion as to easily balance the act.” In the end, as Mrs. Alexander tells it, the students learned to listen to one another, and in the process, leaders were identified. These were students who rose to the occasion, leading their teams to balance the rocking boat to a stand still.

After a fun-packed day, the students participated in a blindfolded walk at night through the woods leading to the lake. There, they formed a circle and looked up into the night’s brightly-lit sky, and discovered the constellations, one by one. Tired, but excited, the CCA 5^th Grade Class gathered around the campfire and began raising their voices in worship to the Creator of the universe. CCA Director of Business and Admissions, Fred Gushue, who is also a CCA parent, led them in prayer and in a devotion that left everyone wondering about their unique place in God’s amazing creation.

“Isn’t it a problem when ninety percent of a park is underwater?” For newbies to the conservation movement, the obvious answer would be “yes,” but CCA fifth-grade teacher, Betsy Mayell, goes on to explain, “not if that water is only a few inches to a few feet deep and much of its flora live above the water.”

On Monday, May 11, the fifth grade classes embarked on an adventure for Everglades National Park, the largest subtropical wilderness in the country. Divided into three separate categories: sugar farmers, developers, and environmentalists, each fifth-grader was given a role to investigate and develop an argument for his or her side.  All three roles represented major factors in the Everglades’ pollution problem and, by seeking to understand each group, the students came together at the end and decided which team is “right” in their motives and actions.

Mayell comments about the students’ technique of gathering data, “Making observations plays a key role in scientific studies. It helps students familiarize themselves with concepts, pique their curiosity, and motivate them to ask questions.”  Though this trip was far beyond just fun and games, the students experienced the park firsthand by taking an exciting air boat ride. Through the trip, the students walked away with both a better understanding of the wetlands and a desire to maintain its cleanliness and safety.

Thank you, fifth-graders, for teaming up to conserve the natural resources God has blessed us with on this earth.