Carols by Candlelight

....with the traditional nine lessons and carols.

Rather than just the readings, this year  we had some monologues from Isaiah himself - and Mary came too reciting her praise song to God. It was very moving  listening to our 16 year old student and realising that was about how old Mary was when God asked her to carry his son. We had some choral speaking and a beautiful rendition of 'Mary did you know' and other haunting songs as well as the classics. There were  relevant paintings on the screen and an interpretive dance at the end declaring 'Jesus is the way'. I have been to many nine lessons and carols in my time but I don't think my heart has ever worshiped as it did on Sunday. Why was that? Richard Miles and I were discussing it as he and many others felt the same. We wondered if it was because it was our first taste of Christmas for over a year; we weren't 'Christmassed out' like you are in the West at this time and the freshness and wonder of the incarnation simply hit us. Perhaps it was because there was no sermon, just God's powerful word read or recited in a variety of ways. Perhaps it was because so many of those taking part and others met for prayer and pleaded with God for His help and that He had the Glory; perhaps our hearts were in the right place, or perhaps it was  the fact that our desire was that it should be an act of worship and not a performance, either way it was a beautiful experience.

Reported by: Mrs Dodds

Pictures by: Mr Pflaum

Primary Inter-house Sports

Grade 1 to 3 had fun and made lots of noise competing in Benchball (see link below). This tested the students throwing and catching skill as well as their balance.
Results
3rd Place: Kasompe
2nd Place: Luano
1st Place: Musenga
http://www.urbanrec.ca/vancouver/userfiles/vancouver/file/Multi-Sport/Benchball_Rules.pdf

Grade 4 to 7 played Kwik Cricket where we saw some outstanding batting, bowling and catching throughout the games.

Musenga showed some great catching and fielding skills with Mwata Banda having to run a number of times forward from Cover position to catch balls. Xavier Zythow showed enthusiasm in field and caught a number of balls. Aryella Kaladias was wicket keeper and she caught a ball as her partner Mwayi Bath bowled it and the batter nicked the ball to then be caught.
Luano was captained by Joseph Kirk were we saw his great knowledge and understanding of the game (must come from his father, who is the secondary head at Amano). He captained his team to victory and had to help Ng'onga Chalwe (Grade 3) learn a new sport in a few days. This was proved as Ng'onga hit the most balls in a row then most then anyone else and he stopped a number of balls going passed him.

Kasompe showed power with Ross McCaffrey striking the ball for a number of sixes and scoring the heights number of runs. Kasompe did struggle a few times with their bowling but this was saved with Thoko Lungu getting 2 wickets and Inonge Chitambala getting 3 wickets.
This is only some of the examples of what we saw at this sports event, there is so much more to share with big hits and accurate bowling from all three teams and an excellent overall performance from Jonas Brunner with his batting and bowling skills.

Results:
3rd Place: Musenga 25 points
2nd Place: Kasompe 54 points
1st Place: Luano 55 points

Reported by: Mrs Miles