An air of excitement, nervousness and anticipation surrounded a group of four young men from Rockwell Christian School as they embarked on their trip to the Carolinas Junior Convention held at Ridgecrest Convention Center near Asheville.
Middle school students from schools in the Carolinas and Georgia gathered for two days of competition in academics, art, athletics, music and platform events.
Student conventions take place across America and worldwide to aid the students in developing their talents for the Lord Jesus Christ.
As the students prepared for the convention, they were encouraged to live out the Scripture “to do all to the glory of God.”
With that goal, they earned the overall academic award which was presented to the school that earned the most first, second and third place awards in academic categories. In addition to the school trophy, the students earned the following individual awards:
• Devon Ballard — First place in sketching, short story writing, 3 on 3 basketball and the 200-yard dash; second place in the 50-yard dash and 100-yard dash
• Michael Hoehman — First place in sketching, 3 on 3 basketball, chess, spelling and Bible memory; second place in soccer kick and physical fitness; third place in colored pencils.
• Alex Miller — First place in 3 on 3 basketball; second place in poetry writing, spelling and chess; third place in the 300-yard dash; fifth place in soccer kick; sixth place in table tennis.
• Nathan Vanderford—First place: piano solo, 3 on 3 basketball, color photography-plants, and colored pencils. Second place: color photography-character trait. Fourth place: chess and unlimited free style archery. Fifth place: color photography-animals.
The students also participated in evening rallies and preaching services and opportunities to relax playing putt-putt golf, riding the zip-line, scaling the climbing wall and participating in team activities aimed at developing new friendships.