For this term's end of term activities, we had Bible competitions for each year group, as well as a series of summer games. One of the joys of working in a Area school for Years 1-13 is seeing secondary teenagers, take care of and work well with the smaller primary students. Summer sports like Longball, Dodgeball and Non-Stop Cricket took on a new twist as big and small students were paired and each given certain tasks. 

Zebulun Tribe started the day  with a convincing win in the teams Bible knowledge competition - winning most age groups. They continued on the success by winning overall in the Summer Games competition. After 24 events, Issachar tribe and Naphtali tribe, amazingly, were tied for second. 

"Halo! Oslem wanem?" The students asked each other. "I gud, by you?" Was the reply. To pretty much all of us, these words sound like gobbledygook, but to the people of Vanuatu, this is one of their native languages called Bislama. This was just one of the many interesting things we learned when the Vanuatu trip students listening to Mrs. Levy. The Levy family lived for 7 years in Vanuatu, and so it was awesome to hear first hand what the country is like, and learn about the beautiful people that live in it. 

We learned about Vanuatu as a country, its culture, food and clothing and are now all very excited to go! Learning about a different culture reminds us of how awesome our creator God is in creating people that are all so different and unique.

By Olivia De Groot - Year 13

Year 9 students were treated to a Gideon's Bibles presentation this morning, receiving free bibles. 

​Not to be left out, other life labs engaged in sports, food, games, as well as the usual mentoring, bible study and discussion. 

Ninety-four year old former Lancaster Bomber Sergeant came and spoke to our Year 9 and 10 students this week, as part of their humanities study on war and conflict. His tale of parachuting out of a burning plane, over Germany, eventually being captured and how he saw God's saving power was inspiring. Students had a lot of questions, from what concentration camp was like, to how many planes were shot down.
"It was nice to hear a personal story about the war, from a first person perspective", Year 9 Irin Lipson reported.

​Fairy wings, facepaint, and fast running featured at Cornerstone’s first full Year 7-13 Athletics day. Several school records were broken on the recently repainted blue track, as the weather changed about as quickly as each event.

​Final results:

• Rebecca Mark of Asher Tribe was the standout athlete of the day, setting five school records on her way to winning the intermediate girls competition.
  
• Distance runner Joaquin Taylor-Maclean of Zebulun tribe won the Senior boys competition .
  
• Natalya Bissell of Asher tribe won the Senior Girls.
  
• Issachar tribe started the day with a slender lead, however they were overtaken by Naphtali, who in turn were overtaken by Asher tribe. 

Cornerstone Christian School continues the building programme in 2018, this time we look forward to brand new Gymnasium including an 'International size' Basketball court. The builders have managed to make the most of the fine weather in recent weeks, almost all of the concrete is down, the steel structure all appears to be in place, now the timber is going in! We all watch with enthusiastic hearts as it looks more and more like a proper facility. Pray for the smooth process to continue.

It is neat to see hard working scholar, Olivia Brookie recognised for her extra-curricular success in fencing in the local news recently. Winning the silver medal at her first New Zealand national competition was a big surprise, considering she started the sport simply as a way to unwind. 

See the full news article on Olivia's Sword Fighting at the Manawatu Standard's site

Most of the Secondary students turned up at Makino Pool in friendly Feilding on Thursday, last week to take part in the annual Swimming Sports. Organised by Mr Craig McDonald, this was the first time that the event has taken place at this venue and the first time it has run through the whole school day.

It was a fantastic day, including a mixture of traditional and novelty events. There were even a number of teachers that braved the pool and competed in a few of the competitions, one of which was the 'Biggest Splash'! By all accounts, the day was a success, however there can only be one winner... The tribe that scored the most points on the day was Issachar. Congratulations!