Happy Friday!
It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the first quarter already! The first couple of months of school have gone by so quickly. We are settling into our new facility and enjoying all the great opportunities it gives us to teach and pour into these kids. (The new hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate sauce in Common Grounds has helped us ease into fall!)
There are two fall events here at Illiana that we would like to highlight. The first is the fall play, Peter Pan and Star Catcher. Our drama department does an amazing job. Between the acting, lighting, sets and painting, and technology, you will see the varied talents of all of our students on display. This production involves over 100 of our students and it is a great program for building community for so many of our students. The play will be Thursday-Sunday, November 1-3. Performances are 7:00 pm each evening and 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. Tickets are on sale in the school office for $10 each.
The second event is the Second Annual Praise Crowd Taco Dinner. This dinner has become the single fundraiser to raise money for Praise Crowd program. The money raised will be used for the eight Praise Crowd breakfasts, the seven Praise Crowd worship services, journaling Bibles for each of our seniors and other needs like musical instruments and sound equipment. Last week, we had over 300 students gather for our first Praise Crowd breakfast of the year as our students learned about our theme for the year, All In. We heard about how Jesus Christ was “All In” and our response to Jesus’ amazing love for us should be “All In”. Each Praise Crowd worship service brings around 200 students together to worship and learn on Friday nights after basketball games or other events. We are excited about our first Praise Crowd of the year on November 9, after the Dodgeball tournament.
Please join us for the Praise Crowd Taco Dinner in two weeks on Saturday, November 3, between the matinee and the evening performances of the play. The taco buffet will be served from 4:00-7:00 pm in the Commons. The Praise Crowd Committee will be serving beef, chicken, chips, salsa, guacamole, all kinds of toppings, drinks, and our famous brownies and ice cream for dessert. It is basically Chipotle with a Praise Crowd twist. A freewill donation will be accepted at the door. Our budget for the Praise Crowd program this year is $13,000 and we hope to raise that entire budget through this event. We exceeded our goal last year and would love to do that again.
Have a great weekend and we hope to see you for the play and tacos in 2 weeks!
P.S. If you need a little reminder of what Praise Crowd is all about, here is a link to a video we made about it last year: Praise Crowd video.
– Lance Davids, Director of Advancement, Vision, and Spiritual Development
