Annual Gift Giving Assembly

In Wesleyan’s recent Annual Gift Giving assembly, the elementary school students moved the hearts of everyone in attendance. The speaker for this year’s assembly was Jericho Cotchery, former wide receiver for the Steelers, Jets, and Panthers. 

“During the assembly, Jericho Cotchery’s strong gospel message included a personal reference to teaching his own children important, distinctive Christian truths through catechisms (a question-answer format).  His goal was to remind us that Christianity defines for us well our life’s purpose.  And then it happened: He asked the first of the four catechism questions he had chosen.  Expecting no audience response, he asked, Who made you?  Before he could share the answer and within the otherwise silence of the moment, elementary students sitting all over the gym floor responded in chorus, God made me. Rightly sensing that these children had been catechized, he asked the three additional questions that he was using to make his larger point on life’s purpose, pausing each time for a response: What else did God make?  God made all things. Why did God make you and all things?  God made me and all things for his own glory.  How can I glorify God?  I can glorify God by loving Him and doing what He commands.  

This unified and unrehearsed chorus of children so freely sharing the truths that they had been taught in their classroom amazed the audience.  One parent’s response in an email to Dr. Nicklow summed it up well as she wrote, All I could do is tear up and say, “Wow!”… During our many years … at Wesleyan I have never doubted that my children were growing academically, but I am most thankful that they continue to learn that their main purpose in this life is to glorify their Creator.”  

This is a wonderful example of how Wesleyan students live out the vision of the school, which is “To know and live the truth.”  May God continue to help the faculty of Wesleyan as they teach various subjects to their students through the lens of a Christian worldview.

Click here to watch the AGG assembly.