It's hard to believe that graduation and the end of school is only four weeks away. These last weeks of school are so busy with academic and extra-curricular events that time just flies by. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, so we want to focus on expressing our gratitude for the hard work and patience demonstrated by all of our teachers as they seek to "equip us to think biblically and function purposefully in society."

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We celebrated the National Day of Prayer May 1, with special times of prayer in our classes and a special Chapel service at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church featuring our choir's sneak preview and some teaching on prayer by our Head of School Mr. Bob Brennan. The choir performed their Spring concert at St. Paul's May 3 and did a great job. Congratulations to Mrs. Herbert our director, and to Monica Snyder and Brady Raymond, our graduating Seniors. Congratulations also to the winners of the $2,500 Donna Parris music scholarship: Gabriella Alves, Amanda Wechsler, Hannah Schoepple and Adeline Guthrie.

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The choir also visited two of our sending schools, Bethlehem Christian and Covenant Christian May 6 to do a performance. Finally, the choir is scheduled to sing the national anthem at the Iron Pigs day game on Monday, May 12. We also have several students from our Spring musical participating in the Freddy Awards opening number this year.

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This is a busy time for our Seniors as well. They will do their farewell Chapel Wednesday, May 14 to say goodbye to their friends and honor their teachers.

That Friday, May 16, is their last fundraiser, the Senior Servant Day, and the following day, Saturday, May 17, is the Junior-Senior Banquet, where the Juniors honor the Seniors. The Juniors also honor them during the last Chapel of the year, May 21, before the entire student body. Senior final exams are May 21-23, and then they leave on their Senior Trip cruise for a week. Finally, they come back for the Awards Convocation and Graduation Friday, June 6. We are very proud of the fact that we consistently have almost 100% of our graduates going on to college.

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The first two weeks of May are always the time we administer the Advanced Placement exams. This year we have 16 students (13 percent of student body) taking 19 exams, including Psychology, Calculus, English Literature, English Language and Biology. We have a great group of teachers who prepare our students for these exams.

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The weather has caused our Spring sports season to be quite chaotic, but in the midst of it all our teams are doing well. The boys' baseball team is 7-7 (7-4 in the ACCAC) and is in second place in the north division. They played the ACCAC semi-final Monday, May 5 and if they won they play for the championship today! The girls' soccer club is 8-1-1 (7-0-1 in ACCAC) and currently in first place. They too will play for the league championship today and are seeking to defend their title from last year.

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The track team has done remarkably well this year. They competed in the National Christian School Athletic Association (NCSAA) 10th annual championship Saturday, April 26 in western Pa and the girls took second place and the boys took third place. Our 4x400 girls relay team (Rachel Prusak, Rachel Loar, Carissa Clift and Michaela Rex) took first place, and Michaela also won the 400 m dash. Jacob Stith won the 1600 m and the 3200 m events, setting new school records in both events.

Then they competed in the MACSA meet at Messiah College Wednesday, April 30 in the pouring rain and did very well. They still have the ACSI meet in Bangor Saturday, May 10, and then the PIAA District XI meet on May 14 and 15.

LVCHS is already accepting applications for the coming school year. Families that are interested in enrolling their students are encouraged to contact the school immediately, as spaces and financial aid are limited.