JFCA`s First Homecoming was a Blast

Saints Observer
November, 2013 • Vol. 1 Issue 21
The
JFCA’s First Homecoming was a Blast
In This
Issue:
Sports: Page 2
Homecoming Game and Dance Exclusive
By Maria Richardson
Current Events:
Pages 3 & 4
Homecoming 2013
was a success! We won our first
homecoming game against
Crown with a score of 14-13
– what an intense game! This
means that the Saints will be
playing in the playoff games.
The turnout was great, and
everyone got free cowbells. At
halftime, we represented our
senior football players: Asa
Meadows, Nathan Parsons,
Micah Nibbs, and Elijah. It
was a great night to be a Saint.
The next day was the
homecoming dance, located
in the gym of Sandy Springs
United Methodist Church.
There were lots of balloons,
blue and white for the Saints
cardboard letters that spelled
out “Homecoming!” We had
so much fun at the photo
of course, a photo booth, and
an amazing DJ. At the front
of the dance floor, there were
booth, with all the fun props.
In the back, we had a punch
bowl, with delicious blue
and white frosted cupcakes.
Outside the building a balloon arch welcomed everyone
coming in. It was pretty awkward the first hour (not everyone wanted to dance), but later
on through the night everyone warmed up and it was a
great night! Towards the end
of the night, we threw it back
and danced to some 70s and
80s music, then made a conga
line… that failed. Everyone
looked so great all dressed
up and it was a super fun
night. Let’s hope next year’s
homecoming is just as fun!
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT:
Mrs. Janette Gragg
By Josie Burnette
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Gragg. She is a
wonderful English and French
teacher for Johnson Ferry
Christian Academy. I have
Mrs.Gragg as my English
teacher this year and I decided
to interview her.
have taught Sunday School to
every age from babies to 8th
grade. I taught science here
at the Timothy ministry and
have been teaching happily at
JFBC for 7 years.
What subject(s) do you
teach?
How long have you “This year I am teaching
French 2 and French 3, as well
been teaching?
Clubs: Page 3
“I think I have always been
a teacher at heart! In high
school, I was the section leader for the clarinets. It was
my job to teach the music to
my group. I taught French
at Campbell High School, to
homeschoolers, to preschoolers, and here at JFBC. I think I
Who was your favorite
teacher when you were
Why did you decide to a child and why?
What subject was your teach?
“Julie Wolfe, my 5th grade
“I
love
students!!!!
Kids
are
teacher.
She never subscribed
favorite when you were
honest and fun and real about to the whole “be mean til
a child?
as 5th grade English. I often
teach middle school history,
too.”
“As a child, spelling.... isn’t
that weird? I love words.
My favorite subject ever?
Definitely French.”
life. Adults scare me sometimes.”
Christmas” thing.
(continued on Page 2)
What a Season for Saints Football!
Photo Credit: Owen Hagood
The Saints football team had
a momentous season filled
with both highs and lows.
Each player gave his best and
played every game with great
spirit and dedication. Asa
Meadows, the team captain,
posted a touching dedication
to God’s blessings, his coaches, and his teammates on
Facebook and gave The Saints
Observer special permission
to include it in the paper:
But again God is good and
blessed us with just enough.
We couldn’t slack off, or
skip out on a drill or practice. We dedicated our lives
to this team and made it
our own. First game comes
and we lose, confirming a
lot of people that we were
just going to be an average
first year team. The season
continued and God’s power
became evident. You see,
what God does is awesome,
he takes the weak to humble
the strong, not to show our
power, but to show His. We
get to the playoffs and that
little first year team that no
one thought would win more
than 2 games was #1 in
the playoffs. We ended our
“People said it couldn’t
be done. At the beginning
of this season, the saints
football team had around 4
players. We were a first year
team that was estimated to
win one, maybe two games,
if we were lucky. God decided to show up and blessed
us with Sprayberry high
school’s facilities, brand
new equipment, and what
I believe to be the greatest coaching staff possible.
What we were missing was
a team. We struggled preseason to find enough players to at least make a team.
Describe your family.
“I have been married to my
ginger husband, Tony, for 22
years. My daughter, Rachel,
graduated from JFCA last
year and is attending North
Greenville University. Becca
and Tyler are both juniors
here at JFCA. We have a very
sweet but brainless dog named
Daisy and a tailless cat named
Dakota.”
than one game, we shocked
the world by actually fielding a team, we shocked
he world when we showed
up to play for championship, and we shocked the
world when we went into
double over time with a team
that was estimated to beat
us easily by 45 points... I
just wanted to say thank you
to my team, my coaches,
and my God for the greatest
senior year a guy could ask
for. I love y’all, Asa”
An Interview with Soccer
Coach Scott Wilder
By Anabelle Willoughby
Teacher Spotlight: Cont’d
She was kind, fun, interesting, and challenged me to
write. She always expected a
lot and our best.“
season in the championship
against Augusta Prep. The
game was hard fought by
both teams through double
overtime. The victors of the
game was unfortunately not
us. The team was down, and
so was I. But why? Our
coaches reassured us by saying that to be upset is missing
the point. We came to shock
the world and we did. No
matter what the score was in
that final game we shocked
the world by winning more
What would be your What’s your favorite
perfect day?
holiday?
“A chilly day in a cozy
mountain cabin, curled up
with comforters, hot tea, and
a great book. Then, following
a short walk in the woods,
someone brings me some hot
Johnny’s pizza, followed by
some s’mores on the outdoor
porch fireplace.”
What is your favorite
movie or TV show?
“Probably National Treasure...
I love Nicholas Cage, but I am a
sci-fi nerd, too. “
“Thanksgiving!”
If you were stranded on an island, what
would be three things
you would want with
you?
“I
would
want
my
Tempurpedic mattress and pillow, a knife, and flint for fire.
Can I have bug spray, too?? (I
wouldn’t make it more than a
day!!! I hate the outdoors!!!)”
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A: How long have you been
coaching and how/when did
you start playing?
SW: I played a little intramural (involving people from
the same place/school) soccer
in college and while in the
Army. I’ve been coaching
youth soccer since 1997 and
last season was my first year
at the high school level.
A: How was the first season at JFCA?
SW: Last season was our
first at JFCA and we had
some great success on both
the lady’s team and the men’s
team. I really enjoyed getting
to know the students and the
families.
A: What does the team
need to work on this year
and going forward?
SW: Our main challenge
going into this season is
replacing some key players
from both teams, who either
graduated or moved schools.
We have a strong corps of
returning players, so getting
them and the new players to
‘gel’ on the field quickly is
one of my priorities.
JFCA Current Events
Get Involved: Clubs at JFCA
BIBLE STUDY
A Note From the Editor:
Be Happy with How God
Made YOU:
By Faith McColl, Editor
I have a blog called
“Musings of a Chronically
Unique Teen”. I write about
my life and the ways that
I am different. We are all
“chronically unique” because
we have unique personalities and we’ll never have the
same personality as someone
else. We are fused to our own
identity.
There’s a woman
named Joni Earickson Tada
who was paralyzed from the
neck down as a teen. She has
used this to reach so many
people, whether they have
disabilities or not, that she
never would have met otherwise. The entire course of
her life was changed, and it
was all God’s perfect plan.
You are just the way God
intended you to be. You may
wish that you were like someone else, but there can only be
one of each person, and you
are YOU. God doesn’t have
favorites. He has a special
plan for you, and your life will
never be completely fulfilled
if you spend your life wishing
that you were someone else.
Bible Study meets every other Friday at 2:30-3:30 after school, there are
Bible Studies for all ages of students. For National Honor Society it is a
required activity.
Bible Study Leaders:
11th and 12th Boys: Thomas Nelson
11th and 12th Girls: Heather Nelson
9th and 10th Boys: Jeffrey Valerioti
9th and 10th Girls: Brenda Kelling
7th and 8th Boys: Michael Maiocco
7th and 8th Girls: Kappy Memory
5th and 6th Boys: John Noe
5th and 6th Girls: Suzanne Campagna
LATIN CLUB
Latin Club is available to all students who have taken or are taking Latin. Mrs. Sexton runs Latin Club and Owen Hagood is the president with
Carmelo D’Urso as vice president.
NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY
National Honor Society is a program for students looking to achieve service hours for/from the school. Lisa Ryan is the adult leading the meetings,
Connor Lewis is the president, and Grace Chapin is the vice president.
Throughout the year, there are various events and activities for members
to earn service hours and serve the community.
MUSICAL THEATER
This December, the theatre group headed by Mrs. Ceccarelli will be performing “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Next semester, they will begin
working on Willy Wonka. The class is available to all grade levels and
counts as an arts credit for high school students. Practices are on every
Thursday at 9:30 AM.
PRAISE & WORSHIP
Praise and Worship, or band, meets on Mondays from 11:00 to 12:30. The
band plays in each of the chapel services. This class counts as a fine
arts credit, and currently has 8 members. Bobby Smith, the Contemporary Worship Pastor at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, leads the class
and hopes that each member will use the opportunity to become better
musicians for the worship of God.
Tech Talk: Choosing a New School Laptop
Saints Spirit Days & Class
Wars: Join in the FUN!!
By Cooper Foster
Saints Spirit Days
are here! We have had some
awesome Spirit Days, starting
with Twins Day on October
18. Many people dressed up
as twins, but the 5th grade
boys topped off the competition going as octuplets. Next,
on October 25th, we had
Decade Day. Seniors dressed
up as the 20s, juniors dressed
up as the 80s, sophomores
dressed up as the 50s, freshman dressed up as the 70s,
and middle school dressed up
as the 60s. There were several
great costumes in all grades.
Then, starting three days
later, on October 29, we had
our class wars. This time we
are collecting soda can tops.
It will be very exciting to see
who wins!
By Beau Keller
Sources like
PCMag or PC World have
many ground rules for finding the perfect school laptop.
From humble tips to important advice, any help in deciding is great for a student who
doesn’t know too
much about computers. Here are a
few:
For starters, make the big
call: Windows or
Mac. This is largely
a matter of personal preference,
and unless your
school has a specific requirement,
you should probably stick to
the platform you know best.
(Caution: Apple Products are
not my favorite) Next, think
about your computing needs.
If it’s mostly word processing and Web browsing, an
inexpensive system like the
Dell Inspiron 15 or Toshiba
Satellite C855D-S5320 will
get the job done. However,
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these entry-level models rely
on entry-level processors
(the Intel Celeron and AMD
E-Series, respectively), which
lack the horsepower for higher-education tasks like CAD
and video work.
For a more future-proof
purchase, consider something with an Intel Core i3/
i5 or AMD A6/A8-Series
processor, like the Samsung
Series 5. These machines
also tend have more robust
graphics hardware, making
them better suited to more
demanding software. Of equal
importance, decide how big
you want the laptop to be.
The size of the screen tends
to dictate the overall size of
the system, and because students are highly mobile, bigger might not be better. An
11.6- or 13.3-inch screen will
afford maximum mobility. Of
course, if you’ll be spending
most of your time
at a desk, you may
prefer something
larger.
As for storage, consider what
you need to store.
If you don’t play
3D games or work
with video (both
of which consume
a lot of space),
consider a system
with a 128GB of 256GB solid-state drive (SSD). Because
they have no moving parts,
these drives run much faster
and cooler than their mechanical counterparts, at the same
time consuming less battery
power. Unfortunately, they
also cost a bit more.
JFCA Current Events
JFCA Students are Making a Difference in Nicaragua
By Meghan Black
Over fall break, some
of our upper class students
got to go on a mission trip
to serve in Nicaragua. They
served along with the Chosen
Children’s Ministries and
the Cultural Enrichment
Volunteer Program (CEVP)
experiencing the world out-
side their local community
while sharing the good news
of Jesus Christ.
The students were
able to give their testimonies,
feed the children and those
in need, and visit a school in
Xiola that they had painted
in October 2011. In Xiola,
they then painted the inside
of a school room and helped
with a VBS program, doing
skits and playing soccer with
the 150 students. Some of
the JFCA students got to see
some children they had met
the year before while revisiting some of their previous
sites. They got to see one
woman who they had met the
last trip while she was pregnant. This trip, they were able
to bring clothes for the baby
and pray over them. They also
traveled to a dump in Masaya
where over 150 people live
off of the trash. As trucks
come and dump trash daily,
the men, women, and children
search for things they can
either eat, sell for recycling,
or use. They were able to purchase and distribute $1,000 of
food bags, each bag providing meals for a week. Our
students were able to spread
the good news of Jesus Christ
and serve the community in
Nicaragua, saving lives both
spiritually and literally.
Read more about the
trip at www.hismoments.com
Support the Saints with Spirit Wear!
Support the Johnson Ferry Saints with our exclusive Spirit Wear. Can’t wait to get your
hands on some? Just go to Edline, log in, and you’ll find all of our Spirit Wear in the link
called “SPIRIT WEAR!“ under the menu on the left.
Photo Credit: Owen Hagood
Items You Can Buy:
• Hats
• T-Shirts
• Hoodies
• Sweatpants
• And more...
All with our Saints logo!
Already got your JFCA Spirit Wear? Send us a photo of you and your friends
wearing your spirit gear and we’ll put it in the next issue! Send all photos
to Mrs. Buckner at paula.buckner@jfca.org
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