New Jersey Conference

My Definition of Spirit Week

Drum team members Samantha Flores (’22), Brenda Moris (’22), Lauson Noel (’23), Alonso Tencio Montero (’23) and Gabriel Valez (’22) perform during Spirit Week.

Story by Gabriel Valez

If someone were to ask me what my definition of Spirit Week was, I would say “unity.”

For this year’s Spirit Week at New Jersey Conference's Lake Nelson Adventist Academy (LNAA), students and staff united to participate in spiritual, physical and brain games. The school was divided into two teams—team gold and team blue. Teachers selected students randomly to play games and earn points for their teams.

Image from iStock

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor” (Eccl. 4:9, NKJV).

One day, two new girls enrolled at my school. They were surrounded by a crowd of girls who wanted to meet them during recess. As I made my way over, I recognized I had met one of them in church that past Sabbath! We immediately became best friends. We were the only Seventh-day Adventist girls in the entire public school.

I loved my friend. She was funny, happy, smart and kind. After we graduated from eighth grade, we attended different high schools, but still spent every Sabbath together, studying our Sabbath School lessons and enjoying potluck with the youth.