Katlyn S. - "What Easter Means to Me."

What do you think the real meaning of Easter is? Jesus died for our sins and resurrected from the cross on Easter. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. John 11:25-26 NIV

First of all, Jesus is a person you can talk to about anything any time of day. If you don’t want talk with your family, you can talk to God. I don’t remember ever going to church. I started going when I was a newborn and have gone ever since. Where would I go, I have never gone to church, do you think I am too old to start now? NO! You are never too old to start going to church.

Second of all, a person who does not believe in God won’t go to heaven. Your life is nothing without God in it. I am not always faithful in my walk with Jesus. I often think about what life would be like without God in my life. I feel sorry for those who have not accepted Jesus and don’t know about him, and herd of him and his glory.

Third of all, is Gods resurrection important to you? Without Jesus you would not be alive, he died for our sins and resurrected three days after he was crucified. The resurrection I important to me because Jesus was sentenced to be crucified because of my sins. I will never forget the story of how Jesus dies and was beaten and tortured because of me. Many people spit, made fun of, put a crown of needles, and vinegar of

him. I am glad he rose from the cross, but I am also sad because he had to go through a lot and didn’t deserve any of it.

Clearly, Jesus died on the cross for out sins, but I live for him.

Haley W. - "Not So Fairy Tale"

There are so many stories of knights saving the day from the horrifying fire blowing dragons. Then the knight meets his beloved princess and goes on living happily ever after. It’s always different authors writing the same old story. BORING! But this story is much different no fairies, or dragons, or even princes and princesses. What can I say it may not even have a happy ending, you never know.

This is a story about two villages and the people that lived there. Every day when the clock ticked twelve all the people in land of Woodland had much laughter, many parties, the best food laid out in the streets and it stretched for miles, and one amazing armed man that was faster than a locomotive and looked over and protected the land. But even with this man’s great mighty strength the king worried as he knew what was coming. There was a very mean and dangerous enemy lurking around. This was the Dark Lord of Drant, his name was Ur and he had his own land not far from Woodland. This land was full of darkness and the people of Drant were strong and mighty. But the land of Woodland had a secret this was also a great advantage, they were not dumb like the dark Lord believed they were, see the people of Woodland believed in God.

Many of the people in Drant made fun of the people in Woodland, they said they were crazy for what they believed. However the people in Drant did not understand the joy that the people of Woodland had. One day Ur declared a war on Woodland “those people need to be taught a lesson” Ur stated. The land of Woodland had to get every person even with just a little bit of talent in the building to train them. Over the next few weeks all the people trained for the war the Drants would wear black armor and the Woodlands would wear white armor. The first village to reach the Goblet at the top the mountain on the East would win the war. The only way the war could end without one village getting the Goblet was if one of the two kings decided to forfeit the war and gave up there village.

The war was on the first month of the year on the twenty third day. The people of Woodland held hands throughout the whole village and prayed to the God of Heaven to protect them. The war would be terrible and many people would be killed, the people in Woodland prayed for protection. All of the soldiers both in Woodland and in Drant ran to get geared up however when they placed there armor on none of the armor fit the soldiers. All of the soldiers ran out anyway and began to shoot there guns although as they shot everyone’s guns began to fall apart. The prayers of Woodland had been heard by their God. The people of Woodland began to cheer and the amazing armed man that was faster than a locomotive ran as fast and as hard as he could to the top of the mountain and grabbed the Goblet. The People of Woodland allowed Drant to keep their land and all held hands in the village and thanked God for his victory because they had trusted and had faith in God, they were kept safe. The people of Drant had seen what God could do and began to learn and trust in God as well. Soon all believed in God and both villages prayed everyday. Both villages had issues and did not live happily ever after but they did have God in there lives to help them through troubles, bad days and sad times. This made life worth living and very satisfying.

Brad R. - "Visa Super Bowl"

As I’m walking out of the NFL shop I hear a voice. It tells me to come back. I come and I hear the best words I’ve heard in my life. “You’ve just won 11 tickets to the Super Bowl.” These words were equivalent to a Facebook friend request from Aaron Rodgers. As I was walking out I got the sudden realization that I could bring 10 friends and they would do anything to go.

The next day, I went to school and went right to my English teacher, Mr. Hiemstra. I told him that I had Super Bowl and he could have one if he wore a Rodgers jersey. Then he would have to also buy a Packers blanket so he could curl up in it when the Raiders lost. I knew he would do this because he would do anything to get to the Super Bowl. Next, I went to my other friends, Griffen, Brandon, Jacob, Gerrit, and Joey. I told them that they had to cover themselves in Green Bay Packer gear and run around screaming” I love the Packers!”

After I gave away my first 6 tickets I decided that I would sell the rest and use the cash to make the trip surreal. A few days later my buddies and I went on the airplane to Hawaii. We flew first class. I never knew what first class would be like until then. I sat down in a reclining chair, waited for waiters to come and ordered everything. I was full after all the, ribs, steak, burgers, crab, orange chicken and desserts.

When we got there a security guard escorted us to our hotel. We got to our hotel and found out that we all have our own master suit. But it was too boring there so we all went surfing on 12 foot waves, it was no big deal, but we had to get out because there was only 1 hour until the Super Bowl started. We got in our limos and started driving.

When we got to the Super Bowl we got escorted to the sideline where we started talking to all the Packers players. Then we took off to our luxury box.

30 minutes later the game kicked off. The Packers won the coin toss and elected to receive. When the ball landed into Randall Cobbs hand he bolted all the way. It wasn’t so good for the Raiders. Carson Palmer just threw an interception every time. The Packers ended up beating the Raiders 100 to 0.

Maranda W. - "The Christmas Tree House"

It was a Saturday morning and little Greg had some great ideas to keep him busy for the day.

“Mom today I am going to build a tree house,” said little Greg as he walk into the kitchen for breakfast. Molly, his baby sister, was already in her highchair eating that nasty mashed up pea’s stuff that Greg’s mom used to feed him.

“I think that is a great idea Greg.” His mom said to him when she set the giant stack of pancakes on the table. “But you have to do some chores for me first. Ok.”

Greg grabbed some pancakes and put them on his plate. “Fine. Just so it doesn’t take up to much time because building a tree house will most likely take all day.” His mom handed him some veggies and he made a face of disgust. So Molly decided she would help him out a little by taking some of her nasty food and putting in on Greg’s pancakes.

When Greg was finished with breakfast he had to go and make his bed and clean his room. After he did that he asked his mom

“My I get some tools from dad’s shop so that I can build the tree house now?”

“Yes you may but you have to be very careful because some things are very sharp.”

“I will. Thanks,” he said as he dashed out the door to the shop.

“Ok. What am I going to need to build a tree house? I know. A saw for cutting wood, a hammer so that I can pound the nails into the wood, and a screw driver.” Greg collected all of these tools and headed off to work. He found the perfect tree to build it in but how was he going to get up there? “A ladder!” he thought. So he ran back to the shop to get the ladder. As he was walking back he heard sawing. “Who could that be?” He wondered.

“Hopefully it’s not Molly because mom would kill me if she found out that she was playing with the saw.”

When he got back he found his dad cutting the wood for the tree house. “Dad, I thought you weren’t coming home until tonight?” Greg said as he walked up.

“My boss let me off early so I came home and found out you were building a tree house so I wanted to help,” his dad replied.

So they got to work and around 3:00 pm they stopped for a quick break. “So how’s it going?” Greg’s mom asked as they walked in.

“Good, but I have a whole bunch of slivers in my hands and they hurt really bad.” said Greg.

“Oh, well let me go get the tweezers a second and we can pull them out.”

When she came back with the tweezers she started to take out the slivers one by one very carefully. And by the time she was done it was time for dinner so they put everything away that they used on the tree house and went in for dinner.

“Thanks for coming home and helping me dad.”

“You’re welcome.”

Emily W. - "Why Me?"

Why me? What did I do? I’m the new girl in town.

My name is Amber Swift. I just started Walden Park Christian. Let’s start from the beginning.

“Wake up sweetie, first day of seventh grade” mom whispered in my ear. I jumped out of bed (this was before the terror happened) because I was excited for the first day of school.

I went down the hall to see what was for breakfast. “The eggs and waffles were good mom” I said with pleasure. “Are you ready for school?” mom asked. “Yes, I am ready.”

I went back to my room to get ready for school. I pulled out a shirt with a monkey on it and a pair of Levis. Mom had packed me a lunch.

We left the house at 7:54 because school started at 8:15. Mom dropped me off at the school. Mom said “have a good day”, “thanks” I replied. Mom left to drop off Justin.

I went to my locker. My backpack was stuffed with pencils, pens, erasers, paper, etc. but then I saw that everybody was staring at me. I kept my head straight. DING went the bell telling us to go to class. I had Geography.

I sat at the desk assigned to me. Our first assignment was to fill out an “All About Me” work sheet. Then it was time for the next class. After school I went to wait for mom to get there.

“How was school?” asked mom. “Okay” my brother and I said at the same time. “Why only okay?” she questioned. “I did not make any friends” I complained. “You will make friends soon, Amber” mom assured.

A month went by and I had made friends like mom said. “Here comes the queen bee and her want to bees!” Ashley Benton said. “OH no” whined Jessica Simpleton. “Hi, Losers!” Becca said looking at me. “What Becca?” I said. She just laughed and walked away.

I was walking to English when I heard people whispering my name and grabbing their backpacks. “Why are they acting weird?” I asked Ashley. “Maybe because a paper is on your back” she pulled it off. It read “Amber Swift is a cheater and a thief so be careful”. I crumpled the paper and through it into my backpack.

This treatment went on for a while. My friends and I became sick and tired of the bullying. But it just got worse. One day I went on Facebook and saw a picture with name tagged to it. It was my face on a monkey’s body. I could not stop staring at the comments. I felt like crying.

Everyone seemed to be in on it. Most days I came home crying. Mom always asks what happened but I would tell her we watched a movie in class. Becca messaged me. Somehow she got my phone number. The text said that if I told my parents it would get worse.

I showed the text to my friends. They told me to tell my parents anyway. I went to my mom and told her everything. I showed her all the texts, emails and pictures. She could not believe what I had been going through. “You are brave to try and deal with this yourself. I wish you would have come to me at the very beginning. I am glad you finally told me. We will take care of this right away!”

The next time you are bullied or cyber bullied, you should tell a trusted adult or teacher. Do not try to handle it alone.