Welcome to NCA!

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, junior Hannah Keldsen and senior Emily Desaulniers threw a surprise party to welcome, bless and pray over the 11 wonderful additions to Nashua Christian Academy High School – including eight international students from South Korea, Ukraine and Brazil.

In response, a week later, the international students from South Korea threw everyone a thank-you celebration in which they shared some of the music and food from their culture.

For the welcome party, the entire high school student body created posters with the name of each of the new students, a unique Scripture verse to bless them, and notes from everyone to hang up.

"I really liked how everyone signed a poster for every student and added something a little personal to it," said sophomore Amanda LaFrance.

Halfway through chapel, students were released downstairs, where the party was set up while the new students were held back. A few short minutes later, new students came down and the entire room yelled, "Surprise!"

"I think the best part was seeing their reactions when they came in," said sophomore Gabrielle Carpenter.

Afterward, breakfast was set up for everyone to dig into.

"They are great and an awesome addition to our school. Their willingness to learn is great, and they are working very hard. They are cheerful and always want to talk," senior Alex Levesque said of the international students.

Pastor Paul Berube, chancellor and high school principal, called all of the new international students to the center of the room for the student body to pray over, to bless their lives and their time at this school.

"I really liked that we did pray for international students," said senior Dima Golovko, an exchange student from Ukraine.

Little did the high school know that in response to this welcome party, the wonderful Korean exchange students would thank us in such an amazing way with a surprise of their own. The next Tuesday, Sept. 22, everyone got to chapel and all of the Korean students were on the stage ready to perform.

"It was impressive how musically talented our Korean students are," said senior Joe Fournier.

They sang a song in their language then brought the rest of the students downstairs to taste a variety of Korean foods that they typically eat. Everyone was extremely grateful to be able to try new food and learn more about a new culture.

Wonderful things are going on at NCA! As we start the year and welcome new students, we cannot wait to see what God will bring to Nashua Christian Academy this year.

Emily Desaulniers is a senior at Nashua Christian Academy.