GAINESVILLE - Lanier Christian Academy will host its first official event on Friday, Jan. 8.
Lanier Christian was formed earlier this year with the merger of North Georgia Christian School and Heritage Academy. The newly formed school will present a "Night of Worship" with contemporary Christian artist Aaron Shust at Blackshear Place Baptist Church.
The evening is a fundraiser for the school’s Jamaica Ministry, a major focus of campus life at Heritage Academy. The concert will benefit both the Jamaica Ministry and American Caribbean Experience (ACE).
In the fall of 2009, Heritage Academy began partnering with ACE, a Christ-based outreach ministry dedicated to community transformation in the parish of St. Mary, Jamaica. Heritage students and faculty committed to sponsor ten children. Through monthly love offerings, Heritage was able to help provide school uniforms, food, personalized tutoring, backpacks, school supplies, and in-home visits.
In the spring of 2010 Heritage Academy commissioned 15 high school students under the leadership of former campus pastor Courtney Simmons and his wife Emily to serve with ACE in Jamaica. The team spent time with the school’s sponsored children while serving in the areas of construction, the infirmary, and a micro-business farm.
Each year, Heritage sends teams of students, alumni, and leaders to serve for a week in May, sponsoring as many as 14 children. While every year team members go to serve and minister to the people of Jamaica, each year these same team members come back amazed that it was, in fact, they who were ministered to and whose lives were changed.
This legacy will continue as the Lanier Christian Academy Jamaica Ministry. The Night of Worship with Shust will give families from both Heritage Academy and North Georgia Christian School the opportunity to come together as one school and reach out to the local community. As the event will occur at the beginning of the New Year, LCA is promoting the event to area youth ministries as a “Back-to-School” kick off.
Gainesville’s own Adam Kersh, lead singer of the InsideOut Band at Northpoint Church and part of America’s Got Talent Season 6, will begin this special night of worship. Also sharing will be Marla Day Fitzwater, founder and executive director of American Caribbean Experience.
The evening starts at 7:00, with doors opening at 6:00. Tickets are $15 general admission; $40 meet & greet, and can be purchased at http://www.itickets.com/events/349265.html. For more information, see the Heritage Academy website at www.heritagea.org or the ForJamaica2016 Facebook page.
