Written by Kaylee Beth Swayne
“Ti loderò e racconterò le tue meraviglie,” were the words sang in chapel on Nov. 18, 2009, at Harding University’s campus in Searcy, Ark.
However, this Italian hymn, roughly translated as “I will praise and tell you your wonders,” was not the only odd thing going on during that Wednesday morning. The students of Harding got to have chapel withHarding students across the world. The “International Chapel” featured chapels from Harding’s foreign campuses via Skype, which were projected onto large screens for everyone in the auditorium to see. The University “skyped” campuses located in Florence, Italy, Athens, Greece, and London, England.
“The best part to me was getting to see everyone at Harding even though we couldn’t see very well” Alyssa Sansom, a sophomore in Greece. “It felt like we were actually there.”
Sansom, along with 23 other students spent the entire semester overseas in Greece. In this particular chapel they tuned in with the Searcy campus and got to read scriptures, prayers and even sing native songs. For Sansom, she said that this was one of the most special chapels she had all semester.
There were several technical difficulties, but made it all the more part of the experience. Since Harding was trying to contact three different locations at the same time, each one thousands of miles away, there were bound to be problems.
The students in Searcy got a chance to see all three campuses at once and interact with each.
“My favorite thing about chapel was getting to see all my friends that have been gone all semester,” said sophomore Keeley Weatherly. “It was neat to be able to fellowship all together.”
Each campus got a chance to sing a song in the language of the country they were in. The Greece campus sang a song in the Turkish language while the Florence campus sang an Italian song.
“I will miss everyday being an adventure,” Sarah Fisher, a student in Italy said. “I have been given so many new experiences that I will miss.”
Chapel was still a daily occurrence for students overseas as well. However, instead of sitting in assigned seats, these students were able to fellowship where many New Testament legends took place.
“We did a chapel called ‘concert of prayer’ where we went to stations all around the Artemis” Sansom said of her favorite Greece chapel. “We did things such as write our own psalm, write things you are blessed with and praying with people in your group.”
“This was probably one of the more interesting and fun chapel programs I have ever beenapart of” said Nate Copeland, the administrative assistant to the president. “I am always looking for ways to improve chapel and I believe this could be one of those ways.”
This was the first time Harding has done a chapel to try and include students from other campuses. The response to this particular chapel had many people talking about the programs overseas.
“I am so excited now for my semester in Italy in the summer of 2011” said Weatherly. “Seeing how happy and excited they were to be there makes me want to have that experience too.”
