I’m impressed. There you have it. It doesn’t happen often.
I’m impressed with how well our church’s Kids 4 Truth Leader, “Mr. Jeremy,” does with the kids in the program. He’s enthusiastic, fun, and manages to keep the kids interested.
Just last night he used an illustration of a cow chewing its cud to parallel how we should meditate on God’s word.
Now, it was gross, and I’ll never forget it (it involved regurgitation) but neither will the kids and years from now they will still be able to understand what meditating on God’s Word really means. And that is essential.
What we teach kids in church is important. I remember life lessons learned in those metal folding chairs. Particularly, a really cheesy song about how there is one mediator between God and man – the Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan Christ Jesus (sung just a tad obnoxiously). But, I’ll bet I was the only kid in second grade who knew what a mediator was!
There was a boy in our church youth group named Butch. He loved being able to take songs and switch the words around on our youth pastor. My favorite of all his creations was:
“Edifyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Edifyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Poke each other in the eye”
Poetic.
We laughed a lot in Windsor youth group. We were a bunch of happy misfits, so it worked out well.
Back to Kids 4 Truth, Brett and I just started helping out with the program, and so far we are really enjoying ourselves. I guess the program is supposed to be way different from AWANA, but other than the technological advances and much easier curriculum, I honestly don’t see a lot of differences.
I told Brett the major difference is the absence of SNACK! There is no SNACK! I only ever went to AWANA for the SNACK! It’s sad I was food driven even then, huh?
Actually, I liked the memorization part of AWANA. I just hated the forced competitiveness of the games. We all know how I feel about competition. And running around for no good reason.
Now, no snack makes me sad. We had the best snacks in AWANA. Plus, Brett and I don’t have time to eat between getting off work and getting to church on Wednesday night, so no snack means no food for us either.
Or as the little kid in front me said last night. “I’m so hungry I wish I could chew a cud!” Honest.
The kids are funny! Especially the pre-adolescent boys I sit behind. It takes great self-control not to burst out laughing at some of their under-their-breath wisecracks and wry observations.
But like I said, Mr. Jeremy does a great job and even those boys pay more attention than I know they would otherwise.
I’m hoping as Brett and I get more involved in the program that we can make a difference in these kids’ lives. I think we should start by introducing a snack time.
At least it will make us well-liked leaders!
4 comments:
our group did have snack time!! Sherbet push ups. Boy they were good!!
Anyway, what is supposed to make it different is the emphasis on learning the Word, not on getting patches, though what kid is not motivated by a reward!!?? There is a lot more repetition than Awana or Kings Kids. I have worked in both of those programs and do like this one much better because of the emphasis on Word of God and the kids are encouraged to move at their own pace, even the little ones.
I guess I just see it from the perspective of parent and worker in the program.
That's true! I did forget about the Push-Ups.
I guess it was just back when I was in AWANA, we had awesome homemade creative snacks - gummy worms in Oreo dirt and ants on a log (a celery stick filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins). We probably just had over zealous kitchen helpers, but it was a lot to look forward to back then! I know it would be much harder to do now with people's crazy schedules!
I haven't been a leader long enough to know about the repetition. I just meant that at first glance it seemed quite similar, and I didn't see any sweeping changes. I really LIKE the program, too, don't get me wrong. I think it's great. It really shows progress when we revamp a familiar formula to make it better!
Each age level has the same verse and truth to memorize. It just gets longer as the kids get older. The goal is for the kids to know the catechism parts being taught well by the time they are done with the program.
Sounds like the church is really doing well!! And, wow, are you guys ever in the midwest!! If we used a cow illistration in our kids class, they would look at you like you were from another planet!!
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