My first full week of teaching has come to an end, and it has been good, though I will be grateful for a few days off!

Here’s a report on how each club finished off:

Club 1: This club got up to 26 kids, which was exciting! Mostly churched kids, though some unchurched, really good listeners that were just a blast to teach. This club was my biggest all week, and it really encouraged me to see how much they enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it too. There were no in club decisions, and from looking at lessons most kids had already made that decision earlier though there was for sure one mailbox club decision! She had written, “Today” as for when she had taken Jesus as her saviour! That got me excited, because this girl and her sister, though they didn’t go to church, their mom brought them to the club and stayed the whole time and seemed to enjoy it as well and helped her girls with their memory verses and lessons.

Club 2: This club most consistently had 3, though one day it did have 6, and that day was hard for me because the new kids weren’t really paying attention. The three regulars were churched kids, but they  enjoyed the stories and learning more about the Bible. It was great to focus on encouraging some young believers in their faith.

Club 3: The last two days of this club were better than on Wednesday. Three kids at this club, and two girls did seem to enjoy asking many questions about the pictures…. Such as, “Why is there a space portal above Tony’s head?” Me: “He’s reading a book about astronomy. Use your imagination!” Children have a way of taking things very literally… It kept things interesting. And then when I told the story about the Ethiopian they wanted to call him Bob. I humored them and called him Bob a few times.

Club 4: Question: how many kids singing does it take to drown out the stereo? Answer: Only two 10-year-olds, when they loved the songs as much as these two did! This club only got to four kids, but two girls were super excited about it and LOVED singing. We sang all five songs every day and sometimes a few of them twice! I could hardly hear the stereo sometimes! The girls had already made a decision for Jesus before, and their excitement about clubs was really neat to see. They also loved looking at things in my Bible, which was fun.

Every though I only had one mailbox decision, it was by no means a fruitless week. I saw many churched kids who were really excited about their faith and wanted to learn more and wanted to share God with others. It was cool to be able to devote time to answering their questions and strengthening their faith. Pray for these young believers, that as they grow older and face many distractions in life that God would keep them safe in the palm of His hand with their eyes fixed on Him.

Encouragement from this week: I had some kids really excited about doing lessons and learning verses! I had five kids complete the Meet the King book! That was encouraging to see. One girl came for the first time on Thursday, and I accidentally gave her lessons 3-7 instead of the starter package, and she did them all! Another cool moment was a girl who didn’t have a lot of confidence in her memorizing abilities managed to get all six verses! She said that last year at a five day club she was only able to get two. We worked together on it and made up actions for the verses, and then I did them while she said it. She was really excited to find that she could remember things that way.

Next week: This next week I am heading up to Warman and Saskatoon. Pray that driving goes well. I only have three clubs, which I think will seem a lot less mentally draining than four. Also I anticipate not having to spend nearly so much time studying the stories in order to tell them now that I have taught them all before. I think I got asked twice by a kid when telling stories, “How do you remember all this?” If I get asked that again I should say, “God helps me remember so I can tell you!”

My biggest prayer for this coming week is that God would give me joy to teach! A few days this week it has seemed like teaching by myself is an endurance test, and I am “running with perseverance the race marked out for me.” Indeed, I want to run with perseverance, but I want to have the joy of serving for His kingdom while I do it. Sometimes hot days and rowdy children dimish that joy, and then the words of the songs I am teaching speak to me: “When Satan tries to get you down, turn your eyes to Jesus!”  Pray that God will give me strength to declare the good news with joy.

-Rose

Thought I would post a quick update on how my clubs in Moose Jaw and Caron are going this week. It’s hard to believe only two days are left!

Club 1: This club is going really well. There were 18 kids today! Total attendance was up to 21, so the kids were excited to earn the frisbee! Even though there was a lot of kids, they did super well with being engaged and listening. The older children I talked about earlier are enjoying the club too, I think. The only downside to such a big club is that I start getting confused when taking attendance and giving out prizes!

Club 2: Attendance went from 3 to 6 today, which was good, except that some of the new kids were younger and really had trouble concentrating, which makes it difficult for the rest to stay focused. I said that if they got to 10 kids they could pie me, so we’ll see how that goes. Pray that they would focus so I can get the point across in the other children.

Club 2: This is probably my hardest club… There has only been two or three kids, and they are not really taking me seriously and it is hard to tell the story and get the point across. I’m not entirely sure what to do to help them be enthused about singing and learning stories, except pray!

Club 4: There are two really enthusiastic girls in this club who absolutely love singing songs and doing lessons and memorizing verses, which is encouraging.  This club had four today, though sometimes they get distracted during the stories. Pray that they would be able to focus!

I haven’t had any decisions in my clubs yet, though they have mostly all been churched kids. My last three clubs it’s been hard to give an invitation when they kids haven’t been taking me seriously and have been goofing off. Pray that I would not loose heart! Aside from the first club, the other three were difficult to teach today.

Pray that I would have energy! Yesterday and today I had a headache by the fourth club. The heat we’ve had around here doesn’t help along with probably not drinking enough. It’s been tiring to teach four clubs, as last week was my first week and we only had three.

I have quickly been learning the “5-Day Club Teacher’s Prayer.” It goes something like this: “God, please bring kids to the clubs. Help them to focus and give me wisdom as I teach. May your Holy Spirit work in their hearts during club. Please give me energy to show Your love to these kids! Thy will be done.”

-Rose

I made it through the first day of teaching clubs by myself! Here’s how it went:

Club 1: This club in Caron was great. There were 14 kids! I knew a couple of them from Caronport, so that was fun. It was so exciting to see a large club. Quite a few were younger children, but there were some 7-9 year olds who were really engaged and enjoyed answering questions. A few 11 year old girls were kind of thinking they were too old for it, and weren’t sure if they wanted to be on the sign up sheet as official members, but I did convince them and said they could help me. So I had them hold up my words for the songs, and I think they did like the stories.

Club 2: Three kids at this one. It was an interesting contrast to the last one because two of the three members were 11 year old girls and they were great and really enjoying the club. Since the kids were older, I got some really interesting questions during this club, and I was able to explain things in detail and follow rabbit trails with their questions because the club was small. One of the girls and her brother told me that they were Catholic. They also weren’t sure if they could get friends to come because their friends were Catholic. Pray that I would be careful in what I teach and would be able to handle with grace anything controversial.

Club 3: Also three kids at this one. One has been to clubs many times before, so pray that I’d be able to make it interesting, and that they would be excited about coming to a club. It was a bit harder to convince them to sing the songs and get excited about saying the verses. I hope this club will grow. I think the kids would be more engaged in a larger group.

Club 4: Once again, three kids! There were twin girls who were ten years old, and though they went to church, they didn’t know a whole lot about the Bible. It was cool to be able to explain some things to them. During the Zacchaeus story one of them asked me, “How do you know what they were saying?” I showed her in my Bible the story in the book of Luke and they thought that was really cool.  These girls were also super excited about bringing friends and earning prizes, so I hope they do that!

Pray that my voice would hold up for these clubs. I’ve never lost my voice before, but today was my first time teaching four in a day my myself, and all that talking about storytelling has left me a little raspy. Praise God that all the clubs did indeed have kids, and pray that they would bring friends! I think sometimes the smaller clubs are a blessing because then I get to really know the kids and especially when they have lots of interesting questions. The Lord’s will be done in how many kids He brings to the clubs!

Pray that I would be diligent in studying my lessons every evening this week. Since I got a bit of a late start on teaching five day clubs, I don’t know the materials too well yet, so I need to spend my evenings learning them.

-Rose