Being an observer to something really good...

 

It was so good to be able to watch (and participate) in the yearly Vacation Bible School program that is called Bible Boot Camp at Gwen and Tim's church.  I got an extra bonus this year, when there was an opening to help with the preschool kids one day.  It was so much fun!  There is nothing I love more than watching all the kids have so much fun learning about Jesus. 

Gwen and I were talking about the very first time that I coordinated a VBS program.  I think it was in 1987.  I pretty  much made it up as I went along.  We had several dozen kids and it rained all week.  We were doing this program in a really small space and with very little help.  What I most remember about that week is the joy on the faces of the kids.  Although I had been leading the Sunday School program for a couple of years, there is something totally different about a summer program.  A few short years after that VBS, I began the most amazing times serving  the Lord in children's ministry.   

Time spent with children is never wasted.  As a matter of fact I just heard yesterday that the best way to de-stress and relax is to play with kids.  I know that this is certainly true for me.  Every single second that I spend with my grandchildren is life giving.  Whether it is playing cards or games or pretending alongside a 4 year old, it simply fills me and makes me smile.  Sharing God stories and the love of Jesus with children is so much more than just "helping out" or "babysitting.  Over and over the Bible shows the importance of children in Jesus ministry.  Jesus told his disciples that they needed to be like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven.  In fact, the Bible is filled with stories about children and how God loves them.  Most of you know that God put children on my heart and gave me a passion to see more for the kids than just a couple of Bible stories.  Through Holy Spirit inspiration, I wrote and planned a station rotation Sunday School program that was way before this model became the norm in schools and churches.  There were after school programs, mid week programs, Bible studies, and worship times for even the youngest preschoolers.  I know that these little ones can and will be touched by the Holy Spirit if we just create the atmosphere and expectation for it to happen.  Leaving my time working with children was hard.  VERY hard.  But, I felt God calling me to move into a new areas.  Over the next few years, I began to understand that the message that was so big in my heart - the value of children experiencing a real relationship with Jesus - needed to be heard by the ADULTS.  Sadly, the entire time I was pouring my heart and soul into children's ministry, the leaders - the adults - didn't really see and/or understand what Jesus was doing in and for the children.  As a matter of fact, there were some that didn't want this for the children.  As the years passed, the heart of God for children never left me.  While Gwen had been a part of much of my ministry (mostly as a leader), she was pretty clear that her calling was with the youth.  However, when Jesus has a plan and a destiny, it will be accomplished.  Gwen is now the Next Gen Director at her church.  And this includes ALL the children - from birth - college age.  Watching her accomplish so much more than I could have ever dreamed of brings me to tears.  Even during 2020 and the COVID pandemic, she planned and carried out ministry that has touched and changed families.  Watching the church filled with children, seeing the youth serving and leading, filled me with joy.  I am so thankful that I get to be an observer to all that Jesus is doing.  And it is good!

Jesus, thank you so much for your plan and purpose and destiny for children.  Holy Spirit, help us to hear your plan for each of us.  Give us courage to walk out those plans, even when others don't understand. Thank you Jesus for your love and care for every child.  Continue to pour out creative ideas and give strength and stamina to all those who hear your heart for children.  Thank you for your love for us.  Amen

Day 13 - And then there was M&M's!

So after a couple of years of doing Sontime on Sunday mornings, and HizKidz as an after school program, the leadership of the church started talking about having a "family night".  The idea was that there would be something for everyone.  Bible Studies for the adults, the youth program for the high schoolers, a confirmation program for the junior high school kids, and something else (including a nursery) for the rest of the children.  It was decided that this event night would include a simple meal for a small charge.  The hope was that people would come and have a dinner together and then each go to their own area.  I remember coming up with the idea for "M & M's" - Meals and Ministry nights.  So, once again we were "inventing" a program for the children.  We wanted to do something different than our Sunday program. It had to look different because we only had 4 adults from our leadership team to lead the small groups.   So after a brainstorming meeting we decided to do a worship focused hour at the beginning of the time.  We taught the kids songs that we were singing on Sunday mornings during worship.  There was also lots of education about worship.  And we also did some quiet times of just listening to Jesus.  It was during one of those times when a little 2 year old girl raised her hand when I asked for kids to share what they were hearing or seeing from Jesus.  She had a limited vocabulary, but she said "colors.....so many colors".  We all knew that she was, indeed, seeing Jesus.  After worship, we did Bible study for the kids - (Nursery, 2-4 year olds, K-2nd grade and 3rd-5th grade).  I taught the 2-4 year olds.  During that time I discovered just how much these very little kids really understood about Jesus.  I began to see how the church - including me - had underestimated these little ones.  Somehow these hungry little soles memorized the books of the Bible - including knowing a basic one sentence statement with the subject of the book!  I was amazed.  We talked about prayer and started prayer journals that were just simple drawings that had the words added by the adults as they were spoken by the children.   There were some powerful prayers and answers to prayers from these kids. 

It was around this time that I knew that Jesus was calling me to be a voice for the children.  While it was about teaching the children, it was more about speaking to the parents and the leadership about the importance of including the children in all aspects of the church.  Somehow it seemed that the children were just to be kept out of worship and entertained until they were somehow supposed to WANT to be in church when they hit confirmation age.  What??? This was a real mystery to me.  It was no wonder that so many youth just endured church until they were old enough to leave.  

Yes, this revelation really changed my life and led me down some very different paths than I could have predicted.  And, of course, there is STILL more to this story!  I am being so blessed by these blogs.  Each memory reminds me of the faithfulness of Jesus.  Every story brings to mind the working of the Holy Spirit in my life.  It feels like I am putting together a huge jigsaw puzzle and every story is a piece of that puzzle.  I can't quite see the finished picture yet, but I think I am growing in understanding that there is a "big picture"! 

Jesus, thank you for this blog and all who take the time to read this.  Bless them all as they take time to share their own stories.  Holy Spirit, what a joy it is to know that every day you are guiding and directing me.  Thank you for helping me to see the big picture you have for my life!  Amen

Day 12 - And then what happened....

So picking up where I left off yesterday.  After a couple of years of doing Hiz Kidz, I was anxious to begin a "Station Rotation" model for Sunday School.   We had seen the great need to reach the children of our church with more than they had been getting.  For years and years our church had gotten curriculum donated to us and it was "Evangelical" based material.  That donation had ended and we needed new material.  We were a Spirit Filled Lutheran church.  I had problems with what was NOT included in the curriculum.  I spent a very frustrating 6 months on a committee trying to choose the next material.  There were SO many issues and it just seemed like an impossible task. And the current Sunday School Superintendent was resigning.   I went out on a limb and made a proposal to the Pastors and Elders to do a very different kind of program and volunteered to be fill the spot of Superintendent - IF I could do this new program with curriculum that I would write and assemble (much like the HiZ KidZ program).  I think they agreed because they really didn't know what else they were going to do!  Most of the staff of teachers were not interested in doing anything new.  There were a number who were excited about this new thing and were willing to give it a try.  This program took off and was extremely successful.  We had over 125 children from 2 year olds - 5th Grade enrolled in the first year.  Using a bunch of resources and lots of brainstorming with a leadership team, we wrote a  6 year plan (exactly what we were going to cover) and I developed most of the curriculum. 

I can't begin to tell you how much I learned during these years.  In spite of hours and hours of work and lots of time away from my family, it was so worth it.  To see the kids run happily into church each week.  To hear those memorized Bible verses each week.  To see the singing and joy on the faces of those kids -  yes it was amazing.  Around the end of the second full year of the program, one of my pastors tried to encourage me to publish this curriculum and the HiZ KidZ curriculum.  He realized that we had developed a program that was sort of a "niche" program that was so good it could be marketed. To this day, I regret not following his advise.   I just felt that I did not have the time or energy to accomplish getting this material ready to show to publishers.  I was working full time, my kids were still young and I was still running this program every week!  But, I confess that there are times when I wonder what might have come from this.  Within five years there were many published curriculum's that used this "Station Rotation" model.  Yes, we were ahead of the pack with this program. 

During the first 5 years of this program, we also did quarterly family events as well as Vacation Bible School.  And this was a full year program!  We did not take a vacation in the summer.  And there were also "special events" each year that needed children's activities.  It was a busy, busy time and I was fully immersed in this ministry.  In looking back, this time period was one of the greatest growth periods in my walk.  I knew that I could never do this on my own and I had to rely wholly on Jesus to accomplish this.  I was active in another ministry also and participated every week in a healing service.  I learned more scripture and more about the Holy Spirit during these busy months.  I experienced some deep inner healing and learned about forgiveness and restoration.  And every week, those children were a part of what Jesus was doing, working on me! 

There is still more to this part of my story.  I will continue this sharing on another day. 

Jesus, thank you for your healing and restoration power that changes everything!  Holy Spirit, thank you for your power and grace that brings us inspiration to carry out your ideas!   Give us all encouragement to step out and act on the thoughts and ideas that you give to us.  Remind us that it is your strength that helps us bring your visions to life!  Amen

Day 11 - Let the little children come

Believe it or not, it wasn't until last night that I really saw the connection between Vacation Bible School and the path I took into Children's Ministry.   While I had been a Youth leader and Sunday School superintendent and teacher, I was never really satisfied with the program.  There was always something missing.  As my own relationship with Jesus grew deeper, I was more and more dissatisfied.  I remember hearing about a new model for Sunday School called "rotation" that was being done as an experiment.  It really sparked my interest and in reading about the program, I began to have some ideas and changes that could really work for this kind of program.  For several years in the early 1990's, I was not involved in any kind of leadership with children or youth.  Then in 1992, I was asked to plan a short evening program for children that would basically "entertain" the kids during an adult event with special speakers.  So I planned and carried out this event and it was an amazing success.  Shortly after that, I was asked to formulate a program for 3rd - 5th Graders that would run at the same time as the Junior High youth program.  I really didn't know if it would be successful, but there were 12  kids in that first session.  I loved seeing these kids get excited about the topics and stories.  And most of all, growing deeper in Jesus.

It wasn't long before I was hooked, line and sinker into Children's Ministry.  A friend and I came up with a plan for an after school program for Kindergarten through 5th Graders.  We called it "HiZ KidZ and planned 8 week sessions on different topics.  Once again, we thought that if we had 20 kids, we would be pleased.  Let's just say we were shocked when 60 kids registered for our first session.  We basically did a "rotation" model and grouped the kids in small groups of mixed ages.   We used the 5th Graders as "junior leaders", which ended up being one of the best things about this program.  These HiZ KidZ sessions have been used over and over and rewritten for various situations.  I know that this program was true inspiration.  I did not have any training to write, plan and carry out this venture and everything about this program was Spirit led.  This program was the springboard for a Sunday morning program that changed my own life.  More about that program tomorrow. 

I love that I am being reminded of just how faithful Jesus is by telling my own story.  I love that I am seeing with new eyes, each step that has helped me walk out my destiny and get me to where I am right now.  Once again, I encourage you all to share your stories!  It is just amazing what YOU will gain as you recount how Jesus has worked in your life. 

Jesus, thank you for the path that you laid out for me to walk down.  You knew that it was not always a straight, flat path and I am so grateful that you continued to draw me along and make a way for me to follow your leading.  Holy Spirit, continue to encourage us all to share all that you have done for us.   Amen