jump in!

Last monday night at 7:30 I met up with Rachel Smith, the Children's Minister at St. Aldates. I had asked her through an email about helping with the children, and we had been emailing for about a week. I was so excited to finally meet her. When I got there, I met the two interns named Isaac and Zoe who also help out with the children at church. I helped set up coffee, tea, fruit and refreshments before the meeting started. 

During the meeting we started off with a prayer around 8:30. One thing that I noticed from the volunteers is that they expect big things out of their children. As we prayed, big things were asked of God to do in the lives of the leaders who help, the children who attend, and for the parents of the kids. A girl named Lizzie said, "If we ask big things of God He will answer in big ways, if we ask little things of God he will answer the little things. Lets ask with great expectations and see what He does this term." It was so neat to hear that of these leaders, see the faith they had in God, and to see the important emphasis on the children's ministry. I think sometimes we underestimate the knowledge of children; they are very smart! 

At about 9:00, the leaders split up into smaller groups. I was placed to work with the 5 to 7 year old age group. Simon, Anna, James, Amanda, Rachel and Rebecca are in my group. I am very excited to get to know their hearts for children and for the Lord- they each seem like amazing people. We talked about the itinerary of what the lessons would consist of during the upcoming term. Rachel had already made binders with lesson plans, but each group went through to revise and modify for the age bracket they would be working with. There are some deep conversations that will occur during this upcoming term with the 5 to 7 year olds. The lesson plans are split into each week with topics about the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, God as our Father, God the Son (Jesus), and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. 

When all the leaders were together, Rachel gave some advice about how to discipline and teach the children. It was amazing to see the patience she has while working with them, which is key in my opinion. She told us that if we are disciplining them, we should try to shun their actions rather than the child. Say "The way you were acting is not appropriate. Do you understand why?" and let the child have a time to reflect upon what he or she did. I left the church building that night around 10:30, and even though it was late all that I could think about was how excited I am to have the chance to work with children. It will be an amazing experience!