Like other mornings, our group started off with prayerful consideration for the children with James and Anna before the class. Anna was the teacher this week, so I helped her get set up for class. I helped pour drinks for the kids before they came to class and set up all the blankets on the floor. We decorated the room with bright colored banners and blew up balloons because the topic of this week's lesson was "Sharing the Good News".
After the kids sang some songs and they got to talk with the Bishop for a little while, the kids trickled into the common room for games and worship. We played a silly game where they would guess what noise went with which certain animal. They kept score for boys versus the girls. We sang some songs then the Explorers split up from the rest of the group and the excitement began! We started off breaking the ice asking the children if they had any "good news" from the past week. As we did this, Anna called individual children over to the "Good News" box where they found a surprise of smarties inside. They were instructed to tell one other friend in the class to go look inside the "good news" box to receive a candy. Soon, the whole class was filled with excitement from candy and good news! We related this back to the "good news" that Christ has given us- except His good news is not smarties and candy, but rather that Jesus conquered death and offers us forgiveness. We played a game with the five to seven year old kids with balloons. The relay races tied into the lesson by learning to "share" balloons.
We created a worksheet for arts and crafts for the children. It was a calendar of the days of the week. They were instructed to write a friend's name or a country in each of the boxes and draw a picture of them to pray daily for a person or country that does not know the "good news" of Christ. It is amazing that they are being taught at such an early age to pray for evangelism and people who are not believers. Spreading the gospel can be hard, but it creates a more comfortable atmosphere if they are taught at a young age. I am so excited to be a part of the teaching of these young people for the new generation that will soon be the leaders in the world.
It was interesting, as I spoke with the children as they did this project at the amount of kids who had been to foreign countries and even continents. A handful of kids had been to Africa and to Russia. They have a very mature world view for the importance of spreading the gospel. Many of the kids had lots of countries drawn to pray for on the worksheet they colored. After they were finished coloring, they prayed in small groups for the people and countries they had drawn. Their prayers were precious, and I know they were pleasing in the sight of God.
Each week, I am humbled by the fact that so many people in the community take time out of their week and busy lives to invest in children. I am blessed to be a part of this organization and mission work. It has been amazing to get to know the other leaders in my group through small things such as washing dishes after children and folding blankets that they have sat on. It is a joy to be able to pray for them as they grow up in the church and for their friends that do not know Jesus.
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