Bible Club

This afternoon found us on our way back to Girls Inc. for Bible Club. I looked upon today with both a little fear & lots of excitement. Fear of not knowing behavior of the girls. Excitement about sharing with them the love of Jesus. My biggest concern during Bible Club is what stories am I going to do this year? I have decided to do the Sunday School Charlie. Usually I will do a Bible story followed by a missionary story or a fictional story that has great morals. But since Sunday School Charlie has both fiction with great morals & also a Bible story or lesson, I decided that would take care of the problem.

We ran to Wal-mart before club to get the treats. We have discovered the girls love the Tootsie Roll pops. We bought 2 bags - that should get us through 2 weeks. And then went on to Girls Inc. We arrived in plenty of time to get set up without feeling rushed & then have just a few minutes to review the story & pray before the girls came in. I opened the suckers during this time & discovered the new color for the fall is banana...not my favorite.

The 12 girls came in, sat down & seemed excited to be there. Some I remembered from last year. Some were new. I went over the class rules first (keep feet on floor, keep hands to self, be a good listener & a reminder that God hears & answers prayer). Then introduced us. I have usually introduced us as Mrs. Kathy & Mr. John. Today I decided they could call us Aunt Kathy & Uncle John. This took care of the little girl who LOVES to call me Mommy. She enjoys calling me 'Aunt'...she just can't remember my name. I then let the girls tell me their names, where they went to school, grade they were in & their teacher's name. I noticed after letting them tell me so much they were much more willing to sit quietly.

Sunday School Charlie's "Missionary to Slocum Alley" chapter 1 was next. The girls sat still with eyes wide & glued to the "magic board" (my flannel graph board). They were a little disappointed when the day was finished but were willing to wait until next week. We prayed & then John led them in a few songs - Stop & let me tell you, Go & Make Disciples, I'm a Missionary's Helper & then closed with Father Abraham.

We played a review game. I have copied some ice cream cones - some of them have 1 scoop of ice cream & some have 2. They all have point values on them. After answering a question correctly, the children come to the front & draw a cone from the pretty gift bag. They get the # of points on that cone. If it's a double scoop & they tell me "double", they then get 2x the # of points on the cone. There are also some meltdown cards which if they get that card they lose all the points from that turn. (This idea came from a book of review games by Ed Dunlop). The girls loved the game & were a little disappointed when it was time to end. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" while John added the points from each team.

After finding out which team had the most points, the girls were dismissed. John gave them their lollipop on their way out the door.

I quietly thanked the Lord for how well club had gone as we packed up our things & left. I'm thanking the Lord for the opportunity He has given us to share His love with the girls. I pray they see that love modeled in my life.