Bible Club Week 6

I was a little worried before arriving at Girls Inc. today. Last week we had to move book tables out of the way. They had had a book fair the Friday before (in the room in which we have Bible club). In wanting to make sure each girl received a book, they had left the books set up. They had plans to move them before we arrived but those plans were not realized. When we arrived last week, 2 teenagers were in the room giggling & reading books...the K-1 grade level reading books. We shooed them out so we could move the tables, put out the chairs & get our easel and flannel board set up. We didn't realize they were in there to move the things out of our way. We quickly got everything where we needed it. The tables which were loaded with books, we scooted to the back of the room & prayed the girls who sat closest to those books would pay attention to the story & not want to look at the books. (That would have been difficult for me as a child. I loved Sunday School Charlie & would really want to listen to the story but I also absolutely LOVED to read. Those books would have been a temptation.)

To help ease my fears, we made sure we arrived early. And I had nothing to worry about. All the books (except 1 box) were gone. The 2 tables on which the books had been were folded up & leaning against the couch. We moved them against the back wall & set up the room.

We had stopped today to get a Pal's tea. After setting up the room, John went out to the van to get the teas. As he was gone, Little J (who is so much like big sister, E) stopped in the room. I asked her if she were coming to Bible club today. "No," she said, "I'm going to the library". "Oh," I replied. "Do you like to read?" "Yes." "What is your favorite book?" "A Halloween book". And that gave me the question I would ask each girl before club began.

Between 16-18 girls came to club today. It was a little hard to keep count. Since today was the last Thursday of the month, the Girls Inc. activity leaders were continually coming in & calling out girls to receive their Character Counts awards for October. They like getting the awards. I do have to say though that Sunday School Charlie guarantees that they return to club very quickly.

As I went around the room today, I could remember most of the girls' names. I asked them if they were going to dress up for Halloween & what they were going to be. That was a good question because that was what they were talking about as they came in the room. Some of them have 2 different costumes. One for Girls Inc. party tomorrow & then one for their actual trick-or-treating.

We then started Sunday School Charlie Mystery of the Golden Key. Charlie & Red have known each other for a year. They are planning on going to summer camp together. The day before they leave, they are fishing & Charlie catches a key chain with 15 keys. He takes those to camp with him. They eagerly meet the other boys & girls. One of the boys is named Muscle Mike. He doesn't want anything to do with Sunday School, VBS or anything like that. Charlie decided that maybe God wants him to be a missionary to Muscle Mike. One of the valued items at the camp is the treasure chest. It is an antique which has been brought from Germany. The camp registrar keeps the camp money in the treasure chest. It locks with a golden key. All the first day, Charlie keeps reminding himself of his memory verse. Matthew 5:44 tells us we are to love & pray for our enemies. Charlie is glad he doesn't have any enemies but prays that when he does, he will remember this verse and put it into practice. The girls were disappointed when the story ended. They all told me what they thought would happen over the next 4 weeks.

John came up & led them in a few songs - "Father Abraham", "12 Men Went to Spy on Canaan", "Let's Talk About Jesus, Let's Talk of His Love", the "Stop" & "Go" songs. And then one more which I cannot remember. While they were singing the last song, I set up the flannel board for our review game. Oh yes, it was "I'm a Missionary's Helper" (sung to the tune "I've Been Working on the Railroad)".

This game is called "Feeding Gilbert". It is also by Ed Dunlop. The girls were told to imagine they & a group of friends were meeting to celebrate their friend, Gilbert's birthday. They meet at Gilbert's favorite restaurant but Gilbert is late in arriving. They each decide to order something for Gilbert. The only problem they don't know what foods Gilbert really likes. I had John draw a card from a pile of 4. On this card are listed 5 foods. We kept these foods secret until the end. In the center of the board are 24 circles - each having a picture of a kid-friendly food on the front. In my hand, I held several cards. They were numbers. If a girl answered a question correctly, she came up front, drew a numbered card & then was able to choose that many food items from the board. Each food item had points on the back. I would remove the food from the board, tell them the points, and then put that food item on the side of the board we had designated for their team. 2 of the food items had super special on them. The girls got 1500 points for those and also got another turn. After each food item had been chosen, placed on the side for that team & John had totaled the points (& also told the girls which team had which points), he then looked at the card he had chosen. The first four items on that card brought 1000 extra points each for the team which had chosen that item. The last item (which was Gilbert's all-time favorite) brought 2000 points. The team which had been behind ended up winning because they chose more of the favorite foods. The girls loved the game.

That game took a few more minutes than usual so the girls were a little later in leaving. Fortunately, for us, the vans had not started leaving yet for the apartments. We gave them each 2 Tootsie Roll suckers. We purchased some more. The current special color/flavor is a light blue/blue raspberry. The girls were so excited to see that we had the suckers again. That is their all-time favorite treat.

Next week we will not have Bible club as the leaders are preparing for the regional Girls Inc. meeting. We will attend some of the meeting on Friday.