Let the Questions Come

I spent last Sunday morning teaching Sunday school for the little ones in the church. Most of these kids' parents don't actually go to church, but they like to bring their children to Sunday school. While we aren't fans of the idea that the parents don't go to church but are almost using us as a daycare for an hour or two, we want these kids to hear about Jesus any way they can.

It was difficult to say the least. We're trying to teach the kids the "Pharaoh Pharaoh" song that they can sing as part of a presentation for their parents in a month or so. But unfortunately, if kids don't want to do something, they will not do it without a struggle. So I almost lost my voice trying to be heard over the little ones. 

When it came time to teach the lesson on Daniel and the Lions Den, some of the older kids kept interrupting me to tell me that they already knew that story. Finally I said to one of the older girls of about 9, "Since you know the story, how about you come to the front and tell it." She came up front and tried to tell the story, but as they were before, the kids were loud and not paying attention. Somehow, I managed to quiet them enough to say, "Hey! You're friend is talking up here!" I then asked her how she felt having tried to tell a story and nobody was paying attention. I made the others quiet down enough to hear her answer. "It was really annoying having people interrupt and talk over me when I'm trying to speak."

So I told the kids to be respectful towards their friend and let her tell them the story. Amazingly, they were quiet the rest of the time she was talking! It was like having her tell the teachers' side of the classroom and of the annoyance of being interrupted had finally sunk in and they were quiet the rest of the time! I only hope they will remember this later.

Last Tuesday was Pancake Day. It's also called "Fat Tuesday" in honor of everyone who eats as much as they can before they give something up for lent.

It was a good day at the office in that Gary went to the trouble of making everyone pancakes with all of the wonderful toppings such as lemon and sugar, nutella and strawberries, and of course, the ever needed syrup. 

At the GYC we had pancakes in honor of the day as well. What a mess! Imagine giving a bunch of monkeys pancakes and spray whipped cream and leaving them alone for more than 5 minutes!

But I did have one very sweet moment with this little girl. We were awaiting our turns to go down to the kitchen to make our pancakes and we were in this one room in the church where there were various bible scenes painted on the wall. She pointed to one portraying Jesus coming out of the tomb and asked, "Why is God coming out of a cave?" Seeing the opportunity to talk a bit about Jesus I start to tell her how He was killed and then 3 days later rose back to life and that's Him stepping out of His tomb.

She gets this look of understanding on her face as she says, "That's after He was thrown in the lions den." I told her that's not quite right, and that she was thinking of Daniel. I go on to point out other events in Jesus' life painted on the wall and we go backwards to the manger scene. She then asked me "Is that before His mom put Him in the basket in the river?"

Again, wrong story, but the fact that she's asking questions and wanting to sort out the stories in her head gives me hope. 

I've been praying for months that God would start to stir up questions in the kids' minds and that they would be asking questions about Him. This will open up the conversation on their terms rather than us trying to push our beliefs at them. This means that they're open to hearing the answers we so desperately want to give them.

Please pray with me that these kids would continue to ask questions about God and that He would give us wisdom on the best answers to give. Thank you so much for your prayers. We are seeing results! Amen!