After School Program Week In Review (4/06 - 4/10)

THURSDAY AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM PREACHING:

Before preaching, we distributed 7 more Jesus Storybook's to the kids, which means that we have distributed a total of 14 so far to our regular children that come weekly. We still have a few regulars who have missed the last two weekly preaches, so hopefully we will distribute those next week! :-)

Thursday was extremely challenging as the kids were excited about the 4-day weekend coming up, easter Sunday (w/ lots of candy), and a family fun night at school that same night. It was impossible to get the kids to keep still, but that's ok-- I was just trying to keep them engaged. I find that the two most important things that must be done while evangelizing kids are 1. Keep it simple and understandable. (This is why blues clues is such a popular TV show with kids-- they understand it. While adults are hopelessly bored to death with blues clues, the kids love, and can even watch reruns over and over again...) And 2. Fast transitions. (Many kids have a short attention span, and are used to going quickly from one organized thing to another, and when you lose the kids' attention during a transition, it is difficult to regain their attention.) The first point has caused me much grief and heartache before God-- it is always a challenge to keep the gospel simple and understandable without watering it down! The biggest challenge was that Stephan, my preaching parter with whom I tag team, was not able to come today. But God's grace was sufficient!

We started out with prayer.

First we talked about Easter. I asked the kids to tell me the first things that they think of when I say, "Easter!" They said the usual, "Candy, Birds, Bunnies, Eggs, etc..." I explained to them how the true meaning of easter is the resurrection of Jesus. Many of them did not know what the word resurrection meant, so quickly I explained it and then had them repeat, "resurrection" out loud with me a couple of times.

The text for the day was from John 11,

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

I told the kids, "You know, I'm going to tell you something true today that probably none of your teachers has told you before. But I'm going to tell you the truth. Are you ready?" Once I had all of the kids' attention, I dropped the line, "You're all going to die." Many of them were very surprised, an older girl was a shocked, but I told them, "I have to speak the truth to you kids, and this is very important. We are all going to die. I know one thing that I can absolutely prove to you all, and that is that 10 out 10 of you are all going to die."

"BUT I HAVE HOPE!", I told them...

I read the Bible Verse again and again, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life."

"JESUS CAME BACK TO LIFE!"

"Did He?"

"Yes." They replied.

Then I explained how that since Jesus came back to life, we can trust that even though we will die, that God will raise us back up from the grave, too. I repeated this point and tried to explain it to them in a variety of different ways until they understood the message.

I also explained how that one day the dead will be raised back to life-- those who believed in Jesus, and those who did not believe. I explained how we will all stand before God and we will be judged. Those who believed will be with Jesus forever, in the new heavens and the new earth; those who did not believe in Jesus will be in hell. "...Please don't go there." I said.

Lastly, I pulled out the Jesus Story Book Bible and read to them all of the stories about Jesus' arrest, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. This took about 15-20 minutes to complete. A few of them had trouble paying attention, but the majority loved the story. They even corrected the storybook by adding details at certain points ie. the spear that pierced Jesus.

Afterwards I asked the kids how many of them had never heard the story before. About 3 or 4 hands went up! It was so exciting to me to be the first to present it-- what an honor!!! I thank God for this privilege often.

In conclusion I recapped the main points of the story and pleaded with them to believe and trust in Jesus so that they will live forever with Him.

[We also had a brief discussion about "how do we know that the story of Jesus is true?" For the little ones I explained how it comes from the Bible-- and for those who were older I further explained how the Bible is not ONE book, but 66 very old books, from several different authors, all saying the same, truths about Jesus and knowing God. I explained that we have thousands of these ancient books and more books about Jesus than we even have about George Washington. I explained also that if the disciples of Jesus knew that the story was not true, then they would not have died for it, but history speaks of how they all died for believing in Jesus.]

Finally, we practiced what has been the scripture memorization over the last few weeks,

John 3 (ESV)

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The kids know the majority of it and a few have it completely memorized. The last verse is the hardest.

We gave the kids easter candy and then it was time to go home.

DAILY (MON-FRI) SNACK TIME BIBLE LESSONS:

Monday's Story:
Before the new stories today, we briefly recapped the past 5 stories, (using pictures), to remind the children of the stories and lessons they have already learned.

Today we covered two stories, "Get Ready & "He's Here!"

From "Get Ready" we read about Ezra and Nehemiah, and how that once Israel been set free from slavery, again; they read the law of Moses to the people... We read about how this law shows us that we are all sinners and bad people, and we also read about how they threw a party for a week, to celebrate the wonderful things that God had done for his people.

From "He's Here" we talked about the Nativity and how God chose to enter the world through Mary. We talked about how she was a virgin and had not yet married Joseph, who was Jesus' dad. We talked about how the angel spoke to Mary to tell her what was happening and how the Holy Spirit (God) is the one who made Mary pregnant-- it was a miracle. We talked about how Joseph was righteous and was going to change his mind and not get married to Mary, but an angel explained the situation to him and so they still got married. We prayed and went outside to play freeze tag!

Tuesday's Story:
The Light of the Whole World & The King of All Kings. We reviewed yesterday's story, & covered the rest of the beginnings of Jesus' life-- the visiting shepherds and the later coming wise men... Afterwards we talked about how this is the story of GOD coming down to earth, to rescue His people. Jesus is the God-man, He is Immanuel, which means God with us. Jesus is God with skin on, yet he is still a real person! We briefly discussed BC and AD (Before Christ & In the Year of Our Lord) and simultaneously debunked "BCE and CE." ("Before common era" and "common era"-- it's an absolutely ridiculous teaching, and ironic that textbooks still divide history at the coming of Christ 2000 years ago-- they have only tried to remove Christ's name! We also talked about how Jesus was humble & poor, being practically born in a barn with animals.

Wednesday Story:
At snack time I had one of the kids pray. I wish you could have seen it-- she spontaneously prayed something like this, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for this snack... Thank you for everybody here... I LOVE YOU! Amen." It was extremely cute and gushy while remaining extraordinarily genuine. Praise God.

While they were eating I had a "show & tell" with the kids. I showed them my foreign language Bible collection. I told them about how the Bible is the most popular book in the world because it is the only book we have that is from God. I explained how it is the most translated book the world and that people have died to read it and translate it for people to read in their own languages. I showed them the following translations: German, French, Spanish, Swahili, Marshallese, Russian, & Korean. The kids digged it and I hope they will come to realize how universal our faith is and how it is not merely a "white mans religion."

Further during snack we reviewed yesterday's story, and then we quized them on the true meanings of B.C. and A.D. (Let's just say they got an A+!) Then we talked about today's story, "Heaven breaks through." We told them about John the Baptist and his baptism of repenance, ending at the baptism of Jesus and dove falling upon Jesus with God's audible confirmation.

We prayed and then the girls had a special "sunbeams" class with a lady from our church who is training to become a teacher-- so as usual, the boys and I sat in the computer lab, ate corndogs, pie, and watched cartoons. We watched "God's Prisoner", the story of Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs. Afterwards we talked a little bit about persecution. I handed them my Korean Bible and told them how if they were caught holding the Bible in North Korea they would most likely be arrested and put in prison! We talked about Wurmbrand's example of courage and standing strong in faith. Afterwards, we played with lego's and paper airplanes... I love this job!

Thursday Story:
The same girl prayed for snack time as on Wednesday. It was another cute, genuine prayer. We talked about how after Jesus was baptized, he went into the desert and was tempted by satan. We talked about fasting, prayer, and how Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then we talked about how after Jesus left the desert, he went and chose his first followers to help him in the rescue plan. We talked about how the disciples were ordinary people just like us and we talked about how the disciples left everything they had and immediately followed Jesus. Afterwards we prayed.

Friday Story:
No School, No After-School Prog.