Update on the "List Issue"...and other happenings of the week.

Well, tonight is the big party and I am SO excited about it! I also cannot wait for it to be over! This thing has rented way too much space in my head for about a week and a half now (in the words of my good friend KB). I have now made a grand total of 10 lists. I have added a specific list of things that need to be done as soon as we get to the church tonight (8), a list of movies to bring (9), and finally the list of games/activities in the order they will occur tonight (10). Of course while creating new lists, several of the old ones have been removed from circulation. I am currently carrying 6 of the 10 in my purse.

I hope that everything turns out well, but more than that I hope that each of the girls gets something special from the event. I want them all to have a blast, but most of all I want them to realize that each time we gather with our brothers and sisters in Christ is an opportunity to grow in the Lord. The party definitely has a strong camping theme, but I have also tried to relate each aspect of the party back to our relationship with Christ. Especially in the class that I teach on Wednesday nights, I get the feeling that these girls sometimes view worship and service to God as a drag. I want them to realize tonight that we can serve Him and still enjoy ourselves. God does not ask us to be straight-faced and serious when we come to His house. The psalmist tells of mouths filled with laughter, lighted eyes and shouts of joy. Our God wants us to enjoy being in His presence and I hope that each girl at least learns that tonight.

We had a short church education ministries training session at our church earlier this week and I went to a class on making disciples. I wasn't too sure about the class when things started out, but by the end I was ready to start teaching my students how to serve others. When we began, the speaker asked all of us to name qualities that Christ's disciples had displayed. The list included words like obedient, faithful, trustworthy, and zealous. He then proceeded, in effect, to tell us that if our students in Sunday School or other classes were not starting to show these traits, then we were not doing our jobs properly. I was a little taken aback by this, but I sat quietly and listened to what he said. We all know the scripture in Matthew where Christ gives his disciples the commission to "go and make disciples of all nations," but I honestly had never taken that commission to heart, at least not in the context of Sunday School. He brought to light that if our students are just getting together and talking about the Bible once or twice a week and then going back home and nothing in their lives changes, then we are failing to complete the task we have been given. We should be making disciples of our students. Their lives should be drastically changed by what we are teaching them in our classes and they should be inspired to go out into the world and make more disciples. But then I thought, "I teach 10 year old girls, how are they supposed to be making disciples???" So the next portion of his talk was about how each age range (children, youth and adults) could begin to fulfill this commission. His idea for the young ones was fairly simple: teach them to start serving others. In his previous church, there was a group called 456 leader crew, consisting of 4th, 5th and 6th graders (hence the name) that were actually trained to serve in various ministries throughout the church. Some were trained to help in the nursery, some in running sound or computers, and others in greeting people as they entered the church. I was truly inspired by his ideas, especially because those are the ages that I teach. Because of these great ideas, I have made a commitment to God to try to teach my students to be more proactive in their faith and to provide ways for them to begin to minister to others. I cannot wait to see what God will do through the lives of these amazing young ladies!