4/10--A Sensational Sunday

April 10th was very busy Sunday for me.

First off, I had to be at Church early (8:10 AM!!!) to rehearse for the choir. The choir, which I mentioned I had joined a few blog posts ago, was going to sing for the first time since my joining. We were scheduled to sing in both morning services, 9:00 and 10:30. Awkwardly enough, we were going to sing "This Little Light of Mine." It is a pretty fun arrangement of the song, however, and we were to do it accompanying a bunch of little kids who were going to be dancing to the music (our church hosts "ministry of dance" classes for little girls and they perform every so often). The singing went quite well in both services. As it was my debut as one of the singers, I received a lot of compliments about my willingness to do anything in the Church and desire to be a "Jack of All Trades." I don't see it that way. I just see it as trying to serve and pour Christ's love into this church in whatever ways I can :-). The singing went well, however, and I look forward to several other performances.

During the 10:30 service we have children's church. I had been helping with children's church for a couple of weeks prior to this, as I mentioned. This particular Sunday, however, the children's pastor wanted me to basically run a bit of the show. Unlike most weeks where we bring the kids in, talk for a bit as a large group and then split off into smaller, age-specific groups, this was a "Sensational Sunday." Sensational Sundays happen once every other month or so and usually involve the kids running their own sort of church service. They all stay in one room. There is worship, a speaker, offering--the whole works! The goal is to grow the kids as a smaller community of believers within the bigger whole. For what it is worth, I like the idea. In any event, I was the "speaker" for the day.

This actually went really well. The focus of the day was on summer camp. So I spoke a bit about why I do summer camps and what role I think they play in kids' lives. I shared with the kids some of my favorite stories from summer camp, told jokes, played a bit of games, showed some pictures and...eventually...found a crack with which to share the gospel. I got to the point where I was telling them about some of my favorite campers and how so many of the campers turned to God despite hard circumstances. I shared that these kids had become inspirations to me and they taught me, an adult, a lot about God. I told them that they too could understand the truth which those kids learned and they they could be filled with child-like joy that us old people could learn a lot from. It was really good and the stories I was sharing hit the spot (I think). The children's pastor was very pleased.

Afterward, I felt really good about how the little service went. I know I am good at playing games with kids and getting them to smile and laugh. But I don't often speak to them for any length of time. This was a first. I think I did well and it was very affirming for me to see some real growth come out of that time for them and for me.

In Christ,

Chris