Perhaps my favorite time of the week is Wednesday night, after AWANA. This is closely associated with my least favorite time of the week, often about an hour or two before AWANA. (AWANA stands for ‘Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed’. A weekly program hosted by many churches, AWANA is a little like a Christian scouting program. It involves a lot of memorization of scripture.)
As the Truth & Training (T&T) Director, I’m responsible for the third, fourth and fifth grade part of AWANA at our church, including about 40 kids and a dozen adult leaders. Each week, I oversee Handbook Time (in which the kids work at memorizing scripture in their AWANA work books), Game Time (in which they play various games in our church gymnasium) and Council Time (in which they listen or watch a presentation). Each section is about 30 minutes in length, and Council Time is pretty much my responsibility.
The bold and talented Games Leader Team -- Nate and Josh.
Most of the work of Handbook Time is done by the leaders, who listen to the kids labor through their memorized (or in some cases, not-so-memorized) sections. Game time is handled almost entirely by Joshua and Nate, the fearless grey-shirted Game Directors. But Council Time is always a challenge. How do you get 30 or 40 wiggly kids to sit still for a 25-minute lecture on discipleship? Mostly, I don’t.
Gideon's mustachioed neighbors blissfully sleep the night away
Not long after I became the T&T Director, I hit upon a happy solution: performing skits and puppet shows. As it turns out, the T&T kids love to watch the high school leaders appearing in the skits I invent on the train, Tuesday mornings on my way to work. Strangely, the high school leaders seem to greatly enjoy serving as impromptu actors and actresses — they show up, week after week, cheerfully accepting whatever roles I hand them, often as little as an hour before AWANA starts.
This week’s skit featured the first part of the story of Gideon; with Midianites and idol worship and God’s selection of an unlikely hero. In a surprise twist, the younger students (Sparks, Kindergarten through 2nd grade) joined us for Council Time. As is often the case, our skit included lots of physical humor, and a period of pain-staking explanation afterwards, to make sure they understood the key points.
I played the part of Gideon's cowardly servant. "I'll be right behind you," I assured him.
I don’t know why, but I’m often surprised when the Holy Spirit empowers the skit and makes it effective, in spite of my hurried script-writing, and our usual lack of rehearsal time. I dread Council Time beforehand, but am almost always euphoric afterwards, thanks to God’s goodness. I think God must really love these kids, because He seems to pour out His Spirit on our efforts on a regular basis.
Tim
…just like Gideon dreaded his “impossible” battles and saw the Lord pour out His Spirit and conquer and bless? Persevere in faithfulness, brother!
Weird. I had a dream last night about a big loaf of bread knocking over a tent …
Not really.
But thanks for the encouragement. As you know, perseverance is always a challenge for me … except even THAT doesn’t persevere … 
This is a really good report and I’m glad you’ve worked out these solutions. My most dreaded part of AWANA was driving my kids and the neighbor kids home when they were so pumped up on excitement and sugar. Maybe they don’t bribe the kids so much anymore with candy.
Thanks for including those little Sparkies during the skit time! Our kids love it!
THOSE WERE AWESOME MUSTACHES!!
Sounds GREAT! Only a couple of our kids has evern been able to participate in AWANA and that was our youngest who went last year for about 4 months. Our oldest son was able to go two years ago with a friend for the entire year. It’s something I sure wish all of our kids could have participate in, but we just lived too far away from any churches which were offering the program.
Our oldest, Joshua, has never been an AWANA ‘clubber’ (we lived in the country until he was too old) but that hasn’t stopped him. He has served as a Sparks leader and as Games Director for years, now. In some ways, the dramatic presentations have been every bit as important to the high-schoolers as they have for the kids — it is truly a win/win/win scenario. The kids are blessed by a dynamic presentation, the high-schoolers are blessed as they serve, and I am blessed as my faith grows, seeing the Holy Spirit ‘show up’ week after week.
Thanks for all your comments, Cynthia!