“I found
the big one and the little nine!”
As frustrating as my adventures in urban youth ministry are, there are just those moments that make every bit of craziness more than worth it.
After Christmas break, I took a whole new approach to The Surf...which is our 1st-6th grade group. I guess my new approach could be called...organization. :)
Part of that organization is keeping some consistency in the evening. So, something we do each week now is look up 3 or 4 verses that go with our lesson. A few of the kids have a basic understanding of the Bible, but for most of the kids it’s the first time they’ve ever looked up a specific verse or maybe even the first time they’ve opened a Bible.
One of our little boys, who is probably in 1st or 2nd grade, is incredibly hyper...and I’m not exagetaing anything, at all. He would run around and do back flips all night if we would let him. The last couple weeks I’ve spent a lot of time helping him look up our verses, but it’s a bit of a challenge to keep his attention. This week I helped him with the first two verses and tried to pick out the important parts for him to write down...he doesn’t like writing at all; I guess it’s too much like school. :)
I walked away to check on some of the other kids and then made my way back to Rahiem to see him underlining something in his Bible. I asked him what he was doing and he said...”I found the big one and the little nine!” That’s exactly how I’ve been explaining it to him over and over...find the big ‘whatever number’ and then find the little ‘whatever number’! My heart just melted. Even though he was underlining Ephesians 1:9, and not 1 John 1:9, which was the verse we were on. But hey, he got the big one and little nine part right and that is good enough for me.
I think it only took about ten minutes until I had to yell at little Rahiem to get off the pool table and stop doing back flips, but that’s okay. It’s nothing new. I’m just so thankful for that little bit of encouragement and joy God blessed me with...it was perfect timing.
the big one and the little nine!”As frustrating as my adventures in urban youth ministry are, there are just those moments that make every bit of craziness more than worth it.
After Christmas break, I took a whole new approach to The Surf...which is our 1st-6th grade group. I guess my new approach could be called...organization. :)
Part of that organization is keeping some consistency in the evening. So, something we do each week now is look up 3 or 4 verses that go with our lesson. A few of the kids have a basic understanding of the Bible, but for most of the kids it’s the first time they’ve ever looked up a specific verse or maybe even the first time they’ve opened a Bible.
One of our little boys, who is probably in 1st or 2nd grade, is incredibly hyper...and I’m not exagetaing anything, at all. He would run around and do back flips all night if we would let him. The last couple weeks I’ve spent a lot of time helping him look up our verses, but it’s a bit of a challenge to keep his attention. This week I helped him with the first two verses and tried to pick out the important parts for him to write down...he doesn’t like writing at all; I guess it’s too much like school. :)
I walked away to check on some of the other kids and then made my way back to Rahiem to see him underlining something in his Bible. I asked him what he was doing and he said...”I found the big one and the little nine!” That’s exactly how I’ve been explaining it to him over and over...find the big ‘whatever number’ and then find the little ‘whatever number’! My heart just melted. Even though he was underlining Ephesians 1:9, and not 1 John 1:9, which was the verse we were on. But hey, he got the big one and little nine part right and that is good enough for me.
I think it only took about ten minutes until I had to yell at little Rahiem to get off the pool table and stop doing back flips, but that’s okay. It’s nothing new. I’m just so thankful for that little bit of encouragement and joy God blessed me with...it was perfect timing.
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