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This entry is about our Sunday School classes in the Zacapa church. I just wanted to explain to anybody who is interested, what is going on, and how you can pray for us!
Our Sunday School class is Sunday morning at 9:30. Because of the fact that most of the kids live in a village 10 minutes from the church (in car), I go and pick them up for church. So once I have gone to the village to pick them up, we get to the church around 9:30. We start with all the kids together, we sing a few songs and say a prayer.. and then we split into the two age-groups.
We split the kids up into two groups, ages 0-9, and ages 10+. I am the teacher of the kids ages 10 and up, and Lynn Wirkkala and Doris Pinales are the teachers of the younger kids.
I usually have 7-12 students each Sunday.. mostly girls. It's really tough to get the guys to come, because here it's all about being a "tough guy"! The boys usually come until they get to about 7 or 8 years old, and then they would rather stay home and shoot their sling shots, or something "men" do. So it's really a cultural thing, and we need to try to change that! So hopefully with prayer and invitations, some older boys can start coming to class too. By the way, the same problem exists with the youth too. And even with the adult men and parents! So our church really has a lack of men in general.. pray for that!
My classroom is set up with two rectangle tables pushed together, to form a box, with me and the students sitting around it. That setup has worked really well for me.
Here is what we do each Sunday: First, we start with a prayer, with everyone holding hands in a circle (to encourage unity and working together as one). After that, each kid takes turns saying his/her memory verse from the week before. Once they have all had their turn, I write the new one on the white-board. They all copy the verse into a notebook that I got for them, and they bring the notebook home to study the verse. I am hoping that by bringing the notebook every Sunday, it helps them to get into the habit of bringing something to church, and hopefully that habit will help them to bring their Bibles in a future years! Some already do bring their Bible!. After the memory verse, we do a quick review of the story/lesson we learned the week before.
After the review, we go into the new lesson for the week. Usually, I base each lesson on a certain theme, and we cover that theme for a few weeks, using different Bible stories and verses from the Bible to help them to better understand. In the classroom I have a bunch of Bibles, so each lesson, the kids each grab one and look up the place where we are reading. Then, we go around the table, and each kid reads a verse or two, depending on the length of the story. This has REALLY helped them to open up a little, as well as learn how to use the Bible, and search for different passages.. I think that is really going to help them in the future. Even though some of the kids don't read very well, almost always they will try to push the verse out.. and once in a while there is a kid who can't read at all, which is fine! They just listen. And that is also where the visual really helps them.
After the reading of the Bible, I try to always do something hand's-on, or visual (I have a white-board in my room, so I use that to draw or to explain things). Here in Guatemala, and I believe in most parts of the world, including the US, the kids learn best through visual and hands on lessons. So I try to involve something like that in each lesson. I have used rocks, play-doe, branches, dirt, flower seeds, and a bunch of other things, just to have them touch and feel and to try to make the lesson a little more real to them. I find this is the best way to help the kids to learn.. and I think this method could be used even in the States, with great success! Kids DO learn best, hands-on. Of coarse there are always a few kids who still find it hard to pay attention and to really grasp the lesson, but I understand, seeing what kind of background and households that they come from. Most of their families really lack education, discipline, love, and Christian example. So, Lord willing, God can use us as a church to work in their lives and help them to be different, and new creations in Christ Jesus! May God work in each of their lives and hearts..
We end the class with everyone holding hands in a circle again, and this time, everyone takes their turn praying! This is where I have seen a huge change in the students. When we first started with the two different age groups, NONE of the kids in my class dared to pray out loud, saying "I don't know how", or "I can't pray". But now, PRAISE GOD, 90% of them do, and their prayers are AMAZING! Prayers for things like "help us not to fall into temptation", and "help us to be lights in school"! So they have come a long ways, in this aspect of the class.. and thank you LORD for that!
After class ends, we all go upstairs to be in the church service at 10:30.
On Monday nights of every other week, we are doing activities in the church with my class. We usually have a few songs, prayer, and then just fun stuff like games (with a Bible lesson tied in), cleanup, or whatever! The purpose is to build friendships and let them have some fun in church as well.
Every Sunday we do attendance. After about 3 months of taking attendance, whoever misses 3 Sundays or less, I take them on a special trip as a treat (we usually go to the pool, or water park.. something they NEVER do otherwise), and that encourages them to come every Sunday. So that has been great for them. Now, after almost a year of doing it this way, I know that all of the kids would come to class, whether we went on a trip like this or not, but it was a good way to get them into the rhythm of coming to church every Sunday (although it's still a little random attendance by a few). But we still do the outings because it is great for the kids to go out and enjoy some things they could never do otherwise, and it also helps to build relationships and friendships amongst their fellow church mates, on a personal and friendly level, not just on a 'at church' level. If you get what I mean.... :)
Our biggest problem with the kids is that 90% of their parents don't come to church! So we have a ton of kids, but no parents to watch them and keep them in line... at times it gets a little cRaZy! For the most part, the older class sits alright in the church service, but with the little kids, it's tough to get them to sit still.. again, understandable considering their upbringing and malnutrition. So please pray for God to work through us, and through the kids, to bring the parents to church as well! If all the parents came too, that would greatly increase the number of members in our church! It would be amazing. Lord willing, some day it will be like that!As I mentioned in my YOUTH GROUP post, we are just starting to train and work in the youth group into teaching the Sunday School. They are all really anxious to start helping and serving the church in that way! So we had our first meeting with them last week, and laid down some ground rules and regulations. All agreed, and so we will be starting to work them into our scheduling starting this week! They will each go through a few sundays with the current teachers, learning from us how we do it, and then, Lord willing, help to teach soon! With more heads and brains, we will get all kinds of fresh ideas and energy in the classrooms, which I believe will help the kids to want to come and listen and learn! So pray for the youth and their involvement as well!
We are also currently ripping down all the old stucco from the walls of the sunday school room in the basement of the church. It has been repainted about 30 times over the years, and now each time it is painted, the paint starts peeling and falling off within a few weeks, and the stucco was slowly falling off too.. So we decided to take it all off (it's a tough job!), and then re-stucco the walls, and repaint, to create a fresh, new atmosphere for the kids.We also hope to use the freshly re-done room for youth group, and HOPEFULLY furnish it with some decent chairs and maybe even a couch, to make it more embracing and homey :o) It will be great to have a room set aside for the youth like that, were we can have a white board for teaching, a tac-board for announcements and schedules, and tables for gatherings and meetings or whatever. I can't wait!
So, there you have it! That's where we are at with the kids in our church. Thanks for caring and reading until the end of this huge post! Please pray for the kids, that God would really work in their hearts to help them understand, behave, and WANT to keep coming and learning, and even work in the church in the near future! It's a blessing to work with them, and I love them all to pieces.. gracias.
