Sunday afternoons

In order to prepare you for further posts, I thought it was a good idea to give you a glimpse at how my Sunday afternoon ministries are going these days. These are the two ministries that are my "babies" and they're really separate from everything. Sometimes I kind of get numb to the awesome opportunities that these Bible studies present, but I'm so thankful that God has opened these doors.

A general play by play of how the kid's Bible study goes: At around 2 the kids start congregating on my veranda and I typically have to remind them of the fact that the study won't start until. I then bring out the stack of their Bibles and rally them back to the veranda at around 3 as we sit on the various seating (bench, whicker chairs, a tree stump, a bar stool, and a foot stool). Now, mind you, this is a group of about ten kids between the ages of 8 and 12. I then ask one of them to open up in prayer, and it's been pretty cool hearing how their prayers have evolved in intimacy over the past months. Because I'm not leaving any time soon, I decided that we might as well make our way through the whole Bible so each week we've been reading through and studying a chapter in Genesis - today it was Genesis 20. We typically go through the chapter by the kids each taking turns reading one verse and then to finish out the chapter we either all finish it by reading it together or I just finish it up. I used to do it in the expository fashion, but have just recently decided that in order to better facilitate them becoming disciples, they needed to really learn how to practice reading, observing, interpreting, and applying the verses for themselves, and that's kind of where I start from and then expound on what they come up with. It's rather unorthodox, that's for sure, but I really do feel that God has taken advantage of my lack of experience with children's ministry.

With the girls, ideally they're supposed to all be here at 4...but let's just say the kids are a little more punctual or eager (I'm not quite sure which one) than the girls are. These girls are older, anywhere between 15 and 20, and there could be as many as 8 or as few as one. One of my main girls, Achiro, gets there pretty much at around 4, and then the others sometimes come anywhere to an hour later or not at all. We just hang out on my veranda and begin the study. Then I get to make them feel super awkward and ask them the question "So, what did you all read about/learn this week?" Week after week, I get on my soap box about the importance of them reading the Bible and making God be their priority - I don't think it's really set in, but I hope it will some day. Then it's time for the study. Since I've been back from the States we have been going slowly through the book of Acts and it's been cool just the lessons God has even been teaching me through and convicting me in teaching this book. It's starting to morph into a similar format as the kids as I'm trying to get them to really be able to study their Bibles. It's really hard to step outside of what I know as the "traditional" teaching format, but it's neat because it is so different and full of so many uncertainties. It's really just a time of seeking God about how He wants things to go rather than the way I THINK they should go.

I love these two groups! They're not big groups, but I have to admit that these groups are where I can see real disciples being made and I'm just humbled that I get to in some way "plant seeds" and watch as God brings the fruit.