Sweet Discussions

Warning: more awana stories...are you sick of them yet?

I had such a great time at Awana last night. Two years ago, I was an Awana leader for the first time and loved it! But this year, I'm loving it in different and better ways.

This year I've tried to be more intentional about talking to the girls about the verses they are memorizing and quoting to me.

You see, for every section they say, which has approximately 2 verses, they get one "Awana dollar." They save these dollars and then have store twice a year in which they can spend their dollars for prizes. Of course, the goals of us leaders and the program itself, is that they take these verses to heart. That they remember them for the rest of their life.

So last night, one girl quote me:

"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."
II Corinthians 5:20

I asked her if she understood that verse to which she said "no idea." So we talked about what reconciliation means and what ambassadors mean and what that verse means to us. I loved seeing it all click together in her eyes.

Another girl quoted:

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." John 21:25

I asked her "isn't it cool to know that Jesus did so much more than what is written here? Maybe when we go to Heaven we can watch everything He did on a movie screen?" She laughed delightedly.

And a third girl was working on her section and lended over to ask me what redemption meant. So we talked about buying back and how when someone is redeemed they suddenly have a purpose, a belonging, and a future. I don't know if I explained this well to her but I love the fact that Awana gives me these little opportunities to share Christ with them and to help make these verses go from their heads to their hearts.