AWANA

-
I know this post will be irrelevant to most of you, but I think that you can learn from this even if you are not involved in AWANA.

My church decided to take some of its leaders and LIT's (Leaders in Training- teens like me who are not old enough or have enough experience to be leaders yet) to an AMC (Awana Ministry Conference). This was really beneficial for me- I learned more about how to teach in AWANA (as I have taken that position on), how to witness to children better (which can be applied to teens as well- let me know if you want an article on that), and how to work better in Sparks (my specific group). What did stand out the most to me was the conclusion, though.

Throughout the day we save the staff and volunteers wearing a light blue shirt that said "1 of 6" on the back. It made me curious, but I did not say anything. Evidentally, that was the purpose of them- to make you curious. They showed a video of a woman- a mom- in her late 20's or early 30's explaining to a congregation the importance of children's ministries. Many don't see the point in them, and many AWANAs stops working because there are not enough volunteers. But, a child often stays in the church and feels accepted in the church when they have at least 6 adults that mentor them or make them feel comfortable in the church environment. The goal of the message was to inspire us to be 1 of 6 for all the children that walk in our church's doors.

This is a good point, but I saw more through it. I was probably considered a child in many adults eyes, still. I mean, I am not 18 yet. So, I need my 6 adults- and I was blessed to say that my 6 were all in that room at that time. I seriously almost started crying. You see, I have been having issues with being content with my friends. I always feel like I need more, even though I am so happy with the ones I already have. I feel bad all the friends I have 'lost' because I lost contact with them, or I become judgmental saying 'they were just being nice to me'. Also, because I am in that transition stage I want to have adult friends, and I often felt rejected in that field. So, realizing that there were six adults in the room that I was friends with, and if not that they were for sure mentors. They were not nice to me because they had to, but because they wanted to.


If this article does not encourage anyone else, that is okay. It means a lot to me, and I guess that is what is most important, right? God placed the message in my ear for a reason, clearly. (This leads into my next article, titled "Purpose for Everything")

-Mary

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gone, But Not Forgotten

-
 Hello, y'all! I feel like I always begin my blog posts with something along the lines of "long time no see'" and it is really sad to continue with this pattern. I could list a ton of excuses. Firstly, I could mention that I am now in college. Secondly, I could mention that I am working three jobs. Thirdly, I could mention that our Bible Study group has kind of fallen apart for a few reasons which I will not get all into detail about now. Fourthly, I could talk about how I do not even use Skype anymore. Fifthly, I could mention that I am personally still out there creating content on my own personal accounts.  But, here I am. Here I am making a post on a group blog account. Here I am allowing all of the audience to see that while we are gone, we are not forgotten. No, we could be forgotten about by literally every soul. But, I will not forget. During the years that I was a part of this group, I treasured every moment. It brought me joy to be a part of such a community...
To Continue...»

Long Time No See

-
Wow, it has been a while since we have said anything here, huh? I was just taking the time to look over the blog this morning and I noticed that all of our actual "Newsletters" that we posted here were from 2019. That seems like such a long time ago. We have not posted on this blog since April of 2020. That means it has been almost a year since this blog has been regularly used.  Many of our viewers, like you, probably like that we just forgot about it, right? Like we got so busy in our regular lives that we forgot to make time to blog. Or, we were so busy in our Bible Study that we forgot we had a blog, so while there was so much that was content-worthy, there was nothing that we posted because we can't post on something we do not know exists. Sadly, neither of those are true. But, the first is the closest.  About this time last year, our group was going through some things emotionally, but once we got that all under control life got chaotic. The irony of this situation ...
To Continue...»

YouVersion Bible App

-
Hi, Mary here! I know this is an unusual post, but I really want to talk about this app. YouVersion is a bible app if you can't tell by the title. YouVersion allows you to see what your friends have done with the app, what bible studies they are doing, and some notes they have taken if they allow you to see it. This encourages me because I like to see that I am not the only one reading my bible or learning from it. YouVersion rewards you for using the app whether from highlighting, reading the whole bible, or using there bible study suggestions. As Sabine knows, points and badges, even if they don't mean anything or aren't tangible, it motivates me. YouVersion is free and works offline. This is not rare for a bible app, but what is different about this one is because you can download every version of the bible that you want when you have internet, so you could use it when you go offline. I had a previous app that allowed you to do that with a limit. You had to pay for...
To Continue...»