Helping hands

Sarah (me) during the class

Well, the weekend came and went.  And what a weekend!!!!  As I mentioned before, we held a training class for area churches.  Although Alfonso has been telling me for years that we should do training classes, I was hesitant to do it.  First and foremost- although we do much better children's ministry than most of the churches in this part of the world, when I compare our classes to those I have seen in the States, I realize that we still have a long way to go.  Secondly, there are other ministries in Guatemala that do fantastic training for children's ministries.  I didn't want to seem as though I were copying them, and also I didn't want to do training just for the sake of doing it if there was already a realiable source for churches to refer to.  However, as a favor to a church we have begun to work closely with we decided to do it.

Alfonso directing an ice breaking activity

Chrissy and Alfonso doing a choreography.  

I never like to throw something together at the last minute, so after several meetings with Alfonso to prepare the written materials we would hand out, plan the curriculum to be taught, etc, we were finally ready to hold our own training class!!!





 I have to admit- it was TONS of fun.  The 4 hour class had a half hour intermission/coffee break.  We taught hard, we taught from the heart... and we were tired at the end.  But all of the planning paid off.  All of the teachers were pleased and felt as though we had opened their eyes to something new.

I started off by teaching about the importance of children's ministry and how God sees children.  We touched on different aspects of planning a class.  Seat work was assigned!  Those in attendance had to creatively come up with object lessons using objects in our classroom.  The teachers were the "children" as we had them play games, win prizes, learn a Bible verse, etc just as we would do with the children.

practicing an object lesson

a reporter looking for Noah

And we found Noah!!!  Fresh off of the boat

And to follow up, we arrived at church on Sunday all ready to take over the children and give them a live example of how we do a class.  The church is held in the converted garage of the pastor's house.  Due to construction, the children's class was held outside under a small roofed area.  The area was small and tight... but no one seemed to mind in the least. 

The small space we had for the class

It was fun.  Corban was such a cutie.  All of the children were cute, but of course, I happen to think that my 3-year-old was the cutest of them all.  He tried to keep up with the motions to the songs, but was always one word behind!!!! 

Corban trying to keep up with the motions.  He is in the long sleeve plaid shirt

Chrissy aka Miss Chriss doing an object lesson

Francisco in a neighbor's house warming the bottle

We went as a family.  And were once again reminded of the difficulties of throwing a baby into the mix.  Cohen missed his morning nap and began to cry as soon as the worship was over at church.  Francisco spent his time walking the tired, cranky baby and observing us from afar.  Cohen was too distracted to drink his bottle well, too tired to care.. and so, there you have it.  Trying to drag a baby along with us always means that either Francisco or I end up with baby duty.  It really is easier just to keep the baby at home and happy for the first year.

Still, it was good to show up as a family.  And it was awesome to see how the children responded to the lesson we taught.  Before we knew it we had parents and other Sunday School teachers lined up to watch us and comment on what a good job we were doing.  We were very pleased to see how much adults and children alike enjoyed the class.

Corban showing off the craft.  He was tickled to see his rainbow blow in the wind.

 We left extremely satisfied with a job well done and looking forward to next month when we will teach chapter 2 of our new training manual!