Last Sunday as I was almost finished getting ready for church, I was hit by the kind of pain that doubles you over. It quickly became apparent that a run to the emergency room was in my near future. I probably should have panicked.
This summer I am running our children’s Bible class program – Missionary Journeys. This usually means quite a bit of last minute set-up on Sunday mornings as well as co-ordinating volunteers and teaching one of the centers. None of that was going to be done by me that day.
We ran by the church building on the way to the hospital and basically kicked our fifteen year old daughter and all of the stuff needed for Bible class out of our car. As we drove off towards the hospital, she was left to do everything I normally did on Sunday mornings for set-up and co-ordination as well as the photography and filming that she normally does for me.
If you have been exposed to the Montessori Method of education or child-directed learning, you will probably adapt easily when the children in your Bible class begin to lead everyone off on a tangent. Most of you though, were exposed to a more traditional teacher-led educational style, particularly in Bible classes. Lesson plans were followed and those who tried to deviate were often ignored or corrected.
This is Blush. Blush is being trained by 
One of my favorite things about doing service and mission projects at church is to see how many people I can get involved and excited about what we are doing. Many people will jump right in and busy themselves going about God’s work. Others may be a little more reticent (like Gideon or Moses) at first.
This week we did one of my favorite things to do with the children at church – take them on a field trip. It always amazes me how few churches take young children places to serve others and do mission work as a church family. Children are so impressionable and remember things we have no idea they are absorbing from their experiences.