I'll Do My Best

Fifteen years ago, my husband and I returned from our honeymoon, tan and madly in love, and spent the next month choosing a church together.  We knew it was a huge decision, one that would be central to our marriage and our family.  We settled in at a church that was similar to the church we had attended throughout college - one whose pastor preached the Word of God with conviction, clarity and uncompromising zeal. He still preaches like that today, and I am so deeply grateful.

The youth pastor at the time was in the midst of trying to get an AWANA program off the ground.  AWANA is a program that reaches kids with the gospel of Christ and trains them to serve Him.  AWANA does this through extensive Scripture memory, Bible teaching, discipleship, mentoring, and some games thrown in for fun.  Somehow, word got out to this youth pastor that my husband had significant leadership experience in AWANA, having volunteered in the program as a teenager and throughout his college years.  Before we could blink, he had taken my husband out for pie and asked him to head up the T&T portion (3rd - 6th graders) of the AWANA club its first year.

Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed

My husband enthusiastically agreed, holding a deep-seated passion for teaching God's Word to kids.  I had no AWANA experience whatsoever, but I was newly married with stars in my eyes and wherever my beloved husband went, I was sure to follow.  I signed on to be a small group leader for the T&T girls.  No one kept records of numbers back then, but we couldn't have had many more than 30 kids in the program that first year.  I fell head-over-heels in love with my T&T girls, and God planted a burgeoning passion in my heart to match my husband's.

The next year, the youth pastor handed the AWANA program over to my husband in its entirety, and he became AWANA Commander over the whole preschool-6th grade deal - a position he holds to this day.  I loved working with the 3rd-6th grade girls so much that I decided I was there to stay as well.

After two years of marriage, we had our first baby.  We placed her in her little carseat carrier and carted her off to AWANA with us each and every week.  When the time of night came for me to meet with my small group of T&T girls, I would tuck her carseat next to the AWANA secretary's desk, and the secretary would kindly keep an eye on the baby for me while I met with my older girls.  Later, during game time, our little munchkin would contentedly suck away at her bottle in the middle of the noisy chaos.  Each child that came into our family after that lived the very same story.  AWANA has been a part of their lives since the day we brought them home from the hospital; it's in their blood.

Nine years ago, that first little munchkin of ours was finally old enough to enter the AWANA preschool program herself.  She donned her little blue and red vest, looped her AWANA bag over her shoulder, and trotted in to her very first night of Cubbies.  Just last night, she graduated from the program as a mature and lovely 6th grader.  Where did the years go?!

I've seen incredible things these past 15 years in AWANA.  I've had the privilege of praying with kids to receive Christ as their personal Lord and Savior;  I've seen little, tiny Cubbies grow up to be God-honoring teenagers and adults; I've seen our church surround and provide for a family in need because their daughter mentioned to her AWANA leader that her mom didn't have enough money to give her for school lunch the next day; I've been led by the Holy Spirit to teach a large-group lesson on the hope and joy God offers us in the midst of suffering, completely unaware that a girl who lost her mother to cancer that very afternoon sat in the room; I've seen adult AWANA volunteers come to the realization that they don't have an authentic relationship with God and decide to turn their lives over to Him; I've seen a young girl who was invited to AWANA by a neighborhood friend choose to make Jesus her Savior, then invite her parents to attend our church on the weekend, which led to her parents also accepting Christ, which led to their marriage ultimately being rescued from the brink of divorce (and that's a story I've seen repeated before my eyes on several different occassions).

In addition to all this, God continues to bring more and more kids to our front door. What started out as a small and humble group that first year has now grown to a group of over 350 kids on an average AWANA night, along with over 100 volunteers who love and support them.  Each year that number increases significantly.  We are absolutely bursting at the seams with these kids, and we're thrilled out of our minds about it!

Each year of AWANA ends with an awards ceremony that honors and celebrates the kids' accomplishments for the year. These kids are simply amazing. The amount of Scripture that they have to commit to memory to complete just one AWANA book is incredible. Since those early years, it's been so much fun to watch the kids that we know and love grow in God's Word. Some of the girls I had in my very first T&T group are married now and working on families of their own. Last year, one of my girls who was finishing up her last year of AWANA wrote me a note to tell me that she plans to let me know when she's an AWANA leader with a group of her own someday. Oh, the joy!

The past several years, we've ended the awards ceremony by bringing every single one of those crazy kids into the sanctuary at the same time.  They pack the stage, the aisles, and every last corner in that sanctuary until I'm sure we're breaking at least five city fire ordinances.  And then, together, they sing praises to Jesus in front of their families and friends.  My heart fills to bursting every time, and I'm helpless to stop the tears streaming down my cheeks.  How on earth did we gain the privilege of teaching all these piles of children about Jesus?!  If you add them all together over the years, they number in the thousands.  If what we teach them sinks in and sticks even a small percentage of the time...I can't take in the result.  I long for the day in heaven when one of our AWANA kids approaches their old AWANA leader and says, "I'd like you to meet my great-great grandchild.  She's here today because I met Jesus in Cubbies all those many, many years ago." 

Glory!!

It's that thought that keeps my husband and I, and so many others, coming back week after week, year after year.  When we're dealing with that difficult child who we'd rather tie to the back of a tractor than show the love of Jesus, we think of heaven.  When our minds wander to the 4,561 other things we could be doing with our Wednesday nights, we think of heaven.  And when those 350 kids packed the aisles last night and sang to Jesus at the top of their lungs...

I'll do my best, I'll do my best;
Oh-oh-oh,
I'll do my best for You!

...I thought of heaven.  And my own heart began to sing to Jesus:  If You will keep them walking through our doors, Lord, then I'll do my best, I'll do my best; Oh-oh-oh, I'll do my best for You.

Please listen, HERE, and let your mind fill with visions of heaven

Student Turned Teacher

In this world, there are those who follow directions and there are those who don't.  I find myself in the first group.  I like my box.  I like the sides; I like the top.  And the floor - that one's just not even optional!  Directions help me to understand what's expected of me; they provide a framework for my behavior; they tend to come with a guarantee that if I follow them carefully, I will reach the expected end destination.  Of that, I am a big fan.  Oddly enough, for all my direction-following tendencies, it's unsettling how often I don't really know where I am.  Sometimes, it is possible to turn your brain off while following the directions, to the extent that when you finally turn it back on and look around, you're not sure where in the world you are.  Keeping my brain plugged in while following the directions is definitely key.  Just ask my friends who dare to get in a car with me.

My son, bless his heart, falls hopelessly into the latter category - those who care not for the directions.  I usually see this as a fault.  Not following directions has the potential to create disastrous results.  As in the case of a math test.  I can't tell you how many times I've had this conversation with my son, "Dude, if you would have just followed the directions, you would have pulled an 'A' on this thing!  You totally know your stuff, you're just not following the directions!!"  Oddly enough, for all his direction-ignoring tendencies, it's unsettling how often he knows exactly where he is.  He may not always test well, but he's smart as a whip.  And it would be embarrassing to admit how many times my 10-year-old son has led his 35-year-old mother through a campground, out of a forest, down the right road in a new area, etc.  The child generally knows exactly where he is.

This past week, he had an AWANA section to complete.  The last one in his book, actually.  It was a review of what he had learned in the rest of the book.  His whole AWANA book centers around answering a set of theological questions.  A question is posed, and 8 different answers are given, each with a supporting Bible verse or two to memorize.  This review section asked 4 of those questions, and directed him to write in just 2 of the 8 answers he had learned for each question, as well as review a corresponding verse for each.  Simple.  Except that my son ignored the directions.

I've taught in AWANA for enough years that I know their answers to these questions by heart, and it only took me a 0.2 second glance to see that he had not filled in the answers they were asking him to review.  He had just made up his own answers to the questions.  Frustration surged in my chest.  "Dude, you didn't read the directions!  They're not asking you to answer these questions on your own, they want you to review the answers they gave you to memorize throughout the book.  You're going to have to do this over."  As he started re-doing the assignment on a separate sheet of paper, I took a minute to look at what he had actually written in the blanks.  Tears burned the back of my eyes.

Why did God give us the Bible?

1.  So I could know His Word

2.  To guide me

Who is God?

1.  Jesus' Dad

2.  The man who created earth

Who is the Lord Jesus?

1.  God's son

2.  The man who died for our sins

How does God want me to live my life?

1.  Following Him

2.  He wants me to tell other people about him.

Dear Lord Jesus, why am I allowed to be a parent some days?!  My son had not given the exact answers he was expected to give.  He had not followed the directions.  But he knows precisely where he is.  I held in my hands the proof of a tender faith growing in the heart of my son - his very own creed of belief.  Far more valuable, far more precious than any set of regurgitated answers.

I walked over to my son and placed my face close to his, "I just now really looked at what you wrote.  You gave really good answers.  You're spot on, and I'm really pleased to see what you understand.  We still have to complete the assignment the way it was designed because AWANA also has some really good answers they are trying to teach you, but I just want you to know that I like your answers."

To which he replied, with a hint of fire in his eyes, "I know, Mom.  I think us kids should give our own answers in our own words - that's how we learn, you know."

Amen.