Rain = interesting Sunday School...

Since April 2007 I have been attending River's Edge Community Church. We meet every Sunday in a community center, which has recently been painted a bright orange, for free I suppose by Africell- a mobile phone company. Why not?

Since December 2007 I have been helping out with Sunday School. Supposedly 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off but I end up doing sunday school more often than not. I don't really mind. I love being with the kids. In the dry season we sit in front of the church; the big kids on wooden benches, the little kids on the steps. It seems to work well.

However, in rainy season it is a different story. Last year we had to keep the kids in the church building for the whole service which meant them sitting very quietly throughout the 1hr sermon. Not easy for 2-14 year olds! It's not even easy for adults at times. This year I thought we needed to do something about this. Why not build a shelter? After weeks of talk, I finally pushed for action. This is the result. "STICKS & A TARPOLINE"

The very next Sunday the shelter was up. There was no rain. We tried out the shelter anyway and it was perfect. The big kids sat in the shelter and the little kids and myself sat on the steps. Dry.

The following Sunday it was raining. The shelter was fine when I arrived but after worship we went out and saw it had collapsed due to heavy rain. Oops. The tarp was half off of the shelter, the benches were soaked. Back inside we went. It meant sitting in the back of the church again with the kids. At least I brought something for the kids to do on paper. 4 Sundays in a row now we've been inside due to rain.

I recently decided to teach the 2-6 year olds (rather than the older kids with complicated Krio). Well, teaching 2-6 year olds is not easy when sitting in the back of the church, needing to whisper, with a preaching talking loudly through the microphone, to children that only understand Krio and are easily distracted. I realized that a Bible story and a craft works best. And to be honest, going through these Bible stories again was eye opening for me. Week 1: Noah's ark. Week 2: Daniel in the Lions Den. Week 3: David and Goliath. Week 4: The Lost Sheep.

Here is David getting ready to kill Goliath- note the stones glued onto the picture. And one of my kids- Alfred- proudly showing off his piece of art. These lessons do take some prep work. Fortunately I have an excellent coloring book so I trace the pictures out of that. I actually trace 10 copies and then hand these out to the kids.

And then the shepherd with the Lost Sheep. And the kids coloring quietly in the back of church, using a bench as a table. Children here are not used to coloring, cutting, glueing etc. So we take it step by step. Color the grass green, color the staff brown, color the clothes different colors, then glue on the cotton wool in this case. It takes up a bit more time that way too!

This would be my youngest participant. : ) Isn't she adorable. Actually, her mom sits with her and joins in. I think mom likes coloring in the pages just like I do! So, Sunday school is always an adventure. And I love it. Unfortunately it's not so easy to teach these little ones. They get their stories mixed up quickly and Noah ends up being Jesus, as does Daniel. One of the kids finally got David's name right today. That made me happy.