Beautiful moments happened in Hope Kids on Easter Sunday.
The children were given the question
“If Jesus beat death, what does that mean for you and me?”
They started sharing their ideas with each other. All the children were truly open and involved, listening attentively to each other. They commented on each other’s answers with hardly any need from us leaders to interrupt.
For worship, related to the topic of Jesus beating death, the children were asked to think about their friendship with God – is it alive or dead? They were asked to think about if they are scared of death, and if they would like someone to pray for them.
Undeterred by these emotional, deep questions, 8 kids started to pray one after another, in their own words, sharing their difficulties when it comes to building their friendship with God or facing death.
They waited for each other to finish, and most kids had a prayer to make! They were very attentive to each other. The leaders did not have to initiate a prayer themselves, the kids were doing the worship entirely on their own!
What is most encouraging about what happens at Hope kids?
The children interact beautifully with the material and the metaphors in the object lesson. They add additional comments and conclusions to the learning points on God and Jesus.
The messages from the object lessons are short (“God chooses you” or “You can live in Jesus”). This means that the children remember these lines and truth well. Honestly, it was wonderful and a really warm feeling rose in my chest listening to the kids.
It was also encouraging how attentive children are at worships. They did not fidget, they were listening and actively engaging in worship.
The quality of the materials in Hope Kids is excellent, and children love it, that is one of the secrets.
What challenges you the most personally about being with the children in Kids Klub?
English is not my first language so sometimes I have been worrying that the kids may not understand what I am trying to explain when it comes to new games or lessons. Keeping to the point, avoiding complicated, long sentences all makes it easier for both the children and me I think!
Children are so keen on answering questions therefore sometimes feel disappointed when I choose someone else to answer a question! Once a child came up to me saying “Miss, you did not choose me!”. Kids can get upset when they come close to winning and yet the other team wins. I found these situations tricky! Yasmin has an excellent way of explaining this to the children, making comparison with a football player and the referee. Children are taught to handle emotionally the disappointment of not winning, bearing these feelings gracefully. We tell them how proud we are of them trying their best, and that they can always show their best at the next game.
Another thing I found difficult to practice was using positive peer pressure. This is a really helpful concept that Yasmin was telling me about. Practically, positive peer pressure means that if the kids are not doing what we have asked them to do, we award points to the team that is behaving well, instead of deducting points from the misbehaving team. Kids start to put pressure on the restless kids to behave so that their team can win, telling them to stay quiet for example. I realised that if I deduct points kids get demoralised, and that awarding points promotes building the team spirit.
If you would like to get involved in serving on Hope Kids on a Sunday morning contact Yasmin – Click Here to send an email
Written by Dorottya Godor
