I sat beside a young girl on Sunday morning. Her dad was teaching Sunday School and wanted her to sit in the main service, so we sat together taking notes. Her amazement at my copious writing led to a beautiful conversation, which I wrote about here.
The conversation filled me with wonder. I loved telling her dad about it later, feeling as if I was a real partner in the work of raising this child. The night before, the girl and I had been doing crafts. Crafts can be delightful bonding times, but ultimately the bonding reinforces trust that leads to conversations that really matter.
Sometimes those conversations need to happen with a woman. There is nothing like guidance and love from a devoted, attentive dad. Females need healthy input from stable men. But girls and young women also need the companionship and instruction from older women. And I'm to grateful I got to be there for one of those conversations on this week.
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Help! I'm a camp speaker! part 2
I started speaking on Monday evening, August 17th. Tuesday through Friday I spoke 3 times a day: briefly in the morning at staff devotions, later in the morning I would tell a story from the book of Daniel, then in the evening we talked about God's work in our own lives. The kids were very responsive, and I had fun getting them involved through acting out the story or chanting or just asking review questions. They were amazingly attentive and some of the cabin groups went back and read more! One cabin leader said his boys had become "Bible addicts." Fun!
On Thursday I spoke from Ephesians 2:10 about being God's Masterpiece. It fit with the week's theme of being ALIVE in Christ and that we couldn't have done that for ourselves. It also fit with something we were learning from Daniel: that God is the one who gives wisdom and greatness, and if we think we're good and powerful and self-made, we might enjoy ourselves temporarily but we're in for a big surprise later!
To explain God's Masterpiece, I used a series of pictures of the pottery process from my brother Jeffrey's website. There is absolutely nothing that clay can do to help itself become something wonderful. And it takes time and a lot of pushing and pulling and spinning for the clay to be shaped into some thing beautiful and/or useful. After shaping it sits on a shelf and dries for several days (or weeks, as with teapots). Then it needs extreme heat... twice! Along the way there's decoration, that doesn't look like much, but the potter knows! Finally, after a long, intense process, you have beautiful plates and platters, big and small and medium bowls, mugs and goblets, cream and sugars, pitchers and teapots, vases and candle-holders, casseroles and cookie jars, and more!!! Jeffrey has even done sculptures and space ships with stained glass windows!
On Friday evening, I did a mini-concert and talked about how each of us has a story and God is writing it. One of the cabin leaders asked if he could sing Fingerprints of God by Steven Curtis Chapman. It fit perfectly, so at the end of the chapel service he sang and I joined with some harmony on the choruses. It was a perfect ending. For cabin devotions after chapel, I challenged the cabin leaders to go around their whole cabins and tell each child one thing they've noticed about God's fingerprints on that child. The next morning in staff meeting many cabin leaders shared how well that went over. In one cabin it became an encouragement fest, with all the guys sharing good things about each other. In another cabin, after the leader was done the girls wanted to tell the leader about God's fingerprints on her! Sometimes we can be faithful to our calling and not get to see the fruit of what we do, but that was such a treat to hear about all that sharing.
At Saturday morning's closing rally, I recapped the week for the parents, explaining the Daniel stories and the masterpiece and fingerprints of God. Just 5 minutes. Amazing how I had to pray harder about those 5 minutes than the longer ones! The less time you have, the more it counts. Hmmmm.
The most challenging part of the day was climbing the big hill 3 times a day to the dining hall. I think my favourite part of the day was worship. During staff meetings we all agreed that this was our favourite--the energetic and heartfelt worship of 9-11 year olds. I loved seeing this one little guy in the aisle with his hand raised up.
For an album of photos from my week at Manitou, visit my Facebook profile.
On Thursday I spoke from Ephesians 2:10 about being God's Masterpiece. It fit with the week's theme of being ALIVE in Christ and that we couldn't have done that for ourselves. It also fit with something we were learning from Daniel: that God is the one who gives wisdom and greatness, and if we think we're good and powerful and self-made, we might enjoy ourselves temporarily but we're in for a big surprise later!
To explain God's Masterpiece, I used a series of pictures of the pottery process from my brother Jeffrey's website. There is absolutely nothing that clay can do to help itself become something wonderful. And it takes time and a lot of pushing and pulling and spinning for the clay to be shaped into some thing beautiful and/or useful. After shaping it sits on a shelf and dries for several days (or weeks, as with teapots). Then it needs extreme heat... twice! Along the way there's decoration, that doesn't look like much, but the potter knows! Finally, after a long, intense process, you have beautiful plates and platters, big and small and medium bowls, mugs and goblets, cream and sugars, pitchers and teapots, vases and candle-holders, casseroles and cookie jars, and more!!! Jeffrey has even done sculptures and space ships with stained glass windows!
On Friday evening, I did a mini-concert and talked about how each of us has a story and God is writing it. One of the cabin leaders asked if he could sing Fingerprints of God by Steven Curtis Chapman. It fit perfectly, so at the end of the chapel service he sang and I joined with some harmony on the choruses. It was a perfect ending. For cabin devotions after chapel, I challenged the cabin leaders to go around their whole cabins and tell each child one thing they've noticed about God's fingerprints on that child. The next morning in staff meeting many cabin leaders shared how well that went over. In one cabin it became an encouragement fest, with all the guys sharing good things about each other. In another cabin, after the leader was done the girls wanted to tell the leader about God's fingerprints on her! Sometimes we can be faithful to our calling and not get to see the fruit of what we do, but that was such a treat to hear about all that sharing.
At Saturday morning's closing rally, I recapped the week for the parents, explaining the Daniel stories and the masterpiece and fingerprints of God. Just 5 minutes. Amazing how I had to pray harder about those 5 minutes than the longer ones! The less time you have, the more it counts. Hmmmm.
The most challenging part of the day was climbing the big hill 3 times a day to the dining hall. I think my favourite part of the day was worship. During staff meetings we all agreed that this was our favourite--the energetic and heartfelt worship of 9-11 year olds. I loved seeing this one little guy in the aisle with his hand raised up.
For an album of photos from my week at Manitou, visit my Facebook profile.
Help! I'm a camp speaker! part 1
I spent last week speaking at Manitou Lake Bible Camp to 90 juniors, ages 9-11.My friend Kathleen McMillan has been a speaker at Manitou twice before, so I asked her for some advice. Here's what she told me:
If I remember correctly lots of farm kids at that camp, first nations too? Tell stories. sing to them. be who you are. The best advice I can give is keep it simple and be there as much as you possibly can to talk to them, hang out, be a real person. It is not so much what you say but how much you care that will stick with them.
Build on each day using small bits and repeating them as the week progresses. I did one once using a skateboard to represent the steps to spiritual growth the board was salvation and the wheels each represented prayer, bible reading good friends attending church we put it together and used it to crash a counselor through a wall of garbage cans with a bucket of water on the top.
Have a contest. My first time speaking for camps I had 2 baby bunnies with me and I had a contest to name the bunnies. If a child came to me with a name I would give them a candy and put their name and their suggestion in the draw. At the end of the week we chose a name.
Once I had a "guess the Professor's name contest" another time I told them that if they came to me, introduced themselves, and told me a story about themselves or something interesting about their summer I would give them a candy. It was very interesting and they responded well to it. Almost every kid came to me at one point or an other. I had to encourage some of the shyer ones but it was worth it. Everyone wants to be listened to.
Love and small kindnesses is all we really have to offer. Sing "My Grandmother's House" at night before bed. Or "Prairie Soul." I think singing quiet meaningful songs to them when they are tired will be effective. Funny songs in the morning. Tell them your stories. Talk about what is important to you, what you are passionate about is your best message.
Once I had a "guess the Professor's name contest" another time I told them that if they came to me, introduced themselves, and told me a story about themselves or something interesting about their summer I would give them a candy. It was very interesting and they responded well to it. Almost every kid came to me at one point or an other. I had to encourage some of the shyer ones but it was worth it. Everyone wants to be listened to.
Love and small kindnesses is all we really have to offer. Sing "My Grandmother's House" at night before bed. Or "Prairie Soul." I think singing quiet meaningful songs to them when they are tired will be effective. Funny songs in the morning. Tell them your stories. Talk about what is important to you, what you are passionate about is your best message.
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