This has been the best week of the whole summer. The KJOY kids have blessed me so much!
Yesterday we learned about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. I think all of the kids had heard this story before, and they were anxious to add what they knew as we read. We had focused all week on how every single person is our neighbor as we tried to reference the Greatest Commandment story over and over again. We talked about how differences shouldn't cause us to ignore a person. These kids are 6, but for only being 6, they really do a good grasp of what this means. The kids took turns acting out what they might do in real-life situations if they saw someone who needed help. Their ideas were precious and often hilarious!
We took the door hangers to a local assisted living home, and the kids really enjoyed placing the door hangers on each resident's door. We were able to visit with a few residents in their rooms, and I was impressed with how uninhibited my group of girls was in their conversations. Great job, ladies! Somehow, word had gone around that we were there to sing for the residents, which was totally not in our plan, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity when we passed the activity room and saw about 15 people gathered to hear us. We asked the kids what they wanted to sing, and they decided on a song from VBS, My God is so Big (one of my favorites whether big people or little people songs), Jesus Loves Me, and How Great Thou Art. I think the kids would've kept on singing if we would've let them!
One of our darling boys shocked me by waling around to every person gathered to hear them sing and hugging everyone. He's a cuddly boy, but he had no qualms with walking up to these folks and giving them a great big bear hug. He brought tears several eyes. I had a big bear hug waiting for him when we left. He was so excited when his mom picked him up to tell her about the people he'd met today.
The afternoon was spent decorating travel size pillow cases to make prayer pillows for the kids at our local women's and children's shelter. Kindergarteners are very meticulous when it comes to their best art work. They also put together snack bags to give out to folks who need some help when they're driving down the road with their families. Obviously this activity came with lots of warnings from the teachers, but it's a fabulous idea, and I really hope the kids and parents use the bags.
Today was about yourself since the previous three days had been about Jesus and others. Our Bible story was about Jesus healing the blind man in John 9, and we blindfolded half the kids at a time and had a partner lead them around. It was a cool experience for them to see what life is like for some people, if a bit silly. We did have a worker from the shelter come to talk to the kids about the shelter and take their prayer pillows. Then we went to McDonalds to treat the kids to lunch and playtime. Yes, Chick-fil-A had been my first choice, but our Chick-fil-A is teensy tiny and doesn't accomodate groups of 14 children and 3 adults very easily. The kids wouldn't have had room to play at all, so McDonalds it was. I'm not sure the kids cared, and they were very generous in their thank yous. It was a treat to do something for them after they worked so hard.
I am so grateful to Terri for allowing me to participate in this week. My old mantra about kids not being too young to do something was proven true over and over these 4 days, and watching their attitudes change from wanting to play to wanting to do 'something else for some person' was just breathtaking. I pray their parents continue these opportunities with these darling ones at home to keep their passion sparked for always putting themselves last. They served me good reminders many times this week, and I praised God regularly for how they taught me.
Yesterday we learned about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. I think all of the kids had heard this story before, and they were anxious to add what they knew as we read. We had focused all week on how every single person is our neighbor as we tried to reference the Greatest Commandment story over and over again. We talked about how differences shouldn't cause us to ignore a person. These kids are 6, but for only being 6, they really do a good grasp of what this means. The kids took turns acting out what they might do in real-life situations if they saw someone who needed help. Their ideas were precious and often hilarious!
We took the door hangers to a local assisted living home, and the kids really enjoyed placing the door hangers on each resident's door. We were able to visit with a few residents in their rooms, and I was impressed with how uninhibited my group of girls was in their conversations. Great job, ladies! Somehow, word had gone around that we were there to sing for the residents, which was totally not in our plan, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity when we passed the activity room and saw about 15 people gathered to hear us. We asked the kids what they wanted to sing, and they decided on a song from VBS, My God is so Big (one of my favorites whether big people or little people songs), Jesus Loves Me, and How Great Thou Art. I think the kids would've kept on singing if we would've let them!
One of our darling boys shocked me by waling around to every person gathered to hear them sing and hugging everyone. He's a cuddly boy, but he had no qualms with walking up to these folks and giving them a great big bear hug. He brought tears several eyes. I had a big bear hug waiting for him when we left. He was so excited when his mom picked him up to tell her about the people he'd met today.
The afternoon was spent decorating travel size pillow cases to make prayer pillows for the kids at our local women's and children's shelter. Kindergarteners are very meticulous when it comes to their best art work. They also put together snack bags to give out to folks who need some help when they're driving down the road with their families. Obviously this activity came with lots of warnings from the teachers, but it's a fabulous idea, and I really hope the kids and parents use the bags.
Today was about yourself since the previous three days had been about Jesus and others. Our Bible story was about Jesus healing the blind man in John 9, and we blindfolded half the kids at a time and had a partner lead them around. It was a cool experience for them to see what life is like for some people, if a bit silly. We did have a worker from the shelter come to talk to the kids about the shelter and take their prayer pillows. Then we went to McDonalds to treat the kids to lunch and playtime. Yes, Chick-fil-A had been my first choice, but our Chick-fil-A is teensy tiny and doesn't accomodate groups of 14 children and 3 adults very easily. The kids wouldn't have had room to play at all, so McDonalds it was. I'm not sure the kids cared, and they were very generous in their thank yous. It was a treat to do something for them after they worked so hard.
I am so grateful to Terri for allowing me to participate in this week. My old mantra about kids not being too young to do something was proven true over and over these 4 days, and watching their attitudes change from wanting to play to wanting to do 'something else for some person' was just breathtaking. I pray their parents continue these opportunities with these darling ones at home to keep their passion sparked for always putting themselves last. They served me good reminders many times this week, and I praised God regularly for how they taught me.
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