by David, DTS student
A great roar echoed off the mountains and through the great blue sky, shaking the earth’s very foundations to its core. At the epicenter of the thunderous crash is a small, rectangular, triangle-roofed church, resting in the middle of a small dirt clearing amidst fields of crops. And inside this sun-stricken building, there stands a group of kids yelling with all the air in their lungs in not-so-perfect harmony, “IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH!”
The first day of our two day children’s mini-seminar started out with a memory verse and song (Genesis 1:1, and “Our God is So Big”). Over the two days our goal was to teach to the kids God’s nature and His character. The different topics included God being all-powerful, personal, patient, faithful, trustworthy, and most importantly loving. We had all felt that emphasizing God’s love was key for our messages to the children.
I gave the first message of the two days on creation and how God created the world and us His children out of His great love. Afterward I had all the kids draw a picture of creation with God watching and smiling over it all.
Two other people spoke that day and we had many crafts and activities throughout the day as well. During the ten minute bathroom breaks in between each message and activity we would hang out with the kids and play duck, duck, goose.
The second day went similarly, with more crafts, messages, and laughter. Rebecca gave a message on God’s patience and told the story of Jonah through a puppet show (which was puppeteered by Kristen and myself). The very first message of the second day was given by Missy. She spoke of God’s love and told the parable of the prodigal son, enlisting some of us to help her act the story out. She even crafted some pink construction paper pig noses for the pigs in the story!
And at the end of the second day we took all of the crafts the kids had created and strung them up all around the upper wall of the rectangular church. It was the first time any of us had taught and organized a seminar like this, but God really came through and helped us to build good relationships immediately with the kids and teach them about His love and character.