Trying Out Something New

Well, a lot has happened in the past three weeks! The children's English Bible program and adult English Bible studies are definitely in full swing! Since I have written last, there has been a mother and daughter (Marla and Mrs. Gina) come to work with us for two weeks and a recently graduated elementary school teacher (Courtney) come and work for one week! It was nice to have extra hands and new faces, especially getting ready for the children's program to start this past week. 

The week after Mr. Walenty's funeral, Courtney, Holly, Annabelle, and I worked and worked on getting materials ready for the children's program. This program brings in people from all over the community of the Gdansk-Sopot-Gdynia Tri-city area. We started by organizing material that they already have in the storage room. There are a lot of good things there to use when teaching children! There hasn't been a children's program here in a few years, so the materials and supplies were dusty, out of order, dried up, broken, etc. We spent the first week getting everything in the right place down in the basement, throwing away and replacing unusuable supplies, and cleaning the area to get ready for kids to come. Everything downstairs is now spick, span, and easy to find! It was a lot of work, but it paid off!

That weekend and the next week was spent getting everything together specifically for this summer's program! Thankfully, a friend of mine from Freed-Hardeman arrived last week and will be here for three weeks! Unfortunately, Holly went back to the States on Tuesday. It was such a blessing to work with her for five weeks! This is the schedule that Annabelle and Mrs. Molly came up with: 

Week 1 - Jesus Calls the Children and the Apostles
Matthew 19:13-14, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17 and Matthew 4:18-22, 10:1-4, Mark 1:16-20, 2:13-17, Luke 5:1-11 and 27-32, 6:12-16 and John 1:35-51
Main Idea: Jesus Loves Me

Other Theme: Family and Relationships

Other Topics: Geography, Roman Rule, and Jobs of the Apostles 

Week 2 - Jesus Heals Ten Men with Leprosy (and only one comes back to thank him)

Luke 17:11-19

Main Idea: I Say Thank You 

Secondary Theme: Body Parts 

Other Topics: Temple and Priests, Leprosy and Illness

Week 3  - Jesus Feeds the 5000

Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15

Main Idea: Jesus Takes Care of Me

Secondary Theme: Foods

Other Topics: Foods in Jesus' Time

Week 4 - Jesus Calms the Storm

Matthew 8: 23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25

Main Idea: I Ask God for Help When I am Afraid

Secondary Theme: Clothing for Weather

Other Topics: Sea Routes and Transportation in Jesus' Time

Week 5 - The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

Main Idea: I Help Others

Secondary Theme: Health

Other Topics: Land Travel and Transportation in Jesus' Time

In order to prepare for this program, we researched, organized, and brainstormed crafts, puzzles, activities, advertisements, pictures, coloring pages, videos, flashcards, games, and so much more! We printed things, colored materials, laminated, ran errands, decorated the building, bought paper and other craft supplies, and studied the text on our own. I never knew so much work went into teaching children! I've boiled this down to a short paragraph, but it really filled up our entire week! In the States we do a one-day or one-week VBS in the summers, and that takes a lot of work. This is like VBS every day for five weeks!

The program lasts an hour and a half Monday-Friday each week. We go over the same lesson each day (maybe in a different way, using different materials, or a different part of the story). The children who come may be there only one day of the week or every single day, so it is hard to know who will come! The children can be from age 5 to age 11, which is the critical period of childhood for learning. The brain processes language differently during this time than at older ages, which is why adults have a much harder time learning things, such as language, than children do. Each week, our goal is for the child to leave knowing at least one very important lesson, such as that Jesus loves them, that they can ask God for help, to say thank you, to help other people, or that God will take care of them. Those are the over-arching themes of each week.

On a more personal note, I am in the process of learning a new, and very important, skill - how to effectively and comfortably teach children. I haven't had a lot of experience teachings kids nor do I have children of my own. I haven't had any real training on how children learn, but I am learning so much from doing this here in Sopot! Annabelle is so wonderful at it, and I am learning just from observing her! Being involved with the children's program is a bit out of my comfort zone, but that is a good thing. Moving outside of one's comfort zone leads to broader horizons and spiritual growth. This is a skill that will be SO useful for the rest of my life, so I am very glad to have this opportunity to be involved in it!

For this first week of the children's program, there have been only a few students. It is the last week of school here, so most people were very busy. Next week, we are expecting to have many more children coming through our doors! This week we taught about Jesus calling his apostles and Jesus bringing little children to himself. We start off each day with circle time, where we use simple English phrases and tell the story for the day. We sing, go through flash cards, and play games. When we are done there, we help the children do a craft related to the lesson, and we may sing some more, put together a puzzle, and tell the story again! The children are so precious! 

During the first week of this program, we lost four of our workers, so we were a little short-handed! While Annabelle and Amanda focused on the children, Mrs. Molly and I focused on  the adult English lessons. We took Holly's, Marla's, and Mrs. Gina's students on, so we were very busy! I had several lessons a day to prepare for, but I absolutely loved it! I got to talk with so many people, in depth, about wonderful Bible stories and principles. It has been so good to have lessons with the same students over and over again. I always look forward to seeing them and getting to know them more when I know they have lessons scheduled! It creates a nice variety to have lessons with adults in the morning and afternoon hours and then to be with the kids in the evening.

Last Sunday before Holly left, one of the members of the congregation here, invited us over to her flat for dinner, and then we went for a walk together around Sopot. It was so lovely! We also had a couple of free days in the past few weeks, and we visited a gingerbread museum in Torun, Poland and Westerplatte in Gdansk, where World War II began. After being in the apartment with only me and Amanda for a few days after Holly's departure, we got three new workers from the States, Mr. Tony, Mrs. Treva, and Ms. Janet! I am loving my time here in Poland, and I am learning so so much more than I ever thought I could! I have been so blessed by the experience I have had here so far, at my halfway point through the summer. I definitely made the right choice when I decided to come here this year!