Discovery Land

Every quarter my church holds the Discipleship Intstitute. It takes place in Sunday evenings from 5:30-7:30pm. There are usually three or four different classes to choose from. There can be classes like Old and Nee Testament Survey, Parenting classes, Christian finance classes, purity classes for the teenagers, and marriage classes. It goes for 4 weeks then we take one week off and then the first 4 weeks repeat so you can switch and go to a class that you didn't go to in the first 4 weeks. My pastor asked if I would be in charge of the kid's program, called Discovery Land. I will be teaching the first 4 weeks and then a friend of mine will do it the second 4 weeks so that way we both will at least be able to take one class. My mom is helping me. Last night was the first night. We weren't quite sure how many kids we were going to have. We had about 12. (Sometimes in Jr. Church we will have up to 30!)

I started off with prayer and songs. I always choose a different child to come up and help me hold up the visuals for the songs. The kids really enjoy helping in that way. Then I read half of a missionary story to them. It was about Jim and Elisabeth Elliot who went to Ecuador in the 1950's and Jim and 4 other men were killed by the indians they were trying to reach for Christ. Elisabeth went back and lived with those indians who killed her husband and learned their language and made it into a written language. She also helped lead many of the indians to Christ. Today there is a Bible College for those indians and even one of the men who killed her husband is now a follower of Christ.
After half of the missionary story we sang a few more songs then I told half of the Bible lesson. We learned about Noah and the flood. During this time I also have a child come up and hold the picture cards for the story. After this we had a little craft and had snack. After this we sang some more songs and I finished the Bible lesson. Then we played a Bible review game. It was pretty much like "Hot Potato" but when the music stopped whoever had the potato had to answer a question about the Bible lesson. If they could not answer it then anybody could raise their hand and I would call on someone to answer the question. After this game I finished reading them the missionary story. It was almost time to leave but not quite so we played a couple rounds of "Heads Up, Seven Up". I had a really wonderful time teaching the kids. There were a few kids that were a little rowdy but I still had a good time.
Here are some pictures that my mom took of Discovery Land. (She did some "poster" effects on some of them.)