On Wednesdays I had been meeting with several young men. We had been going through the first book of Timothy. It was down to maybe two guys coming on a weekly basis if that. We had been trying to come up with a way to have a youth group. On Saturdays we had been going to the park and playing basketball but with work projects and the kids being so exhausted we stopped going about two months ago. This month our Anna turns 14. So with Anna turning 14, Aletta turns 13 in July and Lilly turns 12 in September. We had been noticing that the girls have been asking to go to La Roca on Sunday nights which is when our coffee house is open. Pretty much all of the kids from the church have started coming. So it was time to change the men's Wednesday bible study to a youth bible study.
So yesterday, was our second week. The schedule is we eat a ham sandwich, (because we meet during lunch time) then we play a few games and then we spend 20-30 minutes going through the book of 2 Timothy. It has made me have to do more preparations as I know that my 11 year old does not have that long of an attention span especially after being in school all day. This is a new challenge for me. How do I best utilize the time that we have together? I have already seen that one young lady learns by writing everything down. She is literally writing the whole time. It is a great reminder of how people learn by different ways. I am a visual/doing learner. I am having to try to come up with more ways to talk about the topics that come up in Timothy. I sense Jesus direction in this area. I have to think outside the box. The easy part is putting in the work to study the passages of scripture. I have to come up with ways to bring these truths into understandable and practical ways so that we can apply it to our daily lives. Even know, thinking back on sermons and illustrations that I remember from my youth, it is the physical illustrations that come to my mind first.
One in particular is the extravagant love of the Father that he lavishes his love on us in extraordinary ways. My youth pastor asked one lady to come up to the stage. Then proceeded to give her a 1 dollar bill. The illustration continued through the whole time of the message, with every minute or two with 1 dollar bill given to this lady. By the end she had over $100 dollars. The lady was in need and began to cry by the demonstration of God's extravagant love for her in a very tangible way. What a power way to demonstrate God's love to this woman. This illustration to place more than 20 years ago. Can I actually say that? Wow. It's true. It was during my highschool days and I graduated in '96. What kind of impact can I have on these young kids for the gospel?
So yesterday, was our second week. The schedule is we eat a ham sandwich, (because we meet during lunch time) then we play a few games and then we spend 20-30 minutes going through the book of 2 Timothy. It has made me have to do more preparations as I know that my 11 year old does not have that long of an attention span especially after being in school all day. This is a new challenge for me. How do I best utilize the time that we have together? I have already seen that one young lady learns by writing everything down. She is literally writing the whole time. It is a great reminder of how people learn by different ways. I am a visual/doing learner. I am having to try to come up with more ways to talk about the topics that come up in Timothy. I sense Jesus direction in this area. I have to think outside the box. The easy part is putting in the work to study the passages of scripture. I have to come up with ways to bring these truths into understandable and practical ways so that we can apply it to our daily lives. Even know, thinking back on sermons and illustrations that I remember from my youth, it is the physical illustrations that come to my mind first.
One in particular is the extravagant love of the Father that he lavishes his love on us in extraordinary ways. My youth pastor asked one lady to come up to the stage. Then proceeded to give her a 1 dollar bill. The illustration continued through the whole time of the message, with every minute or two with 1 dollar bill given to this lady. By the end she had over $100 dollars. The lady was in need and began to cry by the demonstration of God's extravagant love for her in a very tangible way. What a power way to demonstrate God's love to this woman. This illustration to place more than 20 years ago. Can I actually say that? Wow. It's true. It was during my highschool days and I graduated in '96. What kind of impact can I have on these young kids for the gospel?