At the beginning of May, we were able to host a missionary from Tennessee whose job in the states is training children's ministry workers. What a blessing it was to have Lacynda Biggers stay with us for a few days and hold a training seminar for the children's ministry workers of the Vida Nueva churches.
Students were given 30 minutes to put together a 1 hour children's lesson. Great practice -- especially that's often all the advance notice a teacher gets (sometimes less!). The object of the training course was to give the students some tools and guidelines for building a successful Bible lesson.
In this photo Luz demonstrates a very important teacher skill: the ability to write upside down. ;^)
I think Evie had more fun that it looks like she was having in this photo!!!
After working together as a team to build the lesson, the groups then shared their lesson with the rest of the class.
We learned that the most important part of the lesson -- the part we want the children to take home with them and guard in their heart -- is the Bible truth, not the Bible story. Evie's group used the story of the firey furnace to illustrate the truth of "God Takes Care of Me".
In addition to a class on how to build a successful Bible lesson, Lacynda also shared about the importance of capturing a child's heart...
...and we did some role playing of dealing with discipline issues in the classroom. In this photo, Hermana Blanca and Hermana Irma make trouble for Teacher Ana. We definitely had fun and learned a lot during this all-too-short class!
In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much that we've invited Hermana Lacynda back this weekend for a second class! This class will be held at Iglesia Betesda in Guasave. We're hoping that many leaders from many churches will be able to attend! Pray for a good turn-out!
