AWANA End-of-Year Ceremony

We had such a great year of AWANA at church this year. It was the first year the church has had any program for the kids on Wednesday night, and though we didn't grow into a HUGE program, the few kids we had were faithful and did a great job memorizing verses, learning about missions and other Bible stories, and of course, playing games together! I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I signed up to be the Commander, but it actually went really smoothly because there were many adults who helped out as leaders without much help from me.

Andrew was in the Cubbies, which is preschoolers. They all pretty much keep the same pace with their verses, memorizing one each week, and have a story that goes along with their verses. So each of the five faithful Cubbies we had completed their entire book-- which was a total of about 32 verses! Most of them could probably still tell you them, even now, if you asked. The system of rewards with stickers each week and patches after a few weeks, seems to be a great motivator. I am so proud of his willingness to work on those verses every day of the week to really learn them.

Abigail was actually only in the nursery, but by the end of the year (as nursery workers tended to not show up and I had to keep her with me) she had convinced everyone she was actually a Cubbie-- she was singing the songs with them and playing games with them. She just didn't do any verses.

Leah was in the Sparks, which is K-2nd grade. There were only 3 most nights, but each of them worked hard and also finished a whole book. They also had to memorize at least 30 verses (plus Leah worked halfway through her 2nd book, adding at least 10-15 more), plus the books of the New Testament. They had to do other things like invite a friend to Club, learn about a missionary, and even tasks that showed obedience to their parents. 

Leah is pretty motivated in most things when it comes to learning, but especially so when it came to memorizing the verses. She pushed herself a lot harder than I would have pushed her, sometimes memorizing 3 or 4 a week. She was determined to get through that book and get the jewels she earned for each section and so proud of herself when she did them correctly.

This is pretty much our whole club, minus a few who couldn't be there for the Wednesday night service where we gave out the recognitions and finished out the club year.

Andrew gets to move up to the Sparks next year since he'll be in kindergarten (sniff), and Abi gets to officially be a Cubbie. Leah will probably work equally as hard to finish another book & and a half so she can finish all 3 Sparks books before she, too, moves up to the next club. I am so proud of how each of my kids gets so excited about learning and memorizing God's Word!