Thursday, December 09, 2004

AWANAs are cool!!

I am thrilled -- THRILLED -- with the AWANA program so far. All three of the kids are involved in it, and it's our first time to participate. The church I'm attending provides this for children on Wednesday evenings, and it's one of the first reasons I chose to attend this church in the first place. Now Martha, my ten year old who is a reluctant learner, has really taken to the program and is constantly reading and memorizing the verses and concepts. It's fun to watch, because I have learned that with Martha, there is absolutely no way I would be able to force her to learn it. If she's ever going to learn something, it'll be because she wants to, and that's the simple truth. I am thankful that she seems to want to learn this.

I've also been extremely impressed with the youth group program at this church. The youth are very active and seem to be on the right track spiritually. I know that Martha isn't going to be in the "children's" section much longer, and I want her to be surrounded by a youth group that's on fire spiritually, not lukewarm or boring because neither of those is an accurate description of an active Christian life.

Besides AWANA, last night was also the second meeting for my adult small group. I am feeling better and better about things; I was able to point-blank ask some questions of the leader about the group dynamics among the church leadership and I got a decent, honest answer that I'm satisfied with. No political doublespeak, no hemhawing or deferring... completely refreshing and not at all what I've been accustomed to. I guess I'm just shell-shocked, so to speak, and God brought me to this church to relax and begin letting down the walls I've built around myself for so long. I *so* want that to be true.

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