Young ones preparing to GO!

Teaching the elementary class on Palm Sunday was quite an adventure. We have been learning about Holy Spirit, who He is and what He does–and this week we wanted to tie it all together with the triumphal entry and celebrating Jesus. Our kids were wonderfully engaged during worship and we told them how proud we were of them. We shared the account of Jesus entry into Jerusalem and then each took a palm branch and welcomed Jesus into our classroom. One of our “city kids” was on her knees, face to the ground, to welcome Him! During the craft, several of the children were talking about all the people they had met at the arena football game the night before and that started us talking about how they could pray for people or invite them to church. In the book we have been teaching from is an example of some young adults praying for–and seeing–miraculous healings at an amusement park. Our children started to imagine what it would be like for THEM to be praying for the sick and seeing God heal people. In fact, we did a few role plays. If I were in a wheelchair, what would you say to me? Two of the girls discussed amongst themselves for a minute and then approached me and asked if they could pray for me–and they prayed such a simple, powerful prayer! They asked Jesus to heal me (in my imaginary wheelchair) so that I “could run and ride a merry-go-round and…” it went on from there. Since we’d had such a good morning, we invited Josh into our class to hear what we learned this morning–and then we practiced again what we would do if he needed prayer. Josh had a sudden, imaginary, broken arm. This time, the two girls and one of the boys jumped up, “we’ll pray for him!” and they asked if that would be alright and then began again, asking Jesus to heal him so he “can throw a basketball with both hands and dive off a diving board…”. It is exciting to see some of the young kids growing so fast in the Spirit–and they are equally excited that God can use them!