Bible club

I was able to go to school today and “observe” Ashley for the first time as she did a Bible club with the kids. Her and Melissa took that on as one of their ministries several months ago, and they’ve been doing it steadily on Wednesday afternoons, teaching lessons and doing Bible drills with the kids. Up until now, I’ve kind of stayed out of it, so that they could get their feet under them and establish themselves with the kids and come up with their own way of doing things – not that I have a tendency to take over in teaching situations or anything like that…Lol. :P

Because Melissa is in the States for a few weeks to help out with her brother’s wedding, though, Ashley wanted an extra set of hands for this week’s club. Naturally, I was more than willing to go with her. (“You want someone to go help teach elementary and middle school students? Ummm…let me think a minute. Yep!”)

Club meets outside, in the “forest” – a grove of trees that was planted behind some of the classroom buildings. The kids trickle over one by one and rifle through the boxes until they find “their” Bible, then they settle in the cool sand under the trees and flip carefully, searching for the last week’s memory verse so that they can look over it again before club starts, hoping for the bragging rights of being able to remember something that the other students have forgotten. A few curious ones from the other clubs hang around for a few minutes and some Muslim students rifle through the pages of an unclaimed Bible, amazed to see so many new books in these boxes, curious to see what makes it so different from the Quran. Wind ripples through the pages and defies the students efforts to find the right passage, while a two inch long cockroach scurries out of one of the boxes, quickly buried in the sand by several squealing girls. Today they have been marking lines in the field for the track and field day that is coming, so a few patches of bright red and yellow clothing stand out against the pale blue stripes of the rest of the group.

Ashley lines them up to do Bible drills and they flip as quickly as the wind will allow them, whispering the page number to each other as soon as they find it, not wanting their friends to have the “shame” of being the last one still hunting. A few of them are obviously lost, swimming in pages and pages of the small script, struggling even to find the center where they might be able to locate the book of Psalms, but they are learning.

Ashley teaches a quick lesson, and they come forward to write their names on a paper heart, a visual reminder of God’s love for them, careful not to press too hard or get any sand on the marker tips.

We gather them together to practice the books of the Old Testament, and I give up on trying to be quiet and observe, jumping in doing my best not to totally overwhelm whatever it is that Ashley had planned out in her head. They read through the list as a group, accents lilting over the names in a way that is probably far closer to the original pronunciations than what we grew up learning, tongues stumbling as they sound out “E-ccle-si-as-tes”

After a few more Bible drills, one of the girls prays to close us, and the kids scatter, making their slow way back indoors to finish up the day with one final class period. It’s already four o’clock, and, so far, they have been in school for eight hours today with another hour to go.

Next week is exams and then mid-term break, but they’ll be back next term, interested in what they’re learning – and more than a little spurred on by the white teachers and their boxes of new Bibles.

Lol. Can you tell I enjoyed myself? (Ashley asked almost as soon as club was over, and, yes, I plan on going back next term. :D)