From Rowdy Kid to Tame Pastor

On Wednesday, we woke up early and magically appeared down the lobby in team t-shirts ready to leave. We were going to a day care! This time, half the team was in charge of planning and running the whole event at the day care, from songs to games, to stories.

The whole team had a lot of fun during the songs and the intense chair hopping game which really warmed everyone up and got them comfortable with all the team members. The stories told by Brad and Kristen taught about authority. Both of them did a really good job in connecting and relating to the kids. The only difficult thing was that we were not allowed to preach the gospel, pray or mention God in a public setting, only when one-on-one. This was pretty hard because we really wanted to share God with them and center everything on God.

Nevertheless, I think the team really impacted the kids through their energy, love and just being with them. The highlight of the trip was the last part where we were free to mingle with the kids, really getting to spend one on one time. This is where I had the most fun with a few of them on a personal level, getting to know them.

The next thing you know, is that you're in church prepping for CI in just a few hours time. The nights lesson has been my favorite and yet this time, in the first small group I didn't manage to even get to the lesson because the younger ones had loads of energy. I was wondering and thinking hard about that during large group. The story for large group was about the greatest thief, which always worked up suspense, nervousness and full attention of everyone. The kid that was rowdy got a little scared although others were enjoying the skit.

I used the question of what our greatest fear was and my own fear in the next small group to get everyone involved and interested. This ultimately led to the point that we need to fear God. Because He is just, He will judge all and God sees everything. We are not too young to be mature in our thinking, or to take our life seriously. That's why we must be responsible for our thoughts, words, and actions.

The rowdy kid became a tame pastor (as he read Matthew 12:36) in this small group and you could see on their faces that they were really learning and absorbing. This second small group was really great, especially when you take into account that most of them are under eight and two of them are only ten years old.


Marie Peh
Team Member from Malaysia

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