Ups and Downs

Tonight was a good night at Inner City Church. But it was also a challenging night. Recently, wrestling season ended, and since then, we haven’t had any men to spend time with boys during the Thursday night action groups. Our Girls’ Ministries clubs have been changed by active boys. My Rainbows class (3-4 year old girls and boys) has particularly been transformed. Tonight, I had one 4 year old girl and 10 boys of varying ages. The oldest two are 5th graders.

I expected to have a few boys like I have the past few weeks, but this was the largest crowd ever. I didn’t have enough craft supplies for all the kids, but I made due by having one group make donkeys while another made palm leaves. As they worked, I talked about Palm Sunday – how Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, and people welcomed him with shouts of praise.

The kids were noisy at times, and I didn’t get as many details in the story as some might have liked. But they were also attentive. They surprised me with how much they all wanted the extra pipe cleaners left over from the craft! I told them the team that won “Battle of Knowledge” could split the supplies, and we played the simple Tic-Tac-Toe review game that I do at kids church. Through the game, we reviewed the lesson and parts of the salvation message. The game was a draw, and they were all super excited to get four silly pipe cleaners as a reward.

As they waited for a snack, they made various shapes with the cherished pipe cleaners. When snacks arrived, I was thrilled that a few of the boys wanted to lead the prayer. I picked a 6 year old boy to pray, and my helper whispered words to him that he repeated.

I shared more of the salvation message as the kids ate. One boy had made an “H”-shape out of his pipe cleaners, and I used it to illustrate how sin (the horizontal line) separates us (one vertical line) from God (the other vertical line). I said that after Jesus forgives our sin, it’s gone, and we can be friends with God; we can ask God for help with our problems, like bullies at school.

Time was running out, and boy next to me began telling me about a bully at school that he was having problems with. That led into him telling me about another personal matter, and we talked briefly before circumstances forced my attention elsewhere. After our closing songs, he found our pastor and asked her to pray for him.

It was, in my view, a good night. But I left knowing we need some men who will pour into these boys’ lives. If you are willing to come once a month (or more!), let me know.