My new ministry venture : Junior Youth

If you've read my latest update, you'd know I've encountered a new ministry … Junior Youth. This, in American terms, is pre-teen ministry. Ages 11-13 are my responsibility on Sunday mornings now. Quite a different focus-group, but I'm LOVING this opportunity to teach and disciple some of the most engaged people in our church! 

As I've said before, our church is about 60% children and youth. With this dynamic, our leadership pool is limited, but the amount of growth-potential (in numbers and depth) is enormous. With our Sunday School leadership being overwhelmed with 60-70 children each Sunday, our Sunday School team has embarked on a new strategy in splitting age-groups and giving children a Sunday School lesson built for their comprehension. I'm thrilled about this strategy and ask that you pray with us …

Pray for more leadership to come on board our Sunday School team. 

Pray for moms and dads to get involved in helping during Sunday School hour. 

Pray for true disciples to emerge from this strategy. 

Pray that our church will raise up a new generation of leaders. 

Pray for resources and curriculum to sustain the various needs of this new strategy. 

I'm personally thankful to Shades Mountain and their ministry leaders for keeping me informed and resourced with Sunday School material. Our Junior Youth are going through Sanctuary Press (Ken Flower's) Basic Training material currently and our pre-teens are faithfully attending Sunday School - many who had dropped off the map in recent days are returning - with a new passion and excitement about learning about God. 

Pray that a faithful helper will arise from our congregation to join me in this pursuit. We have one mother who is interested in helping but she hasn't shown total commitment to the class yet. My goal and vision is to set a standard for this class and over time hand over responsibility to a local Capricornian. A missionary's goal is always to work herself out of a job, so that's my aim. I want to equip, train and give-away! Pray for this process!

Looking forward to keeping you posted on the growth of this class. Thankful for new ministry pursuits and God's perfect timing!

The first gathering of Junior Youth. Thanks Mrs. Joanie for teaching our first class!

Local mom giving a closing challenge to our class.

Local mom reading the Bible story for the day!

Mel leading a Quiz Bowl during class.
Reviewing previous lesson and learning Bible facts in a captivating, participatory way!

Each week I let them journal one or two questions in a book that is all their own.
I respond and write encouragement for them personally and return it to them the following week.
Our Junior Youth need personal attention and this is one way I can speak to them individually each class.

They're also memorizing the books of the Bible.
Each time they memorize one section of the Bible, they get a "punch" on their card and can work their way to success! To all who completely memorize the books of the Bible, I'll take them out for ice-cream.
Whew! Pray for that outing!