Our AWANA Kick Off last night was awesome!

The Cove was packed with over 50 kindergarten through 3rd graders, who were loved and guided by 27 fearless AWANA leaders! In addition, we had 22 clubbers joining us for the very first time! It was so great to be able to share with them what AWANA is all about and what we get to do together every Wednesday night.

Ms. Betsy started out the night by bringing all the clubbers together and teaching what AWANA is. It’s an acronym and it stands for: “Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed” and it comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 in the New Testament. It refers to the apostle Paul, when he was writing to his friend Timothy to encourage him in his faith and in spreading the gospel. It reminds us that we are to be bold in our belief and in sharing Jesus with others.

The new clubbers were then introduced to how all the clubbers are divided up each week: Hikers (Kindergarten & 1st graders) and Climbers (2nd & 3rd graders). The Hikers do their table time at the beginning while the Climbers go outside to play games. Then we all come together for a group counsel time where Ms. Betsy shares a lesson and we sing songs. After that, everyone rotates – the Hikers go outside to play games and the Climbers go to their tables. At the end, we all come back together as a group and announce the color team winner for the week; the winning team then gets to come up on stage and do the Victory Dance!! :)

After the introduction, the rest of the time was spent in the rotations – table time, counsel time and games.

During Counsel Time, Ms. Betsy introduced the lesson series for this session…..PETS! A different pet will be featured each week which will correspond with the Bible passage/story, the snacks and sometimes the dress-up theme. This week we talked about – probably the most popular pet – dogs! Ms. Betsy talked about how dogs are pack animals and this leads them to be very loyal animals, especially to their masters/family. We looked up a story in the Bible about a woman named Ruth who was also very loyal. Ruth had moved to a different country when she got married, away from all her friends, family and comforts. Then her husband died and she was left to live with her mother-in-law, Naomi, in a place that was very unfamiliar. Naomi encouraged Ruth to go back to her home and family, but Ruth refused and insisted on staying with Naomi. Ruth proved to be very loyal and God blessed her for that. We discussed how we should mimic this amazing quality that Ruth and dogs both have – which is loyalty. We should be loyal to God by being obedient and loyal to others by being kind and sincere and loving.

We learned both the AWANA song and the Victory Dance song this week – a lot for our new clubbers, but we will do those EVERY week so they will know them very well!

Parents should have gone home with several handouts:

  • TWO calendars: one for for the AWANA fall session and one for the Canyon Springs Children’s Ministry events.
  • Make It Stick – a review of our story and lesson
  • Program Information (for new families) – a rundown of our AWANA program, everything you ever wanted to know!

Next week is ANIMAL NIGHT! Have the kids dress up as any type of animal – start planning now! :)

Blessings,

The Awana Team

AWANA PICTURES