In this work as I am primarily with kids, it is inevitable to avoid bundles of questions; however, I enjoy all the questions as is shows their interests, desires, and curiosity. Furthermore, my adult class has taken to studying a different question word each week as we discuss and interact with these questions through activities and conversations. Sometimes it is through teaching something that I realize how applicable it is in my everyday life, and the flow of questions that come during my teaching, reading, and Bible Studies only encourages me to dive into finding the answer.
Who?
Many of my students are gifted in English, and as their teacher, I can see this talent in the few even as they try to suppress it. It seems to be a struggle other teachers have as well knowing that a student has great potential, but doesn't have the motivation to build onto the potential. That is where my position as their teacher comes into help. Occasionally, I greeted with moans of "why are we doing this difficult activity?" and I reply with "because you CAN do it." Last week, I spontaneously asked my translator (a former student who visited my classes years back) to explain to the kids why English Class is so important in his life. I smiled as the translator explained to the group of students that in our English Class we are learning beyond what the teachers in school are required to teach, not only that, but the class develops a confidence in English that paves the way for future learning. My translator and I ended with saying that in a couple years, some of these students could be new translators in the class, and the room was filled with an echo of the kids asking, "Who? Me? Could I really be a translator?" The mini-encouragement session took out about 5 minutes of our lesson as we assured each student that with the right motivation they could go very far in their English studies. The environment in the class didn't have a dramatic, Hallmark-story change, but I saw the spark in a few eyes as they focused a little more on the lesson that day.
These three are working on a bonus activity to practice the new vocabulary after they had finished the other activities.
We learned names for the different people in sports (athlete, trainer, referee, competitor, fan, etc.). We often asked "who is this?" when we pointed to the pictures of the sport characters. The students really enjoyed some of the games on this day and begged to continue playing! I was happy to comply as long as they were practicing the new vocabulary.
What?
My class with the Littles is filled with curiosity, and their go-to question is "what?" - "what is that?" and "what will we do today?" It is such a joy to work with these toddlers as they are learning about their world and continuing to ask questions. Last week, we learned a song about outer space and a rocket that goes to the moon. The song is a favorite of the Littles as they enjoy blasting-off in a big jump at the end! We created an outer space picture and a star tunnel for the kids to crawl through, but maybe the most fun was simply exploring the flashlight reflection on paper cut-stars! There is one toddler in my Little's Class who adores trains. He wouldn't stop smiling in our lesson this week about trains (that I put together especially for him). We sang about going on a train, built train tracks, made a follow-the-leader line, and then created train tracks by driving the trains in ink and then onto the paper! I enjoy the curious minds of this young group.
When?
The kids have been teased with nice weather a couple weeks ago, but this last week, it has been a bit rainy and dreary causing the kids to dream about upcoming nice weather and summer events. We get a wave of "when?" questions like "when is summer camp?", "when can we play games outside?", "when will there be a festival here?" and so on. It is quick to just say "soon!" to all these questions, as I also look forward to the events and outdoor activities that summer inevitably holds. In the meantime, we have brought some outdoor activities into our building with a new volleyball net and mini-soccer goals for the kids. Lately, many of our kids have been content with a variety of table games ranging from Chutes and Ladders, Bingo, Jenga, and numerous others.
Where?
Our youth groups are always jumping back and forth between our locations in Boskovice and Letovice, and as the weather gets nicer, we have been adding in plans to spend some time as a youth group outside at different festivals and events. It seems that at meetings we are always asking "where?" we will be for youth group the following weekend, but we like the rhythm we are developing to engage with the students from nearby cities and villages and in events. Although, this month we did have a student who showed up at the wrong youth group destination (however, a quick change in plans did cause the confusion). Thankfully, she arrived at youth group in the next city fast and ready for the evening of activities.
(Extended) Youth Group who came together to celebrate a friend who has been in the youth group leadership team since 2012!
Why?
May 8th is a national holiday throughout all the Europe. It is V-E Day (Victory in Europe from WWII). Since the kids have a day off of school, we jumped at the opportunity to plan a sleepover club with the kids. A week before the sleepover, we had about a dozen kids registered. A couple days before the sleepover, we had just over 20 registered. The day of the sleepover, we had close to 40 kids (some who joined in just for part of the evening activities). Traditional to all our sleepover clubs, we have a short teaching time, and so we asked the kids "why do you have the day off of school tomorrow?" and "why did we see a lantern parade today outside our windows?" A few of kids smartly answered that we are celebrating V-E Day (maybe there were a few blank faces in the crowd who were just happy to have a Wednesday off of school). So I shared a story from a children's devotion about a man in WWII who gave up his life for the life of his friends even though he hadn't done anything wrong. It was a short, powerful story that was written perfectly for our pre-teen/teen crowd. After the story, the devotion continued to say that it wasn't the first time this kind of sacrifice had happened and explained the sacrifice that Jesus made for each of us. The kids listened attentively as they connected the WWII story to Jesus' story (it may have been the only time all night that it was actually quiet!). I shared that the people in the WWII story who were saved because of this man were very grateful and considered their friend as a hero. I then explained why we can personally call Jesus our hero and friend because He sacrificed His life for us.
How?In Connect Club (our Bible Study for kids) the girls always seem to be asking "how?". The past couple of weeks, we studied God's promises in the stories of Noah and Abraham. As we share these stories, there are saucer eyes as the girls simply ask "how?" when we say the ages of our primary story characters, or when we describe the dimensions of the ark, or as we describe the sacrificial miracle with Isaac. Their curiosity drives the lessons as we are building on the basic stories of the Old Testament and how it applies to our lives here and now. One of my favorite "how?" questions was this conversation between two girls during the lesson about Noah...
"How did snails get on Noah's Ark? Did God just pick them up and drop them off in the boat or did they have to go on a long journey?" "Well, we did learn Noah was building the ark for a long time, so maybe it was to buy time for the snails to get to the ark."During the week, the girls are constantly telling us that they just wait all week for Friday Connect Club. Over and over, we hear it is their favorite part of the week and they are eager to learn, act, and discuss the Bible story lessons. Like this group of girls, I also anxiously await for Friday afternoon to finally arrive.
On Noah's Ark with all the (stuffed) animals and making Promise Rainbows.
One of the leaders got a stack of comic New Testaments for our pre-teens! They dove headfirst into the new Bibles, flipping through the pages and excitedly looking at the pictures and bubble-text conversations. I was so pleased to have a Bible for this age group as the Children's Bible was already proven to be too easy for them and the mass amount of text in their Bibles came as a little overwhelming to some in our group. I am so excited to see how God will use these new comic Bibles to let the gospel stories touch their hearts.
Another American has joined us for the summer, and all the girls were very excited for her arrival!