Notably Normal

You probably wouldn't recognize it by just looking at this picture, but some of the kids we've known for over five years, and some are visiting club for the second time.  Most of the kids are from Letovice, but there are a couple from Boskovice and the surrounding villages too.  It is impossible to tell just by looking at the picture these differences because we all look the same - especially with our matching t-shirts!  We are promoting support for our organization, Elim, as we are working towards our vision of growing into a larger building.  There is a old disco-club up for sale just across the backyard of our current building, and we dream about renovating and moving into this space.  It would give us the opportunity to grow and reach out to more of the community!  We are excited in all the ways we see God moving in this project and how it brings us together!

Many friends have been putting on benefit concerts, performances, and events to help support our cause.  I am overwhelmed by God's love and support in this community!  At this theater performance, all the cast members changed into the t-shirts for the closing bows!  

At youth club in Letovice, it is no surprise that with 50 kids each club that we often have a couple new kids checking out the after-school club each week.  We love getting to know the new kids that come and playing all our classic club games with them.

We had a sleepover club in Boskovice a couple weeks ago, and it was a miracle sleepover club in Boskovice... all the kids fell asleep!  I was amazed.  One leader had realized in the early hours of the morning that many of the kids weren't watching the movies we had on for them or whispering with each other, rather they were on their own phones!  So the leader wisely disconnected the wifi.  Everyone went to sleep after that.  At this sleepover, we played a favorite game we call Matrix.  Four leaders hold onto two ropes and the leaders move horizontally in different directions holding the rope to create "lasers" for the kids to move over and under. 

Sleepover Group

As the weather is getting nicer and kids have final examinations to study for in school, the numbers in my English Classes have been dropping slightly also; however, the Sports theme is a definite success with these kids!  We are learning the different names of sports, equipment, playing arenas, and the sport verbs (throw, bounce, etc.).  The kids are talented students in English and a quick to finish the task I give, now we are working on taking our time and putting in the effort in the activity also.  It is not about the quantity of activities we accomplish in the hour and 15 minutes, but the quality of the lesson.  Thankfully, even as they move quick from one activity to the next, they are able to recall and use the sports vocabulary accurately in the lesson.  

With spring here, the Littles and I have been singing about rain and baby farm animals!  They enjoyed making their pictures "rain" as they colored and sprayed water on a plastic gallon bag to print onto the paper.  We pretended as if we were jumping in puddles and placed paper raindrops on the parachute to catapult into the air!  The class was completely full when we did the lesson about the baby farm animals - and the classroom looked like a barnyard after free-time, but it was simply evidence of all the fun the kids had.  We looked at many flashcards, puzzles, books, and stick puppets with the farm animals.  One of the Littles likes dogs and found a puppy in each (the puzzle, stick puppet, and picture flash card) and sorted them all together. 

In the Farm Animals lesson, the Littles added chicks (and a few other stickers) to the chicken coop!  They liked to count all the chicks they had. 

Our group who come to Connect Club are a curious bunch!  Each week, they have very insightful questions and their ability to recall the main ideas of the programs for weeks afterwards is inspiring.  We had a lesson on the Prodigal Son that the girls acted out as I told the story.  (I think the little piglets had the most fun acting in this story!)  We talked about how our value doesn't change in God's eyes, and I used an illustration of crumpling a dollar bill to demonstrate this.

Playing the roles of the father, prodigal son, and brother

Our giggly little piggies in the Prodigal Son story!

More contagious giggles!

The week before Easter, we concluded the Prodigal Son story by explaining it doesn't matter how far away we go from God, that God is the Father, and we can always return to Him.  We shared with the kids that this is the idea of Easter - that our sins are forgiven, and we don't have to be separated from the Father.  I shared that on Easter, we celebrate "new life" - it is one of the reasons we decorate eggs, to remember new life is a beautiful gift.  The kids loved decorating eggs after this lesson.  One of the leaders found that if we take colorful napkins and get them wet in water, they suction onto the egg and create some extraordinary designs.  I'll definitely remember this as it is so much easier than all the dyes!

Decorated Eggs (I love spending Friday afternoons with these gals!)

After Easter, we taught a lesson about Creation and felt it would be good to continue with the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden.  We even challenged the girls in the lesson by creating a scenario where we left candy in the room, told them not to eat the candy, and then left.  Of course, we had planted a couple leaders to tempt the girls (which we found out didn't need much encouraging!).  The girls made exceptions, saying that they will go to the store to buy more candy and some added other chocolates to the mix, but we talked about how like the sin of Adam and Eve, we are responsible for the choice we make.  Maybe they knew it was only a game, but they will definitely remember this story!

We made thaumatropes to show how we are in God's love.  We took a piece of paper, and on one half of the paper, we drew ourselves, and on the other half, we drew a heart to represent God.  We talked about how before there was sin, people were with God.  Then, sin entered the world and we are separated from God, so we took the scissors and cut the paper in half separating the girl from the heart.  But Jesus died for our sins to connect us back with God (we glued the pictures on each side of a wooden stick that we used to represent the wooden cross).  When the girls spun the stick, the girl was inside the heart!  But it is only through Jesus that we can be again with God! 

I am so excited for how God is using these little girls to reach out to their schoolmates!  Two weeks ago, one girl who regularly comes was gone for the weekend with her family.  We posted some pictures on a social media group page for all the girls afterwards, and this little girl was the first to respond, "who is the new girl?"  We wrote her the name of the new girl.  Last Friday, this girl told us, "I saw the new girl at school, so I walked up to her and said, 'Hi! You are M----, yes?  I'm E----.  You were at Connect Club last week.  I am usually there, but I was gone on the weekend with my family.  I just wanted to introduce myself and say welcome to the group!'"  When the girl told me, I got choked up!  These 11-year-olds are changing their school through God's love, and I'm so excited to see what He will do next! 

At youth group, we just finished a two-week program about relationships and are moving into gifts.  I kicked off the theme of gifts by talking about how God has created us each different to work as team. I enjoy looking for the strengths and talents of my young youth students and then supporting them in these strengths to help them grow.  It is often most recognizable in team challenges and activities, which are a favorite during youth meetings.

Teamwork Drawing Challenge

Playing Headbandz as a Youth Group!