Have you ever
wondered what it would be like to be called upon to
teach Kids Prayer to a group of your peers, or
better yet, a group of kids with no supplies, and no
notice? Add into that equation an interpreter
and stage fright and you have my experiences last
summer. I
was privileged to spend an AIM term in West Africa.
I spent every Sunday teaching Sunday school using
only my Bible and whatever I could find (rocks for
an altar, or sticks to build a fire for the story of
Abraham and Isaac) and then one day I was called
upon to share my burden for Kids Prayer with the
other young people on my trip. I have been a
volunteer for the World Network of Prayer since 2001
and have worked with my local church and others in
Kids Prayer. I had the training. The confidence
however was lacking.
All I took to
Africa with me were WNOP's books on Kids Prayer, a
set of plastic ears used to teach kids to hear God’s
voice, and a small blow up globe with the 10/40
window outlined that a kids prayer worker passed
along to me. I panicked. My first thought was
THUMBO praying…every kid loves candy and to me its
important that everyone should teach this. Not to
mention, it gets kids praying for things outside
their lives and into the world. So I walked down the
street to the market, and of course…no M&M’s. What
was I thinking right? However what I did find was
skittles. So I thought, "You know, I think I can
adapt this." Change the colors around, (Orange
skittles for the Rastafarians, yellow for the child
slaves) make things that apply to their culture and
their world, and you’ve got THUMBO praying.
The next
question was worship. At my local church we use
praise banners and all sorts of things to help the
kids get into giving praise to God. They love it!!
But I did not have the same supplies so I used
sticks and used scraps of cloth, which was easy to
find, and made some of my own. The children loved
them! Music is such a cultural thing there, and
while I didn’t have the songs I was used to, the
children had no problem teaching some of their own
both in English and in Twi, the dialect spoken where
I was.
I learned it
doesn’t take someone super experienced, or even
someone who teaches on a regular basis… as a
matter of fact, I didn’t even teach in Sunday school
yet, and I did more crowd control and observing in
Kids Prayer and Shekinah kids at that time. All it
takes is a willing heart, and a little creativity
and you can teach Kids Prayer anywhere and with
anything. If you love kids and think they are worth
it, then you have what it takes.
